By Thaddeus Flint
“They aren’t making any more land,” quipped Collar City Auctions auctioneer Randy Passonno to the standing-room only crowd at the Rensselaer County tax foreclosure auction on October 18. It looked like over two hundred people had packed into the Franklin Ballroom in Troy, with a long line still snaking out the entrance even as the auction began, to see just what kind of land they might get for pennies-on-the-dollar prices.
The County had advertised some 95 properties before the event, but that number was eventually whittled down to around 70-something, as a few residents decided to pay their taxes instead of having the properties sold to the highest bidder.
While it was certain that most of the houses sold would be coming with some history of misery – having the County take away the place you live isn’t most people’s idea of a good day – the crowd seemed in good spirits.
Gabbing away under the Ballroom’s lit-up paper stars and moons, eating over-cooked chocolate chip cookies, some washing the burnt crumbs down with pints of Sam Adams and Coors, bidders – a mix of contractors, the retired, young couples, and obvious shark-like real estate agents – scanned the property books, jotted notes, and passed bits of information and tips (both of dubious validity) back and forth. In the dim light it was as if the Teamsters were holding a Harvest Moon Dance at the Harness Track.
The prices seemed all over the place and it was difficult to guess just what the final selling amount would be. A 9,276 square foot church built in 1889 on just under an acre in Valley Falls went for $18,500, while a forlorn mobile home in the Village of East Nassau on just over an acre went for $44,000. But most of the final bids were for far less. Of interest to the Eastwick Area:
Berlin: A small red cabin across from Buck’s Corners on Plank Road went for $7,000. A smaller tract of land at 16 North Main Street sold for $700.
Grafton: A single family house just across from Dumbleton Road, at 2505 Route 2 with 1.43 acres of land sold for $11,000. “You can’t buy a new car for that,” prodded Passonno, but the price would go no higher. Two acres of land-locked vacant land off Taconic Lake Road finished at just $100.
Hoosic Falls: There was a long list of property from the Hoosick area, and the words “water” and “PFOA” were heard mumbled from the crowd as the bidding started on that section of the County.
Prices ranged from $2,700 for a single family home at 233 Church Street to $28,000 for the former Carmody’s West Restaurant on Route 7 just before the Vermont border.
Even with 12.4 acres attached to the restaurant, the buyer shook his head, seemingly unhappy with having to bid so much higher than others. Or, it might be the $8.6k in annual taxes he will now be paying. (Just for comparison, the former Uncle Marty’s restaurant in Sand Lake, with .65 acres, went for $35k. It’s taxes are $9,288 a year.)
Petersburgh: Of five properties here, an old farm house at Reynolds Road and Route 22 went for $3,000. A single family home on Smith Road with 1.75 acres sold for $2,500.
Stephentown: One of the highest bids of the night came in for 8.7 acres on Fire Town Road, at $49k. A mobile home at 1193 Garfield Road on 1.3 acres went for $8,500.
“It’s only money,” laughed Passonno. And the bidding went on into the night.