Government Property Auctions Waterville ME

In online auctions, eBay is king. Unless, of course, the buyer is looking to buy a lighthouse in the middle of the Potomac River. In that case, investors might want to look into the auctions of the General Service Administration (GSA), which allow both online and offline bidding for surplus government properties, such as buildings, land and even lighthouses.

The Office of Property Disposal offers surplus federal government property for sale, including commercial, industrial, agricultural and residential properties across the country. The property is reported by the representative of the landholding agency as excess to the GSA, which first offers the property to state and local governments and authorized nonprofits. Properties not sold to those parties are offered for auction to the general public. Public auctions are offered at the AuctionsRP website .

Available properties include forest tracts in Bend, Oregon In many cases, bids for a property start low. For instance, a pair of homes, one a two-story duplex, in Rotterdam, N.Y., opened for bids at $100,000 and closed at $391,000, according to the AuctionsRP website.

For investors interested in raw land, the GSA site can offer parcels of land ranging from a 0.75 acre lot in McClellanville, S.C., with a minimum bid of $130,000, to a 183 acre parcel of undeveloped National Forest land south of Bend, Ore., with a minimum bid of $250,000.

The GSA offers these properties across the country. However, the GSA website makes no claims about the availability of financing for these properties, and bids to purchase must be on a cash basis. Financing time limits for each property are determined by the individual invitation for bids, though in the bids cited above, the purchaser needed to have financing within 60 days of the bid being accepted. The GSA accepts Visa and MasterCard.

In general, the auctions are similar to an oral auction; individuals can, however, mail or fax their bids in addition to instant online bidding. Bidding takes place during a period of a few weeks until the property is sold. In addition to checking the webpage to find out when new bids come in, individuals may call a 24-hour hotline to check on the property in which they are interested.

The federal government may choose to retain some rights to the property even when it is sold to a private owner. For instance, individuals who buy lighthouses are in some cases still required to allow the Coast Guard access to the property to maintain the light and foghorn. The light and foghorn may run 24 hours a day, as David McNally and his wife discovered after purchasing the Smith Point Lighthouse, according to The Baltimore Sun. Not all lighthouses purchased from the GSA have this clause in their sale contract.

Investors should conduct due diligence on properties before bidding on them, including visiting the properties when possible; in doing so, they may discover information that would affect their bidding.

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