Spokane County’s first-ever online auction of foreclosed properties earlier this month generated 29 parcel sales and more than $125,000 in unpaid taxes and delinquencies.

In a break from traditional end-of-year live auctions, the county’s Treasurer’s office opted for the online method to determine if more bidders took part, leading to more sales.

The jury is still out on whether online is the best way to go, but Chief Deputy Treasurer Mike Volz said by some yardsticks, the online experiment was successful.

Originally planned in December, the online bidding was postponed until March, to give owners more time to pay off bills.

Volz said that allowed owners of 16 delinquent parcels enough time to redeem the roughly $150,000 in taxes, fees and penalty interest they owed.

Had those 16 parcels been included in the online auction, they would have likely been the most sought-after properties, he said. As a result, the county now plans to have all future auctions held in January or February, Volz said.

The county, by law, has to auction off parcels that have three or more years of unpaid taxes and fees.

The Treasurer’s office is still not ready to decide whether to try another online auction.

“We need to do some more slicing and dicing to be sure if it’s the right method,” he said.

By one measure, the live 2011 auction produced more money in recovered taxes. It generated $154,282 for the county in 2011.

The online auction produced $130,247 in sales, but the county also paid $4,350 of that amount to the company that ran the online event.

But by another measure — purchase price as a percent of a parcel’s assessed value — the online auction was better, Volz said.

The live auction’s 27 parcels netted about 35 percent of the property’s valuation. The March online auction produced sales at 49 percent of property values, he said.

Spokane County will postpone its first online auction of tax-delinquent properties until March.

In an effort to help more people bid on the properties, the county announced the first online auction for Dec. 3-4.  The auction will be for about 100 properties for which taxes have gone unpaid for three or more years, said County Treasurer Rob Chase.

A press release noted the postponement is due to the county’s anticipated expenses related to the holidays and winter weather.

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Anyone out there want to buy the old YWCA building downtown, across from the Ridpath?

Circle Dec. 3 and Dec. 4 on your calendars. Those are Spokane County's first delinquent-tax property auction, done entirely online instead of at the courthouse.

Our earlier story (last week) disclosed all the key details. The county is using a Maryland firm, Bid4Assets.com, to manage and run the online bidding.

BIdders need to register with Bid4Assets and verify a valid credit card.

Among the offerings is the once-busy YWCA building at the northwest corner of Stevens and First (shown in the Google Streetview image).

Today, it's vacant and looking for a good owner.

The full list of the properties to be auctioned can be found online here.  Bidding price will start with the past-due taxes and fees, plus the $150 fee that the county must pay Bid4Assets. Anything above that reserve amount goes to the property owner.

About 100 parcels or buildings are scheduled to be auctioned off Dec. 3-4 in the first-ever Spokane County online auction.

The county sells off properties that have a three-year backlog of unpaid taxes, fees and interest.  But usually those have happened at live auctions at the Spokane County Courthouse.

The full story appeared earlier today on Spokesman.com.

Among the properties are five parcels that are part of or near the distressed Ridpath Hotel block.