Clearing the Land

Hick always wanted to be a land baron. He grew up not having much. You know, just things like a home that wasn't rented, and an indoor bathroom. He has always worked for what he wanted. At the time I met him, he was excited about an upcoming tax sale. That's when there's an auction on the courthouse steps for property that has delinquent taxes for the past three years.

Hick would look through the local paper for the date of the tax sale, and to look at properties available, and make his picks. Take a day off work to attend. 

Anyhoo... Hick didn't have a lot of money to spend, being between marriages, with other financial responsibilities that came first. This was back in the mid-80s. He bought several properties for under $100 total. 

As you might imagine, they were not prime real estate. One was a narrow strip of land between a garage door business and the road. A couple were lake lots not level enough for building, but good for getting access to a lake development for recreation. A couple were in towns. We sold one of them several years ago, to a guy who had been planting his garden on it, thinking no one would be the wiser. It was a friendly transaction. No strong-arming, no lawsuit threats.

Our real estate tax list is becoming unwieldy. These properties are just an annoyance when writing out the tax payments, now that we have flip properties to deal with as well. I think the highest one is $35 or less. Some are single digit amounts. 

Anyhoo... we are listing these little properties for sale. Not the strip of land. Hick is just letting that sit there because nobody will want to buy that. Realtor told him at the closing for Bargain House that this little strip of land will be an issue if the owner of the business there tries to sell, because he won't have a clear title. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Anyhoo... the best lot is in Backroads. At one time Hick thought he might put a basic house on it. Or some storage units. Then we got into the flipping business. We've listed this lot with Realtor. It does not even have a numbered street address. It's wooded.

I told The Pony we had listed our town lot, and gave him the street name.

"It's on Realtor's website now. Don't know if anybody will want it, but someone might. The description says it's on a blacktop road."

"I know where that is! It's at the end of my route. Somebody just built a house right next to it, that I deliver to. As for being on a blacktop road... well... I guess you could say that. It's where the blacktop road ends!"

"Whatever. If somebody wants land to build a house in town, it's there."

The Pony is such a jokester. He sent me a text on Saturday afternoon:

"Oh look! It's your [Town Street] land!"

"Heh, heh. Yes it is."

The Pony's picture is more descriptive than what Realtor used. That was just a map with plot numbers. Perhaps that's just as well.