From the Northwest Indiana Times:
Lake County Treasurer John Petalas and Auditor Peggy Katona are urging the public to get online for their upcoming tax sale.
Indianapolis-based SRI will hold the first Internet auction of tax delinquent properties for the treasurer's office during 10 days beginning Friday.
Petalas said the public can bid on any of the approximately 18,000 real estate parcels by logging into the SRI website at www.sri-auctionsonline.com. A total of $97 million in back taxes is owed on the properties, he said.
The online auction replaces a traditional sale where bidders have to be present in the Lake County Government Complex auditorium for hours as the auctioneer goes one by one through each property.
He said going online will make the sale more user friendly.
"This opens our sale up to a wider audience," Petalas said. "We didn't get the mom and pop bidders at our old sale. Instead, we got companies buying up whole blocks for resale."
Petalas said SRI is offering a bidding orientation session from 10:30 a.m. to noon Tuesday in the government complex cafeteria, 2293 N. Main St. in Crown Point, for first-time bidders. SRI also has a practice sale exercise on its website, he said.
Bidders can access the sale either on personal computers or on public computers in the government complex. SRI staff will be in the government complex cafeteria Aug. 23 and 24 to further assist bidders.
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/lake-county-officials-promote-new-online-tax-sale/article_3f3d0fa5-913a-549e-9571-11b777b3a6aa.html
