The Board of Supervisors Tuesday will consider whether to approve placing nearly 1,000 tax-defaulted properties throughout Riverside County on the auction block, to be sold via open electronic bidding, in April.
The Office of the Treasurer-Tax Collector is again proposing to partner with hosting site Bid4Assets.com to conduct the exclusively internet-based auction on houses and vacant parcels seized as a result of unpaid property taxes.
The agency is asking the board to authorize the sales utilizing the platform, on the proposed dates of April 23 and 24.
A total of 946 properties in default are slated for the selling block. However, if the tax liens are satisfied by the owners ahead of time, they would be removed from the list.
“The purpose of offering tax-defaulted properties is to collect unpaid taxes and return the property to a revenue-generating status by conveying the property to another owner, or motivating the (assessed party) to redeem,” according to an agency statement posted to the board’s agenda for Tuesday, in what will be the first board meeting of 2026.
Minimum bids for real estate in arrears will start as low as $100 for several properties in Lake Elsinore and Wildomar, with the highest minimum ask listed as $1.16 million for a residential property in Desert Hot Springs, documents showed.
The minimum bid amounts set by the county represent tax and sales costs. Officials said that minimum prices would be reduced on some properties that do not generate interest in the first round of bidding.
The current total estimated aggregate value of the properties in default is $28.92 million.
This would mark the 14th year that the county has turned to internet-based auctioning for its entire portfolio of assets with liens.
Prospective buyers would need to register online and make a deposit in order to participate.
Under state law, before a property under lien can be sold off, it must be held in abeyance for at least five years.
The complete list of properties that are proposed for inclusion in the auction, if approved by the board, can be viewed at file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/Snapshot-197675.pdf.