One look at the house at 4301 Oakland Ave., and it’s obvious it’s in serious need of some TLC.  
Not only is it seriously delinquent on property taxes, the majority of its windows are either broken or missing altogether. Further, the roof looks like it needs repairing and if it ever had rain gutters they’re not there now.
 
On the other hand, the minimum bid for the house set by Hamilton County’s real property office is just $375 – about a nickel for each of the estimated 1,600 square feet public records indicate the house contains. 

That’s a heck of a lot less than the $47,432 a buyer paid about a month ago for a duplex about the same size located at 4005 Fagan St. in the Piney Woods/Alton Park area – less than a mile from the one on Oakland Avenue whose owner didn’t bother to pay property taxes on it.

It’s dozens of potential bargains like that that have kept Hamilton County’s real property office staff hopping for the past few weeks and now, with the deadline to submit bids less than 48 hours away, workers aren’t expecting to get much rest anytime soon.
 
More than 100 bids already have come in, according to real property manager Paul Parker, and he’s expecting many more to be hand delivered early next week.
 
“Friday we had a lot of people come by to pick up bid sheets so they could go out and look at the properties this weekend, and then submit their bids on the ones they wanted before the 4 p.m. deadline on Monday.”
 
“Every property has a story,” he noted.  

For example, the minimum bid on a single-family home at 1808 Crabtree Road in Hixson – which boasts a desirable R-1 zoning – is set at just $500 because the house burned down some time ago and will require lots of work and money to make it livable again.
 
It’s not clear how large the 100 bids already submitted are, he said, or even which properties they target.  

“We won’t know that until Tuesday, when we open all the bids,” Mr. Parker said.
 
Still, he said, office staffers have gotten some clues to which properties are drawing the most bids from questions asked by potential buyers when they stop by to pick up their papers.
 
For example, he said, there’s been a lot of interest in a commercial property located at 2301 Milne Street in Orchard Knob with a minimum bid of $2,500.
 
There also have been a lot of questions asked, he said, about a duplex at 1906 Cooley St. off Roanoke and a triplex at 1518 Old Ringgold Road near Main Street. The minimum bids on those properties, respectively, are $1,550 and $2,000.
 
Potential buyers who haven’t picked up bid sheets yet can do so on Monday at his office, the real property manager said, and their bids will be considered along with all the others if they are submitted before the 4 p.m. deadline.