Lender Loses REO For Failure To Pay Real Estate Taxes; Original Foreclosed Owner Buys Back Home At County Tax Auction For $10K

In Holland, Michigan, The Michigan Sentinel reports:

• The house on West 16th Street still doesn’t have curtains and boxes need to be unpacked, but the path home was longer than a simple drive in a moving truck for Claudia Zamora. She lived at this house on West 16th Street with her family for 12 years until divorce and a nearly $1,000 house payment became too much, and the bank foreclosed. [...] But now she’s back and free of a mortgage because the bank that took her property back failed to pay the taxes.

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• Once a year, the county auctions off the properties. Someone tipped off Zamora that her property was among those to be auctioned last month. [...] Before the auction began, the auctioneer asked the crowd whether anyone was buying back lost property. “And I raised my hand up,” Zamora said. Her West 16th Street home was No. 13 on the list. “Nobody else bid on it. Not even online,” she said. “I was in shock; I was in tears; I couldn’t believe I got my house back.” Since she lost the house in 2006, Zamora and her children have moved five times. [...] The crowd applauded her when she got the property.

• There are rules to the annual county tax auction. You must have the cash in hand. Three years of taxes, plus county’s fees totals $10,030. That’s the price she paid, in full, to get her home back.

For the story, see Foreclosure story has happy ending (Woman wins own home back at auction).