Real Estate Journal Online

When Laurie Chambers, the wife of a Maine selectman, acquired the home of a local, ailing widower for the small sum of $20,000 in a tax auction, eyebrows rose around the area[1]. The $229,300 (or $172,000, depending on which party is doing the assessing) home, which was in foreclosure due to more than $7,000 in back taxes, belonged to a man confined to a wheelchair following several heart attacks, multiple strokes and the death of his wife. The property was auctioned off through a sealed bid process and the high bid, $20,000, was approved by the town selectmen in a 3-1 vote with Chambers’ husband abstaining. When concerned citizens questioned the sale, the selectmen ultimately opted not to reconsider their acceptance of the bid, with Chambers’ husband once again abstaining. Critics of the transaction believe that Laurie Chambers was able to get the property for such a low sum because of inside information provided to her about the other sealed bids by her husband. In Maine, the only way that a municipal officer can acquire real estate in a tax auction is through a sealed bid process. The process was sealed, and Laurie Chambers is not a municipal officer although she is married to one.

One of the biggest sources of controversy in tax lien and tax deed investing is the great deals that can be gotten through this form of investment. Do you think that Chambers (either one) did anything wrong? Should the selectman have instructed his wife to steer clear of the auction to avoid this sticky circumstance all together?

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Let us know what you think of this situation and the “insiders’ clubs” at many tax auction in general in the space below.