It goes like this...

Typical pieces of property up for sale (Ours is in the middle)

So I showed up at the delinquent tax sale to defend our sliver of backyard property if necessary.
The room was crowded and tensions were high.
The Utah County Auditor said this was the biggest crowd of procrastinators he'd seen in a while.
Now Marc will tell you I pride myself on NOT being a procrastinator.
Given the opportunity I'll be early at everything and late for nothing.
Some of our biggest tiffs are over punctuality or the lack thereof.
So I was a little offended at being lumped into the mix.
However, I was interested in how this all worked and so I sat there for three hours with my little sign, ready to bid if necessary.
I was also mentally prepared to hike on over to the credit union to get cash. They, for some reason, don't take credit cards at the tax sale.
I had arrived at 9 a.m. for the 10:00 sale and stayed through until noon. I was also watching some property my daughter owns, planning to spring into action for her if the situation warranted.
It was fascinating.
I watched while tiny pieces of property sold for thousands and others went unclaimed.
Many of them were just odd bits like ours, very strange configurations.
One or two were actually large enough to serve as a building lot and thus the bidding got a little heated.
One guy actually picked up a piece where he could put a house for a mere $35,000.
I was relieved to see most of the ones similar to ours didn't fetch a price at all. That means the county will take them back and strike them from the tax roll now.
That's good, in my opinion.
I didn't want to pay nearly $300 for property that ought to have been included when we bought our house. I felt no responsibility for the mistake or the subsequent unpaid taxes.
On the other hand, I didn't want some stranger picking it up and holding us hostage which is what somebody did with my daughter's property.
Since their house is on the property, it will be interesting to see what happens next.