Capacity problem thwarted bidders in Internet tax sale

SOUTH BEND — Last week’s tax certificate sale included a technical hiccup that cost the county at least a few thousand dollars and likely more. According to county Treasurer Sean Coleman, with about 10 minutes remaining in the sale, SRI’s online auction site, besieged by last-minute bidders, experienced capacity problems and became "plugged up." The county hired SRI, an Indianapolis-based company, to conduct the online auction on its behalf. "In the final minutes of the sale, there were an inordinate number of bidders that jumped in and it plugged up the system," said Coleman, adding such a problem is "one of the perils of the Internet auction process." Coleman said his office immediately contacted SRI about the problem and urged the company to improve the capacity of its online auction site "to ensure this doesn’t happen again." Drew Mitchell, a partner in Double Domer Properties, a South Bend-based company, said the problem prevented him and his associates from placing 15 bids in the final minutes of the sale. The bids totaled about $30,000. "It wouldn’t refresh or reload," Mitchell said of SRI’s Web site. "They were definitely having technical problems." Mitchell said he is certain the problem was not on his end. He and his associates were bidding from separate computers in three different cities. Adding to his frustration, he said, is the fact his company invested a "not insignificant" amount of time and money in researching properties prior to the auction. "It really takes a huge amount of energy upfront," he said, explaining paid interns create detailed reports on every property the company intends to bid on. Mitchell said five of the properties Double Domer bid on received no bids, meaning the county missed out on at least five potential sales. "Really, the biggest loser here is St. Joseph County," he said, "because all of the additional bids that occurred in the last few minutes have been lost." Coleman acknowledged as much, but said it was hard to nit-pick considering the auction was otherwise a huge success, bringing in about $2 million. "Sure it was disappointing we didn’t get every dollar we hoped for," he said, "but at the same time the sale itself was successful at a level we never even imagined, so it’s hard to express too much disappointment over the outcome." Coleman said the county has done business with SRI on several occasions and has never experienced any problems. No one at SRI was available for comment today. The company was conducting an all-day seminar in Indianapolis. According to Coleman, SRI’s contract with the county specified a 10 percent fee for conducting the auction. Staff writer Erin Blasko: eblasko@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6187