My First Tax Auction Property in Hurricane, UT

[Makayla Mardis-Nielsen]

Hello Fellow Investors,

I'm a brand new investor looking for my first deal. I live near St. George, UT. Tomorrow I'm going to attend the annual tax auction in the county that I live in and I have my eyes on a vacant lot in a newly developed desirable area. I have a little experience with buying a lot and building a new home in my local market, as I did that with my current home and that is how I was able to obtain over 150,000 of instant equity in my home. That said, this will by my first auction ever so I'm nervous and don't really know what to expect! Does anyone have any advice for me about the auction process? Right now I'm running a deed lien report on the property just to make sure it is free and clear, or if it isn't I know what additional costs I might be looking at (the property is owned by a developer/business currently). Also, I'm feeling a little suspicious about the lot because it doesn't make sense to me that a developer would develop the entire neighborhood, less this one lot and let it go to auction for as little as $300...the lot cops at about $50,000. When surveying the lot the only downside that I can see is that it has a really high power line running over one side of the lot and continues through the neighborhood. Does anyone know if that is a potential problem to building under the power line? As far as I could find on the internet, it said that as long as nothing on your property comes within 15ft of the line, then you are okay to build under a power line? Does anyone know if that's true? Also, I read that power lines typically de-value a property by around 10%, does anyone know if that seems true? Just trying to take everything into account! I would love to get other investor's take on the situation! Please tell me if you have any experience or guidance on any of these aspects of this property/deal! Thank you!

-Makayla