Floyd County is hoping to end the season with an infusion of cash through the sale of 123 surplus properties during an “absolute” auction Monday in the Riverwalk Ballroom at The Forum downtown. Dempsey Auction Co. of Rome will conduct the sale.

Floyd County Commission Chairman Irwin Bagwell said commissioners don’t have any kind of idea what type of revenue the sale will generate.

“We’re just going to put them out there to the public and see what we get off them,” Bagwell said. “We want to get them back on the tax rolls.”

Assistant Floyd County Manager Noah Simon said his goal for the auction is for every property to be sold.

“There’s a real hodgepodge, there’s a little bit of everything,” Simon said. “Some of them do have structures, some of them are small lots, some of them are big lots.”

Floyd County Tax Commissioner Kevin Payne said he suspects the county acquired 90 percent of the properties during the last several years.

Each of the properties is subject to redemption by the original owner.

“If most of these were going to be redeemed, usually they are redeemed within the first few months (following the original tax sale),” Payne said.

Payne said that, technically speaking, the county is likely to lose money on the sale because the county acquired it for the value of taxes that were owed.

Simon said there has been a lot of interest in the auction, with people calling the county offices as well as the Dempsey Auction offices.

A preview meeting with maps and lot descriptions will take place in the Floyd County Administrative offices today from 1 to 5 p.m. The preview will be on the second floor of the building on East First Street at Fourth Avenue.

“There will be people there to answer questions about how they will go through the auction Monday, what they need to bring, all of that kind of stuff,” Simon said.

“It’s affordable. There are some good lots, and some repair work needs to be done on a lot of the homes, but they can be bought at a reasonable price and rehabilitated and made into good rental property,” said Lou Dempsey with Dempsey Auction. “We’ve had a ton of interest from adjoining property owners. We contacted all the adjacent property owners and a lot of the folks want to buy that which adjoins them that the county owns.”

Buyers will have to put 10 percent down Monday with closings slated to take place between Dec. 17-31. Purchasers will have to pay a $300 closing fee and the properties will be transferred via quitclaim deeds.

Buyers will also have to pay a 10-percent buyer’s premium, a $10 recording fee and a percentage of the cost of the legal ads which will not be more than $40 per closing.