City reaps profit from foreclosed lots

The City of Olney will reap about $43,000 from its sale of 10 foreclosed lots to Crombie Properties of Olney, a Jacksboro-based developer that plans to build homes and duplexes on the lots, City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon told the Council on May 8. The City had to split the $52,000 sales price for the block of lots with Young County and the Olney Hamilton Hospital and Olney Independent School District taxing entities. “All the documents have been signed by all the entities,” she said. Each of the taxing entities must now approve the amount of money they will receive from the sale, and forward the signed documents to the buyer. The buyer will then record the deeds with Young County, she said.

“We have never said yes to any of [the foreclosure property sales], this is our first rodeo,” she said. “They have never gotten past the approval stage because the information the bidder supplied was not sufficient.”

The approval should set off a housing construction boom in Olney, with Crombie Properties and the Groves brothers actively building as many as 20 homes on empty lots throughout Olney.

The Council also approved the sale of another foreclosed lot to longtime Olney resident Efrain “Penny” Molina. Mr. Molina purchased a lot adjacent to his home and plans to combine the lots into one address, he told the Council. The sale of the lot is the first that the Council has approved for an individual in more than a year. Mr. Molina bid just under $3,900 for the lot. Councilmember Harrison Wellman noted that many of Olney’s lots “are too small to build a modern structure on” and wondered whether “there a process for combining the lots.”

The Council debated but did not settle on what to do with the foreclosure windfall.