If you want a shot at purchasing property at the Lincoln Countyland sale, you have to go toe-to-toe and dollar-to-dollar withJohnny Joe Gunnell.

The chief bidder at the annual sale of delinquent properties onMonday marked off properties in his newspaper as he consistentlyoutbid his competitors and became the new landlord for hundreds ofLincoln County taxpayers and their parcels.

Last year, Gunnell spent close to $500,000 at the land sale. Andalthough he doesn’t expect to buy that much delinquent property in2009, he’s going to try.

“I ain’t interested in anything, but interested in everything,”he said.

His aggressive bidding broke a few hearts and ruffled a few morefeathers during the first day of the 2009 land sale Monday, but bigbidders like Gunnell are how Lincoln County collects money owed ondelinquent properties.

When a property owner fails to pay ad valorem taxes – orproperty taxes – on time by the February deadline or with a penaltyafterwards, the properties are auctioned off at the land sale inAugust.

By buying delinquent properties, bidders settle the owner’s debtwith the county – adding to the county’s general fund – and collect1.5 percent interest per month on the taxes owed on the parcel. Ifthe property is not redeemed within two years, which would resultin the debt and interest being repaid to the bidder and theproperty returned to the original owner, the deed goes to thebidder.

Lincoln County Tax Assessor/Collector Nancy Jordan said thisyear’s sale features 1,277 parcels unpaid from 2008.

The total amount of taxes owed on the parcels is $630,753.84.Jordan said the county would recover at least that amount and moreby the time the land sale ends on Tuesday.

A lot of the money the county recovers will come out ofGunnell’s pocket. Those bidding against him Monday were audibly andvisibly frustrated as he continually raised the bids and bought atwill.

One man bid $2,000 on a family-owned property selling forslightly less than $1,200, just to make sure Gunnell didn’t outbidhim. Another woman who could not match Gunnell’s bid shouted outthat she couldn’t buy anything because of No. 1, his biddingnumber.

“You’ve gotta bid!” he shouted back. “Let’s get this thing overwith.”

Every now and then, however, someone would win the battle withGunnell.

“Let ’em have it,” he would say, waving his hand as he lostinterest in the property.

One of those scarce winners was Liberty’s Anna Whittington, whowas the bidding representative for Oak Investments, an investmentcompany run by a fellow church member. Whittington had a stapledlist of all properties at the Lincoln County sale, along withinstructions on which properties to bid on and how much to bid.

Still, Whittington only outbid Gunnell a few times.

“He always keeps going,” she said. “He wants whatever. Hedoesn’t have the same criteria we do, and it gets frustratingbecause he bids on everything.”

Gunnell’s bid war with Whittington, who was bidder No. 282,backfired at least once when Whittington accidentally called out$55, trying to raise the bid by $5 over what she thought was a $50parcel. She had not heard correctly, and the actual price was$15.

But Gunnell, apparently focused on the bidding war, immediatelyshouted, “$60!” and was awarded with an overpriced parcel.

“I’m not trying to drive the price up on him, but it’ssatisfying when I do,” Whittington said.

Other bidders had their own reasons for being interested inspecific properties up for auction at the land sale.

McCall Creek’s Tara Sullivan sat through the daylong auction fora chance at one $400 parcel, which she hoped to recover for adaughter.

Loyd Star’s JoAnn King waited out the day for a chance at aparcel adjoining her land, which she hoped to purchase, hold fortwo years and receive the deed.

“I just want to add it to the property I already own,” she said.”Hopefully, one day we’ll have cows, or I’ll plant trees onit.”

Whatever the reason for bidding, the bidders were there Mondayin record numbers.

Jordan said the 2009 land sale is the biggest she has everoverseen in her 24 years of service, in terms of both parcelsavailable and bidders present. It’s likely the economy driving upthe number of unpaid parcels, and likely the stellar interest ratesdriving in the bidders, she said.

For Brookhaven’s Larry Foster, it’s the interest rates.

“You get better interest here than you do at the bank,” he said.”If you hold it for 12 months, that’s 18 percent.”