Ignoramus5013 wrote:

I am not sure if I want to think too much about why this is so, right
now I need to figure out if I should submit the bid or not.

Ok, here are my last thoughts on this:

- If you do buy this property, you will own it and as a result, be
paying taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, etc. on it for some
time. You will not be able to sell it and get your money back in six
months if you decide it was a mistake.

- The current owner has not been able to find a new tenant for what, a
year? Despite your ability to offer very low rent, do you really think
you'll have an easier time finding a tenant or tenants?

- The current owner has not been able to sell the property in the normal
commercial real estate market either, and is thus selling at auction?
There would seem to be a reason that one of the large commercial real
estate management companies hasn't already purchased the place.

- I may be overly cautious, and perhaps that's why I'm poor since I
don't take big risks, but you really need to be careful on something
like this or you might find yourself taking a heavy loss.

- I have a large piece of investment property in a very nice area I'm
looking to sell if you are interested. It doesn't have rental potential
since it's undeveloped, however it has extremely low taxes (~$200/yr)
and is in an area that is pretty well guaranteed to continue to increase
in value.