The city’s Land Bank intends to “cast a wider net” from now on when it tracks properties that it might be able to acquire through “priority” bids at the county’s annual judicial tax sales.

In June, at the first judicial sale for which the Land Bank had enough money to participate, officials targeted a property on 19th Street but backed off when they couldn’t resolve unspecified issues in time.

“If we’re too narrowly focused on one specific property, the chance of it working out (is diminished),” Land Bank Chairman Richard Fiore said at a recent meeting. Better keep tabs on a large number of properties, perhaps 30, in hopes of at least a handful being ultimately available, Fiore said.

Properties that end up going to judicial sale in June must first pass through the upset tax sale the previous September, where all liens are in place.

At any time between the upset and the judicial sale, owners of those properties can redeem them by paying the taxes and fees, consultant Winnie Branton said.

Such payoffs often happen, even as the judicial sale approaches.

It will help Land Bank officials to develop a relationship with the Blair County Tax Claim Bureau, whose employees can share their knowledge about which owners tend to pay off their debts as the judicial sale grows near, Branton said.

The slowly growing familiarity of Land Bank officials with the way things work is “the common experience,” Branton said.

“It’s new,” she said. “(You’re) trying to figure it out.”

At Branton’s suggestion, she will produce a “calendar” to serve as a guide for when to pay attention to potentially available properties and what to do about them, based on how far in the future the next upset sale and — more importantly — the next judicial sale will occur.

The authority has “no special powers” connected with upset sales, but it can intervene to obtain properties headed to judicial sale, before they become available at auction, Branton said.

When the Land Bank starts acquiring properties, it should consider exercising an “expedited process” available to land banks for “quieting” the titles of such properties, according to Branton.

That can help it market those properties, and it can help avoid issues later on for developers who obtain them, she said.

Most of the time, there is no defendant to oppose a judge’s ruling to grant the quieted title, she said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.