Seized Homes Are Hot Properties at Simi Auction

Dahlia Palacios figured that she would pay no more than $200,000 for the tiny house, large barn and one-acre lot that Simi Valley police had seized last year.

John Grepiotis said his top dollar was $220,000. “It just doesn’t pencil out any higher than that.”

But 30 minutes into Ventura County’s first auction of houses seized from alleged drug dealers, the price had reached $243,000, and both Palacios and Grepiotis were still in the bidding.

So was Jim Curran, a Simi Valley plumber and native of Dublin, Ireland.

“Oh, one more,” Curran had mumbled before he had raised the bid to $230,000. But in his heart, the 65-year-old man had known that the property was worth $250,000. Eventually, after 42 bids, he bought it for $248,000.

The old, two-bedroom house, a tear-down in the parlance of the bidders, was no steal: Its price was $78,000 higher than the minimum acceptable bid.

The house was seized in August from a man who allegedly bought it with money made illegally. The previous owner is wanted for allegedly conspiring to manufacture methamphetamine.

Proceeds from the sale, except for $100,000 to pay off a mortgage, will go to the Simi Valley Police Department, the district attorney’s office and the state, authorities said.

A young couple bought a second Simi Valley dwelling that the same man had owned, paying $193,000 for the three-bedroom house with a spa and pool.

“We feel great about it,” said Susan Maldoon, a 26-year-old employee of the city.

She and her husband, Loren, 27, bought the house after previously making a sealed bid. No one else bid on that house Tuesday. But their anxiety had surged when they found that Curran had also submitted a sealed bid.

“My husband’s exact words were, ‘We’re not going up against him,’ ” Susan Maldoon said. Curran said he did not need a second house.

The Tuesday morning auction was not only rare but peculiar, since it occurred in the midst of a County Board of Supervisors’ meeting--item No. 6 on the agenda. Chairwoman Madge L. Schaefer acted as auctioneer.

The first house was the ramshackle two-bedroom that Curran bought. Its value was based on the lot size and location: an acre of land across a field from Simi Valley City Hall and close to the Simi Valley Freeway. The lot could be divided and sold.

Curran’s $200,000 offer was the highest of six sealed bids. He moved to a front-row, red-cushioned seat, next to the speaker’s podium and beside Grepiotis as the bidding began.

Palacios, supported by her husband, Tom, a Simi Valley general contractor, opened the bidding at $210,000.

At $222,000, Grepiotis, a young Simi Valley builder, glanced back at Palacios and her husband. He dropped out, or seemed to, four bids later at $227,500, only to return at $243,000.

Schaefer quipped: “Like they say in Las Vegas, ‘We have a new player.’ ”

Curran bought the house eight bids later for $248,000.

Palacios said: “I really didn’t want to go over $200,000. It was my husband’s decision to go higher.”

Curran, who emigrated from Ireland 24 years ago, said he and his wife, Teresa, will build a house on the land and sell half an acre for another dwelling.

He figures that the property is worth the price. “It’s not easy to find a lot this size in Simi anymore,” he said.

City and county officials said the auction worked out well. Simi Valley police, who already have received $2.2 million from the seizure of cash and cars from drug dealers, will get most of the $150,000 profit.

“The state, county and Simi Valley all get to profit from this guy’s drug deals,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen McLaughlin, who is working six other house seizures for the county. “And this young couple gets into a house they might not have been able to afford otherwise.”