Sandoval County treasurer schedules first in-house manufactured-home auction after outreach yields payments

Sandoval County Treasurer Taylor said Wednesday the county will hold its first in-house manufactured-home tax auction, tentatively scheduled for Oct. 24 in the County Commission chambers, after Property Tax Division auctions for residential parcels in August. Treasurer Taylor and manufactured-home specialist Martin Stevens briefed the Board of Finance on outreach results and legal/process differences between residential tax-deed auctions and manufactured-home collections.

The sale date for manufactured homes was presented as tentative and will be organized by county staff. Treasurer Taylor said manufactured homes are treated as personal property—separate from land—and therefore the county, not the state Property Tax Division, handles collections and auctions for those units. "Manufactured home is considered personal property, so they don't touch those," Taylor said, adding that penalties and interest collected through the county-run process remain with the county.

Martin Stevens, the county's manufactured-home specialist, described the county's first season of field outreach. He said staff compiled 49 properties for review and made field checks. Stevens reported a 77% response rate: "at least 43% of those are set up with a payment plan ... and another 34% ... taken off the tax rolls," citing cases such as homes removed from sites and one destroyed by fire. Stevens said the outreach recovered more than $51,000 in delinquent taxes to date.

Taylor contrasted the county's manufactured-home effort with the Property Tax Division's annual tax-deed auctions for residential property, which she said focus on permanent structures and land; she said the Property Tax Division is preparing its second annual auction in August and the county's manufactured-home auction will be handled separately. Plans for the Property Tax Division auction were described as two consecutive days in late August; the treasurer said the list of properties is posted on the county and PTD websites.

Commissioner Jones and other board members suggested options to reduce staff time on auctions, including considering online auction platforms used by other counties. Taylor said she had discussed online options with Property Tax Division staff and that counties have some discretion about how to hold manufactured-home auctions.

Treasurer Taylor and Stevens emphasized the outreach and payment-plan approach as alternatives to immediate seizure and sale, and said the county intends to expand the program next year. Stevens said the program started in late spring and will resume after tax season.