By BENNETT HALL
Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 12:00 am
Kip and Michelle Schoning lose 20th property to foreclosure
Read all of this investigation at the GT's Behind the Red Door Web site.
ALBANY - No one showed up at the Linn County Courthouse on Tuesday morning to bid in the foreclosure sale of a house owned by Michelle Schoning at 895 W. Oak St. in Lebanon.
But auctioneer Gary Treagesser went through the motions anyway, officially turning the property back to the lender for the minimum bid.
"$69,399.69 going once," Treagesser pronounced to the empty courthouse lobby. "$69,399.69 going twice. Third and final call. This property is sold to the beneficiary for $69,399.69."
Michelle Schoning and her husband, Kip, own more than 150 rental properties around the mid-valley, most of them with their front doors painted red. As previously reported, they and their Corvallis property management company, Bula Enterprises, have been the target of numerous complaints regarding dilapidated conditions, foot-dragging on repairs, excessive fees and aggressive collection tactics that include filing more than 800 formal eviction proceedings.
Tuesday's auction was the latest sign that the Schonings' red door rental empire may be coming apart.
So far this year, the couple have defaulted on 79 properties in Linn, Benton, Marion and Polk counties, according to records on file with county clerks' offices.
Some 40-plus of those are still in default because of missed mortgage payments, and those properties could all be sold at auction to satisfy the debt. In most cases, that would mean an eviction notice for the tenants.
The Oak Street house is at least the 20th Schoning property to be lost to foreclosure this year, according to a records search. According to a notice of default filed in July, the Schonings were $2,794 behind on their mortgage and still owed $61,044.33 in principal on the loan.
Another house owned by Michelle Schoning, this one at 1327 Elm St. S.W. in Albany, was scheduled to be auctioned at the Linn County Courthouse on Tuesday morning, but that sale was postponed until Dec. 19.
Michelle Schoning did not return a phone message left at her Corvallis real estate office Tuesday.
Bennett Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.