The Office of the Wayne County Treasurer in Michigan will conduct its first Internet auction of more than 13,000 tax foreclosed properties September 17-23. Bid4Assets.com will perform the online auction.

The auctioned properties represent a 44 percent increase over the number of properties seized by the county in 2009, making it the largest auction ever for Wayne County.

According to a statement released by the Office of the Wayne County Treasurer, the decision to use the online auction service is due to the large number of properties available for auction, the demands placed on its staff, the

need to provide other public services, and the opportunity to maximize revenue from the sales that will be dispersed to the county’s taxing municipalities.

“With the substantial increase in auction activity, it was necessary to explore an alternative approach to perform the statutorily mandated auction in a cost-effective manner,” said Wayne County treasurer, Raymond Wojtowicz. “Our goal is to ensure that the Internet auction not only streamlines the process and increases property sales and revenue but also enables anyone who wants to participate to be able to do so.”

Bid4Assets is currently hosting an online preview of the properties, which has generated a great deal of interest.

“I’ve never seen Web site traffic like this before!” said Matt Baker, CEO of Bid4Assets.com. “This is easily the highest level of interest I’ve seen in any of our online auctions. This just strengthens my belief that this is an incredible opportunity for real estate investors. The convenience and ease of online bidding not only makes the whole process easier for everyone involved, but it also opens the auction up to investors from coast to coast-and even internationally.”

An off-line auction is also available for those without Internet access.