Making $410,000 in one hour is not too shabby, and though an hour is all it took to get through five properties for sale at a real estate auction, the work behind the scenes is often overlooked.

“Theres a lot of hard work that goes behind the scenes to get to this point, so when we have a successful auction, it's great,” said Town Administrator Derek Sullivan.

Dozens gathered in the Town Hall auditorium to have a shot at buying the properties which were taken by the town after the non-payment of taxes. Auctioning the properties results in a one-time influx of money to the town, the return of these properties to the tax rolls, and potentially removes the blight of dilapidated houses around town.

The town hired D'Ambrosio Brown to handle the legal work involved in the process and Zekos Group, Municipal Auction Strategies, to facilitate the auction. Paul Zekos, head of the group, kept the crowd laughing and got through all five properties in less than a half hour.

“The town took these properties for the non-payment of taxes, they don't want to sell them back to someone who's not paying their taxes,” he said, half-jokingly.

Zekos said hosting an auction isn't easy, but the pay off is worth it.

With at least $410,000 coming to the town for the five properties, and more revenue to come with taxes paid on those properties, the pay off is definitely worth it.

Sullivan said the money will cover the cost of the auction and pay back the taxes owed to the town.

"Many of these houses and parcels haven't paid taxes in a year, so there are taxes that were owed. Essentially, we're just recouping on those," said Sullivan.

He said the remaining money goes into the General Fund and "works out for a lot of different entities."

On top of the winning bidding price, buyers had to pay a buyer's premium of of seven percent (which went to Zekos), a special assessment fee, and a recording fee.

“This is a nice opportunity to invest, improve these properties, live there, flip them- whatever floats your boat,” said Zekos.

Buyers sought properties for a variety of reasons.

“Buy it, sell it, make money,” was the motto for Richard Bakish, a resident of Taunton looking at properties for sale in Wareham. Having lost a building he owned to a fire, he was ready to bid for properties on Plymouth Ave. and Cromesett Road.

The properties up for bid included the following: 25 Cromesett Road, 14 Plymouth Avenue, 21 Parker Drive, 6 Leonard St., and 31 Plymouth Avenue.

Each winner wrote a $10,000 deposit check after the auction, and were legally bound to deposit another $10,000 (or remaining value) by Nov. 21, with all money paid off by mid-December.