Open Hours of Government: Mon – Fri: 8.00 am. – 5.00 pm.
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Selling Surplus
City-owned real estate surplus property refers to real estate that is no longer needed by the city for its official present operations or future projects and is available for disposition through sale or other means.
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Process for Disposition of Surplus Property
- Interested organizations or individuals must complete an Open Gov. application for the City-owned parcel they are interested in.
- The program manager gathers information (i.e., deed, photos, land roll information, etc…) concerning the parcel in question.
- All City departments are notified to determine that the real property is no longer needed for municipal or related purposes.
- The application and parcel information is presented to the Surplus Property Committee for review. At this time, the committee may make a decision to dispose of the property via one of three ways, as described in section 21-17-1 of the Mississippi Code of 1972, as amended. (If a decision isn’t made at this time, the review committee may ask for development plans from the applicant or other additional information.
- The appraisal method: The real property is sold for not less than the average of the fair market price for such property as determined by two (2) professional property appraisers, of which the appraisal fees are equally shared by the applicant and the City, along with any other fees associated with transferring the property.
- The bid method: The City will accept competitive sealed bids.
- Donation/sale for less than fair market value: The City may donate or sell for less than fair market price such real property to bona fide not-for-profit corporation as long as the purpose of acquisition satisfies MS State Statute.
- The committee recommends a disposal method.
- The program manager acts on the committee approved disposition based on the method.
- If the bid method is used, an ad should be published for three (3) consecutive weeks in a local public newspaper. The property is normally awarded to the highest bidder.
- If the appraisal method is used, then professional appraisers should be hired at this time.
- Upon completion of designated 6(a) or 6(b) and any additional required culmination actions needed to ascertain a conveyance dollar amount, an order is presented to the City Council for approval.
- Upon approval, the property is then conveyed as described in section 21-17-1 of MS Code 1972, as amended.
- The Office of the City Attorney will process a quit claim deed and have the Mayor sign it.
- Upon receiving the quitclaim deed, the program manager will take the document to the Chancery Clerk’s office to ensure the deed is properly filed.