Bob Darr is walking in the best and worst of a real estate agent’s world.

Darr works for Peoples Co. Of late, he has been shepherding potential buyers through a listing of 38 houses and lots that are scheduled to go on the auction block April 16.

That’s 21 houses and 17 lots, some just 50 feet wide and shoehorned between houses, that buyers are expecting to pick up at bargain prices.

Showing and selling properties makes up Darr’s livelihood. But in this case, most of his time is spent on a deal that might not turn much profit, and that is the worst of his world.

The auction is the largest handled by Peoples, and might be one of the largest in terms of number of listings held in Greater Des Moines.

And there is a lot of interest. During the 90 minutes that Darr was in a meeting earlier this week, the voice message service on his office phone took so many calls that it couldn’t handle any more, he said.

“Some of the people who are calling are thinking they are going to get a house for $30,000,” Darr said. “That might not happen.”

All of the properties are owned by Aeon Financial LLC, a Chicago-based investors group that paid delinquent taxes and has waited at least the two years required by law for the taxes to be redeemed by the property owner.

Such an investment can be a good deal, providing the taxes are redeemed. The investors’ return amounts to 2 percent a month between the time they pay off the tax debt and when the taxes are redeemed.

It is also a blind investment. Tax buyers can’t pick and choose the properties on which they cover the delinquent taxes, said Polk County Treasurer Mary Maloney. That decision is left to chance as a computer sorts through random numbers.

“Sometimes keeping the properties can be a losing proposition,” she said.

In June 2008, Aeon paid $2,498 in delinquent taxes on a house at 4006 S.W. 5th St. and obtained the tax sale deed last year. Its assessed value for the 2009 tax year was $95,200. It last sold in 1995 for $63,950. It doesn’t have to sell for a premium for Aeon to make some profit on the deal.

Still, tax sale buyers are in a risky business, Maloney said.

“They think it’s like a risk-free investment … but it’s like any investment; sometimes it can bite you,” she said.

Peoples Co. President Steve Bruere said Aeon representatives will determine whether to pull any of the properties from the listing, based on whether they can be sold at a profit or a loss.

Editor’s Note: Bob Darr is not related to Business Record reporter Kent Darr.