{"id":86206,"date":"2026-10-26T17:10:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T21:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=86206"},"modified":"2026-10-26T17:10:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T21:10:45","slug":"massive-8-9m-land-auction-shatters-records-for-southeast-polk-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/10\/26\/massive-8-9m-land-auction-shatters-records-for-southeast-polk-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive $8.9M Land Auction Shatters Records for Southeast Polk County"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img data-dominant-color=\"807352\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #807352;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/unnamed-11-1024x576.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-86207 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/unnamed-11-1024x576.webp 1024w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/unnamed-11-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/unnamed-11-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/unnamed-11.webp 1200w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <strong>$8.9 million auction<\/strong> of the <strong>Etter Family Portfolio<\/strong> represents a significant land transaction in southeast Polk County along the scenic Lake Wales Ridge.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Highlights of the Sale<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Total Acreage:<\/strong> ~584 acres offered across <strong>27 separate parcels<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Sale Price:<\/strong> Bidders collectively committed <strong>$8.9 million<\/strong> across the portfolio.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Location:<\/strong> Situated along Scenic Highway 17 between <strong>Babson Park and Frostproof<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Brokerage &amp; Auctioneer:<\/strong> Handled by Lakeland-based <strong> Saunders Real Estate<\/strong> (Saunders Auctions, LLC).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Timeline:<\/strong> Timed reserve online auction opened on <strong>October 20, 2026<\/strong>, and concluded on <strong>October 22, 2026<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Property Characteristics &amp; Potential<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Citrus Operations:<\/strong> The portfolio consists primarily of active citrus groves with established production (including Valencia and Hamlin oranges) and deep irrigation wells.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Geographic Features:<\/strong> Includes elevated terrain with rolling hills characteristic of the Lake Wales Ridge, offering scenic views and frontage near Reedy Lake.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Buyer Profile &amp; Usage:<\/strong> The multi-parcel structure allowed for price discovery and flexible acquisition by agricultural operators (growers looking to keep citrus operations active), land bankers, and potential residential\/development investors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The $8.9 million auction of the Etter Family Portfolio represents a significant land transaction in southeast Polk County along the scenic Lake Wales Ridge. Key Highlights of the Sale Property&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzEwXC91bm5hbWVkLTExLTEwMjR4NTc2LndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJNYXNzaXZlICQ4LjlNIExhbmQgQXVjdGlvbiBTaGF0dGVycyBSZWNvcmRzIGZvciBTb3V0aGVhc3QgUG9sayBDb3VudHkiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.Gyp-jBO_XU2mRnbYMJj3Uf7BKTdVPp6PcnBykTaEWlQMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzEwXC91bm5hbWVkLTExLTEwMjR4NTc2LndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJNYXNzaXZlICQ4LjlNIExhbmQgQXVjdGlvbiBTaGF0dGVycyBSZWNvcmRzIGZvciBTb3V0aGVhc3QgUG9sayBDb3VudHkiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.Gyp-jBO_XU2mRnbYMJj3Uf7BKTdVPp6PcnBykTaEWlQMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[18560,18559,18556,18557,18555,18558,18561],"class_list":["post-86206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-babson-park","tag-citrus-groves","tag-etter-family-portfolio","tag-lake-wales-ridge","tag-land-auction","tag-real-estate","tag-saunders-real-estate"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86209,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86206\/revisions\/86209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}