This week I was actively browsing Ebay.com for any good stuffs and suddenly I saw this made Yahoo headlines Bid of $1.75 on eBay gets abandoned Saginaw home SAGINAW, Mich. - With a winning bid of just $1.75, a Chicago woman has won an auction for an abandoned home in Saginaw. Joanne Smith, 30, recently was the top bidder for the home during an auction on eBay, The Saginaw News reported. Her bid was one of eight for the home. ADVERTISEMENT "I am going to try and sell it," she told the newspaper. "I don't have any plans to move to Saginaw." More here I was like OMG!! Why didn't I see that auction!! So darn lucky!
Woooooh. dang. This is a great example of why eBay is my friend and partner when it comes to online shopping.
Well, she actually has to pay about $850 in back taxes and yard cleanup costs for the house so it's not just $1.75 we are talking about here.
True2 But still $851.75 = worth a house? Not to mention I think the seller just added that $850 in the transfer cost to avoid ebay fees.
With the sub-prime crisis deepening and mortgage problems looming large, the homes are selling at rock bottom prices (30% down from its peak!). Right time to invest in real estate in US?
whether its a $1.75 or $850, paying that much, er, little for a house is a great deal...or so you'd think...lol unfortunately, the state of Michigan has suffered worse than most of the other states in the US during these trying economic times. most of this is due to the decline in jobs (especially the auto industry), which resulted in the local housing market to plunge, which in turn caused a lot of Michigan residents to flee the state. something interesting i discovered while reading an online news article about this is that according to the original Saginaw news article, someone posted the land history and it stated that the property is worth $4000. the house was foreclosed years ago and was bought for $10 and then sold for $25. i'm guessing that the owner that purchased it for $25 is the one that sold it for $1.75 nevertheless, a pretty interesting story, i would like to see how it turns out. if it were me, i would simply bulldoze the house and just sell the land. and for all of those that's wondering what the house looks like, here's a picture: (and no, i'm not kidding)
Congratulations on a bargain, thats amazing, it really is. If she improved the house and sold it on, she will have made a fortune. There will be so many more bargains out there, you just need the patience to find them.
It's amazing what you can find on ebay If you actually check places like foreclosure.com you can sometimes find houses like that for dirt cheap. I thought about going on a spending spree with like $10,000 and buying several, renovating them, and then renting them out at dirt cheap rates. Just haven't had the time/patience to deal with it.
Michigan has been one of the hardest hit states with economic turmoil, and there are literally thousands of homes that have just been abandoned because the owners just couldn't make payments. Even buying it at that rate doesn't mean she will be able to sell it because no one in Michigan is buying right now.
nice score in NZ or Oz you wouldnt get to look over the fence for a $1.75 let alone buy the place,at this rate they will put Michigan on ebay for a million