Woman Bought Home For $1.75 on eBay

Posted by Alex in Home & Garden, Money & Finance on October 3, 2008 at 8:31 pm


Joanne Smith bought an abandoned house in Saginaw, Michigan, on eBay. Her winning bid? $1.75!

"I am going to try and sell it," she told the newspaper. "I don’t have any plans to move to Saginaw."

Smith said she hasn’t seen the property or visited Saginaw, which has been hard-hit by economic troubles in recent years.

There’s a notice on the door of the home saying a foreclosure hearing is pending, the newspaper said. She must pay about $850 in back taxes and yard cleanup costs.

Link

Previously on Neatorama: Foreclosed Home For Sale for Just $1

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COMMENT

13 comments to "Woman Bought Home For $1.75 on eBay"

  1. Geekazoid
    October 3rd, 2008 at 8:50 pm

    Going to try and sell it? Umm, isn’t there a reason why she won it for under two dollars? She hasn’t even visited the property, I doubt many people would want to even cruise around that area let alone buy a worn down house in it.

    But you never know, values might go up one day.

  2. Ali S.
    October 4th, 2008 at 1:20 am

    That’s really bad investing. She bought a house without knowing the state of it nor if it has some bad history aka drug/gang house.

  3. MightyCow
    October 4th, 2008 at 1:42 am

    This is a perfect microcosm of exactly what happened to the entire housing market over the last 5 years.

    I really, really hope that she’s a professor of economics making a point.

  4. Tweeker
    October 4th, 2008 at 3:14 am

    No way that place is worth the tax burden. Its stripped, not habitable, and in one of the USA most dangerous neighborhoods.

  5. travelina
    October 4th, 2008 at 5:15 am

    The mayor of a town in Sicily is offering old stone houses for one euro (about $1.38 today) if you promise to fix them up:
    http://intelligenttravel.typepad.com/it/2008/09/a-villa-for-one.html

  6. ted
    October 4th, 2008 at 9:04 am

    Yes, travelina, that was featured on Neatorama recently. There are a lot of strings attached to those Sicily houses, though.

  7. Mattie
    October 4th, 2008 at 4:46 pm

    Tweeker - Where does it say the neighborhood it’s in? I missed that part of the article. How is it one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the United States?

  8. Johnny Cat
    October 4th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

    It’s the dirt that’s worth it. Eventually it will be worth a big sum. Property means a lot more than just a house. With a good remodel, though, it could end up being a really lucrative investment.

  9. Wookiestick
    October 5th, 2008 at 6:50 am

    I live in Mount Morris, MI which is about a half hour drive (on the expressway) south of Saginaw, MI. I went there once to drop off a coworker from work and it’s a pretty scary place. Think of the roughest parts of Detroit and then shrink it down to a smaller size– that’s Saginaw.

  10. Bill
    October 5th, 2008 at 8:26 am

    These places aren’t worth fixing up. Unless you sleep inside with a loaded gun anything and everything worth money will be stolen. I feel for the older folks still living in places which were probably once nice neighborhoods. After the second or third time you’re ripped off you begin to understand why cops stop trying and good people (young) move away.

  11. Adminus
    October 6th, 2008 at 7:46 am

    Ali S got it right.

    I live in Saginaw, granted not the part of Saginaw where this house was purchased.

    It’s NOT a good neighborhood, the best thing that could be done with this house and countless others like it, is to tear it down, maybe they can make the extra lots into a park.

    You know somewhere they can publicly make drug deals or shoot people, instead of in crappy houses..

  12. Grazzt
    October 6th, 2008 at 9:56 am

    “That’s really bad investing. She bought a house without knowing the state of it nor if it has some bad history aka drug/gang house.”

    Are you folks simple? She just bought a house for two bucks. She could turn around and sell the place for 2 thousand and make a huge profit. I’m sure it’s worth more than that.

  13. Adminus
    October 7th, 2008 at 7:48 am

    Grazzt,

    That house isn’t worth the $1.75 she paid for it.

    There are houses that are on the same block that are condemned, and have been burned by arsonists.

    She won’t be able to sell it, the owner already tried that, or did you somehow miss that fact?

    Nobody is buying houses in Saginaw, especially in THAT neighborhood. She “might” be able to sell the land, but it won’t be anytime soon. Could be 5 years or more, and in that time, she has to pay taxes on it.

    Piss poor investment.. Might as well flush your money down a toilet.


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