buying a house on ebay

so i was browsing some news stories the other day and i read that this lady bought a ****** house in ohio for $1.75 on ebay. ok so it was a dump, but it was less than 2 bucks! i got curious and went and had a look, and there are dozens of houses available for between $5-10k.

I know that the US economy has **** itself right now, but i don't believe its going to go on forever (though i wouldn't be surprised if it was for another couple of years). anyway im seriously thinking about purchasing a couple of these cheap houses. what does everyone think about this? Also im from Australia so any help re; foreigners buying property would also be much appreciated.

"if its sounds to good to be true.............

dl

Chase servicing will sell you an REO in Detroit for $1 if you find the right one. But... then you own a house in Detroit. Buy a pack of gum instead.

When you take title, you're liable for all the nonsense and taxes and such. It's not worth it unless you got some inside information about neighborhood redevelopment or something.

so these neighbourhoods are seriously going to just sit there and be worthless?

Originally Posted by jase12

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so these neighbourhoods are seriously going to just sit there and be worthless?
Yes, until they have value to someone. There are quite a few places like this.

Have you seen the types of neighborhoods where houses cost $10k?

yeh i understand they r **** houses in crappy neighbourhoods. guess its just hard for me to get my head around it seeing as in australia it is pretty much impossible to get a house for under $100k unless your living under a rock in the outback. must be a strange situation to be in over there. anyway thanks for your help, advice taken

for that price, the house is probably condemned by the city and uninhabitable. Basically it would have to be in such bad shape... it's cheaper to give the thing away for free than to make it livable.

e-bay is a great place to buy a Canali suit but I wouldn't use it as a measure for real estate values. If you are really interested in investing, do a few searches on google for "bank owned properties or foreclosures". You are sure to find websites that offer lists of auctions and home listings.

I can see how the situation would seem strange if one were watching our news and media but it's not a fire sale on good homes. You can't even get into a single wide trailer for 5k-10k. Unless you're living in Texarkana, AR, you won't find much for under 100k.

Just out of curiosity,

Say I wanted to get a block of this ultra cheap housing in the ghetto somewhere. Could I buy so cheap, then level everything and build a normal house in the (large) open space?

And possibly continue to do the same in the surrounding areas?

Yes. And all your stuff would get stolen and people would sell crack in your yard. And you would need to sleep with a gun in your hand because of the risk of home invasion.

You'd be lucky to get a lot of contractors to go to work in these neighborhoods to build that house of yours. But at least, thanks to the community organizers, you'll be able to get a bank to give you a nice big loan to build a house that has no chance of ever appreciating in value!

I personally know someone that bought a $1 house in Richmond VA, fixed it up, and flipped it. Homeless people had been living in it and it was also used for selling crack. Not the best neighborhood. The only buyer he could get was a cop.

Here are some pictures of what your house is likely to look like.


The lovely kitchen. Most of the metal in the appliances had already been stripped out and sold for scrap value.





The living room.


Please do not disturb the cans and beer bottles sitting upright in the corner. They contain human urine and feces.

I'm not talking about buying one house, but a couple of blocks worth of them.

Then instead of fixing them, you demolish it all and build a new. The land should be worth something.

Security would be an issue though.

Originally Posted by crazyquik

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Yes. And all your stuff would get stolen and people would sell crack in your yard. And you would need to sleep with a gun in your hand because of the risk of home invasion.

You'd be lucky to get a lot of contractors to go to work in these neighborhoods to build that house of yours. But at least, thanks to the community organizers, you'll be able to get a bank to give you a nice big loan to build a house that has no chance of ever appreciating in value!

I personally know someone that bought a $1 house in Richmond VA, fixed it up, and flipped it. Homeless people had been living in it and it was also used for selling crack. Not the best neighborhood. The only buyer he could get was a cop.

Here are some pictures of what your house is likely to look like.


The lovely kitchen. Most of the metal in the appliances had already been stripped out and sold for scrap value.

The living room.

Please do not disturb the cans and beer bottles sitting upright in the corner. They contain human urine and feces.

rustic

I probably wouldn't buy one from ebay, but you can get some stupidly low priced homes in "somewhat shady" areas for a steal at the auction blocks.

There was a guy on the news who does this in Detroit to supplement his income. His latest flip? An $800 home he won at auction (looked decent too) and he flipped it for $15K.

I've read about a large number in the Atlanta area as well including even mansions going for nearly half their value. If you have the money to blow may even be worth it as a live in a fix it up and double your money once the market rises again.

I've never been a real big fan of ebay and I knew that you could buy a boat for example but a whole house is something different. Maybe I have to check it out myself because I'm currently trying to get myself some real estate in Hawaii but I haven't thought of Ebay yet. Does anyone know if you can get a closer look at the houses before you make your bid?