You may think $1 won't get you very far but it just may buy you a house.A home in Detroit was recently sold for $1 and it still took 19 days to find a buyer. In November 2006, the home sold for $65,000 and was the nicest house on the block. After the family moved due to a home foreclosure, the house was gutted by scrappers. These vandals took the lighting fixtures, copper plumbing, the furnace, and even the kitchen sink. Anything of value was gone.
At this point, the home was just a shell. The bank had to pay to find a buyer. $2,500 in sales commission, and another $1,000 bonus for closing the $1 sale. The bank will also have to pay $500 of the buyer's closing costs. "Dollar property sales are the financial hangover from the foreclosure crisis," said Anthony Viola of Realty Corp. of America in Cleveland. In the end it will cost the bank around $10,000 in order to sell the home for $1.
The buyer calls this purchase an investment. The buyer will have to pay $5,000 for a home demolition, and will owe $3,900 on 2009 property taxes unless the assessment is challenged. This shows how much trouble the real estate market is in, especially in one of America's poorest cities.
Check out the full article at Detroit News here.
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