$1.75 House on eBay? Sounds About Right
by kev on October 2, 2008 

15 Comments

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A Chicago woman, Joanne Smith, recently won an abandoned home in Saginaw, Michigan, on eBay with a whopping bid of $1.75. Here are the details:

Her bid was one of eight for the home.

She plans on reselling the home for a profit.

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

She must pay about $850 in back taxes and yard cleanup costs.

I had two immediate reactions to this story. One was obvious and probably the same reaction most people had, but the other was one of those “THAT is the thing you noticed, Kevin?” things:

There were seven OTHER bids on the home?

Whether or not this was a good investment for Joanne Smith is up for debate (and something I will ponder in a moment). But the fact there were eight total bids means there was at least one other person who was bidding on this house.

So, imagine if you will, you’re on eBay looking at homes for sale. You see one in Saginaw, Michigan, with no minimum bid requirements.

“If I could buy that home at a certain price, it would be a steal of a deal,” you think to yourself.

But at what price?

The fact Joanne Smith was able to win the auction for $1.75 (plus the $850 in back taxes and cleanup costs) means this other bidder set a ceiling on the auction for LESS than $1.75.

“I might go up to $1.65 — $1.70 tops,” this individual thought to themselves. “But no way am I going higher.”

When Joanne Smith’s bid of $1.75 was made, I imagine this other person sighed audibly and thought, “too rich for my blood.”

“Maybe someday I will be able to find a home for $1.70 or less.”

The other initial thought I had when I read this story was really two thoughts in one:

“Boy, that’s a good deal” and “Boy, that house is a piece of crap.”

After giving it some thought, I do not believe this was a good deal AT ALL for Joanne Smith. In fact, I thing it was a particularly craptacular purchase.

Property records for the home show that is has been sold seven times (counting Smith’s purchase) since 1999. The pasts two Januarys, it has sold for $26 and $10, respectively. In 1999, it was sold for $2,000, which is the HIGHEST sales price on record.

In other words, Joanne Smith isn’t the first person to have purchased this property at an insanely low price. She’s merely the latest to have done so. Every party before her eventually cut bait and ran for the hills.

If you add the $850 she will pay in back taxes and cleanup costs, Joanne Smith has $851.75 invested in the property without even addressing the home itself. It stands to reason, based on its photos, the house is in the worst condition of its life. Seriously, look at those photos. A hobo living in a cardboard box would see this house as a lateral move.

Considering it has only once, in 1999, sold for more than the $851.75 price tag Joanne Smith has into it, it stands to reason she cannot simply turn around and sell it for a profit. She’s going to have to put some additional money into the property.

And there’s the catch.

Joanne Smith owns a home in a different state. To sell it for a profit, even at the ridiculously low price she paid for it, she’s going to have to fix it up. If the house isn’t worth fixing, she has to pay someone to bulldoze it down and remove its remains. This will cost her several thousand dollars.

So, there Joanne Smith will be.

She’ll be living in Chicago. She’ll own a small lot of residential property in another state. She will have several thousand of dollars invested into this lot, which is located in a city going through very hard economic times. And she’ll be wanting to sell it — for a profit.

I guess it’s true what they say:

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

There’s no such thing as a free puppy.

There’s no such thing as a (practically) free home on eBay.

Okay, so I made that last one up. But I think it might catch on now.

15 Responses »

1. Angi
   
   October 2nd, 2008 at 2:35 pm:

   Maybe she’s going to turn around and re-list it on Ebay in hopes she’ll get more than $1.75 out of it??? You know - bring in that profit!!

2. kev
   
   October 2nd, 2008 at 2:50 pm:

   @Angi: Oooooh, you might be right. It’s sad, but there might be someone out there just DYING to purchase this home now because it’s become “famous.”

   “i gonna by me that famus house i saw on the internit thingamajig.”

3. Erin
   
   October 2nd, 2008 at 5:20 pm:

   And what about that paint color? It looks like calf scours.

   http://www.highgate-vets.co.uk/farm/newsletters/0502.htm

   Sorry. I know it’s disgusting.

4. Angie
   
   October 2nd, 2008 at 7:37 pm:

   I live just outside of Saginaw (for real), and I’ve seen many houses just like this one (probably even drove by this particular one), some for sale and some not, most boarded up and almost all waiting for an intimate rendezvous with a bulldozer. That’s kind of a steep price for it, $1.75… I’d have asked someone to pay ME to take it off their hands, even living within 20 minutes of this shit pile and able to do the job myself… Scary. Hell, I didn’t even know you could buy houses on eBay.

   Angie’s last blog post: Still Waiting

5. Corrina
   
   October 3rd, 2008 at 6:51 am:

   You can buy HOUSES on eBay? Good grief where have I been?? I only buy cell phones and Spanx. (Angi will know what they are- since I’m sure you don’t. LOL)

   Corrina’s last blog post: My Hotness Is Fierce

6. Angi
   
   October 3rd, 2008 at 2:29 pm:

   Yup, I know what they are.

7. kev
   
   October 3rd, 2008 at 2:34 pm:

   @Erin: Wow, thanks for the joykill, Miss Joykill.

   @Angie: That town has MANY houses like that one? Geesh. I guess the story’s “hard-hit by economic troubles in recent years” description was pretty spot on!

   @Corrina: Yep, yep you can. And I have no idea what Spanx is. No clue.

   @Angi: Um, so tell me already. I don’t want to Google it. Given the name, I’d probably see some not-so-family-friendly search results…

8. Angie
   
   October 3rd, 2008 at 3:25 pm:

   Quite a few, yeah, through different parts of Saginaw and outlying areas. Of course, they don’t all have calf-scours colored paint, and that really makes a difference!!! LOL Saginaw’s actually a pretty good-sized city, so you’d not really be surprised by the number of hovels here. Flint’s worse, but it’s bigger. Maybe you remember Roger and Me…. I haven’t been to Detroit in ages, so heaven only knows how THAT looks. My own house (in rural Saginaw County) was only marginally better, before I started sawing off arms and legs to pay for remodeling, but it’s PURDY now.

   This whole state’s screwed up, ya know. And of course, since we need it the most, it appears the candidates don’t feel the need to campaign here - Obama cuz he knows it’s “in the bag” and McCain cuz of Obama’s “in the baggedness” - and we still end up getting ignored.

   Angie’s last blog post: This is My Point

9. Angi
   
   October 3rd, 2008 at 4:04 pm:

   Here, it’s okay.

10. kev
    
    October 3rd, 2008 at 4:18 pm:

    @Angie: Yes, I remember “Roger and Me.” Are things as bad in Flint now as they were back then??

    @Angi: What are you trying to do to me? I clicked your link and my work’s Internet filter blocked it saying it contained “lingerie/swimsuit/adult material.”

    If I get fired, you’re going to have to support me. I’ll sleep on your kitchen floor.

11. Angi
    
    October 3rd, 2008 at 4:31 pm:

    Ooops…you’ll have to look at it at home. The home page doesn’t show any “lingerie/swimsuit/adult material”. But it does have a logo for the dreaded RR. Don’t let that deter you, though, her photo is not immediately viewable.

12. kev
    
    October 3rd, 2008 at 4:35 pm:

    @Angi: Lingerie? Swimsuits? Adult Material? Rachael Ray?? What on earth is this website about?

    I believe you that there’s nothing wrong with it, but I’m still going to have to keep a cautious eye when I check it from home. If one of those infamous RR photos you told me about appears, I might just die.

    Seriously.

13. Angie
    
    October 3rd, 2008 at 5:53 pm:

    WELLLLLL…. We still have “Granwhore” sitting in Lansing, so yeah, it’s still pretty bad. LOL I rarely go to Flint anymore, since I got a job closer to home, but I worked down there for years. Since Roger & Me, the economic situation in the state has worsened, unemployment through the roof, companies fleeing the state in a mass exodus, and then her and our state legislature diddling with the state income tax and sales tax (that was all in the news late last year, too, and I may have whined and moaned about it some). Of course, all the budget cuts they made were in all the wrong places….

    If you watched Moore’s Columbine flick, also, you will remember his exploitation of the story of the little girl shot in Buell Elementary - not Flint proper but that general area - a few years ago and how he tried to cow Charleton Heston. He’s kind of a user, if you ask me (Moore), manipulating the situation in Flint for his own personal benefit.

    Recently we were driving through Saginaw and Buena Vista and that area, and not just homes but businesses were boarded up, and it’s depressing to see. It’s a grand old city with a grand heritage, and it’s all sitting behind plywood and nails.

    Angie’s last blog post: This is My Point

14. Kirsten
    
    October 3rd, 2008 at 6:21 pm:

    Does the house come with the coke whores and the meth lab?

    Kirsten’s last blog post: I’m Gonna Be Rich! Jealous?

15. Janet
    
    November 5th, 2008 at 4:46 pm:

    I think if the woman knows how to clean up the house it is great. My husband and I bought a house on e-bay and fixed it up for $1400 and we like it. We worked like massive to fix it up but it’s ok now, and we have nice neighbors who helped us out when we first got here. Before this we lived in Paducah ky where my husband went to law school. But the law school is going out of business and he was afraid for awhile that he was going to have to sue them, but it all worked out. Anyway we moved here because he thought that he would have to sue them, but it turned out good for us and we live down the street from this house. These houses can still go up a little in value if you fix them. The house we had had no windows plumbing electric and finished walls but we fixed it all, maybe you think that that is crazy but different strokes for different folkes, it makes that to change the world as they say, if everybody thought the same where would we all be?? And as for the woman who bought the house we drove by when she was looking at it and she did not look very broke to us!!!!

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