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A $110.00 home in Detroit. Too much?

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FelixDeKat said:
http://www.trulia.com/foreclosure/3059649055--Whithorn-St-Detroit-MI-48205

1



List Price $110
Bedrooms:3
Bathrooms:1
Property type:
Size:1080 sqft
Year built:1925
Click to expand...

All of those have taxes and utils bills that need to be back-paid. $110 for the house, $thousands for water and property taxes to DTE/city of Detriot
 
halik said:
All of those have taxes and utils bills that need to be back-paid. $110 for the house, $thousands for water and property taxes to DTE/city of Detriot
Click to expand...

Didn't think about that. Doesn't make the scrap metal/wood/etc idea sound workable 😛
 
It would cost 100x to tear it down than the asking price. It's built in 1925, probably full of asbestos and lead paint. You'd have to have a licensed remover take all that shit out first.
 
uli2000 said:
It would cost 100x to tear it down than the asking price. It's built in 1925, probably full of asbestos and lead paint. You'd have to have a licensed remover take all that shit out first.
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That's what SHOULD be done. But in that neighbourhood? I don't think anyone would notice if the house was just there one day, gone the next. 😉
 
0roo0roo said:
Depends if any copper piping is left😛
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Yeah I suppose people could have stolen that lol. Thing is even if none of it was stolen and assuming there is lots of copper piping would it be worth enough to pay off the debts on the property that halik mentions?
 
Are they actually $110? If I gave the people $110, is it now mine forever?

If so, why doesn't someone just buy up a whole neighborhood and then tear it all down
 
TridenT said:
Are they actually $110? If I gave the people $110, is it now mine forever?

If so, why doesn't someone just buy up a whole neighborhood and then tear it all down
Click to expand...

Yes it is $110 but as pointed out above there are probably lots of unpaid fees on each of these properties. And the reason it's $110 is it's in one of those neighbourhoods you just don't walk into without a bullet/stab proof vest. Sure you could buy up the whole neighbourhood but that isn't going to change things in and of itself. You've got to invest a shit load of money to develop the whole neighbourhood into something nice. THEN you would have to spend a lot of money on advertising to get people to buy into what used to be one of the worst neighbourhoods in all of North America to live in. Doesn't mater what you say you've done with the place, people don't convince that easily about these kinds of things. Why would any developer take a HUGE risk like that when they could spend the same amount of money developing something much smaller for less money (Because you really would have to buy up the a shit load of land to make any difference there) with little to no risk?
 
MagnusTheBrewer said:
It's Detroit. The government has literally abandoned it. Some Chinese corporation will probably buy the entire city and make it their headquarters. They'll hire everyone as personal aides and pay them a dollar a day.
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no no, you got the plot all wrong. It's an American corporation that wants to buy up the city and then build a planned city in its place. They create a cyborg cop to help clean up the streets.
 
Locut0s said:
Here's the thing. At $110 I bet you you could buy that up and turn a profit by selling the scrap metal and whatever other raw materials you might be able to pull out of there.

Also another thing that's astounding isn't that the house is being sold for $110 but that the entire property is. You see lots of horrible looking houses being sold for a SHIT load more than they are worth because of the property values in the area. That means that the property isn't even worth 100 bucks!
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Have a coworker with a house in Detroit. Long story short, she stoppped making payments. Bank won't forclose becuase the house wouldn't bring in enough to cover the cost of forclosure. If she can ever sell it the bank will take the money and call it a day.
 
If I had some money I'd buy up large chunks of land in Detroit and demolish all the buildings.
Sit on them as long as the government allows me. One day it will be worth a hundred times what you paid for it.
 
I had some friends who saw some show on PBS and thought it would be a fantastic idea to move to Detroit and become urban pioneers. They actually made a road trip from Colorado to check it out. I'm not going to bore you with the details, but basically the thought of having to drive out to the suburbs to work and buy groceries and wondering if your house would be burglarized scared them off.
 
TridenT said:
Are they actually $110? If I gave the people $110, is it now mine forever?

If so, why doesn't someone just buy up a whole neighborhood and then tear it all down
Click to expand...

Mentioned before, likely because you would be assuming all the liens on the house which are likely in the 10's if not 100's of thousands of dollars.
 
halik said:
All of those have taxes and utils bills that need to be back-paid. $110 for the house, $thousands for water and property taxes to DTE/city of Detriot
Click to expand...
I can pretty much guarantee that DTE will never collect a dime on what's owed from that house.

As for the general Detroit discussion, the local government will never accomplish anything to improve the city. Any changes for the better will be solely based on the business leaders that still have faith in the city. Lots of respect for guys like Dan Gilbert, who just moved 2,000 more Quicken employees downtown (not enjoying the traffic, though). Programs like Live Downtown (Quicken, BCBSM, DTE, Compuware, Strategic Staffing) are a start. Change is slow. The city is getting a Whole Foods in Midtown in 2013, which I realize sounds like nothing to most of you, but that's a huge deal for the city.

Gentrification is happening. It's just not moving as fast as everyone would like.
 
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