Talk about a real steal on Ebay...bet you can't top this

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Posted By: Bruce Dorskind

Bid of $1.75 on eBay gets abandoned Saginaw home


SAGINAW, Mich. - With a winning bid of just $1.75, a Chicago woman has won an auction for an abandoned home in Saginaw.

Joanne Smith, 30, recently was the top bidder for the home during an auction on eBay, The Saginaw News reported. Her bid was one of eight for the home.

"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.

The Saginaw News said it could not reach the seller, Southern Investments LLC, for comment


Maybe she'll find some rare baseball items in the closets or the attic.

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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

This is not the first article I've read about a house in Michigan selling for a dollar, or a hundred dollars. Unfortunately it seems like some areas near Detroit (not sure where Saginaw is) have been hit hard by the economy.

-Al

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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

Here's an article from August about another house that sold for a dollar - in Detroit. It states that some abandoned homes in Detroit sell for $100, and vacant lots sell for $300.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080813/METRO/808130360/&imw=Y

-Al

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Posted By: D. C. Markel

A possible steal indeed unless the house is full of toxic mold - making it a liability rather than an asset.

I find it hard to believe that 7 other bidders would not bid higher than $1.50 for the property.

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Posted By: paulstratton

She got taken. Figure 1K+ for back taxes and cleanup, no way she makes money.

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Posted By: Rob D.

I found a longer version of the article online. It continues:

Smith said she is no stranger to the house-buying game.

"Over the past three months, we have been beaten on a couple other houses in the Saginaw area that were auctioned on eBay," Smith said. "We got tired of being beaten, so we developed an elaborate formula to determine our opponent's strategy and studied his bidding patterns.

"We developed an attack plan which is complex. We have figured out how to circumvent his E Bay Snipe strategy."

Smith subscribes to an aggressive style when bidding on eBay.

"The world is cut throat ... it is kill or be killed ...in politics, in war, on Wall Street and in buying houses," she said. "If one does not have the courage to take the heat, then go off quietly into the sunset."

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Posted By: barrysloate

Rob's post is pretty funny (note he didn't cite where he found this article), but the situation with housing is really sad. I know people close to me who are painfully feeling the effects of the housing bubble.

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Posted By: paulstratton

As Leon would say:

Rob=troublemaker

I bet your teachers used to just love you RD.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

I've been saying for some time that Rob flies way under the radar here with his troublemaking. His latest salvo is brilliant -- but sheer trouble. Clearly, he cannot be stopped; you can only hope to contain him.

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Posted By: Jason L

8 bidders under $1.75?
a Whale could have com in with a $5 bid and raised home values in the neighborhood.

Sounds as though this woman may have just bought a Superfund site.
What other explanation is there?

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Posted By: Jim VB

Ouch!


Officer, I'd like to report a hit and run. That's right. Some guy driving a newspaper truck just ran down the whole group of them!

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Perhaps all you need to know is that no local who's seen the house was willing to offer $1.80 for it.

I've seen houses that I wouldn't take if they paid me $500, knowing it would take at least a couple hundred thousand to fix up the house or raze it and build a new house. All the while I'd be paying the property taxes.

Some houses are so bad or otherwise will inevitably will be replaced, they be worth more if it was just the plot of land. One of the costs will be for razing and removing the house to get to zero. My neighbors had their house razed so they could build a new one, and the razing cost itself was something like $50,000.

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Posted By: boxingcardman

provided they are on contiguous lots. Then I can knock down all of them except one and have a Ponderosa of my own.

Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc

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Posted By: chiprop

As already noted, the reason it sold so cheap, is that no one wants to pay the taxes. Believe me Bruce, you would not want to live or invest there. It was no steal.

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Posted By: D. C. Markel

Here's a link to the story with photos of the house (no steal in my opinion):

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/House-sells-175/ss/events/lf/100108ebayhousesagin>

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Posted By: Anthony S.

Lefty Frizell would have been heart-broken.

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Maybe that's why he's up there in Alaska.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

We appreciate your efforts, whilst the rest of us were working.............

Bravo and touche..............