“The agent did say that the buyer agreed to pay the full list price of $1, and planned to pay cash.” http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080813/METRO/808130360 No, this is not from the Onion.
I’ve heard of this. Many times the home needs enough repair which brings it up to parity price level of a normal selling home in the area.
These deals often come with stipulations that the new owner renovate the home in some reasonable amount of time. * goes to look for $1 homes in my city *
welcome to Michigan. Land of 8.5% unemployment for the last couple years.
Yeah I had been reading elsewhere that Michigan was one of the hardest hit places, but I hadn’t seen anything close to this bad. I mean yeah, there are some catches like tax and renovations but still…just shows how desperate the situation is.
Is that Detroit or Beirut? It took 19 days to sell at $1? I like this quote: “The siding was the first to go. Then they took the fence. Then they broke in and took everything else.” What kind of thieves take siding and fence before bothering to break in to the house itself? Where’s Robocop when you need him?
thats pretty crazy regardless…
We can’t close our eyes to the plight of the cities. Kids! Are you noticing all this plight?
heza, you’re my hero. hehe, robocop. someone grew up in the 80s.
I guess that means that the land is worth less than the cost to demolish and remove the house. I guess that’s believable for a small lot.
hezagenius Wrote: > Where’s Robocop when you need him? “I’d buy THAT for a dollar!”
frisian Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > hezagenius Wrote: > > Where’s Robocop when you need him? > > “I’d buy THAT for a dollar!” Yes! Can’t believe I didn’t think of that!
pretty crappy for the property tax base if these areas are really assessed @ $1 / house. Even at 3% thats only a 3 cent tax bill. That’s awesome.
akanska Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > pretty crappy for the property tax base if these > areas are really assessed @ $1 / house. Even at > 3% thats only a 3 cent tax bill. That’s awesome. way to stick it to The Man, detroit housing market. yeah!
Thats the thing, the city cant say the values of the houses are worth $1 or they wouldnt get any tax revenue. My buddy has an idea where he is planning to get a house appraised (they usually come in at 75% of the SEV value) so say maybe $40, 000. Then buy it for $2k, donate it the same day, and get the tax write off. He plans to sell this idea to CPAs that want to save their wealthy clients money. He claims he has talked to tax attorneys, CPAs, and bankers, and that it is legit. Obviously, I’ll be visiting him down in Leavenworth. (thats the federal prison for those of you outside the US)
^^ wow, if thats legit that’s a great idea.
I dont think he talked to an IRS agent. I just dont see how you can equate SEV apprased value as market value for tax purposes. I work in commercial real estate, and no one that I works with thinks this can be legal.
CFAdetroit Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thats the thing, the city cant say the values of > the houses are worth $1 or they wouldnt get any > tax revenue. My buddy has an idea where he is > planning to get a house appraised (they usually > come in at 75% of the SEV value) so say maybe $40, > 000. Then buy it for $2k, donate it the same day, > and get the tax write off. He plans to sell this > idea to CPAs that want to save their wealthy > clients money. He claims he has talked to tax > attorneys, CPAs, and bankers, and that it is > legit. Obviously, I’ll be visiting him down in > Leavenworth. (thats the federal prison for those > of you outside the US) The banks are trying to sell them for $1 and they’re having difficulties but your buddy thinks he can donate it? Aren’t the banks essentially “donating” the properties when they sell them for $1? No one is going to accept a free-but-unlivable house if it comes with property taxes in the thousands of dollars per year.
Seems ponzi-ish to me.
Yeah I brought a point similar to that but he rattled off something about how thats not an issue and they will take the houses…I dont really believe him on that though. Should be interesting when he attempts to start executing on this strategy. Sounds like a scam our mayor would get involved in.