NE,

Whatever happened to the house that you bought for $500.00? This was the house purchase where you became the king of the low-ball offer. Did you flip the house in 'as-is' condition or do you still have it? If you still have it, are you renting it out ?

I sold it last hanuary for $12,000. Owned it about 6 months. Basically a tear down. The people put a new electric service on it and MOVED IN!!!!!

I sold it as-is. I had a junk man clean the junk out. My brother and I weedwacked what resembled a driveway so people could get onto the land and we also took a few truck loads of firewood out.

What I really liked was the lock box on the door with the busted out glass in the 9-lite that you could reach in and unlock the door for access. That was a nice touch. Along with the dead oppossum on the back porch that I never removed. Haha.

How did you locate the buyer for this house? Did you list it on CL or with an agent on the MLS?

Roy. I've sold such strange garbage before that I'm not scared to purchase certain things. If it's failing structurally I stay away though. Or if it has major water issues combined with failing structure. Because ultimately if I get stuck with them, I have to fix and flip. So that's a determining factor.

Actually the guy that bought it in a way restores a little hope for me. He was a younger guy. He owned his own mobile home in a park and had been saving up $ to pay cash for house. He found this one as a result of a sign in the yard. He's going to fix it up and rent out his mobile home.

I like that.

Have you ever been 'stuck with anything' that you could not sell and/or was not worth fixing?

My biggest fear with severe fixer-uppers is getting stuck with something that will cost more to fix than it will ever be worth. Based on your positive experiences though, there is some truth in the 'greater fool theory'.

Roy

NE is right. People will buy anything IF they think they are getting a deal.

Most my shacks are tax sale places so you can envision. Some are other type buys.

I have this one house (?) that I purchased (4K) with the idea of demolishing it, cleaning the small yard and putting a 5 to 10 vehicle car lot on it. City wouldn’t let me rezone it so I just let it sit. In my estimation not worth putting any money into the building.

A guy comes along about two years ago and offered me 8K for it. OK says I. He paid about 3K and then up and left.

This other couple came along a short while back and wanted to buy it. Sale price 10K. (I am learning from the posters on here - Rise your price). They gave me 1K down and 300 month.

The real kicker. They have on several occasions told me, “THANK YOU FOR GIVING US THE OPPORTUNITY TO OWN OUR OWN PLACE". And this for a place I was going to bulldoze down.

I kept telling people that a change was coming. I took over a small commercial space. Now that I was in a spot where people would see or find me, I imagined the deals would come to me.

My plan was to find that 8,000 dollar house or maybe the 12,000 one.

A couple days back a 30,000 came to me. But I'm not interested in paying "so much" for a place. The plan is working.

I don't know if I can make it down to $500.....but after your post I'll at least keep an open mind to it.

Smoke,

There is no shortage of bargain properties out there. When I run my Handyman Ad, the sellers of these properties are calling me instead of me trying to find them. The house and garage apt that I am working on now was located this way. Seller wanted $45K for it and I got it for $15K. (In hindsight, I could have gotten this property for $10K if I had just quoted that to begin with,...the seller accepted my first offer of $15K,...stupid me).

Roy, I passed on one this summer that would've been a great deal had it not been failing structurally. It was an old farm house on 3 acres here that had gas royalties. I don't invest on the gas royalties and consider them to be icing on the cake.

My plan was to get this house for 10k and resell it for 40k as is or do a full remodel to $115-$120k range.

The issue? The floor joists were failing due to years and years of no ventilation combined with excess moisture in the basement. They had mold hanging off them like stalactites in a cave. I could squeeze them and water would drip out of the wood!!! I've fixed some disasters, but I never saw anything like it. That is one I didn't want to get stuck with.

About 15 years ago the city manager came to my husband & wanted to know if he wanted to buy the old abandoned hospital on Main Street that had been converted into apartments. I don't remember exactly what happened but the property had already been converted into separate living units & then it was like the door was locked. All of the tenants belongings were still in the building. And had been sitting like that for almost 10 years.

The City wanted a $1 for it plus the back taxes. We had less than $500 in it. The city manager dared my husband to buy it, he did & the city manager was ecstatic to get it off his plate.

FYI: Old hospitals should not be turned into apartments. The vibe is just uber-creeptastic. Operating room was in the basement as was the morgue. It just wasn't pleasant.

Fast forward a couple years, I posted an ad up on eBay when we needed some cash for the rehab on the house we live in now. Got 1 nibble who actually paid earnest money to close & never followed thru. Bam.....initial investment re-couped. Posted the ad up again. Got a guy from the east coast that paid $10K for it. And he never did anything with it either. Except try to sell it for $100K.

And it still sits as an eyesore on Main Street. And it's now back on the city manager's plate. And thus started the contentious relationship between the city manager & the Mr.

People will buy anything. It's just how much time you have to get something going & how much money you want. Sometimes you're lucky. Sometimes you're good. Sometimes the money is easy. Sometimes it's a little harder.

How are you finding buyers for these properties? Sign in the yard?

I'm near a OK supply of gutted properties - exterior OK, interior missing.