$1 homes...seriously whats the catch?

[JOHN MATRIX]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090309/ap_on_bi_ge/landlord_nation

all this talk of houses in Detroit selling for well under 10K-including many UNDER ONE DOLLAR- have me pretty puzzled, its one thing for home values to drop but a house for a fucking dollar? regardless of how dilapidated the house is you are still getting an amount of LAND in, a major american city, there are supposedly people buying 100 properties all around the city.

think about it, according to this people are able to buy probably a dozen acres worth of land if not more for literally almost nothing, i dont get it there has to be a catch to this.

[240 is Back]

maybe they have a ton of taxes/liens tied to them?  Or in the case of Lee County, FL - they are selling HOMES for 45k - we're talking 2500 foot 4 BR/2bath homes - because there is an $85,000 water department bill that comes with every property in a certain area.

your neighbors are selling because they can't afford it.  You can automatically finance it - a $400 monthly bill to pay for city water you didn't ask for.

So there may be that kinda stuff tied to it - utility requirements.

[Dos Equis]

Great investment opportunities. 

[SAMSON123]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090309/ap_on_bi_ge/landlord_nation

all this talk of houses in Detroit selling for well under 10K-including many UNDER ONE DOLLAR- have me pretty puzzled, its one thing for home values to drop but a house for a fucking dollar? regardless of how dilapidated the house is you are still getting an amount of LAND in, a major american city, there are supposedly people buying 100 properties all around the city.

think about it, according to this people are able to buy probably a dozen acres worth of land if not more for literally almost nothing, i dont get it there has to be a catch to this.

THe catch is there are no jobs in Detroit, the auo industry which supports the whole cioty is about to go under, the city is looking to dump the houses for the sake of collecting taxes on property from new owners, not to mention as another poster said...there can be ridiculous liens and fines against the properties that will become YOURS if you buy the house.

[LurkerNoMore]

In auctions here is South Florida they advertise something like :

Home XXXXXXXX (auction #)
Appraised at $400,000 on xx/xx/xx (date)
Starting bid $2000

What they don't advertise is that sometimes the reserve on it is something like $360,000.
Or winning bid must be a cash sale only.
Or you have to finance with a certain bank and the loan will be adjusted "according to market value" which could leave you holding the bag big time should it soar back up.  
Sometimes they trap you with a contract of not reselling the property for XXX amount of time (which can help trap you if you get hit by an adjustable loan).
Or you are responsible for all "closing costs" incurred by the bank because it went into foreclosure.  These can be legal costs it took to evict the previous people, cost of repairs, unpaid bills.

When it seems too good to be true, it generally is.  You should go just out of curiousity and see what the catch to the whole thing is.  Report back.  It would be interesting to see how these people are getting their money out of such a cheap sale.

[JOHN MATRIX]

ok that sounds more like it. its all just a ruse to snag some poor bastard then make him responsible for tens of thousands of unpaid fees and taxes. hahaha the american way

[Hereford]

In auctions here is South Florida they advertise something like :

Home XXXXXXXX (auction #)
Appraised at $400,000 on xx/xx/xx (date)
Starting bid $2000

What they don't advertise is that sometimes the reserve on it is something like $360,000.
Or winning bid must be a cash sale only.
Or you have to finance with a certain bank and the loan will be adjusted "according to market value" which could leave you holding the bag big time should it soar back up.  
Sometimes they trap you with a contract of not reselling the property for XXX amount of time (which can help trap you if you get hit by an adjustable loan).
Or you are responsible for all "closing costs" incurred by the bank because it went into foreclosure.  These can be legal costs it took to evict the previous people, cost of repairs, unpaid bills.

When it seems too good to be true, it generally is.  You should go just out of curiousity and see what the catch to the whole thing is.  Report back.  It would be interesting to see how these people are getting their money out of such a cheap sale.

Good post. Here people don't realize that properties could have tens of thousands of back taxes owed, that the gvt will put onto the new owners.

'Closing costs' are a conveinent way for sellers and banks to jack up fees and profits with frivilous costs. My lender included $50 fee to send a couple emails.

I am surprised that in this day and age anyone would still get into an APR. Of course the banks are going to crank up the APR on you, why would you think anything different would happen?