Buying a House for Four Figures

If you have been reading this blog long then you probably already know that I am interested in the subject of cheap housing. Thus this Money magazine article about a $6900 home in Detroit caught my attention. The article describes the availability of cheap houses in Detroit and gives tips on how to find a good deal.

Detroit isn’t the only place you can find houses for four figures though. With a little searching I was able to find plenty of cheap houses here in Kansas City as well. A quick browse through the listings shows that none of the houses are in neighborhoods that I would want to live in. That isn’t too surprising considering the price. From just looking at the listings it isn’t easy to tell how much work would need to be done on the houses either although some are in obvious states of disrepair. I suppose these could make decent rental houses but I suspect it would be difficult to find quality tenants in these neighborhoods. I am going to pass on buying any four figure houses here in Kansas City.

Buying a cheap house in small town Missouri is still a possibility. I’ve never seen a house as cheap as four figures there other than mobile homes. The small town seems like a better option to me though because the worst neighborhood still isn’t too bad. I actually looked at some property earlier this month but decided to pass on it due to the extremely junky neighbors. I’m still looking and I’m hoping I will eventually find a place that I like.

On a side note my mom happened to find out that the buyer of the $15,000 small house I wanted to buy is an acquaintance of hers. He did very little work to the house and promptly rented it out. I don’t know what he is renting the house for but considering the extremely low purchase price I have to assume it is making a nice bit of cash flow each month. If only I would have found the house earlier it could have been me making that money. Oh well, I will get mine soon.

1 thought on “Buying a House for Four Figures”

  1. Don’t give up as there will be many opportunities to come. Many banks are either holding foreclosures or deferring the foreclosure process because of the glut of homes out there. Unfortunately, my mom lost her house… or will be losing it. She actually moved out in March 2008 after getting behind several payments. Here it is November 2009 and it still hasn’t officially been foreclosed on.

    My best find thus far was a HUD foreclosure. It was a 2/1 condo in a middle class neighborhood built in the mid 80s. I paid $18,500 for it and invested a little over $3,000 in improvements. So $21,500 or so is my basis. I’m renting it out for $575 per month.

    I would recommend you find out which company in KC handles HUD foreclosures if you don’t already know. I’ve purchased three homes through their auction process and have been quite happy.

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