There is a gigantic 3000sqf+ house on my street that was a sorority house in its previous life. Some time ago a woman who fostered disabled children bought it. I suppose an inexpensive 6+ bedroom house with a huge, old gas stove was perfect for her life. More recently, she adopted one of the children and stopped fostering. The house became much too big for the two of them. It was also too expensive to heat and maintain. The house isn't run down, but it is dated. The walls need painting and the floors need work. I know nothing about the electrical or heating systems, but I imagine they're not brand new. About two or three years ago, she refinanced, sided, re-roofed, landscaped, and presumably did some things inside. Then she put the house on the market. When it was first listed it was priced at $399,900. Right now this house is valued at over $500,000 (because of its size), so the price was a good one. I hoped a young, big family, with handy adults would buy it and make it a home. I guess there was very little interest. The house stayed on the market for over two years until she gave up and decided to stop paying the mortgage. The most recent price was $319,000. Earlier this year, got married, moved out, and moved in with her new hubby.
My neighbors and I have been wondering what's going to become of this house. And a few weeks ago signs started popping up that it would be auctioned with a starting bid of $50,000. Like a real, live auction. My brother and I were saying that if either of us were in the least bit handy, $50,000 was pretty cheap for a house currently valued at 10x that. If only. We also found out the the neighbor directly to the south of this house wanted to buy it and tear it down. They were going to turn the empty lot into a garden. I liked that idea too. Their budget was $75,000. We saw lots of other people touring the house. Large families followed by U of MN groups were seen trekking up and down the front and back steps.
The auction was scheduled for today. Potential buyers could either bid online or in person. About 6-8 houses were to be auctioned. I have no idea why they chose this house as the location for the auction, but I was getting psyched to see the fast-talking auctioneer doing his thing. Then I realized I couldn't attend because, what else, I had a doctor's appointment during the auction. But, J returned from his business trip right before it started so he wandered over there to watch the festivities. And, sure enough, two guys in a Texas Cadillac pulled up and auctioned the different houses with all the funny voice prompts and arm movements. The house went for $260,000 (so much for my $50,0000 fixer upper or my neighbor's garden) to someone who is probably a developer or flipper of some sort. He also bought a second house at the auction. Hopefully, he will fix it up and a big family will buy it.
Recent Comments