Low Cost Houses?

[Jaxom22]

I know they're out there. Every so often you'll see a news piece on cheap or free homes. Tried googling sources, but most links look shady or want a membership fee.

I'm talking about empty homes that cities or states actually encourage you to take them over. This isn't about squatting, legally called "adverse possession".

And before anyone gets cute. We're not interested in moving to or living in Detroit!

 

[Denim Deb]

I've seen a few advertised, but they weren't in good locations. In fact the last one I saw advertised, locals said was in the red light district.

 

[mrscoyote]

Check on foreclosures and repo's in your area.

 

[Jaxom22]

I try as best as possible. Most places online are membership based. Same goes for sellers willing to do lease option contracts. I also keep tabs on Home Path for HUD owned properties.

 

[Tuco]

I never heard of adverse possession before. I look for cheap houses on www.zillow.com you can narrow down the search by price range (There's many for $10,000-$20,000, possibly less)

 

[Tuco]

Ha! I just read about "adverse possession", and now I'm even more confused than ever! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_possession

 

[Plantress]

We found a cheap and lovely seasonal house in central NY. It's open from April until November and then the gates get locked. A great way to escape the Maryland heat and you can live pretty frugally up there in the summer!

 

[baymule]

My DH and I just bought a HUD foreclosure. It was half the going price for a similar place. But get ready for months of stress, dealing with HUD is awful. Dealing with a loan company is just as bad.

http://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/call-1-800-com-plain.15782/

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

DH and I found a bank repo on Zillow, back in 2010. We picked it up for cash... it was that cheap.

 

[xoxocammyxoxo]

They are out there, I actually intend on looking into it in a few years to get us started in our first place. Contact counties you'd like to live in and ask for tax foreclosure information. In most counties that means you pay for whatever three years of back taxes are plus their processing/auction fees and the place is yours. I'm sure I don't have to tell you what comes with a foreclosure though with the repairs that may be needed. Most of these houses sit for a long time. The down side is you have to do a lot of research into these places. Most counties will only give you a parcel number and approximate location and an approximate auction starting amount. If they don't sell during the auction the county holds onto them and you can buy them directly from the county, in most cases. All types of properties go to auction. About 10 miles south of me 40 acres went up for sale for $56,000 and it was prime cattle property, just the house was unlivable.