Woman buys house for $1.75 on eBay
Posted Oct 02 2008, 05:17 PM by Karen Datko Rating: Filed under: investing, housing, spending, Karen Datko
Plenty of news stories point to gloom and doom in the U.S. economy, and "FMF" at Free Money Finance informed his readers about three: Car sales have tanked, bidding for a date with tennis star Maria Sharapova topped out at a mere $10,000, and -- the craziest by far -- a woman bought an old vacant house in Michigan for $1.75.

FMF said in his tongue-in-cheek way, "I knew things were bad in Michigan, but never thought they were this bad."

Joanne Smith, 30, of Chicago made the successful bid for the Saginaw house in an auction on eBay. Reporter Roberto Acosta of The Saginaw News noted that her bid, one of eight, was lower than the cost of a McDonald's value meal.

Smith told The Saginaw News that she's never visited Saginaw and hadn't seen the house, which looks pretty rundown in a photo at MSNBC. A notice on the door says a foreclosure hearing on the property is pending in January.

The house will actually be more expensive. Back taxes and yard cleanup will cost $850, The Associated Press reports. Smith said her plan is to sell it.

__________________
A house divided against itself, cannot stand.
-Abraham Lincoln

wow I wish I had $10,001