Originally published at: Cheap Old Houses showcases dwellings for under $100k | Boing Boing
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Likely everyone knows that the $100K fixer upper house will equate to years of work and a very open wallet at all times.
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That’s likely true in California, but this is from all over the country. Some of these houses are in places where the average home cost is around $100k (my own location in Schoharie County NY is one of these). We went house shopping and found that you were pretty hard pressed to find a house without substantial land for more than $150k (I’m originally from NYC, where the 2 bedroom condo I grew up in sold for $475k 5 years ago in a not wonderful location between Rikers and LaGuardia… what a difference 160 miles makes.)
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The one in the middle definitely has poltergeists.
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I checked, it has a basement, and you know what that means…
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We have a nearly 3000 sq ft 4 bed 2 bath passive solar house with a garage, 8 acres of land, and an apple orchard… $171k. So the $100k houses around here are not a mess usually. The ones at $50k are (or they are converted camps not really suitable for year round living). But a friend just bought a perfectly fine house up here that could easily be winterized for $45k.
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All I see looking at those entries (at least the none-rural ones) is “money pit”.
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The thing with instagrams and sites like this is the purpose isn’t to showcase bargains and efficiency, not because they aren’t desirable, but because they don’t photograph well. What you’ll see a lot of in these “cool cheap houses” lists are things that are interesting architecturally (a lot of windows, many gabled/valleyed roofs, porches, etc). You’ll very rarely see a home built after about 1960-70, and many from the turn of the century; “interesting” houses are rarely cheap because of just location or age. Usually there’s a foundation issue at LEAST.
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Click through to the listings, and you can see that some of these houses have, shall we say, issues.
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Consider this my periodic plug for the idea that real estate is fabulously cheap in Cleveland. My house was a 5 digit purchase and while it needed a bit of work, we’re talking pretty standard starter home repairs, not money pit. Sadly my neighborhood has gentrified and houses are going for pentuple that now. You can actually get sound reasonably well maintained homes under 50k in Cleveland, if you are willing to deal with a rough neighborhood and under 150k if you are less flexible on that point. Getting up to coastal median prices equates to living in a palatial manor.
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I’ve always thought there exists a parallel universe where Peter Scolari won an Academy Award, and Tom Hanks did a few seasons of “Newhart”.
Now I know it’s next door to the universe where Tom Hanks was the first-season love interest on “Cheers”.
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I remember seeing a house that sold for under $100k in my general area-- it was pretty far out in the boondocks, it needed a lot of work, the land was all overgrown, and the interior photos showed a sleeping bag on the living room floor and empty cans of food piled up on the kitchen counter.
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I bought a small two bedroom house in Kansas for $29k. It needed the hardwood floors sanded down and repaired in places due to dog damage, and a thorough cleaning and new paint. But otherwise, it’s good. Small, but perfect for a parent with shared custody of a kid, or a young couple just starting out.
Houses like that won’t ever show up on a site like Cheap Old Houses, though. They aren’t sold through realtors - there’s no money in it for the commission.
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That was true in St Louis when I lived there 1988-94. I remember flying back from somewhere else and hearing a guy behind me say in awestruck tones, “In St Louis you can buy a mansion—literally a mansion—for $250,00.”
That was a long time ago; things may have changed.
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Howdy, neighbor! We live right at the edge of the NYC commuter ring (Kingston area) and housing here is insane. I have a few friend who have scored extremely lucky deals, but mostly people are looking at $250k+ for anything even remotely livable. After Covid I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to buy.
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Yeah, you think it’d be cool to live in a deconsecrated church, but it’s really…really…not.
Shit’s consecrated for a reason, yo.
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Oooh sounds delightful
