House sells for $1.75

House sells for $1.75
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
THE SAGINAW NEWS

The Saginaw home that hit the housing market at a cut-rate price sold Wednesday for less than the price of a McDonald's value meal.

The abandoned home on 1606 Perkins received eight bids on eBay.com and sold for $1.75.

The high bidder was 30-year-old Joanne Smith of Chicago.

''I am going to try to sell it,'' she said of the house. ''I don't have any plans to move to Saginaw. I don't have any plans of moving from (Chicago).''

Smith moved to the Windy City five years ago from Miami. She has not seen the property and has not visited Saginaw.

Smith will pay additional charges, aside from the dollar and change it cost her to win the auction. Back taxes and a trash/weed cleanup bill will set the final price tag about $850. The fee is due by Tuesday, March 31, or the county will foreclose on the property.

''The people who I bought the house from, they are not giving me any information about it,'' Smith said. ''I know that the property is abandoned and that there are taxes owed on the house, but all I have is their e- mail.''

The Saginaw News could not reach the seller, Southern Investments, for comment. City tax records list an Arizona City, Ariz., post office box address for the owner.

The house has had at least a half-dozen owners since 1999, the Saginaw Area Geographic Information System Authority indicates on its Web site. Carolyn Malone purchased it for $2,000 in April 1999. Other owners include Church on the Rock; Saginaw County treasurer; RNR Investments, which bought it for $400 in December 2006; and Adam Walls, who bought it for $10 in January 2007. Southern Investments paid $26 in January 2008.

''I was trying to go see it, but I am not gonna make a 300-mile trip if I can't go in the house and see inside,'' Smith said. ''It could be haunted or something.'' v