Many cities have recovered, or are well on their way to recovery, from the financial crisis of 2008. Unfortunately, the motor-city of Detroit is still struggling.
Their new call to action is to begin unloading some of the 16,000 vacant homes that they acquired through foreclosing.
They are going to start by auctioning off fifteen of them, one each day, on May 5th. The stipulations are that you must be a Michigan resident or companies with no prior building code or blight violations or tax foreclosures. The opening bid will begin at a mere $1,000. The stipulations behind the low starting price is as follows: winning bidders must quickly rehabilitate the home and have someone living in it within six months or else they will lose their newly purchased house and their money invested in it.
Purchasers will need to have some cash in the bank already since a 10% down payment is required within 72 hours of closing and make a full payment within 60 days if the purchase price is less than $20,000 or within 90 days if it’s more than $20,000.
The final bullet point is that repairs must begin within thirty-days of closing the deal.
Twelve of the fifteen first home to be auctioned are located in the East English Village neighborhood. A 1,400 square-foot, brick Colonial home with three bedrooms and one and half baths, that was built in 1941, is the first property up for grabs. The buyer will have to install a new furnace and water heater before it will be passed suitable for living.
The home can be seen here: Building Detroit
Detroit’s new plan to fix up the neighborhoods could be just what is needed to restore pride and moral to the streets of the motor city.
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