A real-estate listing in Michigan went viral for its $1 price tag — the agent expects the rundown house to sell for closer to $40,000

Fri, 08/18/2023 - 05:18

The kitchen of the $1 house in Michigan. The paint is peeling from the walls and the floor is covered in a layer of grime. — The $1 house is clearly a fixer-upper: The paint is peeling from the walls and the floor is covered in a layer of grime.
Chris Hubel/Good Company

A two-bedroom home in Pontiac, Michigan, is being listed on the market for just $1.
The property was built in 1956 and has been vacant for some years, listing agent Chris Hubel said.
Though the home needs serious renovation, Hubel says that there's "money to be made in it for sure."

A two-bedroom property in Pontiac, Michigan, was just listed on the market for $1 — and it's a real fixer-upper.

A house in Pontiac, Michigan. The exterior looks weather-worn and dirty, while the front lawn is covered in overgrown plants. — The $1 house in Pontiac, Michigan, has a worn exterior. The front lawn is covered in overgrown plants.
Chris Hubel/Good Company

The 724-square-foot property was listed for sale on Tuesday, and the listing agent, Chris Hubel, says he's already been inundated with calls.

"As far as response goes, I've had hundreds of phone calls, hundreds of texts, hundreds of emails," Hubel told Insider. "My phone will not stop ringing."

The listing describes the Pontiac house as the "World's Cheapest Home," and it certainly looks the part: The floors are scratched up and paint is peeling off the walls.

One of the rooms in the home. Like the rest of the house's interiors, paint is peeling off the walls. — The room at the front of the house.
Chris Hubel/Good Company

The property was originally constructed in 1956 and has been owned by the same woman for almost 20 years, Hubel said.

"My client owned it for probably the better part of two decades. She owns a lot of properties throughout Pontiac, most of them she has tenants in," he said. "She's owned this since, I believe, 2004."

The current owner purchased the property in April 2004 for $32,400, per the property listing history.

The house is mostly empty, save for a few worn cabinets and fixtures. A layer of dust and grime covers the floors in the kitchen.

According to the property listing history, the current owner tried to sell the home in 2011 for $10,000, but was unsuccessful.

This is the first time since then that the house is back on the market, Hubel said.

"She wasn't able to sell it at that time, you know, that was when the market was still trying to recover from the crash. And then she rented it out after that," he added.

However, Hubel says that the property has been sitting vacant for the past few years.

There's one bathroom in the house. It comes with a bathtub, a sink, and a toilet. — The only bathroom in the house.
Chris Hubel/Good Company

"This is one that tenants moved out of a handful of years ago, and she's always had intentions on remodeling it," Hubel said. "But now she's gotten to a point in her life where she's just not necessarily wanting to or able to remodel the homes, so she finally decided she wanted to list this one."

Hubel says that he's been wanting to list a house for a dollar for a couple of years now, and he's glad he's finally able to do it.

There's a hole in the floor, next to the furnace. — There's a literal hole in the floor.
Chris Hubel/Good Company

"I've had the idea of listing a house for a dollar for a couple of years, and really you have to have that bond with a client for them to trust you to do something like that," Hubel said.

"I've sold quite a few houses for her. So when she told me about this one, I asked her, if she was willing to do this, and she was all for it, so we went ahead and did it," he added.

Hubel's marketing tactic paid off: According to the data on the Zillow listing, the house has already racked up over 90,000 views so far.

One of the rooms in the house looks like it's missing a layer of interior plaster .
Chris Hubel/Good Company

It's also been picked up by the popular Twitter account Zillow Gone Wild.

"I've had a couple of listings that went viral like this in the past, with other viral marketing campaigns, so it's very similar to kind of the response that I've had with those as well," Hubel said.

In 2019, one of Hubel's condo listings in Birmingham made waves for featuring a tattooed woman in a Mrs. Claus costume, local Detroit news station Click On Detroit reported.

Although the house needs extensive renovation work, Hubel says that "it's got money to be made in it for sure."

One of the backrooms in the house.
Chris Hubel/Good Company

The fixer-upper would appeal to both DIY fans as well as investors looking to flip the property for a profit, he said.

"For somebody that's doing the work themselves, I would say you could probably do it for about $25,000," Hubel added. "For somebody that's hiring contractors, you're probably looking at $40,000 to $45,000."

After renovations though, Hubel expects the price of the property to be worth about $120,000.

Houses in Pontiac have a median listing home price of $144,700, per data from real-estate platform Realtor.com. There are currently 153 single-family homes for sale in Pontiac, and this $1 home is the cheapest listing in the area.

Despite the home being listed on the market for $1, it's not actually going to be sold at that price, Hubel said.

An alternate view of the $1 home.
Chris Hubel/Good Company

"I've had a lot of people who are just thinking that they're actually going to buy it for a dollar. And then any investor obviously realizes that the whole idea is that we take offers on it and we go with the highest offer," Hubel said.

Right now, Hubel is fielding as many offers as he can until the deadline on August 23.

"I'm expecting it'll probably sell around $40,000 to $50,000," he added.

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A real-estate listing in Michigan went viral for its $1 price tag — the agent e…