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Double Your Pleasure! Two Homes Are on the Block in Oakland

The San Francisco Bay Area isn’t known for bargain-basement housing deals. But once in a while, there’s a jaw-dropping offer too good to be true—or ignored. Behold the $1 houses in Oakland, CA.

Let us explain. The two older homes up for grabs sit on a site now owned by a development company that will be building an apartment complex in their place. So for a buck each, they can be yours—but you’ll have to transport them to a new location.

The houses have no historic designation, although the one pictured below is from the 1800s and the other is from the early 1900s, according to Betty Marvin, historic preservation planner for the City of Oakland.

“One of the requirements [for development] is a good-faith effort to get these houses moved,” says Marvin. If no one steps forward with a credible proposal to buy and remove the homes from the site, then the structures will be razed to make way for new construction.

Marvin says that while the houses are available essentially for free, the offer comes with a logistical headache and costs which exceed the skinny dollar bill a buyer would pay for each building.

There’s the cost of removing the homes from their foundation and transporting them to another site. A buyer would need to find a company that knows how to move an entire house, in addition to obtaining permits to move power lines and utilities away from the path of the houses in transport. Also, a police escort will be needed to manage traffic.

Have we mentioned the cost of a new foundation and the purchase of land? You’ll need those items, too.

“It’s probably in the same ballpark to buy a generic new house. The difference is you’ve got an 1886 very interesting house as opposed to your basic [home],” Marvin says.

Marvin notes that Oakland has successfully done this before (see video below), so there’s no reason to think it can’t happen again.

“It takes somebody with a lot of energy, focus, resources, and experience,” she says. “You have to have hope.”

Despite it being a costly and seemingly impossible dream, Paul Gryfakis, vice president of Lowe Enterprises, says, “We’re working hard to make it happen.

“We have several people interested between the two homes who have legit means of moving them, and we’re working with them the best we can to make it happen,” he adds.

The post Double Your Pleasure! Two $1 Homes Are on the Block in Oakland appeared first on Real Estate News & Advice | realtor.com®.

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