An $85,000 Wreck of a House for Sale in Elkhart

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 5:40AM EST · Published Jul 16, 8:55AM EDT

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An $85,000 Wreck of a House for Sale in Elkhart — © Thinkstock

There is a house for sale in Elkhart, Illinois, that could be either fixed up or torn down. Based on the state of 750 500th Ave., it is a coin toss. At stake, the $84,900 purchase price.

First, a potential buyer would have to sort out how big or small the house really is. This listing says either two baths or two and a half baths. The sellers agree that it has five bedrooms and 3,000 square feet, and that it sits on 3.9 acres.

The house is only available for cash, and only to the intrepid.

A few choice parts of the listing:

Situated down a long lane just outside of Elkhart, Illinois, you will find this expansive 5 bedroom, 2.5 bath three story Victorian home situated on 3.90 acres — in need of significant repairs — could sure be a stately rural home to truly be proud of for years to come!

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How bad could it be? The listing points out:

Private well/septic system to be believed to be on premises but are not warranted. No propane tank on premises currently. Mold is evident in property — USE EXTREME CAUTION WHEN SHOWING/VISITING! Seller will consider CASH offers ONLY. Seller will NOT prorate taxes and/or pay for any seller associated closing costs. Approximate square footage is estimated.

In other words, it may be hard to get an agent to even show it.

Elkhart has a population of 443 people, so an owner would have few neighbors.

For the courageous, the rest of the listing:

Main floor features a large living room with pocket doors, a generous formal dining room with hardwood flooring, antique fireplace, and an additional set of pocket doors, quaint family room area, beautiful kitchen/dining concept with tile flooring, breakfast bar, tile backsplash, ample room for an additional table and chairs, and a neat multi-layered trey ceiling, 22X13 sunken rear den/game room area separated by a set of French doors from the kitchen, large laundry room, full hall bath, and a great side entry/mudroom. Second floor of home features four bedrooms — one is totally separate from the rest and can be found down a rear hall — in addition to a full hall bath with tile flooring. Up another flight of stairs you will find a fifth bedroom featuring great floor space, oversized closet, and a quaint half bath. Property also features a large basement, vinyl sided exterior, wrap around front/side porch, side patio, side deck, as well as two furnaces/two central air units — one for each floor. Three neat older barn structures on premises in addition to an older storage shed.

Live in the shed. It is less expensive.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.