An Austrian man who bought a foreclosed home on Detroit’s east side in 2010 to rent it out recently found himself with no tenant and a $6,000 property tax bill.
Owner Andreas Gindelhuber hired real estate agent Larry Else to put the three-bedroom house on the market for $5,000 in June. After a couple of price reductions, there were still no takers at $3,000. So Gindelhuber offered to trade the home for an iPhone 6.
That got the attention of the local Fox News affiliate, which ran a story that helped generate publicity that resulted in a sale to a buyer down the street who reportedly paid less than $1,000, Zillow blogger Emily Heffter reports.
According to public records posted by Zillow, the home sold for $125,000 in 2008, was foreclosed on the following year, and last sold for $10,500 in April 2010.
The website’s “Zestimate” puts the current value of the home at $48,782, and Zillow’s algorithms figure it should rent for $744 a month.
Gindelhuber would have been happy to take an iPhone.
