Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2016 · 39 posts · 33 votes
The below article indicates Chicago will be selling vacant lots of land for $1 each to those who qualify, such as living on the same block. Granted, these lots are in some of the rougher areas of the city but I was curious if anyone has dealt with a similar scenario in the past and what sort of opportunity they saw and/or results achieved.
I would argue that a lot of the time the "pennies on the dollar" scenario just ends up being dollars on the dollar. Tax liens, encumbrances, etc. mean that the land value isn't even getting to the actual value.
The 1$ is really just transferring a problem from the state to a private citizen. If you can get these things in bulk I suppose the idea is that you will break even maybe. I would just be nervous to all the liability and liens you would be opening yourself up to.
@Malcolm Douglas I applied last time around and did not get any of them. Maybe the first neighbor over gets them, not sure, however, I can tell you that you are few lots over chances are decreasing to zero! I will say go for it regardless, in case the first neighbor doesn't apply!
Malcolm Douglas I think the next result is that these are hard lots to "pencil-out" for outsiders or to develop. However, if I own the adjacent lot I now can fence in some vacant land and create a massive yard. It's $1, can't imagine there's much in property taxes for a vacant lot, so I could "enhance" the value of the property that I have for minimal cost. Now if there's a structure that you'd have to bring up to code, that could be a very different story.