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Comment by therobot24 | Hacker News Reader

Land grab? Maybe. But at least someone is buying the property. The prices are very low for a reason, very little demand. I believe a renovation plan needs to be in place within 6 months of purchase. I very much doubt it'll happen for all 6000 homes, but will probably happen for at least some portion of them. I really hope the city doesn't twiddle its thumbs following up on these.

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True, sort of. But the contrary point is that they want to discourage e.g. people from New York buying some home for $10k out of pocket, not doing anything with it and hoping to flip it in 20 years, as in any big city a plot like that alone is worth $50-60k. Demand is great, but you really want to get people to actually live there, too.

Haven't heard of any requirements for a plan, can you elaborate? Afaik, you own the plot and can leave it shitty if you want as long as it's not a safety hazard.

> Often buyers are legally required to rehab these homes to bring them up to code. In Detroit, buyers are required to sign Affidavits of Compliance Responsibility, which obligates them to make repairs outlined in an inspection report. Only after that can a certificate of occupancy will be issued, which makes the house legal to live in.

Found this, seems to only apply for a certificate of occupancy (meaning you could let it sit as a long-term investment hoping the rest of the city improves to the extent your property value rises enough to make renovation an easy profit) not sure if it's what you're referring to.

I'll have to find it a bit later, but i remember reading when Duggan announced the auctions that a plan for remodeling/renovation/etc needs to be set within 6 months. The idea being that you can waive back taxes if you plan on actually doing something with the property other than letting it sit, however I can't remember if it only applied to planned occupancy or across the board...

People have tossed the idea of increased property taxes for empty lots around for awhile; Detroit could presumably do that or the higher taxes for unoccupied properties. (In upstate NY, it's quite common to have a discount on your property taxes if your house is your primary residence, which has the effect of charging people from the city with a weekend home higher taxes.)

The main reason this bid is surprising is if no one bought these properties at this county level auction, they would show up cheaper at a city auction.

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