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What’s the Deal With This $1 Home in Fort Worth?!
Tarrant County
A Texas man recently hit up his social network with a real estate deal almost too good to be true.
“I will sell you this house for $1,” Wade Barrow wrote. “That is correct. You have to move it. Dirt not included.”
His post drew a range of comments and social shares about the 2,800-square-foot home in Fort Worth, TX, built in 1904 by George W. Greathouse, a brakeman with the Frisco Railroad.
“Kind of on a lark, I thought, ‘I’ll put something on Facebook,’” Barrow said. “Maybe one or two people will reach out, who knows. The whole thing kind of blew up. I know it’s a novel concept, a $1 house.”
The house had been converted into a four-unit apartment building decades ago. Barrow bought the house in 2013 and hoped to turn it into a single-family home, an office, or even a yoga studio. Every other home on the block had already been purchased and demolished by real estate investors.
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“When I saw the others knocked down, I said, ‘They’re not getting this one,’” Barrow said, “I bought it and managed it as best I could to keep the wrecking balls away.”
A developer planning to build a mixed-use development on the block approached Barrow about selling the property. Barrow agreed to sell the property if the developer gave him enough time to find someone to save the house.
Barrow’s Facebook post went up on Nov. 22 and prompted hundreds of responses. Within hours, a representative from the nonprofit organization Historic Fort Worth emerged with a preliminary plan to save the house.
“It’s a really good match,” he said.
Ultimately, the house will cost much more than $1. The buyer will have to get the necessary permits, buy a new property, pour a foundation, physically move the house, and totally renovate the interior. Historic Fort Worth estimates the project could cost $165,000.
A few factors work in the house’s favor and may drive down the cost of the house-moving portion of the equation. The home was built on a simple pier-and-beam foundation and doesn’t have anything surrounding it, making it easier to get large equipment on-site.
Tarrant County
Barrow talked to one structural moving company that said he might have to cut the house in half lengthwise and transport it in two sections, so it doesn’t hit overhead power lines.
Hopefully, the house won’t be moving far. Historic Fort Worth has been hunting for months for a house just like this one to kick off a planned historic neighborhood revitalization project.
Its plan is to buy a foreclosure in the city’s historic Terrell Heights neighborhood, renovate it, and sell it to a preservation-minded buyer for a small profit. The nonprofit would use the money from the sale to buy and renovate another house in the same neighborhood.
The first house will need to be notable, a “jolt in the arm” to kick-start the effort and attract other people interested in renovating homes in the neighborhood, said Justin Newhart, the preservation program director at Historic Fort Worth. The 112-year-old Greathouse home fits the bill. And, of course, the price is right.
“This is an architecturally significant building with a very unique design, especially for a Victorian house from the early 1900s,” Newhart said.
The fixer-upper concept is called a revolving fund, because any profit stays within the program, funding multiple home renovations in a row. Preservation groups are currently running about 65 such programs nationwide.
Justin Newhart
It’s unclear exactly how many historic homes are sold each year for a slim buck. While rare, they do occasionally happen in cities with an aging housing inventory in danger of being demolished. If you have the determination, and the resources, to take on one of these projects, you might want to keep your eye out for the next $1 house that comes on the market.
“The biggest surprise to me was how many people thought this was a noble effort and wanted to help,” Barrow said. “You don’t have to do this by yourself. If you find yourself in that situation, see if you can make a deal to save an old house.”
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