Shaboom! $26,000 house in NW Ohio - Hopefully doing BRRRR

[Chelsea Ziss]

I love reading these, so now that I am in the big (well, minor) leagues, I thought I'd start one too.

On September 8th, I, my husband, father-in-law, and 6 week old son made the trek down to the county court house for the tax delinquent auction with an envelope of cash. I had spent months convincing my husband that this was something we should try. He was all for it, but felt that it was too soon, and that we should wait another couple years before diving in. We came to a compromise - if we didn't get the property I'd had my eye on, we would wait. I was wound tighter than a violin walking into the courthouse; I'm surprised the officers at the entrance didn't frisk me!

We went into the room where they do the auction, and didn't look as out of place as I had originally thought we would - I had attended an auction as research before, but it was a regular foreclosure auction, and there were a bunch of lawyers dressed like what I assume actual adults are supposed to dress like - ties, pants suits, etc. I felt like an imposter. At the tax delinquent auction, almost everyone was dressed like me - jeans and a t shirt. There were however, no other newborns...

The property I was interested in was near the end of the list. It was a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house in a A-/B+ neighboorhood, surrounded by single family homes in a great school district. We know there are major foundation issues, but if we can get it cheap enough it would be worth it.

Halfway through, the baby starting fussing, so my husband took him out. The house I wanted came up, and I made my father in law do the actual bidding - I knew he would sound more confident than me! (He was only there for moral support / living vicariously through us.) We won the bid for 26,000 - about $1000 higher than I wanted to go originally, but I was okay with it. 

My husband came back in to do the paperwork with me. I asked him - "So, how do you feel?" His response? "We weren't supposed to win!" Oops. Haha. He looked simultaneously terrified and elated. We put the $1100 deposit down and left. They said they'd get in touch with us in 30-60 days once everything was done, and then we'd have 30 days to bring in the payment.

Now all we needed to do was come up with $25,000 to buy the house.