Kildee Seeks Funds for Demolitions

 

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, who was instrumental in creating land banks in Michigan, has introduced legislation that would free up $1 billion in federal funds to demolish abandoned property in Michigan and several other states. Todd Spangler of The Detroit Free Press reports:

Kildee's legislation, which he plans to introduce today, would give the 18 states and Washington, D.C., that were promised funding under a foreclosure mitigation program the ability to spend up to 25% of that money on demolitions. Under the original interpretation of the program, which dates to 2010, the $7.6 billion in funding could not be used for razing buildings.

The legislation, which Kildee is sponsoring along with Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Dayton, Ohio, wouldn't change any of the existing allocations or spend more, it would only give states the flexibility to move up to 25% of their total awards into demolitions if they chose. The original program was intended to target programs that helped homeowners pay back taxes, make mortgage payments, or otherwise avoid foreclosures.

Kildee and his approach to "shrinking cities" like Flint and Detroit is profiled extensively in Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City by Gordon Young. The book is forthcoming from the University of California Press in June.

Flint Photos: Interior of House on Dayton Street

Flint Photos: A Block of W. Dayton Avenue

All the houses on a single block of W. Dayton Street between Proctor and Lawndale Avenues in Civic Park.

The Contradictions of Civic Park

Two Civic Park classics — one on its last legs and another looking just fine — sit side by side on Delmar Street, which is all but deserted now.

More Photos by Austin McLogan

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The Real Estate School of Writing

1610 W. Jackson Avenue hanging tough, despite it all.

It takes a special talent to create compelling real estate copy. The highly specialized genre requires the writer to seamlessly mix legally required disclosures about a property's flaws with ebullient and frequently exaggerated claims that quickly forge an emotional connection with potential buyers. It's kind of like writing a profile for an online dating service — not that I'd know anything about that — except you have to mention things like plumbing and delinquent property taxes. Like satire and clever limericks, it's not easy to pull off. Especially when it comes to Flint.

Take this eBay offering — "Charming 2 BR House in Flint MI, Good Area for family" — for a classic Civic Park home at 1610 W. Jackson Avenue.(Disclosure: I once hauled ass through the backyard of this house approximately 35 years ago after an unfortunate misunderstanding involving snowballs and a motorist who clearly didn't have a sense of humor.) Let's set aside the obvious big-picture discussion of whether Flint, in its present state, is indeed a "good area" for families and get right into some of the classic elements of real estate writing skillfully employed in this listing.

Bad News First: Some things are simply impossible to nuance, and it's best to just get it over with: "Unfortunately, thieves have entered the property and taken the furnace, hot water service, kitchen sink, and fittings."

Turn That Frown Upside Down: But it's always best to quickly counter this potentially negative information with something positive: "Luckily the property has poly water pipes and they are still all there. The ducting for the furnace is still in place, and the only damage done to the property is to the door knob and door jamb of the side door, minor damage to the bathroom wall and mud trampled over the carpets. The front, side and rear doors are all new aluminum clad security doors and all have been secured. The carpets, although soiled, are still in excellent condition and will clean up well. The house is currently winterized." (Note: This may be one of the rare instances when the use of cheapo polybutylene plumbing paid off; if the owner had used copper, it would be long gone by now.)

Get Inside Their Head: Anticipate potential buyers questions and concerns and reassure them. For example, people might be wondering why the seller is willing to part with this fantastic property for under $2,000 on eBay: "I cannot undertake repairs as I live too far away. This is the ONLY reason I’m selling it." Note the use of ALL CAPS for emphasis, which enhances the believability of the claim. It also distracts the customer from asking the obvious question: Why do you live so far away from Flint if the city is as wonderful as you claim?

Aspirational Thinking: Prompt the potential buyer to start imagining the fun projects they could undertake once they own the property. "Don’t be put off by the external color of the house. It’s only a coat of paint from being stunning."

Get Back to Nature: Take advantage of natural attributes that have an emotional appeal and are difficult to steal while hinting at the long-term potential of the property: "There is a large shade tree in the back yard and room for a garage."

Avoid Too Much Information: Finally, real estate writers know that while they shouldn't actively deceive, there's no law that says you have to provide every piece of pertinent information: "The home's location provides convenient access to schools, parks and churches. Civic Park elementary school is just a block from the home, and there are 7 schools all within a mile of the home...For golfers, Mott Park Municipal Golf Course is less than 2 miles away." In other words, there's no need to reveal that some of those schools, including Civic Park, are no longer open. And duffers will just have to find out for themselves that Mott Golf Course has fallen victim to budget cuts, although it's still a great spot to practice shots from very deep rough. Keep in mind the copy never claims these facilities are open, only that they exist.

With less than two days before the auction closes, the house has 36 bids. The current high bid is $1,336.

The Doors of Perception in Flint

It was bad enough when the house next door to Matt Schlinker on Kensington was abandoned after a foreclosure, but it was even worse when the lender decided to board up the front door. Not exactly what you expect to see off East Court. So Schlinker got creative with some spray paint and stencils to create the illusion of a door. And this story has a happy ending; the house is now occupied.

Vegas Keeps Building Despite Empty Homes

While Flint searches for cash to tear down vacant houses, Las Vegas is gambling on what appears to be a long-shot bet to combat the foreclosure crisis.

David Streitfeld of The New York Times reports:

Home prices in Las Vegas are down by 60 percent from 2006 in one of the steepest descents in modern times. There are 9,517 spanking new houses sitting empty. An additional 5,600 homes were repossessed by lenders in the first three months of this year and could soon be for sale.

Yet builders here are putting up 1,100 homes, and they are frantically buying lots for even more.

Las Vegas is trying to recover by building what it does not need. It is an unlikely pattern being repeated in many of the areas where the housing crash was most severe.

The Sofas of San Francisco

Flint has its abandoned houses. San Francisco has its abandoned couches.

Flint Real Estate: Four for One

1042 Downey Avenue

Ebay is not a comforting place if you're looking for hopeful signs in the Flint-area real estate market. Here are four houses listed as a group. The opening bid is $4,000 and there are currently no takers. Taxes are approximately $1,375 per year for all four houses combined

1092 Kurtz Avenue

3027 Roanoke Street

1468 Tremont Avenue

UPDATE: Here's a group of eight houses up for auction by the same eBay seller.

Winter Scenes

The Welcome to Beautiful Flint blog has a new batch of winter photos.

Shrinking Flint: Federal Money to Get Smaller

We've been wondering where the federal money is to tear down abandoned houses in Flint. Well, it's on the way.

Cathy Shafran at WJRT ABC 12 reports:

"The city and the county both learned this week they'll each be getting about $1.2 million in federal stimulus money for demolition.

That $2.4 million will take care of about 300 of the 5,000 abandoned homes in the community.

That money, combined with another potential $15 million that the county has applied for, has the head of the land bank pushing harder than ever for the community to come up with a master plan on how to spend it.

"As the federal money comes in, we need to make sure we're making the best use of that money and not just throwing it at the wall and tearing down houses here and there or creating community gardens where it makes sense at the moment," said the Genesee County Land Bank's Dan Kildee.

Before you get too exited, let's work out the numbers. If it costs about $8,000 to tear down a house, and the city and county get $17.4 million, that works out to about 2,175 houses disappearing if all the money goes to demolition. So even in a best-case scenario — if that's the right term for this process — that still leaves 2,825 vacant houses in Flint. But that's better than 5,000, right?

The two candidates for mayor — Brenda Clack and Dayne Walling — differ on the issue of shrinking Flint, although both acknowledge city will be getting smaller.

Thanks to J.L. for passing this news along.

Tearing Down Flint on Fox Part II

Thanks to Randy Gearhart, again, for the video.

Tearing Down Flint on Fox

Thanks to Randy Gearhart for passing this along.