Fixer-uppers may get new life through Land Bank program

Home buyers can get rebates for repair work

Written by Matthew Miller
12:26 AM, Jun. 23, 2011 | Lansing State Journal

Homes for sale through the Ingham County Land Bank's Property Rehabilitation and Ownership Program are listed at www.inghamprop.org.

The house at 532 Emily Avenue needs a new subfloor in the bathroom. It needs a new garage roof. By most any standard of aesthetic decency, it needs to have the purple shag carpeting ripped out of the back room.

But, compared to most of the houses that come to the Ingham County Land Bank through the tax foreclosure process, it's in decent shape.

Which is why it's one of the first houses being offered for sale through the land bank's new Property Rehabilitation and Ownership Program.

The idea is to put fixable houses onto the market as is, selling them on land contract terms, but offering credits of up to half the purchase price of the home for repair work and energy efficiency improvements designated at the time the contract is signed.

In many cases, the land bank fixes up or demolishes properties it owns, but right now it owns about 600 of them.

County Treasurer Eric Schertzing, who also heads the land bank, said, "There are so many homes that we needed alternative pathways."

Giving buyers a chance to look over a home and an incentive to improve it, he said, is better than "selling it at auction not knowing what the outcome would be for that home and for the neighborhood."

Buyers would have to agree to live in the homes and to sell them to another owner occupant when they leave.

The land bank is currently listing eight homes. Schertzing said the program would likely grow to include a few dozen.

Walter Flintz has lived next door to 532 Emily for decades.
The last occupant used to complain about a leaking roof, he said. He helped with the patching. But he said it's otherwise solid.
"As far as building it up and selling it, I think that's a great idea," Flintz said. "I love neighbors."