DETROIT – A Detroit man purchased an abandoned home on the city’s west side and fixed it up himself.
Vincent Orr, 29, said he’s always looking for great deals and he said he really scored big when he bought two homes in the same area he grew up in. The two homes were right beside each other and he had to move quickly to purchase them.
He got one for his mother. The other house he got for himself.
“So, I got this house for $2,100. No debt, no mortgage, fixed it up out of pocket,” Orr said.
The price tag for both homes was less than $5,000.
“When you own something and no one can take that from you, that’s a good feeling,” he said.
Orr said both homes needed a lot of work. He showed Local 4 what the homes looked like before he put the effort in to fix them.
“So far, for the house next door, the one I gave to my mother, I end up spending like $40,000 out of pocket, from my own savings,” he said. “On this one I’m up to like $30,000 right now.”
“I had to gut it, basically, you know. Do all of the drywall work, bring all of the mechanicals up to modern times. Because the houses have been vacant for over 10 years, everything had to get retouched. I had to get a roof on, I had to replace all of the windows, doors, all that stuff,” he said.
Orr added a new electrical system. He said he hopes to be complete with his home by Thanksgiving. He wants to host Thanksgiving dinner there.