Rehabbed and Ready Crary-St. Mary's Cottage Asks $49.9K

Built in 1938, this house offered by the Detroit Land Bank in partnership with Quicken Loans and Home Depot has two bedrooms and one bath in a compact 900-square-foot space. Tiny doesn't have to be a limitation—one of the best things about this little home in Crary-St. Mary's is a smart space plan that makes the home feel spacious by making the best use of every square inch. This tiny Tudor has a gorgeous tall chimney, typical of little homes in the Tudor or English cottage style, with a brick facade accented by stone facing. The house is pretty inside, too.

The house has some nice interior features including the original front door with its handsome brass fittings and arts-and-crafts paned windows, a stone-accented original fireplace, and a simply, elegant coffered ceiling. The crown moldings and that ceiling are bright white, and the living room's grey walls set them off perfectly. The kitchen has granite countertops and a nice, large space with two big windows.

The home has a refurbished detached garage and a full basement that would make a great added living space if the new home owner chose to finish it. The bathroom has pretty original tile in mint green, as well as the original enamel tub. There's a graceful arch over that tub, too, and all-new tile floors. The house is charming, although there are definite minuses. The dark carpet installed throughout the home makes the rooms look smaller, and also makes it hard to define spaces in the living/dining space as you might with wood floors and area rugs. The kitchen has all the cabinet space in the world, making the lack of a dishwasher a seriously questionable choice, and the fireplace, while adorable, really needs a mantle, which Home Depot could easily of added.

The Rehabbed and Ready program, a partnership between the Land Bank, Quicken Loans and Home Depot, remodels Land Bank homes and sells them at list prices that are intended to be fair for their areas, but also to improve comps. According to the Land Bank, the program invested over $64K in the renovations, while the ask price is just $49.9K. Not numbers that work in a for-profit model, but good for the new homeowners, even they end up installing a dishwasher or hardwood floors. In 2005, before the subprime housing crisis, this house sold for $92K. We don't know that values in Crary-St. Mary's/Grandmont Rosedale will see numbers like that again any time soon, but with investment like this house's restoration, we can never say never.

·15495 Gilchrist St [Detroit Land Bank]
·15495 Gilchrist [Zillow]
·All Rehabbed and Ready coverage [Curbed Detroit]