Gilbert teams up with Home Depot, renovating 65 neighborhood homes

[123456789]

Targeting nicer neighborhoods and doing some nice rehabs is a great idea, but the numbers and details make no sense at all. Something is missing.

"Quicken is donating $5 million toward the effort, and that money will cover any shortfalls between what the Detroit Land Bank spends to rehab the houses and the actual sale prices. If homes sell for more than the cost of repairs, the excess money goes back into the program, said land bank spokesman Craig Fahle."


$5,000,000/65 homes = $76,923 per home.

The first house is on the auction site, with an opening bid of $45,600, and it lists a rehab investment of $60,821, a difference of only $15,221. If it is bid up, the "shortfall" would be even less. Is the $5,000,000 covering something else as well?

I took it as the $5,000,000 was a pool of money that would be continually replenished with proceeds from home sales. This program should be able to continue on past the starting point of 65 homes if they continue to break even on construction costs.