Investment Potential Over the Top

SAY IT ISN'T SO...........................

Man pays $16 to take over $330,000 house


The neighbors are outraged, but the Texas resident says his takeover is legal and will eventually give him title to the suburban Dallas home.

Posted by Teresa at MSN Real Estate on Monday, July 18, 2011 1:59 PM

We all dream of scoring a great deal on a house.
But a $330,000 house for $16?

Want a mansion? Just take one

Kenneth Robinson of the Dallas suburb of Flower Mound, Texas, says he sealed just such a deal, taking over a vacant house by simply moving in and paying $16 to file documents with the court claiming ownership.

"This is not a normal process, but it is not a process that is not known," he told WFAA-TV in Dallas. "It's just not known to everybody."

Robinson said he invested months in research to find the house. The property had been in foreclosure for more than a year, and the owner walked away. In the meantime, the lender that held the mortgage went out of business.

To squat or not: Can you take over the abandoned home next door?

Robinson says he can take legal title to the house after he lives there for three years through a provision in the law called "adverse possession." Exactly how that works varies state to state.