New Kansas City Land Bank sale to offer homes for $999

Last year, the Kansas City Land Bank had a $1 house sale.

This year, it’s got a new promotion to sell homes in somewhat better condition for $999. The Land Bank will offer about 50 homes for that price, beginning with an open house on Valentine’s Day.

These are homes that the Land Bank would normally sell for about $4,000 to $5,000, according to Land Bank Executive Director Ted Anderson.

The promotion uses the hashtag #HeartofKC.

“These #HeartofKC homes are structurally sound and just need a little love, and vision, to bring them back to life,” Anderson said in a statement. He cautioned that these homes will likely need an additional $20,000 to $30,000 in repairs and renovation to be livable.

The sale kicks off with an open house 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 14 at 5111 Wabash Ave. and 5732 Wabash Ave. The sale timeframe is open-ended at this time and does not have a specific end date.

The list of the other $999 homes will be posted on the Land Bank’s website, kcmolandbank.org, beginning the night before the sale. The agency is still evaluating which properties will go on the list, but all will have strong foundations and be repairable. They will be in urban-core neighborhoods including Blue Hills, South Town Fork Creek, Ivanhoe Southeast and Oak Park Southeast.

The Land Bank has control of about 3,900 abandoned, tax-foreclosed properties that have failed to sell on the courthouse steps. Most are vacant lots, but close to 1,000 have homes on them that are blighted and need rehabilitation.

The $1 house promotion last year resulted in about 35 homes sold. Owners are now in the process of renovating them and need to finish the job by later this summer.

People interested in these latest sale properties must complete an application, available on the Land Bank website. They have 120 days to address significant code issues and one year to complete the rehabilitation process.

This story was originally published February 6, 2017 at 1:52 PM with the headline "New Kansas City Land Bank sale to offer homes for $999."