You Could Buy A House For $150

Do you want to be a homeowner? Well, it might be easier than you suspected! A house in Houston is currently for sale for only $150. As in, you could buy a house for roughly the same price as a high end juicer. Not a bad deal, right?

In order to decide who gets the house, the current owners are having applicants to write a 200 word essay on why they should be the ones to buy it. 200 words isn't very much to try to write — this article, for instance, is more than twice that. But there is one small catch: In order to apply, you have to pay your $150 up front. This application fee is also nonrefundable (unless the couple in question doesn't find a buyer through this method, in which case they'll return everyone's money), so if you aren't the lucky person selected, you could have just bought yourself that juicer instead.

Still, if you're willing to risk your hard-earned cash, it could pay off big time. According to the website the current owners have set up, houses of roughly the same size in this Houston neighborhood usually go for anywhere from $265,000 to $550,000. The owners list the house as appraised at $394,000. So though the odds are long, the potential rewards are huge.

The house measures 1,056 square feet and has two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a two-car garage. The full lot is 5,300 square feet. The kitchen appliances were all replaced in 2013, and the couple did some bathroom renovations last year, as well. They also say it's in a great neighborhood. So why sell the house this way?

"We recently saw a bed and breakfast in Maine being sold in similar fashion and thought it was a good idea," they explain on the website. "This would be a way for a person to update a house and not be saddled with a large mortgage. We thought it was interesting enough to try!"

And it does make sense. Depending on how many people pay the $150 application fee, they could really wind up making a lot of money this way. In order to earn the full appraisal, they would have to get 2,626 applications; however, the prospect of buying a house for only $150 might be enough to bring in even more than that. (Though that's also a lot of essays to read.)

So if you live in Houston or are thinking of moving there, and you're looking for house, you should definitely check this out. In fact, you might want to check it out even if you aren't from Houston. Because, hey, you never know, right?

The couple are accepting applications until June 13th. You can apply through their website here.

Image: Giphy