Howell schools tries to sell barn on eBay, get $15 offer

ap ^ | 11-7-04

[Dan from Michigan]

Howell schools tries to sell barn on eBay, get $15 offer
12/7/2004, 7:21 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — The Howell Public Schools have a large red barn on the site of a planned high school and want to sell it. So officials listed it on eBay and got a top bid of $15.50.

The 75-year-old dairy barn is in Livingston County's Marion Township.

The district first contacted barn restorers and preservationists but failed to find someone willing to take the barn. Bidding started at $1 and ended Monday.

School officials said they also have received several recent phone inquiries about the barn. It will take about a week to determine whether anyone will qualify to buy it, Richard Terres, Howell's associate superintendent for business, told the Detroit Free Press.

A qualified buyer must be able to post a $50,000 performance bond and have $2 million in liability insurance. Bidders who want to preserve the barn, whether by moving it to a new site or using the lumber for construction, will be given an edge, Terres said.

Demolishing and moving the barn is expected to cost thousands of dollars.

The 36-by-100-foot, two-story barn is one of several structures on what used to be a 120-acre farm.

[Coop]

Easy to talk from here in the cheap seats, but it seems to me it might be easier to incorporate the structure into the new high school's setting.

[alnick]

Well, if the auction closed at $15.50, they're legally obligated to sell it to the high bidder for $15.50. No one should ever start an ebay auction at $1 unless they're prepared to sell the item for as low as $1.

[Esther Ruth]

"A qualified buyer must be able to post a $50,000 performance bond and have $2 million in liability insurance!"

Makes you think twice about buying an old farm with old out buildings on. Beautiful furniture can be made from this old barn wood but sounds like liability issues is going to make it impossible. Will the fire department just have to use these old barns for practice buildings?

[Phantom Lord]

Yes, they are legally obligated to sell if for the winning bid, unless they had a minimum reserve on the auction. The article doesn't mention such so they may not have.

[Chewbacca]

I could have demolished the barn in a day using a Sawzall, hammer and a nail puller and done it for less than $1000.

Hauling the wreckedge away is another thing.