Man Buys 650 Foreclosed Michigan Homes All at Once

(MACOMB COUNTY, Mich.) -- Until a year ago, Bill McMachen, 71, had never bought or sold a foreclosed home. Then in 2011 he bought one for $12,000 and flipped it a week later for $18,000. “That went pretty good,” he says. “So I said to my wife, ‘I think I’ll buy them all.’”

He was referring to all 650 tax foreclosed properties in Macomb County, Michigan. McMachen bought them in one fell swoop for $4.8 million at a July 31 auction. Afterward, he says, he told his wife, “Phew, I might be in over my head.”

He’d seen the auction advertised, and had asked county officials if it was possible for him to buy the entire lot, which included 403 homes, 120 residential lots, 14 condos, 9 commercial buildings and some undeveloped land. They told him nobody had ever done that before, but that there wasn’t any reason he couldn’t. He snapped them up for no more than their combined back taxes.

What’s he going to do with all those houses? Resell them to investors, he says, most of whom he expects will rent them out to tenants.

How’s McMachen going to manage all these properties in the meantime? There won’t be a ‘meantime,’ he says: He’s selling them quickly: “Last week I sold 181. This week, it’ll be 150. In the third week I’ll sell the balance. More people want homes than I have homes to sell.”

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