GF man brightens up the neighborhood … one dot at a time
April 30, 2012 at 7:06 pm in Grand Forks Herald
Jimmy Deitz, who owns the house at the corner of University Avenue and North Sixth Street in Grand Forks, got the notion to cover the building in polka dots from a painter friend. Continue Reading
This is fantastic!!!!!!!!! I wish more people in this town would get a sense of humor. Why not paint polka dots on your house if you want? I would love to live by this guy instead of with the crabby neighbors that live around me. a bunch of haters around here!
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I think it is the dumbest thing I have ever seen, but I would gladly take a ladder and some paint and help him. After years of living with the tyranny of homeowner’s associations it is refreshing to see someone able to treat their property as theirs, not the “neighbors” with too much time on their hands.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Mom: you need to read my post closer. I think it looks stupid but I completely support his right to do it.
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YEP!! WHOOPS on my part. Sorry flying
..awkward pause with my foot in my mouth..
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I think there is more to this than brightening up the neighborhood. This house is right next door to the Prairie Harvest apartments which just went up recently. The clue is when he mentions the city buying him out. Maybe that is the plan.
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While it is his house he still rents it out. Yea he doesn’t have to live in it but he does have to find somebody willing to rent it.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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University and 6. Not difficult regardless of the color
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The other day I thought it may be interesting to watch Mr. Rogers on LSD….close enough, thanks Jim!
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Oh, you must have missed PeeWee Herman’s show.
Guess it could be worse than dots. There was a feud going in a small SWMN town years ago, and one of the participants painted his house bright purple with lime green trim.
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Good for you sir! We are all so busy arguing over nicknames, lock outs, and lingerie stores..its nice to see the Herald covering something as adorable as this. Thanks for the Tuesday smile
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I live two blocks away from this house. Adjacent to my digs is an entire block of rundown property, including an apartment building that has been vacant for about 5 years since the boiler went out. There are several houses near downtown that are completely rundown, abandoned, or inhabitable. Some of the houses near the area have been leveled in the last few years, and it appears someone put a large apartment building next to his place. Last summer it looked like a heavy rain could have pushed this house into the hole next to his house where they were laying the footings. Either this man is insane, or this is the most clever Mexican standoff ever. Buy me out, or look at polka dots.
I hate the polka dots if they simply stand on their own…hideous. But if the reasoning behind them is to draw a large sigh from City Hall, I’d like to shake his hand.
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There is a bigger reason why he is doing this. He tried to sell the house to the apartments next door for a ridiculous 200,000. Of course they didnt take it and he HATED them building next to the house.
He is a well known slum lord and is doing everything he can to get bought out. He should be in jail for the piss poor living conditions he gives his residences.
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I knew there had to be something more to it. My faith in human nature remains.
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Sorry, you have to have slums to have slum lords. No slums in grand forks, it’s too small… If you think that house is the slums, you haven’t been outside of the state.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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well he is the slumlord of grand forks, he has all these houses he rents out to people and does crap to keep them looking even half decent. He doesnt care about squat.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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I think you need to get you facts straight, None. He is not a “slum lord” as you say, but rather, he serves a population of Grand Forks that are low to middle income. He also didn’t ask the City of GF for $200,000. He was offered $100,000 initially, and then the city backed out. He has wanted to do something unique with the old house and decided a polka dot paint job would brighten up the neighborhood. I personally think it looks better than some of the delapidated buildings/homes in that neighborhood.
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He is called slum lord because he doesnt care for his propertys and admits it. He asked 200,000 from the people who own prarie harvest. He sits in the knights of columbus and talks about it. If my facts arent straight, then he himself isnt talking straight.
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FYI his properties are always rented with waiting lists.
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yeah he likes to sit in the bar and brag about all the money he is making off of those poor individuals……….
Hot debate. What do you think?
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It sounds as though you are a bit jealous that he has used his business sense to fill a much needed housing market in GF.
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Not at all, I just know what I know from what he tells us at the bar. Sounds like you dont know him as well as you’d like to think, or he likes to lie.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Perhaps th alcohol is clouding your comprehension/listening skills?
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None: that is a completely ridiculous statement. If the conditions are bad, you live somewhere else. Provided he meets all the applicable codes, it is the market, not your sensibilities that determine how things go
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I was just backed up by this article Nurse. Its nice being right.
http://www.wdaz.com/event/article/id/13459/
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You lost me None. I never said your facts were not correct, only that you needed to get a life. I could not figure out why some dude trying to get a bigger payoff from the city made you so angry. Do a quick search of the Harold archives following the flood and there were 100 such stories.
Also, like I said, if he meets all the applicable codes, he is golden. The market will decide whether or not he is successful. If his place is trash, people will not live there and he will go out of business. If he rents to the wrong people and does not keep tabs on his place (IE making meth in their bathtub) he loses his building.
Either way, I thought your reaction was a little strong for the situation. I never doubted your facts.
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ah yes, the ole retort “get a life” something one uses when they know they have lost.
LOVE YOU NURSE!
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None, get a life was my previous comment. I still do not know why you feel vindicated. I never questioned your facts, just why you were so upset by this guy’s battle with the city.
He wants more money than you think he should get. Yes and your point is?
If the city met his demands I could see your point, but they haven’t so I am confused as to why you are so riled up about him.
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I just dont care for the fact that it seems he is trying to rip the city off. That is all. Your ‘flying’ off the handle nurse. What was about keeping things civil on this thing? Just cuz someone doesnt agree with you doesnt mean you have to be a nasty ‘nurse’.
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Really, people actually would care if their neighbor painted polka dots on the house? The city should care? Buy him out because he painted polka dots? Talk about petty neighbors! As long as my neighbor keeps to himself and doesn’t have a landfill in his yard I could care less what he did with his property. Some people need to get a life. Having the best lawn and best looking house on the block means very little in the whole scheme of life. I shoot for an average looking lawn its just grass.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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None, we really need to get you a job, or a hobby, or a life. You now are commenting on people’s motivations? Defining what is and what is not feminine for 51% of the population was not enough?
Do you have an ego problem None? Do you believe everyone should believe as you do or at least change their beliefs to be more in line with your own?
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He even said in this article that he is hoping the city will buy him out….plain as day this man is doing what he is doing.
The only reason why it bothers me is because he just doesnt care, and tells people he just doesnt care how crappy his houses look as long as he gets money.
Apparently, making childish statements like you have been doing reminds me alot of him…huh.
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None: provided you or your kids are not one of his tenants what concern is it of yours? I am being completely honest and sincere. Why does this guy rile you up. If he is a crappy landlord he will go out of business. If being greedy sent you to hades he would be standing in line for a very long time just to get in.
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It’s not as ugly as the new apartment buildings in the area and around town. You know the ones, basically vertical stripes of red, yellow, green, black….UGLY.
It’s funny that in GF, your shed needs to match your house, but your apartment building doesn’t need to match itself.
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I am a queen but my reign ends at my property line. Once in a while I leave my realm to voice my authority or slay a dragon or two but only if I feel the need to protect my domain.
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I don’t. Care why he did it how he dit it or who he is trying to annoy. Its his property and he can paint it however he wants. I hope the city could give a rats a.. about it also. I think it adds variety to that neighborhood and I kind of like it.
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I’m thinking of it as the new “Smiley” in GF! It definitely made me smile!
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When you drive by, the house actually doesn’t look too bad with its polka dots that are ALMOST perfectly round. The colors are neither so bright that they distract traffic nor an eyesore. Although they don’t exactly “brighten up the neighborhood”, they do add a little something unique. The new apartment buildings in the area are more of an eyesore than anything else, especially with their mismatched red, black, and yellow color combination.
Instead of tearing down historic properties, our city needs to do its best to retain some of its history through the various buildings that have some beautiful architectural details. I realize that there has been an increased need for rental units, but some nice historic properties have been sacrificed for new, unsightly apartment buildings.
Many of the older homes in our city are beautiful and well taken care of. Granted, there are some that aren’t, but I think many of those are rental properties (we live near one but our home is kept up). I don’t think inspections of rental units are as frequent or thorough as they should be. More stringent guidelines should be placed on rentals, especially since homeowners who reside in their homes are expected to maintain their properties and keep them up to code.
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“More stringent guidelines should be placed on rentals, especially since homeowners who reside in their homes are expected to maintain their properties and keep them up to code.”
Exactly, just like the polka dotted house.
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How many landlords even live in GF, and leave everything to agencies?
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His properties are up to code and pass inspections.
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You make it sound as if that’s admirable. They’re supposed to be up to code and pass inspections.
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I’m stating a fact, Gene. There are comments being made that he doesn’t take care of them; they wouldn’t be passing inspections if they weren’t properly cared for.
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Things is, he has to pass all that or couldn’t rent. If not, the city would be at fault.
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Working in construction Gene I can tell you that a building built to only code.. is a crap building. That is why all of these standards groups have popped up over the years, and membership to them means you actually perform better than code.
To code = joke.
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Take a look at this property using google earth – street view. You’ll see a door laying by the side of the house, the yard full of weeds, a door without a screen door and peeling paint.. While I can’t view the inside, the outside of this place is just bad. You can tell that he doesn’t do upgrades and doesn’t care what his tenants pay for their heating. Which then tells you he doesn’t care about others at all..
Slum lord.. Yep.. In everything that word stands for.
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THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Wasn’ there a guy a while ago who kept scaffolding up around his house for years just to tick off the city authorities?
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What’s more interesting than he and his house, is that once again a Herald stenographer did no research coming into the story. Seems more people here have information than Tran. He talks about 2 houses, apparently he has more. Did Tran bother to check them out, or was this just supposed to be another Hearld puff-piece?
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Show the polka dot house to any child and ask them what do they think about it? Most likely, the child will say the house looks “neat”.
That house may not look too great with polka dots to an adult, but children will like it.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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My neighbors got a puppy and they allowed the thing to run loose. I let them know kindly the first time that I wasn’t on board with that. This went on for a couple of months. One day he was looking all over for the thing. He asked me when the last time I saw it was. I said about an hour ago at the pound when I dropped it off.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Sounds like I’d be beating the snot out of my neighbor if I lived next to you. Actually there are more subtle ways to get back at people that make their life a living hell.
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Try it with me , Hugo. People let their cats go loose in my neighborbood and they show up to kill the animals I feed: birds, rabbits, squirrels. If that’s all they care about their pets, they deserve to lose them.
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Hugo…I’m stunned by your comment. I don’t think a man should threaten to beat up a woman for any reason what so ever. That is why I reported you to Area Voices.
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There are some really lousy men in this world.
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Yep….but there are alot of good ones to.
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Glad I don’t live next to you tj! That is awful!
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Not at all. I don’t know about Crookston but GF has a leash law for both dogs and cats. Some owners are enormously courteous. Others believe your yard is their dog’s toilet. I once nailed a guy whose dog was taking a dump on my berm and they both walked away. Luckily a cop drove by and I flagged him down. The guy hasd nothing to remove the mess but his hand. Never saw him again.
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Gene….I shunned ron yesterday…so would you please do me a favor and tell him I feel the same way he does. I would not want to be his neighbor either.
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I want to be your neighbor tj. I bet the rest of your neighborhood adores you.
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Sure they do…I have an open fridge policy in my garage. As long as I keep it stocked with beer they say all kinds of nice things about me.
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Did I mention that house is awesome!!! Drove by it after work today
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From the looks of the picture he should be putting some of that paint on the window frames.
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People like this are why I hate living in town. Gene cats do what they want and they love to hunt. Its part of the circle of life. You can’t train a cat like you can train a dog and its good for their sanity to get them outside. Occasionally the best trained dog will get loose especially young dogs. As for not picking up his dogs poop that is just rude!
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Cats are fed at home. They don’t need to hunt. People who let them out shouldn’t own them. Not only do they run the risk of getting nailed by a car, but they pick up diseases and parasites from their wild prey. I don’t mind the cats, they’re acting on instinct. It’s the owners who clearly should be living in a cave.
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Nurse, I can’t believe people pay dues to live in neighborhoods that have homeowner associations that have set guidlines on what you can and cannot do with your own house. If I want to park 6 cars in front of my house I will no one is ever going to tell me I need to live the same way as everyone else in the neighborhoods. If I wanted rules like that I would have continued renting.
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Many of the people in that situation are older, and are willing to sacrifice the color of their house and the kind of plants can have, in exchange for snow removal and lawn mowing. My sister is in that situation, and while I wouldn’t go for it, she doesn’t mind.
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Most homeowner associations exist to “preserve” the property values by keeping undesirables out. If you look at their rules: no cars on the street (must be in the garage or driveway) or in the yard, the lawn must be maintained (including pulling weeds), no colors that do not match the neighborhood (pokadot man would get a written notice to change it post haste or face expulsion — they can literally force you out of your own house) it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out they are trying to keep renters and lower income people out.
The way the boards were acting over the keep the riff raff out comments, you would think everyone there would be in favor of them; they do what those on the boards think should be done in GF: keep everyone in subsidized housing north of De Mers and out of their neighborhood
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Or we could just send our undesirables to Arizona…..
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You tried that Captain. We keep finding our way back
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Gene technically the dog didn’t poop on your property. He pooped on the berm which is city property. Another thing I don’t understand a berm is city property but the homeowner is expected to keep it in good shape. Try not mowing it and see what happens. One of the funny little parts of city living
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Exactly, I don’t mow it, I get a letter or a bill. On the other hand, I’ve seen 5 elms go down that the city paid for, and replacement trees planted. As for the clods and their dogs, the city doesn’t seem to care.
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The city does not own the berm.. its a easment for local water and elc. works. along with so much along the back of the property.. as a home owner you have to pay tax on that berm along with curves and other issues… if a tree dies on the berm.. you as the owner have to pay for that tree.. dont know where you are living.. ive had a home in Grandforks for 30ys and have had to pay for all the upkeep on my berm.. along with the tax of it..i really could care less if one of my neighbors painted his house with polk adots. however if it lowers the value of my home.. he might have a lawsuit on is hands.. just the way it is. if your going to live in a city..
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Keep an animal inside? Why do you think they stare out the windows all day long. I just can’t agree with you there.
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Well then by all means take it out…on a leash.
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Okie dokie, one problem I don’t have a cat.
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Well, then I won’t blame you for the baby bunny that got taken out two days ago.
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you two are hilarious
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I wonder how much he spent on the paint? A bunch of quarts? A bunch of gallons? It would have been a great time to watch all the ‘happy’ people shouting colors from the kc’s!
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well, everything i said was backed up by this article people. Boom.
http://www.wdaz.com/event/article/id/13459/
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Come on tj where’s the love? Nurse and I actually had a nice productive conversation in that particular topic. I would still be your neighbor even if I didn’t agree with your politics. As long as you behaved in a civil manner.
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Mr brooks needs to lighten up! The house is not an eye sore it is awesome, ask any kid! It really does fit in in that neighborhood every other apartment building is multi colored in the neighborhood so why not this one. He actually did a real good job! Imagine if he does have ‘evil’ motives behind this he could have painted something or some words that would be a problem when small children come by the house. It truly did make me smile and laugh.
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Jimmy is my wife’s uncle. She told me he got it approved by city hall. I started laughing when I saw the article was about him. Sounds like something he would do. None, I can see your point, right or wrong. But I don’t think it’s necessarily his fault. The prices for houses are getting out of control in Grand Forks.
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Thats what I dont understand, why ask sooo much money from the city when that house is worth not so much? I have a house not far from it, its a beautiful well kept house and I payed 120.000 for it. I thought the city was being generous for offering 100,000. I dont mind the polka dots, I just dont care for the fact that it seems he is trying to rip the city off.
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None: you can’t criminalize a person for trying to get more out of their property than it’s worth. Every sinle home seller in GF is trying to do the exact same thing. When you decide to retire in AZ you will try to do the same thing as well. It is how real estate operates.
Now if the city gave in, then I would have a problem. He can ask for whatever he wants. That is not important. The question is what will he actually get?
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Its a shame that people even have to think that they need approval from city hall to paint polka dots on their own property.
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Agreed
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None, you stated you think the house is worth $40000. In your link dietz admits the city offered him $100000. Guess what that is the value of that type of home in grand forks. I dare you to go search any mls listing search for that size and age of home. Its not rediculous for the city to offer that heck it might be worth more, because the housing market is rediculous in grand forks. Yes he did state in the article he would like 150000 for the house now, but I believe he was being sarcastic about his polka dot design.
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actually i said 70,000
yes, by age etc it would be worth more, but the house needs alot of work. ALOT.
*been inside*
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The sad thing is a 70000 dollar house with foundation cracks goes for 100000 or more because all the landlords come in andmake cash offers while the people that could afford these houses struggle to find a livable house and end up moving out of town or renting.
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Around 10 oclocl may 1st you stated 40000. No wonder you say 200000 it makes your argument sound worse than it is. Continue making false statements.
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then it was a type-o. so sorry, apparently you are perfect.
I have not made ANY false statements.
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There’s a dozen houses going at or near 100000 that need a lot of work in grand forks. That argument doesn’t hold any water in this housing market.
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