This one's got it all. Opportunistic investors, frustrated city employees, strivers who don't understand real estate and my personal favorite, online auctions.

The Sarasota investor put a few of the homes on bid4assets.com, an online auction site, each week this spring and early summer. “Great Opportunity,” his pitches usually began. Lower down, a disclaimer cautioned: “In rare cases house might be demolished or burned down.” Most of the houses sold for $3,000 to $6,000.

If you don't know bid4assets you're missing out. A couple counties around here use it to liquidate their foreclosure auctions so I keep an eye out. Rarely, however, do you see anything real show up because of the way the foreclosure process works for real-real properties. Instead you get a steady stream of bait in places like Hinkley, CA. If that name sounds familiar, allow the phrase "hexavalent chromium" to jog your memory:

Come for the schadenfreude, stay for the black couple struggling to erect an above-ground pool at one of the six habitable residences (that they rent)!