Investor Cashes in on 'Cheap, Shabby' Homes

April 26, 2007 — -- An auction on the front porch, a crowd of nervous buyers, a few minutes to see the item -- and the bidding begins. This is how most homes in foreclosure are sold.

But it's rarely how foreclosure king Odell Barnes snaps up the hundreds of properties he buys every year. Barnes operates by fielding dozens of calls a day -- from his own front porch.

"I do most of my buying from right here," said Barnes, while sitting on the porch. "I do whatever I want to do. If I want to go fishing, I go fishing. As long as I have a cell phone and a computer, I'm happy."

Banks all across the country call Barnes when they want to unload hard-to-sell properties in bulk. They know he'll buy anything -- but at a rock bottom price.

That's because the houses he purchases are in the most distressed parts of the country. Barnes has bought and sold thousands of them over the years, some nice, some not so nice. Most are small and often plain, and all share the same forlorn look of loss.

"[I] bought them for 20 cents on the dollar, or maybe 10," said Barnes. "Do you really care when you're buying that cheap, and it's a piece of real estate? I don't care."

He claims he's a "good ol' boy" who can't read anything but a "For Sale" sign. He bought his first house at the age of 14.

"There was an ad in the paper," said Barnes -- "$200 down and take over payments. I asked my daddy, who was a waiter in a restaurant -- I mean, we were really poor. And I said, 'You think we could buy that house?'"

And buy he did. With a modest initial investment of $200, Barnes has become a millionaire. Today he lives with his family on a 54-acre ranch outside Columbia, S.C.

"I have an illness about buying things that's a good deal," said Barnes. "It doesn't matter how many I have -- if it's a good deal, I'll buy it."

This is strictly business to Barnes. In most cases, he never sees the houses he's buying -- or the buyers, for that matter.