Who doesn’t love a deal? When it comes to housing, there are  a lot of bargains out there right now. But some can blow you away with their prices. MSN Real Estate recently rounded up some of the cheapest houses in each market. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

The award for cheapest house goes to this Detroit house, which can be all yours for $1. Yes, $1. It looks like it requires quite a bit of work, so your final outlay would probably be significantly more.

You could own this Jackson, Miss. house for only $4,900. But judging from the picture, you might need to shell out for some landscaping.

How about living in one of the most exclusive places in America? Let’s just say that $399,000 isn’t cheap by most people’s standards. And the house is small, at only 676 square feet.  Plus, it has a bit of an unsavory recent history. But hey, its in Beverly Hills!

What do you think of seeking out cheap houses? Are they diamonds in the rough or just rough? Are they worth the money and the risk?

Photos courtesy of MSN Real Estate.

For those in the market to buy a home, searching the latest listings can be a perilous adventure. Whether located in the local newspaper or in a national database online, consumers can view hundreds of home listings before finding “the one.”

Last week, Redfin — and online real estate brokerage — published results from a 21-month study of more than 1.2 million listings on the market to find the most opportune time to list a home. Turns out sellers can gain a marginal advantage by timing their listing just so.

According to Redfin’s study, Friday is prime time for sellers to list homes. Consider:

• Homes listed on Friday are toured 19 percent more.
• Homes listed on Friday or Thursday sell for slightly closer to original list price.
• Homes listed on Friday are 12 percent more likely to sell in 90 days.

What gives? Redfin cites the fact consumers tour listing at a rate of two-and-a-half times more on Saturday and Sunday compared to weekdays.

Our theory is that since home buyers tend to tour homes on the weekends, homes listed on Fridays are the freshest in buyers’ minds when they’re making their weekend plans. It also seems likely that many home buyers sort their weekend ‘must see’ lists by date listed, going to see the freshest homes first so they have the best chance of getting in on a potential good deal before other buyers. These factors put homes listed on Friday in front of more touring buyers on the weekend (which our touring data bears out). More tours leads to more offers, and more offers leads to a better price and a better chance of selling.

In this fickle market, improving the numbers by 12 percent here and 19 percent there gives builders a major advantage with no additional investment necessary. It’s something to bear in mind before you introduce your next home to the market.

We have spent the past 2, maybe 3, years hearing about the collapse of the housing market. Every day we hear about the bad numbers in the market, high unemployment and just general bad news about our economy.

Well, I would like to offer some advice: Stop watching the news, reading the newspaper and going on the Web (except for this blog). We have become too focused on the daily changes in everything in our lives. Remember when we thought getting a fax was really fast? Now it’s an email to our smartphones.

The key to success in everything is long-term commitment. Whether it’s your career, your relationships or even your home. (See how I brought that back to housing?)

Seriously, while so much of the news is bad, there are still positives to pull from. The three sectors in our world that we will all need forever are food, clothing and shelter. Your home is your shelter, and yes, it has lost value and if you have to sell, that will have a direct effect as to the amount of money you get to keep. But when you go to buy your next house, that one will have lost value, too, so in essence we are trading dollars.

That means that keeping your home up to date has never been more important. You will see stories about how kitchens and bathroom updates or remodels do not retain as much value as they did in the past. Bully! I would argue that the numbers they reported 5-7 years ago about the worth were inflated, just like property values.

Update your kitchen, your bathroom, your windows. Finish your basement. Your home will be worth more, and you will enjoy living there more, as well. In particular, if you plan on staying in your home for the next five years, investing in the overall look and feel of your home is a great place to put your money. No stock broker needed!

Via Curbly, we came across this fascinating little time-sink: a listing of the most expensive homes in each of these United States. Unfortunately, the only way to view the full list is in this slightly clumsy digital magazine format, but we’ll share some interesting highlights here.

The most expensive home in all the land? Aaron Spelling‘s mansion in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles, California. This $150 million palace is, well, gorgeous. The listing offers no details about square footage, number of bedrooms or bathrooms, or anything a hopeful homebuyer might want to know, but it does mention that it’s a “single-family residence” on 4.7 acres. Must be for a large family.

At the other end of the spectrum is the most expensive home in North Dakota. Found in the city of Minot, this home is valued at a relatively reasonable $1.3 million. Four bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms and 10,000 square feet, it’s situated on “approximately 15 acres in the heart of hunting and oil country.”

Another gem? This amazing home in an amazing location in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Called Tranquility (any home with a name is worth at least an extra 50 percent, right?), the 210-acre property includes a private lake, 16-car garage and — wait for it — two par-3 golf holes. You can see more photos here.

We can dream, right?

Should you shoot for the stars when buying your first home? That’s the question Investopedia, via MSN Real Estate asks. We say: probably not, but it all depends.

Let’s start with saying that if you have the money and are financially comfortable, you should do whatever you want when buying your first home. But most people buy their first home in the younger years of their lives, often with a young family to support. In that situation, does it make sense to buy your dream home on the first go-round?

Some people take the attitude that their home should be “The One,” the place where they want to build their lives and memories. For these people, it is important to get it right the first time around since they have no intention of house-hunting again. Others want have their house grow and shrink as needed, which usually means buying a new house.

In this economy, there are important considerations to consider when buying your house. Since none of us know how long this downturn will last, you should like your house enough to stay in it for a while if needed. More importantly, you should like the community where your house is located. If you like where you live, you might have the option of remodeling and adding on to your house to suit your needs.

Readers, was your first house your dream house? Did you look around one day and realize that against all odds it had turned into your dream house? Or did you decide to trade up when your first house wasn’t working for you?

Photo courtesy of sean dreilinger on Flickr.

A recent post by contributor Lou Manfredini talked about better organizing your home for the sake of preserving your sanity and increasing your usable space. But there’s another motivation for some people to banish clutter: selling a house.

The Calfinder Blog shares seven tips for staging your house for a sale, and they start with “get rid of your stuff.” Staging, for those who might not know, is the art (or is it a science) of aesthetically preparing a home so potential buyers get the best possible first impression. Clearing away your own stuff — not just the clutter and the nick-knacks, but as much as is absolutely possible — leaves room, mentally and physically, for the potential buyer to envision his or her stuff.

Other tips include:

• Create activity-specific areas
• Let in the light
• Add colorful accents
• Arrange what you have more stylishly
• Bring nature indoors
• Spruce up the outside

Check out the Calfinder blog for more details, and read more about staging at About.com, another outstanding resource.

Photo courtesy of Real Estaging via Flickr