Selling a house for $10 would raise some eyebrows no matter what the market was like. Most would call it crazy.
That's exactly the diagnosis relatives of a mentally ill man in South Florida have come up with, and they say it's the neighbors who bought the house that are the sick ones.
In June, Michael Dever, who has been in and out of mental hospitals, signed over the deed to his paid for house to some neighbors for a crisp Alexander Hamilton, WPTV.com reports.
The home is estimated to be worth $64,000.
"Nobody knew this was going on, that house was paid off, he owned it outright," said Kieth Costello, Dever's cousin. "There was no money owed on it and now he has absolutely nothing."
But the neighbors who bought the house are saying the deal is not only legit, but Dever proposed it himself.
"He's the one that made the arrangements, he got the attorney, ask them!” an unnamed neighbor yelled at reporters.
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Dever's family plans to go to court to get the house back and there may be some legal footing. Dever has been diagnosed with psychosis and delusional paranoia, and if a judge deems he was mentally incapable of understanding the $10 deal, the house could be returned to him and his family.
For now, Dever lives in a small room at a YMCA in Maine near his cousin. Costello thinks someone needs to check the mental aptitude of the neighbors.
"They gained his confidence enough for him in the state of psychosis to sign his house over to them for 10 bucks."
