Detroit Woman Trades The Supremes House for Minivan

A car is easier to clean than a house, and the insurance is less expensive, but is it really wise to trade your house for a minivan? A Detroit woman thought it was the best thing for her family.

LaWanda Flake, a disabled mother of 6, posted an offer on Craigslist to trade her house, valued at $96,000, for a car, so she could get her kids to school on time. The house, in one of Detroit's better neighborhoods, was once home to Diana Ross and the Supremes.

After receiving many lucrative offers, including an offer to trade a 1996 Corvette or a 1996 Bentley Brooklands, Flake accepted an offer to trade the house for a minivan with 85,000 miles on it, valued at about $5,000 - $8,500. In reality, this wasn’t a bad deal for Flake. She purchased the house last year for $3,500 at a tax foreclosure sale, and it reportedly needs several thousand dollars worth of work, including a new furnace and water heater.

Flake and her kids live in a nearby three-bedroom home that she purchased on a $4,000 land grant. The people with whom she made the house/minivan swap wish to remain anonymous.

“I had a lot of good offers, some from out of state. It turned out I took one of the first offers I got because I felt like it helped us both,” Flake said. “They needed the house more than anyone I spoke with. I really feel like I made a good decision.”

[via NBC2]