1948 Brick Cottage, Metal Roof, Full Basement, Half-Acre — $100,000

The brick exterior and metal roof are the first things worth your attention here. On a 1948 house that has been standing for 76 years, both of those are good signs. Brick doesn't rot. Metal roofs last. Whatever else this place needs, the shell is doing its job.

It's a small house. 1,081 square feet, two bedrooms, one bath. The covered porch out front gives it a little breathing room, and the 0.52-acre lot gives you more. That's a half-acre in Indian Mound, Tennessee, which means actual yard, not just the strip between the house and the fence. There's a storage shed out back.

The kitchen has a newer dishwasher and stove, and the refrigerator stays. That's about all the agent description offers on the interior, which tells you something. The listing is sold as-is, so go in with eyes open and a flashlight.

The full unfinished basement is the real wildcard. At 1,081 square feet above grade, the basement could nearly double the usable space if someone wanted to finish it out. That's a big if, and it costs money, but the footprint is there. Whether it's storage, a workshop, or eventual living space depends entirely on condition and what you find when you get down there.

This is the kind of property where the math either works or it doesn't, depending on what inspection turns up. The brick, the metal roof, and the basement are the arguments for it. The as-is sale and the thin agent description are the reasons to look carefully before you commit. A hands-on buyer who wants a solid-built older house on a half-acre in a quiet part of Stewart County has something to work with here. Someone who wants a house that's already done does not.

Six figures, just barely, for a 1948 brick house with a metal roof and room underneath it. That's the whole pitch.