1898 Charter Oak Home with a 30x36 Three-Door Garage on a Corner Lot — $115,000

The garage is the first thing you notice, and honestly it might be the best thing about this property. It's a 30x36 structure with three doors, which means it can hold vehicles, a boat, a camper, a workshop, and still have room left over. That's a serious outbuilding, not the kind of thing you typically get with a house at this price.

The house itself is a 1898 two-bedroom, one-bath that comes in at 1,338 square feet. That's a reasonable amount of space for what it is. Newer windows are in, newer carpet is in, and all the appliances stay including the washer and dryer. So you're not walking into a project. The work that's been done brings the interior up to a functional baseline without touching the age of the place, which you can read in the bones of a house this old.

The lot is close to half an acre and it's a corner, so you get the width that comes with that. There's also a doggie door that leads out to an outdoor kennel area, which is a specific and useful thing if you have dogs.

Charter Oak is a small Iowa town and this sits at 203 Pine Ave. At $115,000 and $86 a square foot, you're paying for the house, the lot, and substantially for that garage. If you need indoor storage or workspace, this kind of setup takes years to build elsewhere and costs more than the spread between this price and a house without one.

Two bedrooms and one bath puts a ceiling on who this works for long term. It's a house that fits a certain life. But if the size is right, the lot is generous, the garage is rare, and the price is reasonable for all three things together.