I always hear there's lots of caveats to this. e.g. sometimes the water, electricity and internet aren't available. Or the house costs $10k but you need to buy

I always hear there's lots of caveats to this. e.g. sometimes the water, electricity and internet aren't available. Or the house costs $10k but you need to buy the unpaid taxes, too, plus pay property taxes on a home that's valued at 50k+ when it's worth a fraction (I think in this case it's also listed on zillow, property valuations for tax purposes being 2x the listing), etc etc. I mean absolutely, it's a cheap deal, even all this considered, but not as good as it looks. The final cost is probably a multiple of the listing, and you're still in a neighbourhood that's sketchy. Lots of interesting stuff has been written about Detroit and the various initiatives to buy a fixer upper, things like 'if you call an ambulance or police, they don't come, or they arrive 30 minutes late', feature commonly in such articles.