Buying and renting low priced homes

[JenniferG]

Currently, I have more of a curiousity than actually getting my hands dirty in real estate. (more like just testing the waters to see what's involved - in fact, I don't even know a lot of the terminology and such just yet.)

I was looking at a Real Estate site at prices of homes. I noticed that sometimes, there's homes that are between $1,000 to $2,000. Now, I have a few questions.

First, for what it's worth, let's assume that financially, I could shell out $1,000 right now (which I could, if I wanted to).

1 - Why is it so cheap? Is it a seizure or something?
2 - Is there anything that it's not telling me? (like having to pay extra costs later) What are the risks? It seems like a low risk option at face value.
3 - I read somewhere that, if this were a seizure, the new owner could be sued if the seizure was invalid. Why and how much? And why not just give the new owner their $1,000 back?
4 - What other "between the lines" things don't they say?
5 - If I were to buy it, and then rent it out (say, maybe, $400 a month if it's in a poorer neighborhood), is there anything else I need to know?
6 - What things would the buyer have to look out for?

[HomeSurfer]

It sounds like B.S. You would have to refer one of us to the page with the propertly listed on it for a more definitive answer.

"If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is."

[JenniferG]

www . realtor . com (won't let me post a link unless I have 15 posts...) . I searched for Baltimore, and price range of between 0 and $5,000. (more out of curiosity than actual interest, of course).