The Southern Minnesota Home that No One Wanted, Even for Free

If you were given the opportunity to own a historic home for free, would you take it? With how expensive homes are you would think you would! But there’s a home in Jordan, Minnesota that was offered for free, and still, no one wanted it. But why?

The historic home was owned by the city of Jordan’s first female mayor Gail Andersen, according to the Star Tribune. It was eventually inherited by her granddaughter Barbara Kochlin. While the outside looks decent, Barbara says the inside is “‘godawful ugly’”.

In the spring of 2019, Barbara had been attempting to sell the property for the past year and even went as far as listing the home for free, but still, no one bought the house. Why? Because the home would have to be moved once it was purchased.

It needed to be moved because it was on a plot of land meant for commercial use. Barbara wanted to turn it into a triplex, according to the Star Tribune, but that required her to make a large enough parking lot, which wasn’t possible with the amount of land around it. She attempted to get the city to change the land to residential land so it could be used as a single-family home but they said no.

So long story short, this home needed to be moved by the buyers, which costs tons and tons of money to do. But if Barbara didn’t find a buyer, the city was going to demolish the home. That’s where Joshua Colonna, a developer with Red Brick LLC and Colonna Acquisitions, comes in.

SW News Media says that after he heard about the home in the spring of 2019, he decided he wanted to take on the project. Red Brick has “‘restored over 100 properties through Minnesota, West Virginia, Tennessee and Florida.’” So Barbara successfully found a buyer! Then there was another snag in the road, there were no lots in the area that the house could be moved to. Because of this, they came up with an agreement that would allow the house to stay where it is and bring it up to code.

I was able to find the home on Google Maps and it appears it’s still in the same spot. It also looks like there’s a for sale sign in front of the home as of September of 2021. I’m not sure what that’s all about because I can’t find an active listing for this home, but I’m just happy it wasn’t demolished!

Keep scrolling to take a look at a beautiful, historical castle you can stay in here in Minnesota.