It all depends on where you live, of course, but in general, most people agree that housing can be quite expensive.
Whether you’re a homeowner or if you rent a place, it certainly isn’t cheap to have a roof over your head.
Lisa Hardy from Eastside Indianapolis has had a lot of good luck in the past few years when it comes to housing.
The single mom lived in a forgotten house for nine years, without paying a dime in rent fees.
Even though she didn’t have a rental contract, Lisa stayed there with her three kids for almost a decade, completely free of charge.
You might wonder why Lisa decided to live in this house? The answer is simple enough- because no one else did, and the home didn’t belong to anybody.
The Eastside Indianapolis area actually has its fair share of abandoned homes, which is a result of the mortgage bubble burst.
In what can only be described as sheer luck, this house, in particular, was never auctioned off at a tax sale.
Furthermore, even though Lisa obviously paid for her utilities such as water, electricity, and the internet, she never had to pay any property taxes – because it simply wasn’t her property.
Even though technically you could say that this woman is a squatter, there’s definitely more story to it than that.
Lisa worked as a leasing agent, and she was allowed by the company to live rent-free in one of their homes during her time as an employee.
“They said, ‘Pick out a house,’” the single mom said to the Indianapolis Star.
However, the company she worked for, Showhomes Property, laid her off a couple of months after the housing crash, and the company even shut down completely a bit later.
It turns out that the company owner was involved in some kind of fraud, and he ended up in jail.
Nobody ever told Lisa that she had to move out, so she decided to stay.
“I thanked God every single day. There’s not one day I haven’t thanked the good Lord for the opportunity to live here without rent.”
After nine years, Lisa heard from a real estate developer from Singapore.
Apparently, the house in question has finally been sold after all this time. The Singaporean company bought the property as a surplus sale and had no idea that there was actually a family living there. It seemed like this fairytale was finally coming to an end.
Lisa being able to live here for free has definitely been a godsend for the woman, as she was already struggling to raise two teen boys and a young daughter all by herself. To make matters worse, the single mom has been struggling with her health and hasn’t been able to land a job because of it.
The family always loved living there, even though the neighborhood could be sketchy at some times, they never felt unsafe or had any issues.
The homes in the neighborhood were also vacant. Sometimes, there were drug addicts or squatters around, but Lisa says that she never got into any sort of trouble.
However, not knowing what would happen to her home, and realizing that it could all be over one day made her constantly stress out.
“I lived here on pins and needles. I never knew when I was going to have to go. It was stressful,” she said to CBS.
That day finally came as the company from Singapore bought a bunch of homes in the area at a surplus sale.
This particular home was sold for 7,500 dollars, and as mentioned before, they had no idea that Lisa and her kids were there.
After finding out about the situation, the founder of the company, Clara Tan Lisin, said the following to the Indianapolis Star.
“If she wishes to be my tenant I am more than happy to accept her as my tenant after my renovation. This saves us trouble of looking for a tenant,” Lisin told.
She made Lisa a deal: the company would make some renovations to the house for about $15,000, and the family wouldn’t have to move out. However, this time, they’d have to pay rent.
Lisa has agreed to stay there, as long as the rent remains affordable.
Be sure to check out Lisa’s remarkable story in the CBS interview below.
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