[donnab]

A point missed on the show:
When Obama wanted to buy his house, the seller wanted to sell the house and adjoining plot as a whole. They were unwilling to split the sale. Obama could not come up with the money to buy both. Along comes Rezko’s wife who bought the plot for full price, allowing Obama to purchase his house.

[igoramus08]

A point missed on the show: When Obama wanted to buy his house, the seller wanted to sell the house and adjoining plot as a whole. They were unwilling to split the sale. Obama could not come up with the money to buy both. Along comes Rezko’s wife who bought the plot for full price, allowing Obama to purchase his house.

Rezko paid $650,000. When Obama wanted to by 1/6th of it back, they got the 1/6th valued and it was $40,000. So that means Rezko paid $650,000 - 240,000 = $410,000 even more than he should have for the adjacent plot. So in total Obama saved $710,000 in the house purchase.