A modest, 1 1/2-story house in a rough-edged neighborhood of this Detroit suburb is up for sale on eBay for a minimum bid of $120,000, though city records show it’s worth about $47,000.
What the records don’t show is that the house is the boyhood home of rap and movie star Eminem.
Todd Nelson, Eminem’s uncle, recently sold the house for $45,000 to lawyer Sebastian Lucido and his partner, Macomb County commissioner and real estate developer Roland Fraschetti. Lucido and Fraschetti put it up for sale on the Internet auction site Thursday.
Eminem, born Marshall Bruce Mathers III in St. Joseph, Mo., lived in the house “off and on” between the ages of 13 and 25, Nelson said told The Macomb Daily for a Friday story.
“This is where it all started for him,” Nelson said. “Without this house, Marshall would be in jail or back in Missouri, where he was born.”
Nelson said he sold the house, which had been in the family for 50 years, to pay some personal debts. He said Eminem and other family members weren’t happy about the decision.
“He’s mad, they’re all mad at me, everyone in the whole family,” said Nelson, whose sister, Debbie Nelson, is Eminem’s mother. “But I had to do what I had to do.”
Eminem, 30, has won five Grammys and stars in “8 Mile,” which opened at No. 1 at the box office this past weekend and drew strong reviews.