If you’ve got $5,000, you could soon be the proud new owner of a house on West Washington Street.

The catch? It won’t be there for long.

The city owns the homes, which are listed as “contributing structures” to the local historic district. But it has tentatively identified that land as parking and green space for the new downtown library, so it wants the houses gone.

But, not wanting to tear down historic structures, the city is first offering them at a steal. The tricky part is that whoever buys the homes must then move them somewhere else, preferably within the historic district.

“Those three structures will need to be removed when we move forward with the library plan,” Deputy City Manager Patrick Roberts said. “Ideally, somebody will want to move them, rehab them and use them somewhere else in the historic district.”

All of the houses are about 100 years old and two stories in height with front porches, weatherboard siding and tin roofs. They’re located at 407, 409 and 413 W. Washington St. None of them has an assessed value of more than $13,000.

The city purchased the houses, as well as five other residential structures and three commercial structures on a total of eight lots, from N&N Land Company, owned by Ralph Nahra, for $1.05 million.

Roberts said the city has done this before on three or four occasions. One of the homes that’s used as a business near the corner of Prentis and North Main streets, he said, used to be at the intersection of Pinner and East Washington streets, where the downtown police precinct is now located.

“It’s part of the process of redevelopment in the historic district,” Roberts said, adding this has been the city’s plan for these houses from the start. “It doesn’t catch us by surprise what’s in the district and what’s not.”

If there are no takers, the city will seek approval by the Historic Landmarks Commission to remove the houses, Roberts said.

Prospective buyers will have to demonstrate the financial capability to pay for the house to be moved before July 1 and submit a narrative plan on the proposed restoration.