300K to reno a 10,000 square foot house is very easy to do. I am retired BTW, but thanks for thinking you're so smart. Get it into your head 10K square feet, you've probably never seen a house that size, let alone live in it. The 185K purchase price is also suspect.
Actually it turns out Biden bought the home you’re talking about in 1974 and sold it in 1996. He bought 4 acres with that money and built a new home. Interestingly, yahoo reports he contemplated selling that home when his son got sick but Barack Obama offered to loan him the money instead. That’s actually very beautiful. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/joe-bidens-homes-photos-190000253.html
I don’t know about 300k on an 8500 sq house in the mid 1970s. That’s big money for those days. You’re pushing this a little too far.
Plus he's just assuming the place was a wretch and not just a tax and/or bank foreclosure. Hell I'm just assuming it was a foreclosure to begin with