Think something like a hoarder situation with the added bonus of a decomposed, mummified corpse that was several years old will turn off buyers in this real estate market? Think again. The Chronicle delves into the tale of the the corpse house on Fourth Avenue in the Inner Richmond that just got cleared out last weekend, noting all the speculation that's already happened about what the house will sell for once it's given a fresh coat of paint and complete fumigation. The verdict: in the neighborhood of $2.5 million.
A Socketsite commenter called it the day the story originally broke, last Friday, and that person was clearly aware that houses in the area had recently sold for between $2 million and $3 million. But the fun comes when you poll realtors and professional "stigmatized" house flippers, as the Chron did, describing how the vultures descend on properties like this trying to eke out an extra few hundred thousand out of someone else's misfortune.
Best quote, from Oakland real estate investor Tom Anthony:
"To get a fat profit margin, you have to find a big problem. The bigger collection of problems, the cheaper I get it. If I can find a house with feuding relatives, obstinate tenants and severe deferred maintenance, that’s good. If someone was killed there too, that would be a grand slam."
The backstory on the house at 152 Fourth Avenue, as we've learned in the days following last weekend's discovery of its rat- and spider-infested interior, complete with years-old dead body, is that it was owned by Anna and Archibald Ragin, and inhabited the past few years by a mentally ill daughter, Carolyn Ragin, who last week was taken to the hospital for evaluation. It's unclear when, exactly, Anna Ragin died, but it was "several" years ago. The father, Archibald, died in 2000. The house was ultimately foreclosed upon after no one had paid property taxes on it in a number of years.
Let the bidding war begin!
Previously: 'Mummified' Body Taken Out Of Hoarder's Richmond District House