Between the soaring housing prices, plummeting inventory, and insane bidding war stories, we keep hearing about how crazy the Seattle housing market is. So we've asked local real estate agents, sellers and buyers to share their nutty stories about a recent home sale or purchase to prove just how true it all is. Do you have a crazy story to share about prices gone mad or ludicrous offers? Let us know and we might share it.
Today’s tale comes from a Seattle Times story that is just about the craziest one we’ve heard in a city full of crazy home sale stories.
The story began on April 22 when Windermere’s Bruce Phares listed a 1951-built, 2,100-square-foot home in West Seattle for $200,000. The home is described as "more of a Halloween haunted house than a dream home." The ceilings were crumbling. The air inside was considered toxic. Five feet of standing water sat at the bottom.
The listing itself was bare with none of that broker babble flourish we’re used to seeing. You could imagine Phares didn’t see the point. This dilapidated structure itself was useless but perhaps if the right buyer came along, tore it down, built a two-story home in it’s place, there could be something here.
Whether driven by that vision or just an overwhelming sense of need to purchase anything they could possibly find, buyers bought in.
The unlivable home received 41 offers(!), sold in ten days(!!) and received $427,000, well over double the asking price(!!!).
The buyer is Tang Real Estate Investments, who "find lucrative real estate deals that we either fix ourselves or assign to other investors that fit their portfolio." It’s unknown exactly what their plans are for this property but they’ll likely try to flip it one way or another.
Still, given what they paid for it, even Phares, the real estate agent selling the property, doesn’t think it makes a lot of sense.
"I think those people are just taking Hail Marys at this thing. That’s what’s dangerous about our marketplace," he said. "That’s not sound, and that’s not sustainable."
Loading comments...