Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/19/this-beautiful-800000-ho.html
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Why even bother with interior photos? “In disrepair, lot value only” is the only responsible thing for a realtor to say.
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Where is the nearby river or lake or collapsed damn? Because, holy hell, that house looks like it was flooded with something evil.
It does look a nice lot after all. Minus the opening to Hell it has…
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Is there an explanation for the TYPE of deterioration inside that house besides extreme hoarding? And not poking fun, it is a serious disorder - I just don’t understand how a house gets in that state without basically being filled to the brim with garbage while also being neglected. I don’t see just neglect causing those conditions. Can anyone explain how a house could end up like this?
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I’ve seen this movie!!
The protagonists do not survive.
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Asked and answered:
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I’m guessing that’s one thing the house doesn’t do…
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My thoughts were hoarding, too. Which makes it likely that person probably died in the house and I’m going to assume, wasn’t found for awhile. Do not want.
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I’m diggin’ the sky blue roof!
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Taking a look at the comparables in the neighborhood, $800k is probably a discounted price, taking the interior and landscaping into consideration.
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Old Hurricane Sandy flood damage?
There might be some money (and carbon) savings with total gutting vs. new building. BUT I knew a CEO who bought an old house in a nice area and just flattened it without any hesitation.
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Its a shitty house in a “cheap” part of NYC. Just tear the place down and build your own. I don’t even know why the realtor is including any inside photos.
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The photos make my eyes bleed.
Realtors, stop using whatever fucking filter this is. Please.
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Hoarders die inside it? Next of kin died while cleaning it out? Next of next of kin live 4 thousand milesaway? and say “list for whatever the average price is there?”
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A relative used to have his own business putting homes “on mothballs” after the banks foreclosed on them and took ownership. He’d go in after the former owners had vacated, shut off the water, blow out the pipes, discard the previous owner’s contents, clean it up, etc. He said he’d once seen this kind of disrepair in a 10 year old house. The house had been originally overpriced during a housing bubble; after the bubble burst the owners lost their jobs and the house value went underwater, and eventually the bank foreclosed. Banks lose money every month on their inventory of abandoned properties, so the bank sold cheap to a low-ball bidder. Turned out the house was purchased by a grow-house operation. The new owners put in blackout curtains, stuffed it full of grow lamps and pots of dirt, not caring about the house as they watered their crops with a garden hose. Of course they never made a house payment, but foreclosures are a slow process. By the time the foreclosure was complete the crops were matured and harvested, and the owners long gone. The damage to the house had been done, and the interior of the house was nothing but mold and rotted wood. There was nothing to do but demo the house.
The house in the video above is nowhere near that bad. It’s evident from the video that the problems came from a very leaky roof, openings in windows, and a year or two of abandonment (judging from the amount of vines growing in the kitchen window.) You can see the water damaged floors in several rooms, the water damaged ceiling on the main level, and the moldy sea that is the basement – those are from the roof leaks. The kitchen looks like the outer vines grew in through an opening in the window, forcing the opening larger, and letting in all kinds of mold and mildew from the shrubs growing immediately outside the window.
While the house might be salvageable, I doubt it’s worth the effort and trouble.
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Flushing Creek runs through a section of Flushing, and there was serious flooding nearby during Sandy. Flushing wasn’t hit particularly bad, but there were spots of flooding in the area.
And there were a lot of very fucked up situations around the recovery. Sketchy contractors that skipped town with relief money rather than complete work. People who could not afford to repair their homes but some how didn’t qualify for relief, while wealthier people and fucking Starbucks did.
There are still vacant lots and damaged homes around, some of them basically abandoned. Some of them basically eminent domained by the state.
Out on Long Island there are programs to repair these houses. Then sell them at lower than market rates to young people as starter homes. The deal being you get no down payment, a no or low interest mortgage and a home you can actually afford. The trade off is you only get what you paid if you “sell” it back to the government down the line.
It’s one of the few attempts to get around the astronomical housing costs out here.
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I think I’ve seen that house in one of those Resident Evil games.
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What I’m seeing is largely just water damage and some extremely dusty cobwebs (all the big black marks). The roof obviously leaks (and potentially other parts of the house, too - windows, plumbing, etc.), water gets everywhere, and it’s been left for a few years, permanently wet, with the damage mounting - plaster falling apart, mold developing, floors being ruined (carpets destroyed, tile separating, wood finishes being destroyed), appliances rusting, wood rotting, etc.
The irony is that it probably started off with some fairly minor damage, but that opened the way for everything to fall apart.
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I’m thinking Se7en.
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This helps people to avoid wasting their time. I’ve seen listings with descriptions geared towards people or companies interested in doing extensive renovations (with no interior shots). As a person who wasn’t planning to renovate, that was a red flag that would warn me off considering a property.
If the agent only posted exterior photos, and people wasted time setting up showings thinking the inside matched the outside, they would be probably be angry. That’s not a good business practice.
ETA: The photos help flippers/investors figure out just how bad the situation is, without having to peek in the windows, too.
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