Sold in January for $367,000.
Seattle Washington, ladies and gentlemen.
It’s like a grisly freeway wreck. I want to look away, but I just can’t.
I’m not sure which is more disturbing… That anyone actually lives like this, or that someone paid over a third of a million dollars for what is basically a small landfill.
It looks like the yard has been growing since before they’ve been taking regular aerial and satellite photos of the area. The tarp went on the roof sometime between 2005 and 2006 and it looks like someone cleared the driveway and a new path to the front door in 2011. Given that some of the garbage is fairly new and no place for doing drugs has been cleared out, I figure that some of the locals simply found it a handy place to feed the rats. Who in their right mind would pay that much for bulldozer fodder?
Pretty sure this mess came more from a hoarder or mentally ill person than a vagrant. Sadly I have seen worse.
Imagine a person living in a place for decades who periodically goes off their anti-psychotics. On meds they are somewhat eccentric…off meds they are 100% paranoid and do not want to leave the house. The water started leaking about 10 years ago so they threw newspapers on top of it to soak up the water and turned it off at the street. But the paranoia wouldn’t let them call a plumber so they started using the bathtub as a toilet. They go out once a month at midnight to buy food: boxes of cereal, bottles of sodas and juice. The resident is too paranoid to go outside to take out the trash so it gets added over the decomposing newspapers. Eventually adult protective services decides that the number of neighbor calls has reached critical mass and they remove the person from the home.
The family lists the property at 250k and someone buys it and lets it sit for a year. Turns around and resells the half-composted pile of debris for 367k.
One man’s trash has become another man’s treasure.
Just a guess.
Concur, Samme – and now matter how extraordinary some of the things poking out of the piles may be, there won’t be anything salvageable from that combination of mold, insect, and rodent contamination.
What always makes me cringe is that a place like that is almost certainly larded with genuine valuables. Financial ownership documents, jewelry, irreplaceable antique family treasures, you name it, all “filed” in whatever geological layer of madness was forming the last time the person had it in their hands – on top of the now-rotten junk mail and under the burst cans of food…
What stumps me is why the health department is allowing this place to be put on the block. I see serious potential for fungal diseases – at the least. Given the lack of care for the place, and what may have precipitated it, who knows what other pathogens might be lurking? The place looks like something from the aftermath of a hurricane. If it weren’t for the normal looking neighboring homes, I’d say that’s what we were seeing. But since it’s not… well… the local health authorities ought not to be so overstretched that they couldn’t find the time and resources to come out and condemn the place. ERG.
Reminds me of the story of the guy who purchased a barn full of manure, who grabbed a shovel and yelled, “There has to be a pony in here somewhere!”
just clicked on the link you have for this listing…. it’s been fixed up and relisted…. I thought it was for a different house but you can recognize the fireplace and the details show the sale for 367k… pretty amazing… and they actually put effort into the photos.
HOLY CRAP!!! TFernandez, whoever you are, Thank You for letting us know about the makeover and updated listing. If someone were to tell me they had simply bulldozed the place and started from scratch I would have no trouble believing it. How in the world they overcame the apparent water damage and likely attendant mold problems is beyond me. I’m just glad I didn’t have to dig in alongside the flippers and that I can just sit here in awe and delight at the wonderful job they’ve done. SWEET!!!
@TFernandez: Whoa.
And the makeover of the year award goes to these guys.
Talk about gutting it to the shell… and danged nice job on that shell! I suspect the reason it was worth the price (and turned out so nicely) was that so much of the structure (e.g. where it backs into the hill) was poured concrete, with the rest of it window walls and metal beams. That’s the kind of place you can bleach and sandblast clean. Never have we seen the word “remodeled” used with such power. :D
@TFernandez: Thank you, TFernandez, and welcome to our merry band. ;)
Yeah, I’m still fascinated by it! looking at these photos I would have placed my bet on demolition… still can’t get over what an incredible rebuild job they did… I took a look at the street view and you can’t even tell there was a house behind that jungle!! I bet the neighbors are relieved… I can imagine the stench that came from there was pretty over powering…
Wow! What a change!
@JMixx: More like an entire field of Triple Crown winners, in this case. :)
@TFernandez: Erg, I hadn’t thought of the stench… I just remember thinking that at least with the jungle out front the neighbors weren’t forced to look at the place. But if you’re right, wouldn’t have mattered whether they could see it or not. Like I said… erg. (O_o)