A decaying, 122-year-old Victorian marketed as the worst house on the best block of San Francisco sold for nearly $2 million, an eye-catching price that the realtor said was the result of overbidding in an auction.
A developer's $1.97 million cash offer for the 2,158 square-foot 200 square-meter property in the Noe Valley neighborhood was completed last week. Some commenters marveled at the price while others questioned the value of a house with boarded-up windows, peeling paint and an unstable foundation on the Zillow Gone Wild social media page.
One commenter joked that it actually has a parking space. It sold for almost 2 million dollars! Todd Wiley, who represented the seller, said the property sold at several hundred thousand dollars higher than other comparable fixer-uppers in the area.
Wiley said a judge approved the sale of the house after its elderly owner was placed in a conservatorship. The family of the man, concerned about the way he was living, hired a licensed fiduciary to handle the sale, with the proceeds going to pay for his continuing care, according to Wiley.
The house received the highest offer of $1.4 million, and a probate judge ratified the offer, setting off a roughly 7 week process in which the house stayed on the real estate market.
Wiley said that kept things low and kept five to six bidders in the game. Two people ultimately went neck and neck, and it was that auction environment that led it to go where it was. They really wanted it, but the data point didn't support that sale. He said it was an anomaly.