For your entertainment:
Here’s a flip that just went active on Cape Cod. This house sold for $247K last November (although it went Here’s two different listings with different sets of old pics:
http://www.estately.com/listings/info/94-21310598
https://www.redfin.com/MA/Dennis/30-Baxter-St-02639/home/77387297/mlspin-71987596
I remember looking at this listing last year. The place was a dump. This house had been carved into several apartments that were being rented out, and looks pretty bad.
It didn’t have the waterfront I wanted, though, being on a river that is only about 60 feet wide at that point, and I didn’t want to/can’t take on a project like that, so I never saw it in person.
7.5 months later, it has come back on the market for $725K - almost triple!
https://www.redfin.com/MA/Dennis/30-Baxter-St-02639/home/77387297
It sure looks a lot nicer now! It will be interesting to see if they get anything close to this price. It’s way overpriced for the neighborhood, and only a couple houses down from the main drag. That may be good or bad - it is less than 5 minute’s walk from two donut places, two ice cream places, a food store, a liquor store, a bank, and a bunch of other stores.
Cb - come to Cape Cod! There are tons of places like this! 
Very amusing white rock heart on what I assume is the septic mound.
Not sure what that shape is - I thought it looked more like a whale tale.
All that mulch might look nice now, but it will be a PITA to keep weed-free.
I think the SD owner ripped everything of value that could be sold or reused out of the house so the bank, or who over who owns the mortgage, will come out on the short end of the stick.
Looks like pure vengeance to me.
@notrichenough
I’ll bet they will get close to that listed price. Do let us know!
I think @menloparkmom got it right!!
@menloparkmom I’ll look into the foreclosure data and see if he is in foreclosure. His $995k loan is 10 yrs old so I don’t know how much principal is left on the loan that needs to be paid off.
i don’t even have a good guess why the place is gutted
The Cape Cod place is right up my alley. However, the materials are pretty builder grade and, where’s Consolation ??? No vent over the cheap stove.
I WISH I could buy something for $247,000 and put in cheap stuff and sell for $740,000. Not fair:)
Well, it hasn’t yet sold for $740K – the open house is today. That house did have huge potential, however. What fun to take that house and make it nice again.
I don’t think the place was 100% finished when they took the pictures. You can see over the stove there is space for something else to be installed, which I would guess will be a microwave/vent combo thing. There’s a piece of cardboard on the floor in front of it, and a bare bulb over the island. The glass is missing from the showers. There’s missing gutter from the back deck.
They didn’t put in central air - you can see in pictures 11 and 15 (and others) they put in a bunch of those long thin wall units. I wonder if those heat as well? I see baseboard in some of the second floor shots but nothing else on the first floor.
I’m not overly impressed with the wood flooring - it looks like they were mixing different colors. It does not look that good IMO.
Way too many drone shots, too - 7 out of 30. I get that they are cool, but since you can never actually see those views, I think it is misleading. I don’t really care how nice the view is 30 feet above the house.
I think Cb is right about the builder grade materials - that light fixture in picture 14, Home Depot sells those in boxes of two for about $20. Yes, that is a $10 light fixture in in $725,000 house. 
And they are putting up plastic gutters, which is cheap look.
I will be shocked if they get anywhere close to $700K, although values can get a little crazy for anything with water.
The open house there today was cancelled.
For comparison, here is another house that just got listed, with salt water frontage and sweeping views of the bay. And a dock. It’s listed for $850K. If I am choosing between these two, I am stretching for this one.
https://www.redfin.com/MA/Mashpee/386-Mashpee-Neck-Rd-02649/home/77483170
The Baxter house is weird. They used wood shakes?! I will pass. That is a maintenance nightmare. The whale tail is bizzare. The kitchen layout is pretty bad. They have the stove next to the fridge. Yikes. That is against all kitchen Six Sigma! Let me guess… The flipper does not cook. 
Wood shakes are very popular on Cape Cod @BunsenBurner
They are dang popular here, too. Here is the deal with shakes: they are no longer made out of the dense cores of old growth trees. Because there are not so many such trees… and those quality shakes are expensive! so these new shakes are just softwood destined to rot in a few years. James Hardi makes shakes… Just saying.
The Mashpee house is very dated. Out here buyers just cannot see past the cosmetics. It will be interesting to see if a buyer pays $100k more for better location, but needs a lot of cosmetic upgrading.
I bet they had to cancel Open House because house wasn’t done and the agent told them to get completely done before bringing people through. I personally have stacked deadlines. First is photo ready, then Open House ready and finally, home inspection ready.
Open House ready means curb appeal, staging done, all fixtures, bling and trim is ready. The back yard and fencing can still be a work in progress because people can see past that. They just cannot see past wiring sticking out of the ceiling, baseboards missing (because unpainted bottom of drywall is an eyesore) or paint missing
I assume the Cape Cod houses are second homes, so maybe people care less about out datedness when they can remodel during times they aren’t using the house.
My family’s beach home in CT is for sale. It’s been on the market for about 3 years. My mom and her two sisters sold it in 1970 after my Nana died for $75k. The upkeep was just too expensive and no one was spending summers at the beach anymore. They were all golfers and us kids were at summer camp, almost off to college or done with college and out in working world. It’s had several owners since and the first one winterized it. But except for the coffered ceiling in living room and the front porches, which are in their original condition they owners made a total mash up of the house. They also took the back end of house and made it into an apartment. I’d love to buy it and bring it back to what it once was but it wouid cost a gazillion dollars.
It was originally listed at $1.75 and is now down to $1.1
It’s still beautiful from the outside but the inside makes me cry.
https://www.coldwellbankerhomes.com/ct/milford/124-beach-ave/pid_7220897/#ViewAllPhotos
You know me well, @coralbrook ! I was going to comment that they wrecked the kitchen redo by jamming the stove right up against a thin divider by the fridge. That divider is sure to get scorched almost immediately. They should have put the fridge somewhere else and put in a decent hood.
I really don’t see the Mashpee house as particularly dated, especially for a vacation place. Sure, the kitchen cabinets could use new doors, and the baths could use a little freshening, but I think the slate floors are acceptable in that location. I don’t like carpeting, even in bedrooms, but a lot of people do. With other furnishings it would look less fussy. The location is wonderful.
I have to say the woodwork in Ct home is beautiful. Not sure if the ceilings are original, and they may make the ceiling height low.
I don’t get the smashed up kitchen - sink, stove, fridge. A large kitchen in a $750K house should be done properly. If it’s a second home, better to use the island and put the stove in there (with a downdraft) and get some more counter space.
My home kitchen has a proper hood over the gas cooktop, but I was willing to live with the downdraft (the vent fan rises from below and does actually run to the outside) electric here at the canal since it’s not used as much and I can look out at the view and talk to people in the living area beyond.
@coralbrook - living room ceiling is all original but I believe woodwork wasn’t painted. It’s not low, either. The outside of fireplace is also original but was not painted and did not have that hideous marble(?) right around it. There were also built in glass fronted cabinets on both sides. But I am pretty sure the light fixtures are original.
None of the window are original in the whole house and for some strange reason they took out all the windows on one side of the dining room (which also had beautiful glass fronted bookshelves where now there is only windows.) and that was not what the fireplace looked like at all! In what was my bedroom (on the 2nd floor with the white paneling on the walls,) they covered up the windows on one side - you can see where they were. My bedroom looked out to a full length of second floor screened in porch and I have no idea what is there now - but probably several of those are hideous bathroom as there are/where six bedrooms on that floor but, iirc, only two bathrooms.
The big bedroom on third floor, which was my grandparents room, had just two huge windows which opened out - which she used to yell out at us while we were at the beach.
What is now the apartment (not pictured ) were two other kitchens that my Poppy put in because my mom and one of my Aunts said they couldn’t come live at the beach unless they had their own kitchens. My other Aunt shared my Nana’s kitchen. Above those kitchens were 3 bedrooms, which you could only get to by going through the 2nd floor screened porch.
Originally the front lawn went all the way to the sea wall, but when I was very little the town built a road there.
It so desperately needs the lady (Nicole?) who restores old houses on HGTV.