@thumper1, you obviously don’t watch Beachfront Bargain Hunters! 
I meant that it would be a huge cost burden for someone that is trying to sell a $150,000 house somewhere else in MA. They might end up having to take their own money to the table to pay off a mortgage just to get the certification
OMG!!! I thought I had seen it all. But I went through a house last week that tops everything you can imagine.
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Sun
ray Place
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This is a house that is being sold through the County Probate auction. As far as I can tell there must have been a mentally ill extreme hoarder living in the house that was probably pulled out by Social Services. It looks like there was one small mortgage dating back to 1992 that started going into foreclosure about 2009. So, probably in 2009 the owner stopped paying their small mortgage payment due to confusion, who knows? The bank never did foreclosure after many years of sending notices.
So the house is being sold at an auction and it was listing in the MLS just as notification of the auction. Opening Bid $485,000 and I think it could be worth about $650,000 fixed up so I went to look at it.
Front of house doesn’t look that awful. Original cedar shake roof is in very poor condition and needs to be replaced. All the old windows are covered in grime and you can barely see through them. Front and back yards obviously had very high weeds that were hacked down by someone to sell the house. I could see that there is a drainage issue as the house is below the street level and front yard slopes toward house. OK, that’s all fixable.
I was not with my agent and the listing says ‘go through side gate to view back yard, do not open sliding doors’. So, I help myself through the side gate through a large dirt/weed back yard. Back sliding doors are wide open to all the critters.
I can see that all the carpeting was removed and it’s down to concrete slab floors except in the kitchen and bathrooms. Very large black mold in lots of areas on the wall. This is immediate evidence that there was a hoarding issue because the mold forms due to lack of any ventilation with stuff piled up against walls. OK, I can deal with that.
Kitchen was so horrendous that I had to hold my shirt against my nose. Floor was black black black from never being cleaned in a hundred years. Appliances are missing which is a dead giveaway that they had to be hauled away due to total grossness. OK, not fun but we can gut it out to the studs
But then I turn around and I see something I have never even imagined, even in a nightmare. The hallway to bedrooms has root tentacles. I’m curious. Hallway walls are cracking and drywall is just peeling off walls. This is probably due to some kind of serious moisture intrusion. Then I walk in the far bedroom. There are 2-3" wide root tentacles coming up out of the slab and spreading through all the bedrooms and walls - through all four bedrooms. All along the floor. I have never in my life seen this. How could someone live there? This had to have been going on for at least 3 years for the roots to spread that far.
Just out of curiosity I went back outside to the front of house and you cannot see any roots into the house through the bottom part of the foundation. This means they are spreading below front stem wall and coming up through slab throughout the house. Total gut job, entire front of house has to be torn down. Might as well tear down the whole house, nothing worth salvaging.
No thanks… pretty much ran away from that house. But, I might be curious to go to the auction and see if any idiot is going to pay that price for that house. They have it valued way too high.
If you look at the pics on Redfin you can see one dark hallway. Look closely at the floor. That is the root tentacles coming out of the bedroom.
Oh. My. God.
I assume the property itself isn’t worth buying??
I saw a lot of torn downs that is asking top dollar and they are getting it.
OMG indeed!
That sounds like it’s out of Stranger Things!
Took another look. You were smart to pass up. The entire foundation is probably shot if there are roots growing through it. There must have been a leaky pipe or some source of water to draw the roots under that house. The bones of this place are probably in very poor shape… So unless the lot is worth that much, it is very overpriced!
Ewwwww!
OMG!!!
Very overpriced but they think they are going to get it. $485k is too high for the land only. Not to mention cost of demolishing house, trying to get rid of all the tree stumps and tree roots, leaking pipes in front yard and then fix drainage issue in front of house.
I saw a hose bib at the front of the house where the ground surrounding it was soggy wet. This hose bib (or pipe underneath) has obviously been leaking forever because there is no reason for ground to be wet because we haven’t had rain. You can see evidence of 2 large trees that were chopped down at some point (but it doesn’t look like within last 3-4 months) and there is still one tree against front of house. Those roots must have travele4d way under house and are coming up through a concrete slab or some crevices between stem wall and slab on perimeter.
Good luck to the person who buys that gem. 
And the moral of the story is, A stitch in time saves nine.
In other words, maintenance isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity.
Yes, any observant person would have noticed area around front hose bib was wet. One simple fix of pipes and hose bib in front yard would have avoided entire demolition of the house because a new slab is needed
Holly mollie! Talk about one unique property. I am going to swing by this open house!
https://seattle.curbed.com/2017/8/17/16162212/buckminster-fuller-signature-geodesic-dome
Not every day you would see a house signed by Buckminster Fuller shortly before his death.
I always wondered how they are able to roof those geodesic domes so they don’t leak.
Prop 13 generates some weird incentives. In my neck of the woods, that moldy root-invested house would have been stripped and cleared before the property went on the market.
That Sunray house is disgusting. Thought you were going to say it had been abandoned. Someone lived there? I cannot imagine.
ROOTS in a house? It sounds like H.P. Lovecraft!
“I always wondered how they are able to roof those geodesic domes so they don’t leak.”
Me too! I told Mr. that we are exploring the buckyball house this weekend if it open. I will ask that question!