You never know what you are going to find when you enter a home for sale that is in probate and on lockbox.
I took my client to see what in its day must have been a very charming Victorian cottage-like home in the central Sunset near the park. The owner had died and now the home was being sold. We entered after the sun had gone down so it was dark and the first light switch did not work. I turned on a flashlight from my iPhone and what we saw could have been right out of a horror movie.
The walls were covered in graffiti and it looked like someone had taken a knife and slashed the walls. The bathroom’s sink was filled with brown water and the walls were so covered in dirt that neither my client nor I ventured inside of the bathroom. A mouse could be seen scurrying about inside.
We left and encountered a neighbor walking his dog. “What went on here?” I asked. He was quick to tell us that the original owner had kept the place impeccably. Then when he died, his older son moved in with his teenage boys who were in a gang and the place was never the same again. For ten years, the neighbors had put up with loud ruckus parties and all sorts of noise emanating from the home.
Now, it just needed someone to buy it and turn it back into the jewel it once was. We call this an opportunity in the real estate business.:)
