Teh One Who Knocks
10-12-2017, 11:41 AM
By Emily Landes - SF Gate
https://i.imgur.com/flYe5xk.jpg
A Mountain View cottage with under 1,000 square feet and in “distressed condition” has sold for $1,100,000 in a matter of weeks. Sadly, in the crazy world of South Bay real estate that alone would not be enough to merit our attention. What really caught our eye was the unique restrictions put on the deal: no interior viewing of the home, extensive repairs needed to the home by the buyer before the close of escrow and, get this, seven years of free rent for the current owner.
That extensive list of demands may be what dropped the sales price half a million dollars below its original asking price of $1,600,000. When the listing came to market last month, listing agent Joban Brown told NBC he didn’t think it was an unusual asking price for the area. He further explained that the elderly owner wanted the seven-year “rent back” so they could stay in their home. “It’s a special property not in a typical situation,” he said, adding, “It will have to be a particular buyer.”
The situation certainly isn’t typical, but it also isn’t totally unique. Last year, an elderly buyer put her Filbert Steps home on the market for $2 million, with the stipulation that she could continue to live there for the rest of her life. In that case, no buyer stepped forward and the home was removed from market in April of this year.
It may have been the indeterminate amount of time that scared buyers off of that deal. In the case of the Mountain View cottage, buyers willing to wait until 2024 stepped up immediately. It went into contract only days after it came to market.
We’re thinking the buyers plans to develop the property, which sits on a 7,500-square-foot lot near the heart of downtown Mountain View. Maybe they are figuring that by the time the site plans are drawn up and approved it’ll be just shy of seven years anyway.
https://i.imgur.com/flYe5xk.jpg
A Mountain View cottage with under 1,000 square feet and in “distressed condition” has sold for $1,100,000 in a matter of weeks. Sadly, in the crazy world of South Bay real estate that alone would not be enough to merit our attention. What really caught our eye was the unique restrictions put on the deal: no interior viewing of the home, extensive repairs needed to the home by the buyer before the close of escrow and, get this, seven years of free rent for the current owner.
That extensive list of demands may be what dropped the sales price half a million dollars below its original asking price of $1,600,000. When the listing came to market last month, listing agent Joban Brown told NBC he didn’t think it was an unusual asking price for the area. He further explained that the elderly owner wanted the seven-year “rent back” so they could stay in their home. “It’s a special property not in a typical situation,” he said, adding, “It will have to be a particular buyer.”
The situation certainly isn’t typical, but it also isn’t totally unique. Last year, an elderly buyer put her Filbert Steps home on the market for $2 million, with the stipulation that she could continue to live there for the rest of her life. In that case, no buyer stepped forward and the home was removed from market in April of this year.
It may have been the indeterminate amount of time that scared buyers off of that deal. In the case of the Mountain View cottage, buyers willing to wait until 2024 stepped up immediately. It went into contract only days after it came to market.
We’re thinking the buyers plans to develop the property, which sits on a 7,500-square-foot lot near the heart of downtown Mountain View. Maybe they are figuring that by the time the site plans are drawn up and approved it’ll be just shy of seven years anyway.