The Lake home where fire officials recently removed a "mummified" body will go up for auction, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The 1904 Queen Anne Victorian is not currently listed for sale; instead, the owners have appointed Tim Hawko of Zephyr Real Estate to sell the home at a live auction. Typically, notes the Chronicle, live bidding starts at a price at about 5 percent, plus $500, above the highest sealed bid. Located at 152 Fourth Avenue, on the border between the Inner Richmond and Lake, the single-story house has seven total rooms, two bathrooms and clocks in at 1,130 square feet. The Richmond is a favorite neighborhood among flippers—it topped our scary albeit unscientific roundup of homes with price gains of 100 percent or more—and in Lake, even properties with mold-streaked walls can command premiums of $1 million over asking.
Homes with a recent death on the property can be a turnoff, though we'd wager San Francisco's flipper class (those gleeful vivisectors of intricate woodwork and any fireplace that dares to look three-dimensional) has the stomach for pretty much anything—even a former "hoarder home" filled with rats, black widows, mold, hundreds of bottles of urine, and a "mummified" body wrapped in a blanket. (Police believe the body, found bound up in a blanket, belonged to a 90-year-old woman who died around five years ago, CBS noted at the time.)
One realtor, Kevin Birmingham, told the Chronicle that once the property gets a total overhaul, it "is a $2.5 million house all day long," adding, "The people looking at hoarder houses are developers or investors, so the fact that someone passed away—whether mummified or not—it doesn't bother them a bit."
Even for a total rebuild, $2.5 million strikes us as a bit steep for what's probably a two-bedroom or, at best, small three-bedroom. Assuming the home stays within its original footprint, we can't see this place going for more than $2 million, unless it's rebuilt with floor-to-ceiling Carrara marble and is paved with gold Apple watches. Famous last words?
· Buying a Hoarder House Not a Turnoff for Most Investors [SF Chronicle]
· 152 4th Ave [Redfin]
· Mummified Body Found Inside SF Home [CBS]
· An Entire Year of SF's Most Heart-Stopping House Flips, Mapped [Curbed SF]
· Run-Down, Possibly Moldy Lake Triplex Gets $1M Over Asking [Curbed SF]
· Morbid Mapping Service Reveals if Someone Died in Your Home [Curbed SF]
· Flippers Dethrone Lower Pac Heights Queen Anne for $4M Gain [Curbed SF]
· 'Mummified' Body Taken Out Of Hoarder's Richmond District House [SFist]
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