Scrappy Sebastopol farmhouse asks $995K

If you’re tired of high-rise condos, sweeping renovations, and chillingly contemporary interiors, here’s something completely different.

Just a hop, skip, and jump from Sebastopol’s Atascadero Creek, 1191 Barlow Lane listed this week for all of $995,000.

The three bed, two bath, 2,900 foot farmhouse comes with a barn and 10 acres of land on the outskirts of town, near the like of Singing Frog Farm, the onetime Indian Rancheria, and Ranch Ragle Park.

Despite the seeming quaintness of the arrangement, the property on Barlow is more midcentury than turn of the century, dating to just 1966.

And, frankly, it looks every day of its 50th anniversary. Interior photos reveal a battered barrow in need of serious TLC.

Depending on who you ask, homes in Sebastopol average anywhere between $600,000 (on Trulia) to exactly $995,000 (on Redfin).

That makes this either a hefty price tag or a precisely average one, although it can be hard to generalize about small towns, since they necessarily offer a small sample size.

Either way it’s a probably a lot to plunk down for something that’s going to need this much extra work on the back end.

Still, we can’t shake the feeling that there’s something downright likable about this property in spite of its problems. Maybe it’s just the basic charm of the phrase “a farm in Sebastopol.”

Or maybe it’s just the value of all of that land in a town where vacant parcels can sell for nearly $200,000 an acre in their own right.

Either way, if anybody wants to cancel their plans to renovate and flip yet another local Victorian and put the same amount of money and attention into this old place (which, let’s face it, needs it way more), who would complain?

• 1191 Barlow Lane [Estately]
• Sebastopol Overview [Trulia]
• Sebastopol Listings [Redfin]