A nightmare Colorado home just hit the market with an online listing that features photos of graffiti-covered walls, a warning about a broken deck and a suggestion to wear a mask because of the stench of rotten meat.
The listing is going viral with 150,000 people checking it out on Redfin in the first 24 hours.
“If you dream of owning your own little slice of hell and turning it into a piece of heaven, then look no further,” the listing reads.
Mimi Foster wrote the description and said that in 30 years working in real estate, she’s never seen anything like the response she’s had.
“I know that in real estate stories grab attention, so when I have an unusual property I try to make it a story. And this was an unusual property,” Foster said. “I didn’t want anyone to walk in unprepared.”
She said she posted the description without showing the homeowner because she didn’t want to be told to tone it down.
In less than 24 hours since the listing went up, Foster had 10 offers and had received 85 phone calls from interested investors and from the media who wanted to know more about how the Colorado Springs house was trashed.
The listing photos show vandalism with vulgarities spray-painted on walls, floors, doors and cabinets along with hammer holes in the drywall and broken windows — and the sellers are not trying to hide it. A freezer full of meat was left unplugged for months.
“There is not one surface of the home that has not been enhanced with black spray paint or a swinging hammer,” the listing says. “Damage done by an angry departing tenant who didn’t want to pay rent.”
Foster said the previous tenant was in a rent-to-own situation for about 10 years with the current homeowner. Things went south when she stopped paying rent and was evicted. After the eviction, Foster said, a previous property management company let the tenant back into the house unsupervised, and that’s when the vandalism happened, she said.
Foster said the home sat empty for several months after it was vandalized and when the damage was finally discovered they found something even worse: Several cats had been locked in the home and left to die.
“I’m telling you she’s nuts. The neighbors were terrified of her,” Foster said of the tenant. “She ran a pet rescue, so that fact that she brought cats in there and locked them in and killed them is shocking.”
The police were alerted, but so far no arrest has been made.
The tenant also had the house reroofed and didn’t pay for it, which led to a $38,000 lien on the property which was now the responsibility of the current homeowner.
With a June 30 foreclosure deadline looming, Foster on Tuesday listed the 3,598-square-foot home at $590,000. If it were fixed up, she said, it could probably sell for about $700,000. Four estimates to fix the damage range from $150,000 to $230,000.
The five-bed, four-bath home was built in 1993 and sits on a three-quarter-acre lot.
“This house is not for the faint of heart but for that special person who can see through the rough diamond to the polished gem inside,” the listing reads.
