News | advice | area guide

California Haunted House Has a Spooky 88.88% Price Plunge

Two years ago, we came across this “haunted house” with a spooky story on the market for $899,000 in the tiny Northern California town of Dunsmuir.

Now there’s another mystery about the massive Victorian, which was listed for nearly $900,000 just a couple of years ago. It’s back on the market after a massive 88.88% price reduction, for a mere $100,000.

Built in 1912, the home retains many fine details of its original Victorian architecture, including crown moldings, a sun porch, and the staircase. The home also has an interesting family background, and even a few ghost stories.

The cause for the ghoulish rep? Well, the home had a mortuary in the basement, complete with some tools of the trade, and, the owner claimed, the skeletal remains of a girl left in a casket.

In fact, this mansion with its on-site funeral services was the inspiration for the best-seller “The Mortician’s Wife.”

The home was picked up as a foreclosure in 2010. After moving in, the homeowners began to witness some creepy occult activity: the fire in the fireplace briefly going out, then roaring back to life; a mysterious hand on the privacy glass in the bathroom; and various doors opening and slamming shut for no reason.

The homeowners, a couple, decided to use those otherworldly experiences as a “dark tourism” sales pitch, and planned to remake the place as a “Dead and Breakfast,” one of the owners told us at the time. They began to renovate and decorate.

But the couple divorced, and the home was put on the market in 2015. The property, which was on its way back to its former glory, languished on the market. The price dropped to $599,000 in July 2016. Now, priced at just $100,000, it’s barely more than the $69,000 that it sold for as a foreclosure in 2010.

In fact, the current listing agent confirmed the home went back into foreclosure.

“He looked like he renovated it, but not really,” LuAnn Wiegele of Century 21 Advantage says of the former owner. “He took out all the plumbing and appliances. He really left it in a mess.”

We don’t know exactly what happened, but the staging of the home is no more. The formerly grand Victorian, whose design reportedly had input from architect Julia Morgan, has fallen into disrepair.

Shingles are falling off the exterior. Inside, the ceilings remain exposed, wiring hangs out of walls, windows are boarded up, plumbing and appliances have been removed, and only one bathroom remains.

The good news is that at least one buyer wasn’t spooked by the work involved in restoring this home to its former grandeur. The listing is in escrow, according to Wiegele. And the home’s haunted past now has a future.

The post California Haunted House Has a Spooky 88.88% Price Plunge appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

Source: Real Estate News and Advice – realtor.com » Real Estate News