Behind many good deals lies a sad story. Such is the case with today’s House of the Day. After inheriting the brownstone at 306 Clinton Avenue from her father, the current owner’s battle with mental illness prevented her from caring for the house—or from paying the property tax. So after three years, a judge has ordered the house sold. The listing price is an absurdly low $925,000. A neighbor who attended the open house yesterday reports that there’s lots of architectural detail (“Original woodwork, fixtures on the doors, original parquet inlaid floors and even some original light fixtures”) still in place, in spite of the neglect the house has suffered. She also reports that the place was crawling with a lot of “developer types” and gave us the heads-up in the hopes of catching the attention of someone who will restore the place properly to live in. So how ’bout it, shoppers? The broker’s name is Bart Schwartz; he can be reached at 718-376-9666 (office) or 718-753-1727 (cell). All bids are due by June 4, at which point the judge will declare a winner. Update: The original source of this story dropped us another email in response to some of the comments.

It seems that there might be a bit of confusion aut the owner’s situation. A number of years ago, her guardians and social worker realized that the owner could no longer care for herself alone in a brownstone that had no electrity, no water and no heat. So, a few years ago, she moved to live in a more therapeutic environment where she can receive the treatment and medication that she needs. I wonder if people were upset about the sale because they thought that she was effectively being evicted from the premises, which is not the case. The house has been vacant and slowly falling apart for a number of years now and the proceeds of the sale that would go to the trust could only benefit her in continuing to finance the care that she has been receiving. I hope this clears up any confusion.

GMAP P*Shark