House of the Day: 13% Price Cut in Kensington

I've been covering this on bksqueeze. It is also listed with Aguayo & Huebener. (http://bksqueeze.blogspot.com/2005/03/chester-molester-is-back.html#comments)

I think I might have mislabeled the street number because the seller had two properties on the block for sale but the one I checked out is the one in the picture. I profiled this in December as a bad deal, (http://bksqueeze.blogspot.com/2004/12/bad-deal-of-week-71-chesters-molester.html#comments). They were asking $750k and comparable houses in the area were selling under $500k, based on PropertyShark records, and this house was more viable as a one family (you'd get two really small units otherwise).

I originally looked at this place in November when it listed only with Warren Lewis, and the inside was a mediocre, rushed rehab with no architecturally redeeming features:

"Lucky 7 Part II
House #3 and 4 - They call him flipper
Dealing with flippers is so annoying. These people should just stay out of my way when it comes to buying real estate. Let's forget about the fact that I think prices are high anyway, without these imbeciles driving up the prices further. It would be one thing if they actually added value, but they are preying on inefficient markets. So anyway, we saw two houses on the same block, same agent and smelled something funny. They were both two family, though as usual, having a rental unit left you pretty cramped -- the owner could have a reverse duplex where the bedrooms were in the basement (some light went in through the small windows). The house had some nice rehab touches but overall it looked like a cheap, rushed job without much thought put into it (in the kitchen, the countertops weren't even on and the fridge was next to the stove, a major no-no). When I asked the agent how long the current owner had these places, she said one year. Nuff said"

Posted by: Anonymous at May 12, 2005 11:14 AM

I saw both of the houses BK Squeeze mentioned if he is also referring to the one on the corner. That one was listed at 750 and I think it sold for 720. The one with the price drop just feels strange and unfinished. What I remember is there was a gas pipe running through the closet in the upstairs front bedroom (maybe for a potential kitchen or remnants of one?. It really is unusable as a 2 family if you have a family. Also, the stove is next to the refridgerator.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 12, 2005 2:28 PM