COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A Colorado Springs home dubbed as "not for the faint of heart" has been listed in Colorado Springs.
The dilapidated house features profane graffiti on almost every wall, soiled carpets from an illegal pet rescue run out of the residence and a broken refrigerator in the basement filled with rancid meat left more than a year earlier when the tenant was evicted. Even still, the house is listed for $590,000 cash.
"We have an expression, 'if it smells, it won't sell,'" said Mimi Foster, the listing agent with Falcon Property Company. "I am putting that to the test."
Her listing, posted to Redfin, holds nothing back. In it, she calls the house "every landlord’s nightmare" and says it could be "your own little slice of hell." The listing also points out that the back porch is falling off of the house and that the entire foundation sits in a "pink" zone for geological landslides.
"I wanted them to know that they were getting a damaged house with a lot of potential," Foster said. "I didn't want anybody to walk in here and be surprised with what they found. I didn't want them thinking they were walking into a nice five-bedroom, four-bath, three-car garage home in Broadmoor Bluffs."
Even with the extensive damage, rancid smells, and excessive profanity on the walls, Foster says she has received 16 written cash offers in the first 24 hours of the house being on the market.
"I list vacant houses all the time. I have not seen this kind of hysteria, even in this market," she explained. "I've gotten about 89 text messages since we've gotten to the house this afternoon."
The Colorado Springs housing market, like many others across Colorado, is red hot. Foster says on average, there are roughly 2,500 homes in her area listed on any given day. Now, there are fewer than 400.
"In a normal market, people will ask for closing costs, they'll ask for major fixes," she explained. "Most houses are selling right now as is. People aren't asking for anything."
Foster says she never intended to sell the house like this, but the national freeze on home foreclosures ends in July and the owner cannot afford to fix the vandalism caused by the most recent tenant. She hopes someone can come in and make the house a home once again after extensive renovations.
"It was a happy place for decades," she said. "And somebody will come in and they will get rid of the anger and anguish that went on here. And it will be a cherished place to live once again."
This story was originally published by Sloan Dickey at KMGH.
