Frankston house too dangerous to inspect after 30 years abandoned sold in ‘mad’ auction result
A property that sat abandoned for 30 years and was deemed too dangerous for internal inspections has sold for close to $200,000 above what it was expected to in ‘mad’ scenes.
An abandoned, graffiti-filled Frankston house too dangerous for buyers to inspect has sold for almost $200,000 more than its reserve price in a result dubbed “mad”.
An incredible 14 bidders emerged from a crowd of more than 100 as the 17 Brooklyn Ave house went under the hammer.
Incredibly, the home had been unlived in for 30 years with its front door unlocked for at least the past five years.
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While FosterFroling Real Estate’s Aaron Froling had refused to open the home up for inspections in the lead up to the sale for fears buyers would fall through the floor, or be injured by damaged areas — he said he was aware a handful had reached through a hole near the front door and unsnibbed it to allow themselves into it.
“I have no doubt that many of the buyers went in unattended — the front door couldn’t be locked properly,” Mr Froling said.
The house went under the hammer with a $525,000 reserve price, the bottom of its pre-auction price guide, but was the subject of “very, very ferocious” bidding.
An opening offer of $400,000 was topped with a $50,000 rise within eight seconds. About 10 seconds later it was up to $500,000, and in the space of a minute of the first bid it was on the market and had reached $560,000.
In the end the hammer came down at $705,000.
“It was mad, I just don’t understand it,” Mr Froling said.
“And I don’t believe it would have got that result if it hadn’t been vacant for 30 years.”
The house had been bought by a couple planning to use it as a coastal base in the 1980s, but when they moved to Canberra about 10 years later the family never made it back to the home.
Mr Froling said neighbours had helped keep the home mostly in shape over the years, but that local youths had been sneaking into it as a club house of sorts for a long time.
The house is full of graffiti as a result, with ivy starting to grow into it from the garden as well.
The 900sq m property was among the most affordable listings in the suburb so far this year with a $525,000-$575,000 pre-auction price guide.
But Mr Froling said with 5000 views in the space of a week of two weeks of it being listed, the home had captured buyers’ interests in a way that went far beyond what he felt it would ordinarily be worth.
The agent said the buyer’s plans were to bulldoze the home and replace it with a rooming house, a pursuit that had become increasingly feasible as Melbourne’s rental crisis had strained tenants’ ability to privately lease an entire residence.
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Originally published as Frankston house too dangerous to inspect after 30 years abandoned sold in ‘mad’ auction result