Photo: Redfin
Desperate for a fixer-upper? This Lafayette home in the East Bay might be your ticket to owning property in the Bay Area for under $1 million, but there’s a catch — the home is red-tagged and deemed unfit for entry. Why is it red-tagged, you ask? Because it’s perched on the edge of a cliff, and heavy rains caused a landslide to wipe out the backyard in February.
Built in 1961, 21 Chapel Drive sits on half an acre of land in a quiet cul-de-sac. The home boasts four bedrooms, three bathrooms and 2,385 square feet of living space. The current owners are in their 90s, and have lived there for decades. “What’s going on right now is they just don’t have it in them to fix it and go through that,” Keller Williams Realty listing agent Valerie Crowell told SFGate.
Even the property description on Redfin admits that it’s “not for the faint of heart.” The asking price sits at $850,000, while similar properties are listed for $1.5 million. The lower price tag takes into account the anticipated $470,000 to $600,000 that will be required for engineering work and home renovations.
Crowell told KTVU, “the house is is still near the best schools,” but admitted that if a realtor listed a hazardous property for nearly $1 million anywhere else, “you’d be nuts.” Despite the caution tape, there appears to be a lot of interest — Crowell says she receives four or five calls per day, and has had at least one offer on the teetering home. Once it’s safe enough to enter, the new owners will inherit a recently renovated kitchen and a majestic view of Mt. Diablo.
If you’re interested in seeing more of the destruction caused by the landslide, check out this aerial video of the property shot by KTVU.
Photo: Redfin
Photo: Redfin
Photo: Redfin
