Million-dollar home sold with squatter living in the basement
<p dir="ltr">A house in the US state of Virginia has sold for way above the asking price, despite coming with a stranger living in the basement. </p>
<p dir="ltr">According to public records, the five-bedroom, four-bathroom house sold for $A1.1m ($US805,000) to an unnamed buyer on April 15th. </p>
<p dir="ltr">The <a href="https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3709-Prado-Pl-Fairfax-VA-22031/51836844_zpid/">online listing</a> quickly went viral, after it noted that putting an offer in on the home required “an acknowledgement that home will convey with a person(s) living in lower level with no lease in place.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">“NO ACCESS to see lower level,” the listing added.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Just days after the home was listed, an Instagram account called Zillow Gone Wild posted about the bizarre listing, noting that it came with “a specific clause in the purchase price”. </p>
<p dir="ltr">The post racked up over 35,000 likes and comments from users speculating about the identity of the basement tenant and poking fun at the unusual circumstances of the sale.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“800k for 5 bd, 4 ba and your own serial killer,” a user commented.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Is the basement haunted? Feels like the basement is haunted,” another wrote.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Before the sale closed, the listing agent told the <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/04/14/virginia-man-selling-home-after-squatter-refuses-to-leave/">New York Post</a> that the seller of the home was an elderly man who was sick in the hospital and had offered the basement dweller a place to stay three years ago after she cleaned his home and “convinced him that she needed a place to stay”.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“So he offered her the basement, but then she never left. And she does not pay rent,” Rodgers-Rickert added.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The agent told the publication that the man’s family was hoping to sell the home before he died because he didn’t have a will and they didn’t have the money to hire a lawyer to work on the eviction of the “tenant”.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Rodgers-Rickert declined to comment to NBC News on the circumstances of the seller or the basement dweller following the sale of the house to a new owner. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Zillow</em></p>
