By Julianne McShane
A Fairfax, Virginia, home was sold in early April for more than the initial asking price even though the ad included an unusual warning: A person lives in the basement of the home.
The five-bedroom, four-bathroom home sold on April 15 for $805,000 to an anonymous buyer, public records show.
Agent Zinta K. Rodgers-Rickert of RE/MAX Gateway real estate agency said she received five cash offers and closed in less than a week.
The notice generated a lot of media attention by stating that the purchase required "acknowledgment that the home will be sold with a person(s) living on the lower level without a lease."
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"NO ACCESS to view lower level," the ad warned.
Two days after the house went on the market, the account of the social network Instagram Zillow Gone Wild reproduced it, calling attention to the fact that it included "a specific clause in the purchase price".
The post garnered 35,000
likes
and comments from users speculating about the identity of the basement tenant and mocking the unusual circumstances of the sale.
"$800,000 for 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and your own serial killer," one user commented.
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"Is the basement haunted? Looks like the basement is haunted," wrote another.
Before the sale closed, Rodgers-Rickert told The New York Post that the seller was an elderly man who was sick in the hospital and had offered the basement dweller a place to stay after she cleaned up. his house and "convinced him that he needed a place to stay.
"He offered her the basement, and she never left. And she doesn't pay rent," Rodgers-Rickert added.
A house in Fairfax, Virginia, which includes a stranger who lives in the basement, was sold for $805,000.Google Maps
The agent told the newspaper that the man's family hoped to sell the house before he died because he did not have a will and they did not have the money to hire a lawyer to handle the eviction process.
Rodgers-Rickert declined to comment further to NBC News about the situation of the basement dweller or the vendor.
A neighbor told the local FOX 5 station that a mother and daughter live in the basement of the house.
The ad describes the lower level of the home as a "walkout basement" containing a "bedroom, full bathroom, storage room, and large living room."
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The 3,500-square-foot home was built in 1964 and sold for $319,000 in 1997, public records show.
The listing for sale indicates that the house needs repairs, and is estimated to cost around $25,000.
"The place is habitable but needs a little TLC," he says.
In the photos you can see that the kitchen counter is full of empty bottles, there is some deteriorated furniture on the terrace, and the window frames are apparently rotten.
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To claim squatter rights in Virginia, a person has to live in a place for 15 years and not hide the fact that they live there, according to local news station WUSA9.
Rodgers-Rickert told NBC News that he attributes the house's quick sale to "the strength of the market" for real estate.
"The tight supply of homes in the area continues to drive the market and makes all sales possible when priced correctly," he wrote in a text message.