Yahoo Finance A house under $500,000 in the Bay Area? The catch is there's a tenant until 2053
Imagine the first morning you wake up inside your new house in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco.
An AI robot rolls in to deliver you breakfast in bed. You're feeling good. The year is 2053.
You made the right decision.
Nearly 30 years ago, you purchased the three-bedroom, one-bath house on North View Court for way under its market value — at just $488,000. But there was a catch — you couldn't move in for 29 years, because a tenant had a long-term rental agreement that lasted into the second half of the 21st century.
That's a possible future for anyone seriously interested in the new listing from Park North Real Estate brokerage.
Long lines formed to tour the occupied house, according to KFSN-TV. While it is not clear who the tenant is or how exactly they negotiated their 30-year-lease, Park North did say the owner of the house died recently at the age of more than 100.
The tenant also pays well below market rate rent — just over $400 per month for the spacious house.
"Tenant's current lease appears to grant tenants strong long-term rent rate amount restrictions, unconventional method of rental payment, and possible occupancy rights until 2053," the brokerage wrote in the listing. "Seller & listing agent do not guarantee access to the home and STRONGLY recommend buyers review the seller disclosure package/addenda and confer with a San Francisco landlord/tenant attorney BEFORE making offer."
Douglas Lee, a real estate agent with Compass, said the house in San Francisco is an ideal spot for someone to "land bank" — meaning someone who doesn't intend to use or develop the property until many years out.
"You sit and wait until that tenant either dies, vacates or the lease ends," Lee said. "Once that happens, you realize a ton of your potential. That’s a really good purchase for trust fund people. If you're buying it for your kid who is like zero or 1, in 18 years you know that this thing will be about ready to realize."
The Edwardian-style home on the hill is not the brokerage's only strange and cheap listing. The company also features what it referred to as a "fire sale" for a $188,000 condo. The catch?
"Property is gutted down to the studs due to fire. Outstanding opportunity for a Contractor, Investor or Homeowner who is willing to pay CASH. Please use caution when viewing as there are exposed construction materials. No access to the private deck as slider is damaged from fire," the brokerage wrote.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
