Would you buy Dorothea Puente’s House?
Last Friday the Sacramento Bee came out with a story that Dorthea Puente’s old house at 1426 F Street in Sacramento would be going up for sale. Who is Dorethea Puente, you ask? She is a woman who ran a “boarding house” in the 1980s out of her Sacramento Victorian duplex. Unfortunately though instead of finding respite her tenants were drugged and murdered so their social security checks could be cashed. Eventually seven bodies were found buried in Dorothea’s backyard.
This property sold for $560,000 on 08/31/2005, went into foreclosure last year, and is now listed on the market at $309,800 as of 02/26/2010. The current MLS listing states, “Property has notorious history that must be disclosed.”
Would you have any problems purchasing a property like this? Or would you consider renting this house? Would it bother you on any level or be no big deal? Creepy? Good investment? If you are a real estate agent, have you had experience selling a property with a stigma due to a murder, violent crime or some other heinous or notorious issue?
Original photos of 1426 F Street (it was a bit cloudy today unfortunately):
Related posts:
- “Settling” for a house at the beach
- A profile of a pot house in Elk Grove
- Flip that burned house: before and after photos
Tagged as: 1426 F Street · Appraisal after murder · Bank Owned · Crime Scene at a house · Does a murder affect market value · Dorothea Puente · Foreclosure · Murder House · Propety with Stigma · Real Estate Appraiser · REO · Sacramento · Sacramento Bee · violent crime and property value
Interesting and inspiring article
Isn’t this very uplifting and motivational content, Keith?
Ryan,
I had to appraise a property several years ago where the owner had committed suicide. We are always told that the stigma will affect the sales price but try as I might, I could not find market evidence of this, so no adjustment was made. I guess it would probably depend on where it was at as well as other factor too. Good post.
It sounds like you did the right thing, Tom. Maybe in your market for that property, it just was not a big deal. I would be surprised if there was no reaction to the Puente house here though. Who knows though? We’ll see.
Years ago when my wife and I were house hunting, we looked at a house where there had been a suicide. We felt so bad for the family and their situation, but ultimately we felt that we wouldn’t purchase the house because we didn’t want to have to explain to our kids what happened in the house and where it happened too (or to have neighbors inform our kids). For us, we would not have paid market value for that property because of the stigma in our mind. That poor family.
Ryan, I have two similar anecdotes from the Philadelphia area. The first one involves a mansion where a doctor who was losing his wife to cancer decided to kill her (a la Jack Kevorkian) and their 4 children. The property has sold three times since the incident. At the time of the first sale, the MLS mentioned the history of the house and what occurred there. Subsequent listings have not mentioned the incident since, it was understood that there was not longer a stigma since the property did sell after the murders. I personally would have an issue living there.
The second also occurred in the Chestnut Hill section of hiladelphia. I was appraising a resident with a carrige house apartment above the garage. When inspecting the carriage house I notice that there was a roofer making some repairs and a painter and a floor guy also working at the property. It seemed odd that they were all there at the same time. So I asked the painter what was going on. Well, apparently, the tenant living in the carriage house wasn’t having a great year. He decided to end things with a 12 gauge shotgun…thus the hole in the roof, the need to paint the room and refinish the floors.
It’s understandable to see a stigma disappear or lessen over time. That’s a great point. Thanks for sharing your examples, Michael. That must have been a bit eerie to see the roofer and floor repairman there at the same time.
I’m paying careful attention to the Puente house to see if there is any sort of recognizable stigma. Most people I have talked with have had a negative reaction to the idea of buying this property. Puente was convicted in the early 90s too, so the crimes were not that long ago. However, one thing that sets this property apart is that it is a duplex, so will an investor care? That’s the real question.
hello i would buy the house i would not upset me one bit its a hopuse with interesting history that no one else you know like friends of family would have , its a house that a family can make a safe haven so what if it has history if the president was killed in the white house for example they would just clean it and the next president would go there it would have history rite. if this house was given to me id take it. i dont have money of that type to buy it but i like it. no iam not strange or wierd so it happens everyday and i think it will and should sell with no problem you can get back to me if you like .dawnmariecole54@gmail.com
Dawn, thanks for your comment. I think it all really depends on the person. Some people are really freaked out at the possibility of purchasing a property like this, whereas others would have no problem at all. Now if someone were to give this property to me like you said, I’d take it in a heartbeat.
[...] Ryan Lundquist on July 26th, 2010 Almost five months ago I wrote about Dorothea Puente’s duplex coming on the market. If you don’t know Puente’s history, she ran a “boarding [...]
I walk by the house all the time at lunch and was looking for the address of the house and came upon this blog. Very interesting comments. Now that I know the actual address I will pay attention! I knew I was close! If the house were given to me I would take it and sell it but I don’t really want to live downtown anyway so I wouldn’t buy it.
Thanks Shellie for the comment. I think many people feel similar to you. If the agent cannot sell it, he can certainly give it to me (or you too).
If you see any “pending” or “sold” signs or talk to the new owner or tenants, feel free to comment back. We’d love your firsthand insight.
[...] information? I wrote previously about this property twice: Would you buy Dorothea Puente’s house? and Dorothea Puente’s duplex is still on the market. Any takers? The Sacramento Bee published [...]
[...] scenario is still thought-provoking. On the other side, would you pay less in other cases, maybe serial killer Dorothea Puente (sold last year)? What role have you seen former ownership play in real estate? If you have any [...]