An "as is, where is" house with several external walls that had been boarded up and a window lying on the grass has sold for even less than its land value.
The run-down three-bedroom, one-bathroom house on Huia Avenue, in Forrest Lake, sold under the hammer on Thursday for $409,000, which is $41,000 below land value and $331,000 below its RV.
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The auction for the deceased estate, which was marketed as a “do up” or “pull down”, opened at $300,000 and steadily rose until it hit $390,000. It was finally announced on the market at about $404,000 and it sold at $412,000 at Harcourts Hamilton's auction room last Thursday.
The previous owner paid $130,000 for the house in 2004 and, according to the listing by Harcourts agent Eddie Apps, the vendor was seriously motivated to see it sold at auction.
The three-bedroom property had missing cupboards, was missing wallpaper and flooring and had a broken window. Photo / Supplied
The three people fighting over the property ended up placing a total of 37 bids, some as low as $1000.
Listing photos show the property in a broken state with a cracked window in the kitchen, wallpaper stripped off the walls, doors missing from the cupboards and only some of the carpet and vinyl flooring intact.
Harcourts Hamilton owner and auctioneer Campbell Scott said everyone bidding on it appeared to want the 658sqm for development purposes and planned to bowl the house.
"I don't think anyone was doing it up."
Scott said "as is, where is" houses occasionally come up for sale in Hamilton, but they were usually in better condition than the Huia Ave house.
Properties often sold under land value if the buyer needed to spend money in addition to the purchase price such as removing the existing dwelling, he said.
Meanwhile another three-bedroom, one-bathroom property a few doors down at 24C Huia Avenue is also for sale for $549,000. The property is being marketed at first-home buyers and was refurbished in 2019.
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