A home in Fairfax, Virginia recently sold over asking price for $805,000 after being on the market for just a few days. It has five bedrooms, four bathrooms -- and two people living in the basement rent free.
Some people wouldn't even consider buying a home that has a stranger permanently living in it. But the colonial at 3709 Prado Place, about a half hour outside Washington, D.C., received five cash offers and closed less than a week after it was listed, NBC News reported.
The home made headlines after it was posted on the Zillow Gone Wild Instagram account, which noted there was a "specific clause in the purchase price."
That specific clause, according to the listing: "Home sold AS IS ONLY with acknowledgement that home will convey with a person(s) living in lower level with no lease in place."
The listing also notes that the buyer will have "NO ACCESS to see lower level," described as a walk out basement with legal bedroom, full bath, storage and large living area.
While the listing goes into no further detail about home's unusual stipulation for sale, reports indicate it's a case of a squatter who refuses to leave.
"Three years ago, a woman was cleaning the senior owner's house and she convinced him that she needed a place to stay," Zinta Rodger-Rickert, the RE/MAX Gateway listing agent, told the New York Post. "He offered her the basement, but then she never left. And she does not pay rent."
The 79-year-old homeowner is likely heading for hospice care and his family doesn't have the resources to try to evict the squatter, so they put the property up for sale, Rodger-Rickert said.
"We are hoping the next owner will want to deal with that process," she added.
A neighbor told FOX 5 that a mother and daughter have been living in the basement.
Squatters can make legal claims over a property if certain conditions set by the state are met. In Virginia, a squatter can assume ownership of a property if they've lived there for 15 continuous years.
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