Bank Again Trying To Unload Dilapidated, Once-Stately Signal Mountain Home Still Valued At $303,400 By Assessor’s Office

  • Sunday, August 2, 2015
  • Judy Frank
Dilapidated Signal house still for sale after bid rejected
Dilapidated Signal house still for sale after bid rejected
To quote Yogi Berra, this week must feel like “déjà vu all over again” to Cleveland Realtor Hank Wilson.
 
Last Thursday, Mr. Wilson learned that Deutsch Bank – which owns the once-stately, spacious 4-bedroom house at 17 Middle Creek in Signal Mountain – had rejected a $167,000 bid on the property on the online auction site Hubzu.
 
At that time, real estate site Zillow indicated the house had been listed for sale for 3,198 days.
Friday, the house was back up on Hubzu – and this time there was a minimum bid of $170,000.
 
By Sunday evening, not a bid had been received, according to the website.
 
According to Mr.
Wilson, he had been the listing agent for auction after featuring 17 Middle Creek Road. The two bids that came in last week the first indications he’s ever gotten that somebody might want to buy the house.
 
One of those two bidders, he said, indicated he believes it will take about $150,000 to bring the house back up to code, “and I figure it will take at least that much.”
 
If the house sold for $167,000 – the amount of the higher of the two bids – and another $150,000 was spent restoring it, that would bring the total cost to $317,000 – about what buyers of large homes in good condition on and around Middle Creek Road are paying, according to Zillow and other websites which follow real estate transactions.
 
According to the Hamilton County Assessor’s website, appraisers there valued the property at a total of $350,000. That includes $303,400 for the house, and another $46,700 for the lot on which it sits. 
 
Gary Dawn, residential property director at the assessor’s office, said Hamilton County properties are re-assessed every four years – but that doesn’t mean an appraiser actually goes out and looks at them.
 
Since the county does not have enough appraisers to personally inspect the thousands of properties in Hamilton County, Mr. Dawn said, it relies on GPS navigation and other online tools that enable employees to do the work without leaving their office.
 
The only time somebody would actually go out and look at a property, he said, is if somebody calls and alerts the assessor or the employees that there is problem.
 
It doesn’t sound like 17 Middle Creek is in very good shape, he noted, but there’s not much he can do about getting the assessment modified until he gets official notification of the problems.
 
“Somebody with a key needs to call us and make an appointment for us to come and look at the property,” Mr. Dawn stressed.
 
Mr. Wilson, the realtor, has toured the house. “It’s in terrible shape,” he said frankly.
 
Signal Mountain officials agree.
 
As the house languished after it was abandoned, the impressive wraparound porches rotted, they said recently. Further, rain leaked through the roof into the 3,409 square-foot structure, damaging its eight rooms.
 
Outside, the grass grew taller and taller, mowed only when somebody who lived nearby couldn’t stand to look at it anymore.
 
Things got so bad, and Middle Creek residents so angry, that the town recently held a demolition hearing to see whether the best thing to do was bulldoze the structure.
 
Still, officials are hoping the house can be saved.
 
Town manager Boyd Veal said he contacted the realtor, asking for assistance in contacting a representative of the owner of the property.
 
“Shortly thereafter we were informed that a potential sale was taking shape and that the interested buyer planned to begin work on the property right away,” Mr. Veal said. “Obviously, that is the best scenario for everyone.  
 
“We have suspended any further action (re: condemning the property) pending the outcome of this transaction. As (town attorney) Phil (Noblett) indicated, we will give the new owner a reasonable period of time to restore this property.  We should know shortly if the sale goes through or if additional action on the part of the condemnation board will need to be considered.”
 
According to the BankForeclosed.com, another online site, the house at 17 Middle Creek was built in 1988. It was purchased in October 2006 by Gary L. Potts for $225,000.
 
But payments on the loan, held by Novastar Mortgage Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio, stopped coming and the property eventually went into foreclosure, according to Bankforeclosed.com.
 
On Jan. 31, 2013, the listed sale price was $358,765 and an auction on the property was scheduled to be held on the steps of the Hamilton County Courthouse at 11 a.m. on Feb. 11, 2013.
 
 
 
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