Despite obvious damage, vestiges of this once-stately home’s original character remain
For years – ever since its owners “slipped away in the middle of the night” and never came back, neighbors say – the once-stately, spacious 4-bedroom house at 17 Middle Creek on Signal Mountain has sat abandoned.
Gradually, as the house languished in foreclosure, the impressive wraparound porches rotted, according to town officials. Rain leaked through the roof into the 3,409-square-foot structure, damaging its numerous 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.
Now, however, it looks like somebody finally wants to turn the long-neglected property into a home again.
The latest in a long string of online attempts to auction off the property has brought in a bid, according to Cleveland Realtor Hank Wilson, who is affiliated with New Venture Realty.
The offer, for $166,000 – less than half what the bank-owned property was listed for a couple of years ago – came in on Friday.
Bids are being taken in $1,000 increments, Mr.
Wilson said, but so far nobody has offered the $167,000 it would take to beat the initial would-be buyer.
If anybody else is interested, he said, they’ll probably wait until early this afternoon – the auction ends shortly after 2 p.m. – and then start bidding in earnest on Hubzu, the online site conducting the sale.
This is far from the first house he’s handled that was sold online on Hubzu, he said. In fact, he noted, he just recently closed on another property that found its buyer “exactly the same way.”
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.
The loan on the property, held by Novastar Mortgage Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio, 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.