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A five-bedroom home in Fairfax, Virginia, just sold for $805,000, even though it comes with two strangers living in the basement. The listing on Zillow informs potential buyers that they would not have access to the basement because it is occupied by tenants who do not have a lease and do not pay rent.
Zinta Rodger-Rickert, the listing agent with RE/MAX Gateway, told the New York Post that the previous owner was an elderly man who let a woman and her mother move in after she cleaned his house.
"Three years ago, a woman was cleaning the senior owner's house, and she convinced him that she needed a place to stay," Rodger-Rickert said. "So he offered her the basement, but then she never left. And she does not pay rent."
"It is essentially an individual taking advantage of a senior who is ill and currently in the hospital. He will likely end up in hospice," Rodger-Rickert added.
He said that man's family wanted to sell the house before he dies because he does not have a will in place. The family can't do anything to remove the squatters, who are reportedly a woman and her mother, because they can't afford to hire a lawyer to initiate eviction proceedings.
Despite the fact that squatters were living in the basement, Rodger-Rickert received five cash offers for the house in just three days. Now that the house is under contract, it will be up to the new owners to hire a lawyer if they wish to evict the two people living in the basement.