In this video, Carter Banks “explores” an allegedly abandoned $2.5 million mansion:
It didn’t take long. A name was visible, which through a little searching helped me locate it:
Before I go into the false claims, let me be clear about something: The prior owners are living, so I will be cagey about details.
Now for the false claims:
False claim 1, “surrounded by other mansions”: Not really. The property’s back side is lined with a new residential development.
False claim 2, “built in 1973”: Off by one year. 1974 per county records.
False claim 3, “John, wife, two children, and mother”: Pseudonym, understandably, but children count is wrong. (I’ll give credit: A pseudonym may be smart.)
False claim 4, “John suffered a heart attack at the age of 54”: No, “John” appears to still be alive and thriving.
False claim 5, “$2.5 million”: County records say the property was sold in 2021 for $985,000.
False claim 6, “abandoned”: The likely story is that the house had collected so much deferred maintenance, the retiree owners decided it made more sense to downsize to a newer home. Rather than abandoned, the home was sold to a developer in 2021 and is waiting to be scraped.
(Likely) False claim 7, suggesting a foreclosure: I am rating this claim as unlikely. The story is that the tragic death caused financial instability, requiring a sale. No evidence of that is apparent. Also, the prior owners appear to have lived in it for almost 50 years and moved to another home. An ordinary sale for proper reasons is almost certain.
Seriously, if you’ve retired, would you want to renovate a ~7500 square foot home? Or would you prefer to downsize? It looks like some some minor renovations were started, but they changed minds and chose to cash out and downsize. Great choice!
It is true that the property was bought by a developer, Northpoint Realty Investments. Given other nearby, infill developments, it makes sense that the property is slated for scraping and redevelopment, as Carter suggested.
Once again, multiple false claims are suckering people into watching a 30-minute walkthrough of worthless, left-behind debris in a large but undistinguished house ready to be scraped.