A place only Liberace could love. ;-)

Wow! I bet the realtor is regretting accepting that client. From the listing: "Sky is the limit on this location for your remodel."

Kind of a hoot if you Google "outrageous real estate listings." Some crazy stuff out there.

That dead sheep is definitely what my bedroom is missing.

Reminds me of this one at the beach where we have a condo. As Sophie pointed out you can imagine all the custom work that went into this. It has been toned down since it was first posted. I don’t get the rainforest with actual thunder sounds. http://www.ryanhaley.com/maryland-real-estate-listings/ocean-city/9500-coastal-hwy-118283.html

Was this ever in style? What a mess.

WTF...what a god awful room !!

People can always redecorate, so the buyers are either not able to see the home or there are other issues. I lived in Seattle and there are plenty of individuals who can see the bones AND have the money to make it their home. There is more going on as to why it hasn't sold, most likely the neighborhood, ugly and unkept neighboring homes, and/or future plans to the area. $1.6MM in Seattle doesn't put you in a very nice neighborhood.

oh but Sophie. . .the sheep. for the love, why stage the sheep?

i think that’s what is really drawing the chuckles.

The room is very taste specific, but I agree with Sophie, it's very well done.

The reason the house is not selling is a simple one - it just applies to this space, in perhaps more of an exaggerated way; but I would say that most people cannot see past the décor of a space. So, of course, that's where staging can be a valuable thing. On the other hand - sometimes even though a space is very taste specific - that can be the thing that sells it. It may even be a space that is over the top - but the right person for that house, etc. will see the vision; it may be their style, or if it's not their style they may still appreciate the creativity, efforts, etc. that went into the design, and/or they will just understand that it is a décor thing that can be remedied.

This is a very easy fix, and a minor issue, if the bones and structural elements of the house are in tact. If you are buying this house, you may get a bargain in your area, just based on the fact that so many people will not realize this is an easy fix.

Even the clown house in Brantford, Ontario sold so I am sure this one will too. If it is not selling in the Seattle market I expect there may be other factors at play beyond a bit of Liberace and a stuffed sheep.

It really is true that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

Perhaps because I'm a mother, my first impression of the sheep was ... child's toy.

What I find most ... odd ... is that all those curtains don't cover windows -- if closed, they cover a painting of a naked person.

First thing I saw was the painting of the naked person. After that, I didn't even realize there was a room attached. Get rid of everything but the naked lady and you have an uncluttered clean look . . . a dirty mind but a clean look. :) LOL!

@suezbell me too. That’s actually what I find so amusing. This is in no way a child’s room – except for the sheep. Or if there was a child in this room at some point, said child likely has teenagers by now. In any case, i just find it interesting that the Realtor or whoever took photos didnt just gently suggest NOT staging the sheep toy in the middle of the room.

not a reason for a home not to sell. . .just interesting.

@Linda, this house is in Magnolia, one of the nicest neighborhoods in Seattle. You can get nice houses here for 1.6m. The house next to it has a tennis court...so neighboring houses are not the problem. It has a partial water/downtown view and is in a good location. I’m guessing the issues that have deterred buyers are that it needs some serious work and it’s overpriced for the shape it’s in. see the room with a partial wall in the middle of it. Kitchen must be bad too given no pix. And the outside back has been a bit frankensteined.

@sophie, I do appreciate the design, but not the sheep. Can’t tell what the agent was thinking.

look carefully people. I must say i agree with sophie totally.

Well done or not.....something is wrong at 368 days on the market.

For Seattle (native here), I don't find the price or interior design that bad. There has to be something else seriously wrong with it for it not to have sold yet. People are buying homes far worse than this.

It is the interior decor which is awful. The house is attractive from the curb, and the views are wonderful.

Someone who can see past the personal “touches” :>) could make it a lovely home.

Maybe it is the pool that’s the problem?

I would buy it as I see a neighbor has a har-tru tennis court. We would become instant pals.

I agree the majority of buyers would overlook the decor. It would be interesting to know the reason for the 368 days on the market. hutchae84 has a great point...homes far worse are selling. These days Seattle real estate doesn't seem much different than ours in Southern CA.

This topic made me think of this house that we toured a few months ago. Complete with taxidermy sheep mounted on the wall and faux broken moonshine jug light over the pool table.

We came to the conclusion maybe it was a bachelor that owned the place!

"Well done"? LOL. It's a mess!

Something ain't right. A couple of photos are empty rooms with bare plywood floors. Other photos look like from a completely different, more up to date house. Then there are the Liberace rooms with their thousands of dollars of fabric. No kitchen photos? And that sheep is totally random.

I'd guess a mold or odor issue. Who knows?

There’s something else going on for the house to be languishing on the market. I think most people would look past the decor with those views. Maybe there are hidden issues we’re not aware of .... bad floorplan. structural issues, idk. $1.6 mil is just about the price of a 25 foot wide lot where I live so I’d consider it a bargain even with that bedroom. Maybe comparably priced homes in the area are much nicer than this “fixer upper “.

Call me strange, but I don't mind it. (I should disclose that growing up, my parents had shag carpet on one of the bathroom walls.)

I was expecting a completely different exterior when I pulled up the listing. I envisioned a sprawling early 70s brick rancher.

That's pretty bad, but it reminds me more of Barbara Cartland than Liberace (that may be a difference without much of a distinction, though).

On the other end of the spectrum, I live in center city Philadelphia, in what is now the 8th most gentrified zip code in the US (and #2 in home price increase in 15 years), and I discovered this house for sale today a couple of blocks from me, listed for $495,000 (tax assessed at $338,000).

The changes in my neighborhood in the last decade are truly breathtaking (there are new homes 2 blocks from that one for over $3 million), but there are still teardowns like this for outrageous prices. I'm super glad I bought just before it all took off.

my opinion was based on the one room. could not get the house. if you want to play further...

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5300362/journey-through-50-shades-of-houzz

sorry thanks.

finally got to see most of the rest - no plywood etc. did not look bad. you should go back and see some of mine, the green with the snake rug? makes this look blissful.

I live in the Seattle area. This house is in the Magnolia neighborhood, which is very desirable, it is large, has an incredible view and a pool. The bedrooms are big, too. I am not at all surprised at the price. In fact, it is well priced. Some of the house seems to have been updated. Think about how beautiful and BIG that room would be if you took out a lot of the fabric. As stated earlier, you have to look at the quality of the finishes in that room - older, but high end. I suspect this home was well taken care of over the years. But yes, that sheep is a little out of place (maybe a dog bed???), and the decor is really dated. Kind of like a time capsule.

What is the yellow item on the left hand side?

@rbhirano -- it looks like a one-of-a-kind latch hook creation on steroids.

Or, possibly it's a wolf in disguise, trying to sneak up on the unsuspecting sheep sprawled out on the floor.

Does the house come with a lifetime supply of insulin?!?

LOVE!!!

And picture # 8 and 9, with the dining room and living room, I remember my mother putting in sculpted carpet back in the day, she was so excited, lol!!

Really ??? People don't buy a home because of the decoration ? Can't people see through it if they like the space ? I am surprised something doesn't sell because of elaborate over decoration or stuffed animals on the floor ..unless it's hiding flaws of the construction . Did the brokers ask the clients about the property and what they didn't like ? If it is the decoration ..how about telling the seller and taking down some Of the drapes . They are toooo, toooo much ..but wouldn't bother me if I like the house , the grounds , the size of the rooms and the bathrooms and the kitchen /bathrooms ... , hmmmm ??? It's is a puzzle that needs to be explored .

No mystery here. For whatever reason, the house isn’t priced right. EVERY house will sell at its fair market value. Yes, EVERY house. Obviously this house isn’t priced appropriately.

silviakunst

Really ??? People don't buy a home because of the decoration ? Can't people see through it if they like the space ?

I didn't think that was the point of the OP. Rather, just a commentary on the silliness of the decor. The house will sell if it is priced right.

The sheep is the only bit of whimsy in the room. Seems to show the owner has a sense of humor!

Be interesting to know the story of the house because it is so bizarre. From the front it looks like it might have been a cute, normal +/- 2;500 sq ft house before the hideous gun turret addition with a view. In the back it is a total disaster. I don’t see it selling anywhere close to the asking price unless someone with money to burn seriously wants to be in this exact location and there are absolutely no other options. I don’t think the decor has anything to do with it not selling.

silviakunst: No, they can't. It's amazing/appalling how little people know. Look at how big the 'staging' business has become. Think of how silly that is; putting furniture in a house and decorating it to sell it, but none of that is part of the house!

And for many (most?) people, they want the house in move-in condition. If I were selling that house, I'd strip it bare, paint it accessible beige (like every McMansion in the country) and see what happens.

They should be able to buy as you suggest, and the would make better decisions if the could, but, unfortunately, a huge percentage don't understand that. Sad, really.

I like the sheep. It would be interesting if the sheep was somehow staged in every room in the house. Creepy, but fun.

Lesley- love that! I want to put a house on the market now just for the sheer fun of prominently staging the same incredibly random object in every single room.

i grew up that you always cleared out the house and painted it white so people could visualize their own things in front of it, like an art gallery. It even worked with my home in greensboro. I was so upset by what my darling real estate agent put in the listing, i rewrote it, insisted they put mine in. took new pics, then sat there every time someone came. once they got over the strangeness, they liked me being there and telling the truth. i rolled a balonky for them - my floors hardly slanted in my 106+ old house. left a table in each room, the size of the desk and that is where my boxes were stored under. Sold it in less than 3 weeks during the first big crash. the one thing we did wrong was sell it for too cheap, noone believed the price, so many did not show up.

This house has been on and off the market for years. It is quite unusual for a house in this location not to sell. This house is actually quite modestly priced in comparison to similar properties in the neighborhood. In fact, the county appraised this house for $2.2m in 2017 where the land alone was appraised for close to $1m. We get yearly appraisals for property tax purposes in King County (Seattle). The appraisal from the county here is generally 5-10% below true market value because the market is so hot in Seattle. Despite asking for 1/3 below the county appraised value of 2.2m, this property isn’t moving. This suggests to me there is a lot more to this property than cosmetics alone. And yes, the decor is outdated no matter how well-done it might have been for its time. But decor isn’t the likely issue for its failure to attract buyers in this market. Somewhere in there is a 1m+ problem that the pictures don’t capture. (Curbed Seattle actually wrote about this house back in 2016, and back then it had been on the market for 600+ days.)

To be fair to the owners, I think they are the early if not original owners. This house hasn’t passed hands at least as early as the electronic King County title records show, so they have owned this house for decades, and probably lived in it. They are probably in their 80s/90s and unable to keep up with the maintenance of the house, which kind of shows in the photos (Bare floor boards in some of the photos...mold problem? Stalled remodel? Asbestos remediation with any remodel?) The cost of updating the house, staging, maintaining, or even paying for the 20k a year (and rising) property tax is properly beyond the capability of the owners. Yea the sheep is strange and the house clearly needs a lot of work. But I bet (and hope) they had many happy memories in the house and now is just time for them to move on to something that will require less energy and resources to maintain. Don’t judge the house too harshly.

Hello Pity.....Is it haunted?

I don’t know, not that I believe in haunted houses. And if so, haunted by whom? Your guess is as good as mine.

oh you should come live with me pity. i even have dogs that haunt. lol

Tongue in cheek...counting sheep?

The views! Who cares about the stuffed sheep, those views are all that matters!

Old post, but the house is now pending. Interesting to see if it will sell eventually, and what for...