12.04.2010

Ucar murder-suicide house for sale - 31 Campanilla, San Clemente

Two and a half years ago, we wrote of the strange case of the Ucar family. Twin UCSD students, their parents and grandmother were all found dead in a murder-suicide or group suicide.

Little on the motive has come to light since then, but the house is on the market. Meet 31 Campanilla. Sweeping ocean views for $810,000. It Zillows at $1.1 million.

But wait. It's not just the creepy history of the house that is scaring off buyers. One house hunter caught the sellers covering up a cracked foundation. There's also lots of mold, which along with the cracked foundation, suggests drainage issues. Then there are years worth of cosmetic repairs and upgrades needed. All in, at least a couple hundred thousand dollars of work, putting the total cost of the place in line with non-murder houses in the area. This would-be buyer sounds like he's no longer interested.

The sellers apparently don't have to disclose the cracked foundation because they don't live there. The buyer/blogger reports that they are overseas, most likely foreign Ucar heirs. This would somewhat discount the Greenspan's Body Count theory, because it means there was still equity in the house and the Ucars were not at the very end of their financial rope. Unless 1) the foreign owners are lenders, not heirs, or 2) the Ucars had tried to suck out equity but had been unable to because of the cracked slab. Or maybe Margrit Ucar's other real estate speculations were just so underwater that a few hundred thousand in equity in their house really didn't help.

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Nailed it!

July 5 :