Months after a San Francisco home shocked home-seekers by hitting the market for just $490,000, the buyers have been revealed.
The bargain price was explained after it became apparent that the tenants in the home had a deal to remain living there until 2053, paying just $417 a month in rent.
Tenant Sandra Lee, 83, and her daughter Cheryl, 63, previously told the San Francisco Standard that her son Todd Lee was trying to force them from the home, and if she had it her way, ‘the home would not be for sale.’
But in a surprise twist, Todd revealed to the San Francisco Chronicle this week that he accepted a $488,000 offer from Cheryl.
This Edwardian styled property in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood made headlines in recent weeks after hitting the market for $500,000 – but home seekers were stunned to find out they wouldn’t be able to live in it until 2053
Sandra previously said that squabbles over the bargain home, in the much sought after Russian Hill area of San Francisco, drove her family apart.
‘We had a large family. Now we’re destroyed. If it wasn’t for the lease that [my son] didn’t know about that was made in 2018, I don’t know where we’d be,’ she lamented.
‘It’s unfathomable, the deception, the betrayal—this is my son doing this to me.’
She claimed that Todd was trying to drive her from the home through a combination of attorneys fees, taking over the trust on the home, and listing the home while she’s still living in it.
When the home hit the market, it made headlines after people realized the staggering amount of time they would have to wait to live in it.
The Russian Hill is an upscale residential community known for the famously crooked Lombard Street – a major tourist destination
The home was originally built in 1924, and was most recently bought for $52,000 in 1968 by Florence Goo and Kenneth Koon Kin Goo.
The home was then put into a trust in 1991, which was split into two when she died in 2006.
There are three beneficiaries to the trusts: Cheryl, Sandra and Sandra’s brother, Cedric Goo.
The unorthodox lease agreement came in 2022, shortly before Kenneth Goo died in the home aged 102, which Todd said he believed was because ‘he wanted to make sure my sister had a place to live, and maybe my mother.’
The family’s attorney said Cheryl was named on the lease as a tenant until March 31, 2049, and it was later amended to extend it.
It also mandated that the tenants continue to pay property taxes and insurance on the contract, and it allowed ‘tenant’s immediate and extended family’ to use the home too.
California law reportedly states that a lease of 35 years or more is considered an ownership change, which may lead to property tax changes down the line.
Florence and Kenneth Goo were the original buyers of the house in the 1970s for $52,000 and lived there until they died in the home in 2006 and 2018 respectively
When Kenneth died, it added another layer to the family struggle over the property as it forced the property to be revalued – sending its value soaring from $143,152 to $1,428,000.
Although Sandra alleged that she and her daughter were being taken advantage of, Todd also claimed that he never tried to do so and was unaware of the lease until recently.
‘This thing is a family mess,’ he told the San Francisco Chronicle.
‘I wanted to keep it private. When my mother spoke out, it got exponentially worse.’
The family attorney told the outlet that if the home sold for $1.8 million, a price it could well go for, Sandra and Cheryl would make a combined $1.1 million from their trusts, and Cedric Goo would receive $700,000.
However, the sale to Cheryl slashes these funds considerably.
As Cheryl bought the home for under $500,000, she and her mother’s shares are only worth a combined $300,000, and Cedric’s are worth $200,000.
But after the years of family strife, Todd Lee told the outlet that he ultimately agreed to the sale to avoid battling it out in court, with a number of state laws and property tax issues still looming in the saga of the viral home.
