Saturday, June 25, 2011

Chase Left Holding The Bag On Slimy, Snake-Infested Home As Creepy Creatures Force Unwitting Homebuyer, Family To Abandon Abhorrent Abode

In Rexburg, Idaho, The Seattle Times reports:

  • They slithered behind the walls at night and released foul-smelling musk into the drinking water. Ben Sessions once killed 42 in a single day. Shortly after buying their dream home, Sessions and his wife discovered it was infested with thousands of garter snakes. Their growing family lived as if in a horror movie for three months. They abandoned the property, but the home briefly went back on the market more than a year later, and they fear it could attract another unsuspecting buyer.

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  • Now owned by JP Morgan Chase, it was listed at $114,900 in December, according to Zillow.com, a real-estate data firm. That price fell to $109,200 in January. The Animal Planet network then featured the couple's story in its "Infested" series. The listing was removed, and it has stayed off the market while Chase decided what to do with it.
  • Darcy Donahoe-Wilmot, a Chase spokeswoman in Seattle, said the bank has contracted to have the snakes trapped and released from the house. Once the infestation is gone, the house will be up for sale again and a report will be issued to potential buyers.
  • "We can't list the house until its been taken care of," Donahoe-Wilmot said. An estimate of how much it would cost to remove the snakes and how long the process would take was not available.

For all the gory details, see Idaho family abandons snake-infested house (Shortly after buying their dream home, Ben Sessions and his wife discovered it was infested with thousands of garter snakes. They abandoned the property, but the home briefly went back on the market more than a year later, and they fear it could attract another unsuspecting buyer).

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