120-year-old ‘gingerbread house’ in California can be yours — for $70k | Opinion

It’s true: The eye-catching Queen Anne Victorian at the corner of Tully and Orangeburg in Modesto is up for sale.

And the listing price, in an era of still-high housing costs, may blow you away — only $70,000.

But those with stars in their eyes and money signs in their heads will want to take a step back, clear away the webs of nostalgia and recognize that this dream home, in its current state, is more of a nightmare.

The brightly colored 1901-built home pictured in The Modesto Bee in 2017, when paint was fresh, has deteriorated in the six years since.

One glance at interior pictures on Zillow.com and other realty sites reveals the unseemly truth of huge piles of garbage left by squatters illegally occupying and trashing the once-charming home in central Modesto. Mounds and mounds and mounds of filth. Don’t overlook the fire damage on the outside, either.

It gets worse.

Prospective buyers can’t get the four-bedroom, two-bath, 1,610-square-foot home without first clearing away a $37,000 lien on solar paneling atop the dilapidated detached garage.

In short, the home that my kids used to call “the doll house” and “the gingerbread house” as we drove by is a squalid mess.

I’m sorry if this breaks your heart. Again.

We, as in half of Modesto, had such high hopes in 2017 when a new coat of paint suddenly went on the landmark home. My daughters preferred its former pink-on-white shade, which they said made it look like a doll house, one they dreamed of raising their own families in.

The home with peaked roof, rounded balcony and three columns on the porch just stood out, surrounded by nondescript neighborhoods. It has its own Facebook page, for crying out loud, supported by admirers.

But it also was clear that the home had been falling into disrepair, so sunshine-yellow and cherry-red was a fresh step up, six years ago.

Mostly, we were encouraged that something good seemed to be happening.

A Modesto Bee story at the time gave us more reason for hope. The owner, James Dietrich, went through his grandmother’s papers and came to believe that his grandfather Elmer John Dietrich had built the home in 1900. Restoring it to its original splendor was his goal — a true labor of love, we desperately wanted to think.

Maybe we looked past signs that not everything was at it seemed.

The same article said Dietrich had bought the home in 2007 — 10 years before. Why had he allowed it to become so shabby? Why were several boats parked on the lot? And why, in 2017, did he only paint the sides of the home facing the street?

Eventually it was lost to foreclosure. The bank that now owns it hired Stockton-based Mason Yanowitz with Real Estate Source Inc. to get out of it whatever he can.

Yanowitz is clear-eyed about its prospects. On top of the $70,000 minimum, and $37,000 lien, and thousands to haul away all the junk, a buyer could sink another $200,000 or so in rehab costs to get it livable, he said.

“I’m guessing it’s a borderline tear-down,” he told me on the phone, meaning it might be more cost efficient to raze the property and start over.

Otherwise, he said, “It’s going to take someone with a big heart who wants to bring it back.”

Still, the former doll house is so visible and seems to have so much potential that his phone rang more than 100 times in the first four hours after he listed it, on May 18. He has no doubt that he’ll be able to close it by May 21 and present the bank with offers May 22.

Here’s hoping it goes to someone who loves Modesto more than their pocketbook.