\u201cOh, my God,\u201d Chu said. \u201cHoly shit.\u201d \u201cCreepy\u201d and \u201chella weird\u201d were two descriptors they chose after walking out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The family who died in the home purchased it for $1.35 million in 2014 before losing it to foreclosure. | Source: T\u00e2m V\u0169 for The Standard<\/p>\n
A surreal San Francisco housing market shaped by an influx of AI wealth<\/a> and a shortage of supply<\/a> means that even a home marred by a horrific event draws interested buyers. On Sunday, a steady stream of house hunters checked out the 1,793-square-foot, three-bed, two-bath home.<\/p>\n In California, home sellers are legally required to notify prospective buyers about any death on the property over the previous three years. Such homes are known as \u201cstigmatized properties\u201d \u2014 places marked not by physical flaws but by what happened inside them.\u00a0<\/p>\n These properties often languish on the market and sell at a discount (opens in new tab)<\/a>, but a Santa Clara home that was the site of a <\/a>2024<\/a> murder<\/a> took only nine days to get an offer (opens in new tab)<\/a> at its $2.1 million asking price.<\/p>\n The family that died in the Westwood Highlands home purchased it for $1.35 million in 2014 before losing it to foreclosure amid mounting debt from failing businesses<\/a>. In October, Paula Truong shot her husband, Thomas Russell Ocheltree, and their 9- and 12-year-old daughters in their beds before killing herself in the garage, according to the San Francisco Police Department. It was a devastating shock<\/a> for a quiet, affluent neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hollis Bathen, the listing broker at Sotheby\u2019s, readily discloses the tragedy to inquirers.<\/p>\n \u201cA majority of the people coming here don\u2019t know until they get here,\u201d Bathen said. \u201cThere\u2019s a big buyer pool we will lose just for cultural reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n At Sunday\u2019s open house, Bathen slipped in that there had been a murder-suicide between touting to cringing shoppers the home\u2019s floor plan and natural light.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe had two people who were like, you know, \u2018I just want to bring some love into this house,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Not all shoppers agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt definitely immediately changed the way we feel about it,\u201d said one man who was touring the home with his wife.<\/p>\n Still, some said what had happened there didn\u2019t matter \u2014 whether they knew about it before or were notified soon after walking inside. Homes in San Francisco are \u201cso fucking expensive,\u201d said Mike W., 59. \u201cSomething like that wouldn\u2019t dissuade anyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Sejal Kotak, 34, said she was disturbed by the tragedy but didn\u2019t see how it would change her perception of the house. After all, there\u2019s a lot to like: a kitchen island, bay windows, refinished hardwood floors, and new light fixtures.<\/p>\n Kotak toured the property with her husband and their 8-month-old son. They live in Mountain View but are looking to move to the city for her husband\u2019s job.<\/p>\n \u201cWe care about getting a good deal,\u201d Kotak said. \u201cMaybe it is a reason to negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n And, she added, \u201cwe don\u2019t believe in ghosts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Albert Chu and Minnie Vo were braving an afternoon of open house tours Sunday when they stumbled upon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[723,724,8947,388,11853,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-233230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-criminal-justice","10":"tag-murders","11":"tag-real-estate","12":"tag-residential-real-estate","13":"tag-san-francisco","14":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","15":"tag-san-francisco-news","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-headlines","18":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774306994_938_-S3840x2880-FPNG.png\"\/)
A fresh coat of paint has been added to the property, which has a sizable living room. | Source: Photo by Ezra Wallach<\/p>\n