SCOTT PETERSON HOUSE FOR SALE (AGAIN)
goldenm...@yahoo.com
Buy a piece of infamy
By GARTH STAPLEY
BEE STAFF WRITER
The Modesto home where Scott Peterson may have killed his pregnant wife
is for sale again.
Owner Gerry Roberts said he has been fired from three jobs since buying
the three-bedroom, two-bath "cottage-bungalow" a year ago, and can't
afford mortgage payments.
"I've had nothing but bad luck since I've owned that thing," Roberts
said.
He initially listed the house at 523 Covena Ave. through friend Brett
Cottel for $479,900 - nearly $90,000 more than Roberts paid in July
2005. They dropped the asking price to $449,900 Monday when no one came
to see the home in its first week on the market.
Roberts, a real estate agent for 16 years, and Cottel, a broker, have
not put a for sale sign in the front yard. They aren't sure what to
expect when news breaks that one of America's most infamous homes is
available.
Cottel said they notified Sharon Rocha, mother of murder victim Laci
Peterson, but received no response. The Bee was unable to reach Rocha
on Monday.
Authorities said Scott Peterson smothered or strangled his pregnant
wife in their home just before Christmas 2002. Extensive forensic
testing yielded no evidence of blood, tissue or bodily fluid in the
house.
A jury convicted Peterson of firstdegree murder in November 2004; he
arrived on death row in March 2005.
Last year, when Rocha and Scott Pe-terson's parents agreed to sell,
Rocha tried to prevent people obsessed with the case from touring the
1,770-square-foot home, built in 1949. Prudential California, hired by
Rocha to sell the house, carefully screened applicants and forbade
cameras.
Things will be different this time.
"I'm running out of money and I've got to start over," said Roberts,
who worked for Prudential California when he bought the home. He has
little interest in a buyer's motive, he said.
Though state law requires sellers to disclose crimes that occurred on
listed properties, authorities were unable to prove where Peterson
murdered his pregnant wife and unborn son.
Roberts said he will tell prospective buyers only that the house has
"received a lot of media attention. There's nothing else I can say
without being a liar," he said, because nothing else was proved.
Passers-by still gawk, including a couple in a sedan who slowed and
gestured toward the green home as Roberts chatted Monday with a Bee
reporter. Last Christmas, someone left a candle, a note to the victims
and a plate of cookies on his driveway, he said.
Roberts installed hardwood flooring and new carpet, painted walls and
used some of Laci Peterson's stash of large slate rocks to build a path
from the backyard swimming pool to a spa. Otherwise, the home remains
largely as she had decor-ated it, including delicate bell-shaped party
lights she appar-ently strung across a patio, Roberts said.
During the highly publicized 2004 trial, witnesses noted that the
Petersons used a nautical theme to decorate a nursery in anticipation
of their baby's arrival. That the bodies of mother and son washed
ashore on the east edge of San Francisco Bay was not lost on jurors,
several later said.
Roberts did nothing to the blue paint in that room, but did add two
paintings of sailboats, a captain's wheel wall-hanging and sea gull
statuettes.
Roberts' current asking price comes to $254 per square foot, compared
with the $226-persquare-foot average of 20 similarly sized homes sold
in the past year within a half-mile radius, according to RealQuest.com.
Home sale prices rose an average of 5.6 percent in the year before May
2006 in the 95354 ZIP code area, according to Data-Quick. Roberts'
asking price is about 15 percent more than he paid a year ago.
Scott and Laci Peterson bought the home in October 2000 for $177,000.
Soon after Roberts acquired the house, he announced the discovery of a
red-stained, 10-inch knife in a backyard patio cabinet. He found
himself out of a job after the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper
published photographs he took of the knife.
Police later confirmed that an inquiry proved Roberts could not have
planted the knife.
TV's "Inside Edition" later paid Roberts for an interview and footage
of the home.
Roberts said he was unable to find work with any other area real estate
agencies. He took two electrician jobs but was fired from both, he
said, before taking up with Cottel, a longtime friend with a broker's
license but little recent involvement in real estate.
Cottel'smainbusinessis water-treatmentcontracting. Roberts is his only
real estate salesperson, according to the California Department of Real
Estate.
Roberts said he doesn't know where he will go when the home sells, but
that he may leave the area.
"I thought I could break the house's mystique and spin it around," he
said. "I guess I was wrong."
Brett Cottel can be reached at 495-1131; Gerry Roberts can be reached
at 402-6198.
Bee staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at 578-2390 or
gsta...@modbee.com.
Posted on 07/18/06 00:00:00
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/12467492p-13186459c.html
AusWendy
<goldenm...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1153346779.3...@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
> Modbee.com
> Buy a piece of infamy
>
> By GARTH STAPLEY
> BEE STAFF WRITER
>
> The Modesto home where Scott Peterson may have killed his pregnant wife
> is for sale again.
>
> Owner Gerry Roberts said he has been fired from three jobs since buying
> the three-bedroom, two-bath "cottage-bungalow" a year ago, and can't
> afford mortgage payments.
>
> "I've had nothing but bad luck since I've owned that thing," Roberts
> said.
>
thing..........
> Soon after Roberts acquired the house, he announced the discovery of a
> red-stained, 10-inch knife in a backyard patio cabinet. He found
> himself out of a job after the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper
> published photographs he took of the knife.
>
> Police later confirmed that an inquiry proved Roberts could not have
> planted the knife.
WOW I didn't hear anything about the knife.
Aus Wendy
-krp
"AusWendy" <n...@notlikely.com> wrote in message
news:KlGvg.7965$tE5....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
>
> <goldenm...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1153346779.3...@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
>> Modbee.com
>> Buy a piece of infamy
>>
>> By GARTH STAPLEY
>> BEE STAFF WRITER
>>
>> The Modesto home where Scott Peterson may have killed his pregnant wife
>> is for sale again.
>>
>> Owner Gerry Roberts said he has been fired from three jobs since buying
>> the three-bedroom, two-bath "cottage-bungalow" a year ago, and can't
>> afford mortgage payments.
>>
>> "I've had nothing but bad luck since I've owned that thing," Roberts
>> said.
>>
> Perhaps this is the beginning of a "this house is cursed" type of
> thing..........
>
MOVIE OF THE WEEK MOVIE OF THE WEEK !!! ALERT GLORIA ALRED!!!
BOOK DEAL!
DedNdogYrs
Maybe it's haunted.
AusWendy
"-krp" <web2...@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:gGIvg.4795$RV.2329@trnddc08...
lol.
Aus Wendy
bessie
goldenm...@yahoo.com wrote:
> Modbee.com
> Buy a piece of infamy
>
> By GARTH STAPLEY
> BEE STAFF WRITER
>
> The Modesto home where Scott Peterson may have killed his pregnant wife
> is for sale again.
>
> Owner Gerry Roberts said he has been fired from three jobs since buying
> the three-bedroom, two-bath "cottage-bungalow" a year ago, and can't
> afford mortgage payments.
>
> "I've had nothing but bad luck since I've owned that thing," Roberts
> said.
>
> He initially listed the house at 523 Covena Ave. through friend Brett
> Cottel for $479,900 - nearly $90,000 more than Roberts paid in July
> 2005. They dropped the asking price to $449,900 Monday when no one came
> to see the home in its first week on the market.
Jeezzzzzz Laweezzz
Nearly half a mil for a tract home in (gag) Modesto???
The valley is a nightmare to live in (I lived there 10 years), who
would WANT to live there?
EnEss
> Modbee.com
> Buy a piece of infamy
>
> By GARTH STAPLEY
> BEE STAFF WRITER
>
> The Modesto home where Scott Peterson may have killed his pregnant wife
> is for sale again.
>
> Owner Gerry Roberts said he has been fired from three jobs since buying
> the three-bedroom, two-bath "cottage-bungalow" a year ago, and can't
> afford mortgage payments.
>
> "I've had nothing but bad luck since I've owned that thing," Roberts
> said.
The story makes it sound as though the homeowner thinks he's cursed for
buying the Peterson house. How stupid. I've heard of a lot of people who
bought a house or condo and their fortunes changed within a year--lost a
job, incurred some kind of large, unexpected debt--and had to sell.
> He initially listed the house at 523 Covena Ave. through friend Brett
> Cottel for $479,900 - nearly $90,000 more than Roberts paid in July
> 2005. They dropped the asking price to $449,900 Monday when no one came
> to see the home in its first week on the market.
90 grand is a huge mark-up on a modest home going back on the market within
a year. The guy was an idiot to think he could get any buyers at that
inflated asking price.
> Roberts said he doesn't know where he will go when the home sells, but
> that he may leave the area.
>
> "I thought I could break the house's mystique and spin it around," he
> said. "I guess I was wrong."
What an idiot. It's always handy to have someone or something to hang the
blame on for all one's troubles in life. Anything beats looking in the
mirror.
NS
(add sbc before global to email)