North Carolina Home Featured on a 2-Hour ‘Hoarders’ Episode Lists for $5.25M
Chris Groch Photography via Realtor.com
If you missed out on buying the “Brady Bunch” house, which sold last year, or you can’t afford the “Full House” residence, currently listed for $6.5 million, don’t worry. Another iconic as-seen-on-TV home just hit the market for $5.25 million.
However, you may not recognize it.
Today, it’s a beautiful English Tudor Revival mansion-turned-Airbnb in Greensboro, North Carolina that rents for $1,600 per night. But Americans were first introduced to the Julian Price House in season 9 of A&E’s “Hoarders.”
Chris Groch Photography via Realtor.com
Michael Fuko-Rizzo
The two-hour season finale, which A&E says is one of the most talked-about episodes in the hit show’s history, didn’t highlight the home as much as it centered on its eccentric owner of 42 years.
Although the late Sandra Cowart was an interior designer by trade, she’d filled almost every inch of the 8,616-square-foot home with dolls, moldy furniture and a rusty antique “piss pot” that she refused to part with.
Fortunately, one older woman’s trash was a young gay couple’s treasure. Michael and Eric Fuko-Rizzo purchased the home in 2015 for $415,000 at a foreclosure auction.
Unfortunately, the historic home, built in 1929 for insurance executive Julian Price, came with the hoard—and the hoarder herself. Cowart squatted in a van parked on the property—there was no room in the inn—for six months before she was forced out and extreme cleaning specialist Matt Paxton moved in.
Paxton said the 31-room, four-story house was so full of junk he couldn’t access half of it. Initially, he worried there weren’t enough dumpsters in Greensboro to handle the job. In all, it took dozens of workers more than 1,000 man hours to excavate everything.
While the Fuko-Rizzos eventually discovered cotton candy-sized mold blossoming in the walls of the home’s prohibition-era tunnel, running the length of the house, the property wasn’t condemned. In fact, it can’t be torn down. Designed by architect Charles C. Hartmann, 301 Fisher Park Cir. is on the National Register of Historic Places.
“The house represents a high level of design and craftsmanship and is a distinctive domestic type, which has limited representation in North Carolina,” reads the nomination form.
Chris Groch Photography via Realtor.com
Chris Groch Photography via Realtor.com
Chris Groch Photography via Realtor.com
Listing agent Kay Chesnutt of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Yost & Little Realty calls it a monument.
“You certainly couldn’t build a house like this again because you couldn’t find the craftsman,” she told The Post. “Everything, including each brick, was made by hand.”
Also known as Hillside, the Julian Price House sits on 1.62 acres in Greensboro’s Fisher Park Historic District. Once a swamp, today the neighborhood is full of architectural gems dating back to the early 20th century and even the Antebellum era.
“The Presbyterian church down the street is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year,” said Chesnutt, adding the Fuko-Rizzos aren’t going far. “They’re selling this place because they bought another house up the street that they’re redoing. They’re staying in the neighborhood, continuing to make it better.”
After purchasing the Julian Price House in 2017, the Fuko-Rizzos poured an exorbitant amount of money—Chesnutt declined to disclose the sum—into not only making it livable, but also turning it into a posh venue worthy of a wedding you’d expect to find gracing the pages of Vogue. In addition to hosting functions, the property has hosted hundreds of travelers from as far away as the UK via Airbnb.
The Fuko-Rizzos lived on-site with their twin daughters, in the former servants’ quarters. Originally, the home had servants’ quarters on both the second floor as well as in the attic, accessible via the servants’ staircase.
“This home is unique because it can be a single home again, or it’s also set up as an inn with gardens,” added Chesnutt. “During the pandemic when they couldn’t host guests, Michael and Eric worked on the landscaping. They even dug a well just to water the lawn, and installed lightscaping.”
Inside, the Fuko-Rizzos redid everything including the electric, plumbing, and heating and air.
“They didn’t just tear things out and replace with new, they had things fixed or replicated to keep the integrity it was built with,” Chesnutt said. “They went beyond even what Preservation Greensboro ever thought that house would be taken to.”
Chris Groch Photography via Realtor.com
Chris Groch Photography via Realtor.com
Chris Groch Photography via Realtor.com
Categories
Recent Posts
"My job is to find and attract mastery-based agents to the office, protect the culture, and make sure everyone is happy! "
1637 Racetrack Rd # 100, Johns, FL, 32259, United States
But don’t rock up unannounced, hoping to get a free tour. Chesnutt says prospective buyers need to make an appointment at least 24 hours in advance because the Fuko-Rizzos are honoring all booked engagements through the end of the year.
And while they won’t be running background checks to make sure they’re not showing the home to someone with a history of hoarding, they are requiring proof of funds.