Courtesy of Heather Redding
- A modest 69-year-old home is up for sale for $1.1 million in Whitefish, Montana.
- A real-estate agent posted a video of the home, and thousands of people left incredulous comments.
- The seller said the asking price is due to Whitefish's growing appeal to wealthy out-of-staters.
A modest Montana house is turning heads not for its grandeur or uniqueness, but for its price tag: $1.1 million.
The three-bedroom home in Whitefish — a city of about 9,000 people and the gateway to scenic Glacier National Park — doesn't look special. It has white paneling, a two-toned grass lawn, and a fence out back.
But after it listed for sale on February 8, Kirk Rossiter, a real-estate agent in Whitefish, posted a video of the property — and its comparably outsize price tag — on Instagram. Some 3.2 million views, 33,5000 likes, and 8,214 comments later, some users have expressed disbelief at the listed price of the home relative to its humble appearance while others have debated what secrets could justify its high price tag.
"Is there $900,000 piled up in the basement?" one commenter wrote. Another said, "Is this satire?"
Heather Reddig, an agent from ReMax Home Again Realty representing the home's seller, Gary Hanson, told Business Insider the home's seemingly exorbitant asking price could be chalked up to two factors: its prime location and Hanson's rebellious optimism.
Whitefish, a hot spot for skiing, hiking, and golf in a landscape of mountains and lakes just an hour south of the Canadian border, is one of Montana's priciest areas. It's attracted wealthy Californians, including the billionaire Michael Goguen, formerly of the venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital. As deep-pocketed homebuyers have flooded into town, home prices have shot up, driven by the uptick in luxury real-estate developments.
Hanson, who inherited the property when his father died last year, wants to take advantage of the demand — hence the $1.1 million asking price.
"It's about the 'location, location, location,'" Reddig, the listing broker, said. "That's what he feels the home is worth," adding that "there's a little piece of rebellion" in asking so much.
The housing market in Whitefish is booming — but maybe not as much as the seller hopes
Like numerous smaller towns across the US, Whitefish experienced a pandemic-induced homebuying boom.
The influx of higher-income urbanites, attracted by the town's relatively lower-priced homes and outdoor amenities — such as hiking trails and ski mountains — intensified competition and drove up housing prices in many neighborhoods.
Redfin data shows the median sale price in Whitefish reached $750,000 in January, more than double the median price of $369,990 in January 2020.
Courtesy of Heather Reddig
Reddig said the home, located at 428 O'Brien Avenue, is one of the few older ones remaining on the block.
Hanson expects new deeper-pocketed residents to splash out on a prime piece of land near Whitefish Lake.
Reddig said an eventual buyer could tear down the current house and replace it with two new homes.
"The town that the owner grew up in has completely changed," Reddig said. "He's like, 'Somebody who has this much money can go and build their high rise right here.'"
The home apparently has 'treasures' inside from the seller's father, an avid collector who died in 2022
Though Reddig hasn't yet received any offers for the home, Hanson is considering increasing the property's price.
"A friend of mine from California said, 'You're too low,'" Hanson told BI. "'Put it up for $2.3 million and it will sell.'"
Hanson said he believes the home is worth every penny and has sweetened the deal by including what he called a trove of his father's "treasures" in the sale.
Though Hanson evaded describing exactly what "treasures" lie within, and there are no interior photos of the house in the listing, he did say his "father collected everything just in case he needed something."
"The house is stuffed full of stuff," Hanson said. "Someone said, "Boy, you got everything in there but the kitchen sink.' I told him, 'Well, that's in there, too.'"