Sturm und Drang--1538 Schiller Street, Alameda, CA

You know the market is down when you can buy a Victorian duplex for under $500,000. Either that or the house is a wreck. Or maybe both:

Opportunity knocks to restore this Victorian duplex [...] The property needs LOTS of TLC. Upstairs unit is 2 bedroom/1 bath, downstairs is 1 bedroom/1 bath. [...]

1538 Schiller Street, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,078 sqft, 3,538-sqft lot, MLS(r) #40368892, $499,000

It appears the owners were among many Alameda property owners who had delinquent waste management accounts with the city last summer (pdf). Other than that, there isn't much about this property on the Web.

It was purchased 15 years ago for a tiny amount, and because it takes a while to ruin a property such that it needs "LOTS of TLC" (not just "TLC" or "lots of TLC"--real estate agents are case-sensitive), I'm wondering if it was already a wreck then and has only been minimally maintained (if at all) since that last purchase:

Sale History
08/31/1993:	$85,500

It's hard to imagine how a property in bad shape that cost $499,000 would cash flow as a duplex with only 3 bedrooms, but the savvy real estate investors in Alameda have proved time and time again that cash flow is totally passé, so I suspect somebody will pick this one up in short order.