According to Zillow, the average San Francisco house price is $1,273,000 and this is actually down 13% from last year. So, when you see a beautiful looking house for sale costing a mere $698,000 then it makes you wonder why it’s so cheap, and if there’s a catch.

Such is the price for this particular property, that locals even thought it may have been the venue for a murder – which would make sense as it’s almost half the price of the average home in San Francisco. And, although we can confirm there hasn’t been a murder at this house – it’s equally true that something has gone very wrong which is why it’s priced as it is.

As seen in the image above, the price dropped massively this year. At one point, the house was valued at $1,200,000 and is now worth a fraction of this price. The reason for this is that it looks to have had work done on it without a permit. According to the SFDBI permit/complaint tracking system, it had illegal work done on it twice within the past two years.

Usually, there are two scenarios that occur when this has happened. Firstly, the fines are paid to bring it up to standard. Or in some extreme cases, the house can even be completely demolished. While this may sound harsh and this is very rare, it’s still a good example to play by the rules in the city, and even ignorance can lead to this as well.

In other words, despite seemingly like a fantastic deal, there’s never such thing as a free lunch in life. In this case, the price is sadly justified and even at that price, it may struggle to sell.