Solve this house

[Gabe C.]

There's this house in my neighborhood with thick vines taking it over Angkor Wat style. It's pushing off roof tiles and is actually growing into the windows. Here's an outdated google pic. It's worse now.

It's on a block with really well kept houses so it sticks out like a sore thumb. I thought it was abandoned for a long time but recently saw that an old man lives in it. I tried talking to him, but he doesn't seem to speak English. I looked it up and it was bought in the early 70s for $38k, so likely paid off. ARV today is $1.55 million.

The old man is clearly not able to keep it up. Could be a money problem or that's he's too old. It could be rotten to the core and need to be razed to the ground for all I know. Seems like a problem waiting to be solved, but I'm not sure what angle to take, especially since I can't communicate with him. If I'm able to solve the communication problem, what sort of potential approaches do you see on this? I know more info is needed for a specific plan, but what sort of creative scenarios are already cookin' in your brains hypothetically? Or would you just run from this?

[Chris Eaker]

Sounds like a good opportunity for a cash purchase flip for yourself or a wholesale deal to another investor. Since the property's ARV is so high, the man could move into a nice apartment and live the rest of his life on the proceeds. Perhaps even a seller finance situation would be more attractive to him for the monthly cashflow aspect. I would definitely find a translator and start talking to him. Do you know what language he speaks? I don't want to assume Spanish since it's SF. He could just as likely be Asian.