Post by happyhaddock on Jul 18, 2006 14:07:20 GMT -5
Buy a piece of 'infamy'
By GARTH STAPLEY
BEE STAFF WRITER
The Modesto home where Scott Peterson may have killed his pregnant wife is for sale again.
Owner Gerry Roberts said he has been fired from three jobs since buying the three-bedroom, two-bath "cottage-bungalow" a year ago, and can't afford mortgage payments.
"I've had nothing but bad luck since I've owned that thing," Roberts said.
He initially listed the house at 523 Covena Ave. through friend Brett Cottel for $479,900 — nearly $90,000 more than Roberts paid in July 2005. They dropped the asking price to $449,900 Monday when no one came to see the home in its first week on the market.
Roberts, a real estate agent for 16 years, and Cottel, a broker, have not put a for sale sign in the front yard. They aren't sure what to expect when news breaks that one of America's most infamous homes is available.
Cottel said they notified Sharon Rocha, mother of murder victim Laci Peterson, but received no response. The Bee was unable to reach Rocha on Monday.
Authorities said Scott Peterson smothered or strangled his pregnant wife in their home just before Christmas 2002. Extensive forensic testing yielded no evidence of blood, tissue or bodily fluid in the house.
A jury convicted Peterson of first degree murder in November 2004; he arrived on death row in March 2005.
Last year, when Rocha and Scott Pe-terson's parents agreed to sell, Rocha tried to prevent people obsessed with the case from touring the 1,770-square-foot home, built in 1949. Prudential California, hired by Rocha to sell the house, carefully screened applicants and forbade cameras.
Things will be different this time.
"I'm running out of money and I've got to start over," said Roberts, who worked for Prudential California when he bought the home. He has little interest in a buyer's motive, he said.
Though state law requires sellers to disclose crimes that occurred on listed properties, authorities were unable to prove where Peterson murdered his pregnant wife and unborn son.
Roberts said he will tell prospective buyers only that the house has "received a lot of media attention. There's nothing else I can say without being a liar," he said, because nothing else was proved.
Passers-by still gawk, including a couple in a sedan who slowed and gestured toward the green home as Roberts chatted Monday with a Bee reporter. Last Christmas, someone left a candle, a note to the victims and a plate of cookies on his driveway, he said.
Roberts installed hardwood flooring and new carpet, painted walls and used some of Laci Peterson's stash of large slate rocks to build a path from the backyard swimming pool to a spa. Otherwise, the home remains largely as she had decorated it, including delicate bell-shaped party lights she apparently strung across a patio, Roberts said.
During the highly publicized 2004 trial, witnesses noted that the Petersons used a nautical theme to decorate a nursery in anticipation of their baby's arrival. That the bodies of mother and son washed ashore on the east edge of San Francisco Bay was not lost on jurors, several later said.
Roberts did nothing to the blue paint in that room, but did add two paintings of sailboats, a captain's wheel wall-hanging and sea gull statuettes.
Roberts' current asking price comes to $254 per square foot, compared with the $226 per square foot average of 20 similarly sized homes sold in the past year within a half-mile radius, according to RealQuest.com.
Home sale prices rose an average of 5.6 percent in the year before May 2006 in the 95354 ZIP code area, according to Data-Quick. Roberts' asking price is about 15 percent more than he paid a year ago.
Scott and Laci Peterson bought the home in October 2000 for $177,000.
Soon after Roberts acquired the house, he announced the discovery of a red-stained, 10-inch knife in a backyard patio cabinet. He found himself out of a job after the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper published photographs he took of the knife.
Police later confirmed that an inquiry proved Roberts could not have planted the knife.
TV's "Inside Edition" later paid Roberts for an interview and footage of the home.
Roberts said he was unable to find work with any other area real estate agencies. He took two electrician jobs but was fired from both, he said, before taking up with Cottel, a longtime friend with a broker's license but little recent involvement in real estate.
Cottel's main business is water-treatment contracting. Roberts is his only real estate salesperson, according to the California Department of Real Estate.
Roberts said he doesn't know where he will go when the home sells, but that he may leave the area.
"I thought I could break the house's mystique and spin it around," he said. "I guess I was wrong."
Brett Cottel can be reached at 495-1131; Gerry Roberts can be reached at 402-6198.
Bee staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at 578-2390 or gstapley@modbee.com
Gerry Roberts, owner of the former home of Scott and Laci Peterson, sits in the room that was intended for their son. Roberts says he is selling the house because he no longer can afford the mortgage. But few people have expressed interest.
The house still attracts passers-by. Last Christmas, Roberts said, someone left a candle, a note to the victims and cookies.
Gerry Roberts' dog Bo sits in front of the door that leads from the family room to the back patio of the Covena Avenue home.
By GARTH STAPLEY
BEE STAFF WRITER
The Modesto home where Scott Peterson may have killed his pregnant wife is for sale again.
Owner Gerry Roberts said he has been fired from three jobs since buying the three-bedroom, two-bath "cottage-bungalow" a year ago, and can't afford mortgage payments.
"I've had nothing but bad luck since I've owned that thing," Roberts said.
He initially listed the house at 523 Covena Ave. through friend Brett Cottel for $479,900 — nearly $90,000 more than Roberts paid in July 2005. They dropped the asking price to $449,900 Monday when no one came to see the home in its first week on the market.
Roberts, a real estate agent for 16 years, and Cottel, a broker, have not put a for sale sign in the front yard. They aren't sure what to expect when news breaks that one of America's most infamous homes is available.
Cottel said they notified Sharon Rocha, mother of murder victim Laci Peterson, but received no response. The Bee was unable to reach Rocha on Monday.
Authorities said Scott Peterson smothered or strangled his pregnant wife in their home just before Christmas 2002. Extensive forensic testing yielded no evidence of blood, tissue or bodily fluid in the house.
A jury convicted Peterson of first degree murder in November 2004; he arrived on death row in March 2005.
Last year, when Rocha and Scott Pe-terson's parents agreed to sell, Rocha tried to prevent people obsessed with the case from touring the 1,770-square-foot home, built in 1949. Prudential California, hired by Rocha to sell the house, carefully screened applicants and forbade cameras.
Things will be different this time.
"I'm running out of money and I've got to start over," said Roberts, who worked for Prudential California when he bought the home. He has little interest in a buyer's motive, he said.
Though state law requires sellers to disclose crimes that occurred on listed properties, authorities were unable to prove where Peterson murdered his pregnant wife and unborn son.
Roberts said he will tell prospective buyers only that the house has "received a lot of media attention. There's nothing else I can say without being a liar," he said, because nothing else was proved.
Passers-by still gawk, including a couple in a sedan who slowed and gestured toward the green home as Roberts chatted Monday with a Bee reporter. Last Christmas, someone left a candle, a note to the victims and a plate of cookies on his driveway, he said.
Roberts installed hardwood flooring and new carpet, painted walls and used some of Laci Peterson's stash of large slate rocks to build a path from the backyard swimming pool to a spa. Otherwise, the home remains largely as she had decorated it, including delicate bell-shaped party lights she apparently strung across a patio, Roberts said.
During the highly publicized 2004 trial, witnesses noted that the Petersons used a nautical theme to decorate a nursery in anticipation of their baby's arrival. That the bodies of mother and son washed ashore on the east edge of San Francisco Bay was not lost on jurors, several later said.
Roberts did nothing to the blue paint in that room, but did add two paintings of sailboats, a captain's wheel wall-hanging and sea gull statuettes.
Roberts' current asking price comes to $254 per square foot, compared with the $226 per square foot average of 20 similarly sized homes sold in the past year within a half-mile radius, according to RealQuest.com.
Home sale prices rose an average of 5.6 percent in the year before May 2006 in the 95354 ZIP code area, according to Data-Quick. Roberts' asking price is about 15 percent more than he paid a year ago.
Scott and Laci Peterson bought the home in October 2000 for $177,000.
Soon after Roberts acquired the house, he announced the discovery of a red-stained, 10-inch knife in a backyard patio cabinet. He found himself out of a job after the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper published photographs he took of the knife.
Police later confirmed that an inquiry proved Roberts could not have planted the knife.
TV's "Inside Edition" later paid Roberts for an interview and footage of the home.
Roberts said he was unable to find work with any other area real estate agencies. He took two electrician jobs but was fired from both, he said, before taking up with Cottel, a longtime friend with a broker's license but little recent involvement in real estate.
Cottel's main business is water-treatment contracting. Roberts is his only real estate salesperson, according to the California Department of Real Estate.
Roberts said he doesn't know where he will go when the home sells, but that he may leave the area.
"I thought I could break the house's mystique and spin it around," he said. "I guess I was wrong."
Brett Cottel can be reached at 495-1131; Gerry Roberts can be reached at 402-6198.
Bee staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at 578-2390 or gstapley@modbee.com
Gerry Roberts, owner of the former home of Scott and Laci Peterson, sits in the room that was intended for their son. Roberts says he is selling the house because he no longer can afford the mortgage. But few people have expressed interest.
The house still attracts passers-by. Last Christmas, Roberts said, someone left a candle, a note to the victims and cookies.
Gerry Roberts' dog Bo sits in front of the door that leads from the family room to the back patio of the Covena Avenue home.
