‘Basement House’ in Peoria suburb pending sale after going viral

Barely visible home went viral shortly after being listed

A photo illustration of 213 North Mason Street in Deer Creek, IL (Zillow, iStock)
A photo illustration of 213 North Mason Street in Deer Creek, IL (Zillow, iStock)

There’s more to this Illinois house than meets the eye.

In the Peoria suburb of Deer Creek, a two-bedroom home that is essentially just a basement was listed for $35,000, News Nation reported.

The 832-square-foot, “basement house” caught the internet’s attention due to its unique appearance. The majority of the home is underground, with just the slab of roof and a small entryway visible from the street.

213 North Mason Street in Deer Creek, IL (Zillow)

213 North Mason Street in Deer Creek, IL (Zillow)

The house, which — according to the listing — is currently rented, appears as two layers of brick under a black roof with a smokestack and an upward-jutting entry that opens onto the driveway. A one-car garage and separate shed are the only ground-level structures on the property.

Inside the home, the kitchen and living room area has small windows at the top of the walls that let some natural light into the bunker-like home.

213 North Mason Street in Deer Creek, IL (Zillow)

213 North Mason Street in Deer Creek, IL (Zillow)

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The house went viral on social media on Wednesday, after a Twitter account called Zillow Gone Wild posted photos and officially dubbed the house, “The Basement Home.”

The 0.45-acre property, which had a pending offer as of Thursday, was marketed as a good-sized lot with the potential for the buyer to build a larger home above and around the existing basement structure.

Sometimes the best marketing uses reverse psychology. Last year, a home in San Francisco was listed as the “Worst House on the Best Block.” The dilapidated Noe Valley home, which was listed with zero bedrooms and one bathroom, sold for just under $2 million after it was marketed as “an opportunity like few others” to build a home in the pricy neighborhood.

Spotting listings for unique and/or peculiar homes has almost become a sport, with the best finding their way onto the @zillowgonewild twitter feed, which has almost 214,000 followers and the Zillow Gone Wild Instagram account, with 1.5 million.

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[NN] — Victoria Pruitt