Case study 1: Unloved home fetches $1 million

But that and the 1970s vaguely-brown patterned wallpaper, which fights with the much browner lino in the kitchen did not stop it from fetching more than $1 million at auction this week.

It proves location is indeed everything.

The house is a short stroll from Milford Beach on the North Shore and on auction day the sun was shining and by lunch-time the former owner, 82-year-old Norma Wheeler, was a happy woman.

She had put a reserve price on the Muritai Rd property, on advice from her real estate agent, of $900,000 and was optimistic of a little more

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