A Colorado woman, Tori McMechan, is defying a viral Zillow listing that warns buyers they must remove the current occupant before taking possession of her three-bedroom, two-bathroom home.
The house for sale in Nunn, a small Weld County town, has generated more than 4 million views on X after the listing warned buyers they cannot go inside before closing and that removing the occupant will be their responsibility.
McMechan reacted to the unusual listing: “The ad is unreal, right? Who would buy a home sight unseen with an occupant still in it?”
McMechan and her late husband bought the home in 2006, and he died in a car crash amid a political dispute in Nunn.
McMechan has lived in the house since, raising her children there: “This is the last thing that my husband bought for me before he passed,” she said.
McMechan said the original loan was taken out in 2006 and would have been paid off by 2021, had it stayed on schedule: “We took out the loan, the actual loan on this house, in ’06. In 15 years, 2021, this home would have been paid off.”
Court filings detail a repayment dispute from 2010, when McMechan says she and her husband tried to catch up on the loan with a series of payments, including two personal checks the servicer rejected, tied to the loan in her husband’s name and not hers.
McMechan said: “The bank that has been unwilling to work with me as a surviving spouse.”
McMechan later sued the lender twice on her own, arguing the loan had been passed between companies without a clear paper trail proving who actually owned it, but both lawsuits were dismissed, and the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled last year that even taking her claims as true, they did not amount to a legal reason to stop the sale.
A recent ruling in the court of appeals did not go in her favor, as she says required paperwork missed a deadline.
McMechan expressed frustration: “I don’t know what else you do. I’ve had three attorneys that could not even get this straightened out. So what do you do?”
The listing agent told 9NEWS he has listed thousands of foreclosed homes over his career, but has never put one on the market with someone still living inside.
Her legal options have narrowed considerably, according to court records. The loan has changed hands multiple times over the years, according to court records.
One company that has serviced the loan declined to comment, and another, which serviced the loan roughly a decade ago, said it no longer had involvement in the account and also declined to comment.
Despite the uncertainty, McMechan said she still takes pride in the home: “We put a lot of work into this property,” she said.
She said she plans to stay no matter who buys the house: “I’m staying,” McMechan said.
In the viral moment that catapulted her fight into the national spotlight, the listing explicitly stated that prospective buyers could not conduct showings or inspections before closing and that they would assume full responsibility for removing the occupant. The peculiar warning, rare in real estate sales, went viral as internet users marveled at the listing’s transparency about McMechan’s refusal to leave and the legal complications that created.
Her last hope, McMechan believes, is to be evicted, as her hope rests on a 2024 change to Colorado law that gives evicted tenants a right to a jury trial.