A mansion has been snapped up by a Brit after just three days on the market - despite the first photo on the listing showing the family home on fire. The mansion in Franklin, Tennessee, America, was posted on Zillow by Benchmark Realty estate agents.
Many viewers were shocked to see that the first picture of this colonial-style house was a live shot of the building ablaze. The bizarre photograph shows thick smoke and flames billowing out of the ceiling, as a fire engine stands by and hoses down the $1.5 million (£1.2 million) property with a torrent of water.
Meanwhile, other snaps show the home's collapsed walls and scorched living spaces, whilst areas such as the guest house and the five acres of land appear to remain intact.
Luckily, images of the burning building and its rubble remains haven't kept prospective buyers away.
The once-magnificent mansion proved it was still 'hot' on the market when it came under contract with a British entrepreneur Mike Thakur after just three days of being up for sale.
Home owner Paula Duvall claims that the fire was caused by a paint sprayer igniting paint fumes during renovation back in September.
Paula claims that the snap of the house ablaze was a 'very emotional picture', and that this was the motivation behind using it as the listing's primary image.
Despite the charred interior of the left and right side of the building, Paula says that features such as the lighting, some kitchen appliances and the foundation are still salvageable.
Paula said: "In a lot of ways, I wasn't surprised that it sold. It is a beautiful piece of property, with a guest home, or a guest lodge, and it's in a beautiful location.
"We chose [the first photo] because obviously it does grab your attention, but also there's so much emotion behind that picture.
"We took that picture the day of the fire. We were very emotional, very sad, and very upset.
"It was a very emotional picture to us. Anytime you [list] a home, you want it to get attention. We were hoping for that.
"At the same time, we wanted to be transparent about the history of the home: what it was, and what it could be.
"We felt like that picture covered all the bases."
Mike Thakur decided to take on the challenge on renovating the property after he and his wife spotted the family home online.
Mike said: "We just figured, 'hey, this could be a rebuild-type fixer-upper and maybe we'll get it for a bargain or something. It's worth taking a gamble'.
"[The image of the building on fire] probably made us more interested in the property. You see that, and you just assume that it's in bad shape.
"If anything, I was kind of surprised at how good of a condition it was in when we got there. I thought it would be worse.
"The goal is to get all the burned stuff out, get the clean-up done, and see if we can get this thing at least [with] a roof on it so that it's watertight.
"At that point, we can pause and think about what we can do with the floor plan and see how we can make this a home that works for us."
The property listing was posted in a recent Reddit thread, where users were bemused by the home owner's unusual marketing tactic and were quick to make fire-related puns galore.
One user joked: "The first photo sells it to me!"
A second quipped: "Hot property."
A third said: "This property is lit!"
One user quipped: "Buy this red-hot deal! Before it is gone! Who posts a house burning down on Zillow?
"It is under contract so maybe that's what we need to do to sell our houses these days."
Another was amused to see the first image was a house on fire and wrote: "The freaking thumbnail photo [laughing emoji]."
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