President Trump’s childhood home in New York City has been sold at a steep discount — after the previous owner allowed it to fall into disrepair and become overrun by feral cats, The Post has learned.
The Tudor-style residence in the leafy Jamaica Estates enclave in Queens — where the young Donald lived until he was four years old — was scooped up for $835,000 by a Brooklyn-based LLC called 1388 Group, according to the sales deed filed March 3.
That price is less than half of the $2.14 million the house previously fetched in 2017, when it was purchased in an all-cash deal by Michael X. Tang, a lawyer who reportedly buys real estate on behalf of overseas Chinese investors.
During a photographer’s recent visit to the property, the front door — which for a time served as a backdrop for a life-size cutout of Trump as the previous owner wooed tourists — was wide open, revealing interior walls that had been stripped to the studs.
Construction workers were filling a graffiti-covered dumpster with planks of wood and other debris. A neighbor said one worker told him they were gutting the house and that the new owner was a known flipper.
The new owner took out two mortgages worth $931,500 to pay for the house and renovations, according to property records. The mortgage lender is listed as Accolend, which advertises “fix and flip” loans on its website.
The seller in the off-market deal “just needed the money,” a source close to the transaction told The Post. The seller’s attorney declined to comment.
The buyer’s Brooklyn-based attorney, Jincong Wu, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. The Post visited the listed address of 1388 Group, but no one answered the door. The Post also left a message on the door but didn’t receive a response.
The two-story, brick-and-stucco home at at 85-15 Wareham Pl. — built in 1940 by the president’s father, the late real estate developer Fred C. Trump — has been neglected and has remained vacant for years — aside from a colony of feral cats.
“A beautiful house was left abandoned and no one took care of it for all this time,” a hacked-off neighbor who requested anonymity told The Post. “No one occupied it, no one used it and it was left as an eyesore and we, the community, had to take care of it.”
That included paying a few weeks ago for upkeep of the lawn, the neighbor said. Before the renovation work began, the house had been plastered with “vacate” and “water shut off” notices, The Post previously reported in November.
In addition to its dilapidated appearance, the 2,100-square-foot house’s basement is full of mold after a water pipe burst, the neighbor added. The cats have been cared for by volunteers.
The house had changed hands on Dec. 16, 2016 — five weeks after Trump’s first White House win — for $1.4 million, nearly double the $782,500 it had previously sold for in 2008. Three months later on March 23, 2017 — the day of Trump’s first inauguration — it was flipped for a whopping $2.14 million, more than double the price of comparable homes in the area.
When it was listed for sale that year, the house was “thronged by visitors who spoke Chinese and pulled up in droves to take pictures,” the New York Times reported in a December 2020, citing neighbors. The paper added that “Trump’s image as a successful businessman has drawn him strong admiration in China.”
The buyer, which called itself “Trump Birth House LLC,” reportedly offered the home as an $815-a-night Airbnb rental. Guests could sleep in a bedroom with a plaque that noted it was where “President Donald J. Trump was likely conceived,” the paper reported.
In 2021, Paramount Realty USA, representing Trump Birth House LLC launched an unsuccessful crowd-funding campaign to raise $3 million to buy the house and donate it to Trump.
“Love Trump? Thank President Trump by contributing to this campaign to buy his childhood home in his honor!” according to the GoFundMe Page.
