Wanna buy a house? (It only gets worse)

[Judge Roy Bean]

Pricey, possibly bomb-laden property no easy sell

After an auction to empty chairs in August, marshals in New Hampshire are attempting to regroup and hire a professional auctioneer and the officials in the two towns owed substantial back taxes on the properties are more frustrated than ever.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ ... story.html

[Famspear]

I hope they're not having to run yet another version of this story of this unsold property -- in the year 2042 -- when Elaine is scheduled to be released from prison --at the age of 102.

[arayder]

I remember the Browns.

If I recall Ed had a history of going to the local court house, messing with the clerks and officials and then bragging about it on internet forums.

They also had a following of sovcit/tax protesters who did everything they could to amp up the situation around the Brown compound. If I recall the crew made a speciality out of developing phony controversies around the house and making themselves into victims.

I had forgotten that the marshals arrested the Browns by imbedding themselves in the crowd, eventually walking right up to the two and arresting them, if I recall correctly.

[Jeffrey]

Looks like a very beautiful house.

[arayder]

FYI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_and_Elaine_Brown

[AFTP]

I was just going to post this.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014 ... by-trapped

[Judge Roy Bean]

Looks like a very beautiful house.

If memory serves, people who had actually seen it indicated portions of it were poorly constructed. Apparently the concrete work for the tall "defense tower" at the front was particularly shoddy.

The single biggest problem I see isn't the potential for explosives on the grounds; it's the back taxes. They are far more than the value of the property and improvements. Given the local government's absurdly unrealistic approach to "solving" their revenue problem, I doubt they'll get any more interest than they did in their earlier auction.

[arayder]

Sounds like one of the homes they put on those house flipping shows.

You know the ones where the flipper buys the house for a song and the rest of the show is about the reconstruction/remodeling crew finding mold, bad wiring and sagging foundations before the house is finally re-sold for a tidy profit.

Except this one would have segments where the flipper bemoans, "$20,000 to rework the concrete wall! $5,000 to remove the second bomb! None of that's in my budget!"

[Jeffrey]

Well the outside looks good anyways.

[The Observer]

Earlier, I had provided an explanation of why the property would be difficult to sell for any number of reasons.

So add this to the many stigmas that tax protestors bring with them: the ability to render property and assets worthless.

[notorial dissent]

So add this to the many stigmas that tax protestors bring with them: the ability to render property and assets worthless.

Too true, all too true. They can certainly bring down property values at any rate.

My suspicion is that if Ed was as adherent to the building codes, or even realistic building requirements as he was to everything else, I wouldn't bet on the house being even remotely structurally sound. My personal suspicion is that anyone buying the place would have to demo the house, or at least most of it to start with, and somehow I just can't see an underwriter signing off on the whole possible UXD's on the property thing, I just see that as a real deal breaker, so I see this as a strictly cash only deal. I think the county is going to go whistling for their back taxes, and I think the Fed's have a genuine white elephant.

[morrand]

Looks like a very beautiful house.

If memory serves, people who had actually seen it indicated portions of it were poorly constructed. Apparently the concrete work for the tall "defense tower" at the front was particularly shoddy.

I am not a structural engineer, and if I were, I wouldn't presume to evaluate a structure simply from one photograph posted to a BBS.

However, there seem to be an awful lot of seams going on around that tower, don't there? It gives the house an appearance of being built out of cardboard boxes. Not the most encouraging sign; I hope it's just a sign that the walls have been armor plated somehow—though, now that I think of it, that would probably put some, uh, unusual loads onto the load-bearing walls.

[JamesVincent]

However, there seem to be an awful lot of seams going on around that tower, don't there? It gives the house an appearance of being built out of cardboard boxes. Not the most encouraging sign; I hope it's just a sign that the walls have been armor plated somehow—though, now that I think of it, that would probably put some, uh, unusual loads onto the load-bearing walls.

The house was made out of pre-poured concrete blocks. The seams you are seeing are the joints between the blocks. Great idea, if it's done correctly, and a lot of more modern structures are done in this way. However; I am also not a structural engineer but it would appear that several of the blocks visible are not in alignment. When I can see shadows in between the joints and see missing chinking, even in a crappy photo, then I would hesitate to even look at the house in real life or even consider it. In a structure like this there really aren't any load bearing walls, the entire outer structure takes the weight and the interior is kinda hung off of it. Again, great idea but, considering the readily visible faults I listed above, even less then thrilled at the prospect of looking at the house.

[Famspear]

....it would appear that several of the blocks visible are not in alignment. When I can see shadows in between the joints and see missing chinking.....

I think that was also a problem with mental processes of the prior owners, Ed and Elaine Brown: some stuff was not in alignment, and there was some "missing chinking" as well....

[grixit]

Forget it. Evacuate a 5 mile radius and drop small concussion bombs over the property. Then let the local national guard unit get some practice running over the rubble with their heavy vehicles. Charge it off to the army training budget.

[notorial dissent]

Agreed, kind of a similar idea I palyed with at one point to have some good bomb disposal training program use it as a test sight for their refresher course, about the only way I can thing of making sure it has been properly cleared.

Even then I'm still betting the house isn't really safe and up to code.

[The Observer]

The only idea I could come up with was starting a controlled burn over the entire property as a way of exploding or otherwise destroying any devices that Ed may have left behind. But I am sure the neighbors would not be happy with that approach, being concerned, and justifiably so, with the possibility that a fire could spread to their own property.

My dark side is considering recommending that the government turn it into a campground for tax protesters and Sovrun citizens.

[wserra]

My dark side

Do you have a non-dark side? If so, I think we need a new Coordinator.

[arayder]

I have from time to time commented on the almost nonexistent sense of community demonstrated in the case of some freemen/sovs.

Most of us could not conceive of putting up a substandard building in the middle of our neighborhood and then leaving booby traps around for the neighbor's kids to find when they sneak onto the lot like Atticus Finch's kids trying to get a look at Boo Radley.

This lack of community awareness is also demonstrated in the sov's unwillingness to follow even the most simple and sensible of society's rules.

[Judge Roy Bean]

Forget it. Evacuate a 5 mile radius and drop small concussion bombs over the property. Then let the local national guard unit get some practice running over the rubble with their heavy vehicles. Charge it off to the army training budget.

How about a couple of days with one of these?: