Ed and Elaine Brown Property Sold at Auction

[TheNewSaint]

An older story with more details about the back taxes dispute:

http://www.concordmonitor.com/Archive/2 ... -vn-021316

[The Observer]

Ah, as I had related earlier, this was going to be a mess all around. And with DOJ's accounting of the "maintenance" costs being somewhat in question, no one comes out a winner. I suspect that the $170K figure is really for the search and removal of explosives by the feds from the residence, despite what the US Marshall's office thinks. If DOJ authorized the IRS to spend that kind of money for simple maintenance, then someone really messed up behind the scene; otherwise someone is trying to do some fancy stepping to cover up their big mistake in thinking that the seizure and sale would result in funds that would exceed the senior creditors over the IRS lien. The city would have been farther ahead to have foreclosed upon their tax liens themselves rather than allow the feds to have taken over.

Elaine's property was less problematic, thus the reason why 90% of the city taxes were able to be recaptured from the sale.

[The Observer]

Well, the buyer of the Brown's redoubt apparently has not been able to sell it. Zillow shows the property now listed at $319,000, a $10,000 reduction from the original price quoted in the news article above.

Some other differences. The listing shows the property as being 4.021 square feet and only having 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. The pictures of the inside of the home show that this was still a work in progress while Ed and Elaine were living there with a number of rooms definitely unfinished and in the rough. Perhaps that is why the square footage of the home is not being listed as the 13,000+ that the news article quoted - the unfinished rooms do not appear to be in any shape to live in, let alone being able to walk through. I am guessing that the Browns started with a simple existing home and just started adding on to the house in an ad hoc fashion without getting permits or inspections. If so, anybody buying this home is going to have to spend a ton of money before they can satisfy local building codes.

The outside of the home shows some issues with exposed wood, incomplete construction, paint coming off, misaligned sections, and general poor quality. Inside there appears to be either mildew or water damage to ceiling areas, and some windows are boarded over from the outside, despite the fact that they have glass installed. While one might think that this is a result of the government having to search and destroy areas of the house to remove booby traps, the pictures show that this is not true. Instead, you get the feeling that if Sarah Winchester had far less money than she did, this is the house she would have ended up building.

There is no rhyme or reason to the decor and architecture of the house, at least in those areas that pretend to be finished. Any sense of harmony has been tossed aside, and as you move from room to room, you have to give up on the expectation of a peaceful transition. It is as if as soon as one room got erected in the rough, Ed suddenly realized he wanted another room in a completely different shape, style and look to be added on, regardless of the previous room's impact on the area. After looking at all of the picutres, I realize that I misspoke; this is not the house that Winchester would have built. This is the house that Dr. Frankenstein would have built if he had been a contractor and not a re-animator of corpses sewn together. It is just too bad that the bolt of lightning that brought his monster to life didn't hit this wooden golem and burn it to the ground.

So there you have it: The House That Ed Built - And Ruined.

[The Observer]

The listing on Realtor.Com is interesting:

House on over 100 acres of privacy, within 15 minutes of West Lebanon. Unique home built originally in 1990. Major expansion in 2005 creating over 6,500 total home space. Built with ICF walls, give an estimated R-22 insulation in the walls. Oak Kitchen with large eat in area in the original 1990 section. 2005 section created unique tray ceilings in several of the rooms in the home, Large attached 29x29 garage, with a 29x15 car port. Detached 2 story 50x30 garage built with steel beams. 2 small barns, one stores the generator, foundation for a large Greenhouse. Pond in the front of the home, 80 foot wind tower, ground solar array, battery storage. Home is looking for a Buyer who has the ability to renovate and finish this home.

Key Facts

Style: Cape Contemporary Conversion Multi Level

I am willing to bet that the listing agent had to sit up nights trying to come up with a creative name for the style of the home that wouldn't result in his or her license being revoked for misrepresentation. If it had been me, I would have gone with "Modern Alcatraz" and gone to bed in peace knowing that I had told the truth.

[Hercule Parrot]

....anybody buying this home is going to have to spend a ton of money before they can satisfy local building codes.

The outside of the home shows some issues with exposed wood, incomplete construction, paint coming off, misaligned sections, and general poor quality. Inside there appears to be either mildew or water damage to ceiling areas,....

There is no rhyme or reason to the decor and architecture of the house, at least in those areas that pretend to be finished.

Honestly? Don't care, I think it's wonderful. That huge, unique house in 100 acres of land, surrounded by beautiful country landscape. I flicked through the photos with hopeless yearning.

Here in UK, this is what you'd get for that sort of budget - http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 30589.html . I live in a similar house, most of us do. I would swap my home for Chateau Brown, and think myself blessed.

[TheNewSaint]

Elaine's property was less problematic, thus the reason why 90% of the city taxes were able to be recaptured from the sale.

But still, almost all of the auction proceeds went to paying off local back taxes, meaning the federal government got very little out of the sale. I wonder if that mysterious $174,000 is just the feds saying "hey, we're getting SOMETHING for dealing with all this." They have a point: not just the cost of clearing explosives, as you mentioned, but the considerable manpower they put into working this case.

Personally, I think Plainfield got a steal. $200K in foregone tax revenue to be rid of the Browns forever is the best money the town ever spent.

[The Observer]

I wonder if that mysterious $174,000 is just the feds saying "hey, we're getting SOMETHING for dealing with all this." They have a point: not just the cost of clearing explosives, as you mentioned, but the considerable manpower they put into working this case.

My guess is that someone is trying to do exactly that, since reasonable costs and fees that would allow a property to be sold would come out of the sale first. Someone is going to have to show the court that whatever "maintenance" was done, it was worth $174,000 - and reasonable.

Honestly? Don't care, I think it's wonderful. That huge, unique house in 100 acres of land, surrounded by beautiful country landscape. I flicked through the photos with hopeless yearning.

That is how it would begin. But later on, when the city or county start hitting you with the citations to cure and repair the serious faults in this place with the risk of further fines and declaring the home uninhabitable, you would realize that this was not the place to make your dreams come true.

You are quite right that the 100 acres, the privacy and surrounding should be things that would make this property attractive to buyers. This property has been on the market for nearly a year and hasn't sold. And that is because the house has ruined that appeal. None of the rooms appear to be completely finished, which means that Ed and Elaine were sleeping in an incomplete bedroom and cooking and eating their meals in unfinished areas. Only the bathrooms look completed and neither one would appear to be a typical master bathroom. But all of this is just superficial to the real problems that the pictures are revealing in terms of structural integrity.

[notorial dissent]

The property(ground) doesn't sound bad, although I don't know what prices are running there.

The problems as I see it would 1)still be the possibility of things that go boom, or worse, remember most of the stuff they were building were nasty booby traps, and 2)the house, with Ed's fine disregard for rules and regulations, I wouldn't bet my life, or my money, on his having followed anything like code or that any of it was properly or even safely built. My bet is that the moment a new owner got in to it and started doing ANY work that he would immediately start having problems with inspectors over just about everything, as nothing would be to code. At which point the renovation/repair costs skyrocket.

[Hercule Parrot]

Honestly? Don't care, I think it's wonderful. That huge, unique house in 100 acres of land, surrounded by beautiful country landscape. I flicked through the photos with hopeless yearning.

That is how it would begin. But later on, when the city or county start hitting you with the citations to cure and repair the serious faults in this place with the risk of further fines and declaring the home uninhabitable, you would realize that this was not the place to make your dreams come true.

Yeah, I know. It's the general principle of cheap land and cheap houses that intoxicates my stifled, suburban soul. For the ordinary folk of Britland, it's townhouses or flats. With rare and bleak exceptions, we can't buy homesteads or build a house on a piece of land. It's all too scarce, too expensive and tightly-controlled by planning regulations.

I can spend hours on US property sites, looking at what $200-300k would buy out in the country. Or for crazy hour, what it would buy in Detroit...

[TheNewSaint]

If I had to sell this turd, my angle would be "self-sustaining, off-the-grid, unique construction" and hope I can get the Toyota Prius-driving crowd interested.

[The Observer]

With rare and bleak exceptions, we can't buy homesteads or build a house on a piece of land. It's all too scarce, too expensive and tightly-controlled by planning regulations.

Don't feel bad. We have enough examples over here in the US where people have bought undeveloped land and between them and local building regulations have so ruined the appeal of the property nobody wants it. As an example, we looked at a wonderful 10 acre parcel with a stream running through it; it also bordered on wildlife refuge and was far enough out of town so that traffic would not be destroying the harmony of the surroundings. My wife and I fell in love with it immediately but discovered the house built on the property was so tiny in space that it would need serious remodeling to make it comfortable. The size of the home was less than what you could get as a townhouse or flat in the UK. The owners of this parcel apparently only had enough money to buy the land and then threw a cheap dwelling on it. In discussions with the local county, we found that most of the remodeling we had in mind would not be allowed at this point and that we could not add a new structure - at best we would have to level the the old structure. At that point, we threw our hands up and went looking elsewhere.

If I had to sell this turd, my angle would be "self-sustaining, off-the-grid, unique construction" and hope I can get the Toyota Prius-driving crowd interested.

Maybe Burnaby could let the Korys and Clifford know about the Brown place and they could take another stab at being sovruns in a former sovrun palace - at least until they manage to get themselves once again run off the property.

[Burnaby49]

Maybe Burnaby could let the Korys and Clifford know about the Brown place and they could take another stab at being sovruns in a former sovrun palace - at least until they manage to get themselves once again run off the property.

You've been following the Kory's antics and what they get away with. They are still out of jail because it's Canada. If they tried the same stuff in the states, particularly the eastern seaboard (Texas has a different philosophy) they'd eventually find themselves in serious legal trouble. The Kory's are fine with living off the grid as long as somebody else is paying for it, note that one of Dean's first comment when he arrived in British Columbia was how he was applying for welfare. Good luck with that in New England.

Overall I'd say that the US would be a very unfriendly environment for the Kory brothers. And Clifford would probably have had a much longer sentence in the United States.

[notorial dissent]

That, and with their attitudes and behavior issues there are places that would be downright unhealthy for them, possibly terminally unhealthy.

[.]

All of this latest tale of woe making the larger point that Ed screws up everything he touches. Every. Single. Thing.

His tax "expertise" screwed up their tax returns. His bullheadedness resulted in federal prison terms that mean Ed and Elaine will both die in prison. Not to mention a half-dozen or so other people he sucked in who wound up in prison, one for 30 years. Not to mention local tax liens that will cost the town a pile of money. His imaginary architectural and construction talents resulted in a "castle" that will probably have to be demolished. He even screwed up a bunch of raw land by booby-trapping it causing great removal expense and done apparently not to a certainty that anyone can or will guarantee.

Ignoring liens, he had property worth 600K or more (maybe much more) and a wife with a dental practice who could easily earn enough to pay any taxes, but Ed the genius threw it all away.

Good job, Ed.

[Pottapaug1938]

I find myself hoping that Elaine remains delusional for the rest of her life. I would hate to think of what will happen to her if the "fever" breaks, and she realizes that she threw away a profitable dental practice, a comfortable home, her freedom and more in the pursuit of her husband's fantasies. Even if she somehow began cooperating with the government and somehow won her release, she would go back into a world where she has no assets and no means of resuming her dental practice.

[TheNewSaint]

Maybe Burnaby could let the Korys and Clifford know about the Brown place and they could take another stab at being sovruns in a former sovrun palace - at least until they manage to get themselves once again run off the property.

No no no no noooooooooo. This property is for wealthy hippies, not broke hippies.

[The Observer]

Overall I'd say that the US would be a very unfriendly environment for the Kory brothers.

You haven't experienced the joys of being a landlord with professional deadbeats taking advantage of renter's laws here. It is not unheard of to be told by law firms that it will be cheaper to pay your non-paying tenants to move out rather than to go through the eviction process. Some courts tend to bend backwards to ensure that the landlord is simply not trying to turn the rental into a more profitable own-your-own apartment or evict the tenants to raise the rent on the new residents. And that is before the squatters take advantage of filing bankruptcy to further delay their eviction. Granted, the Korys aint' that smart, but they might be able to learn a thing or two if they spent some time down here.

This property is for wealthy hippies, not broke hippies.

I am trying to imagine who a rich hippie could be that would want this place.

[The Observer]

I find myself hoping that Elaine remains delusional for the rest of her life. I would hate to think of what will happen to her if the "fever" breaks, and she realizes that she threw away a profitable dental practice, a comfortable home, her freedom and more in the pursuit of her husband's fantasies. Even if she somehow began cooperating with the government and somehow won her release, she would go back into a world where she has no assets and no means of resuming her dental practice.

I had always hoped Elaine would "wake up" and try to stop the avalanche that was coming her way. Female tax protesters were always the exception rather than the rule; in most situations the wife married to a TP was the sensible one who ended up suffering from her husband's idiocy; they usually ended up separating or divorcing the lout as a last resort to protect their family and income. But Elaine never could pull her head out of the koolade barrel, and I suspect that she had low self-esteem issues that Ed only exploited for his own advantage. She probably thought she was darn lucky to have Ed in her life and that if he walked out on her because she failed to support and believe him, she could never get another man in her life. If true, that is pretty sad for a person to believe who was a professional doctor that had a successful practice.

[The Observer]

All of this latest tale of woe making the larger point that Ed screws up everything he touches. Every. Single. Thing.

You forgot his business as an insect exterminator. If I remember correctly, that was none too successful either. Good thing that he was able to corral Elaine. But then he messed that up as well. Ed Brown - slayer of the goose who laid the golden egg.

[webhick]

I kind of want to start a Kickstarter or something to buy and renovate the property so I can turn it into a Paintball Bed & Breakfast.

Guests pretend to part of an up-and-coming militia group while "government invaders" try to take the compound. Do you want to go with your significant other, but don't want to participate in the festivities? Get the Ed & Elaine package! Luxuriate in the roof-top jacuzzi and watch the action from a safe distance...but be careful, if the "government" succeeds, the participants will hide in the secret basement like scared little bitches while you get your ass shot.