SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A year after the rural town of Bridgeville was ostensibly snapped up in a frenzied online auction for nearly $2 million, the town is up for bid again -- this time at half the price and not on eBay.
The supposed buyer, who was only ever identified as a nameless West Coast developer, disappeared soon after making the winning $1.78 million bid last December on auction site eBay. No check ever arrived. That prompted real estate broker Denise Stuart to offer the property to another bidder. And another. And another.
After a dozen potential deals fell through, Stuart posted the property last week on the more standard listings that brokers routinely share.
The town's owner, Elizabeth Lapple, is now asking $850,000 for the 82-acre property, set among redwoods about 270 miles northwest of San Francisco and about 30 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
The town, which dates to the early 1900s, includes a post office, a mile and a half of river bank, a cemetery and more than a dozen cabins and houses. It needs a new well and several buildings need to be renovated.
Last year's online auction generated national attention and nearly 250 would-be buyers, even though bidding opened at $775,000.
"It was such a fiasco last time," said Stuart, who owns California Real Estate in Eureka. "You have no idea who (buyers) are, if they're for real or they're bogus
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The supposed buyer, who was only ever identified as a nameless West Coast developer, disappeared soon after making the winning $1.78 million bid last December on auction site eBay. No check ever arrived. That prompted real estate broker Denise Stuart to offer the property to another bidder. And another. And another.
After a dozen potential deals fell through, Stuart posted the property last week on the more standard listings that brokers routinely share.
The town's owner, Elizabeth Lapple, is now asking $850,000 for the 82-acre property, set among redwoods about 270 miles northwest of San Francisco and about 30 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
The town, which dates to the early 1900s, includes a post office, a mile and a half of river bank, a cemetery and more than a dozen cabins and houses. It needs a new well and several buildings need to be renovated.
Last year's online auction generated national attention and nearly 250 would-be buyers, even though bidding opened at $775,000.
"It was such a fiasco last time," said Stuart, who owns California Real Estate in Eureka. "You have no idea who (buyers) are, if they're for real or they're bogus
Full Article from CNN
