Be An International Citizen By Buying House In 2 Countries: Vermont/Quebec

This apartment building straddles the U.S./Canadian
border in Vermont and Quebec. If you want it, it's for sale. 

Imagine waking up in Canada walking just a few feet to the bathroom to brush your teeth in the United States.

You can do that if you buy a 3,000 square foot apartment house in the fine village of Beebe Plain,  Vermont.  The same house is also in Stanstead, Quebec, Canada.  (Beebe Plain is a village within the town of Derby Line, Vermont.)  

Confused? Don't be. It's a rare building that straddles the international border Vermont and Quebec. The building is for sale for a low, low price of $109,000, but it's a major fixer-upper that probably needs three times that much money to renovate.

Plus, there's the whole international border thing. Border officials, especially on the United States side, have gotten a lot more pickier over the years about who crosses the border and when and why.

"In the day it wa a normal and natural thing,' Brian DuMoulin told the Associated Press. He grew up in this house. When he was a kid, nobody thought twice about crossing the border over and over again in one day. "Now it stresses everybody out," DuMoulin said.

This is the state of affairs now in Beebe Plain, Vermont/Stanstead, Quebec, according to the AP:

"Residential streets that used to be open were blocked by gates. The back doors of an apartment building straddling the border iin Derby Line village have been locked shut. The street next to the Haskell Free Library and the Opera House, deliberately built in both countries, is blocked by flower pots, although Canadians are still allowed to wak ot the library's U.S. entrance without going through a border post."

Plus, as you can imagine, border agents might be suspicious of people who want to move into the apartment house that staddles the border. (The current owners are in their 70s and inherited the building, but now want to move to Ontario to be closer to their grandchildren.)

The apartment building, currently vacant while it awaits a buyer, is monitored.

Border agents try to know the people who live in the house and let them move back and forth across the border if they stay in the house or its tiny yard. So no need to show your passport if you really, really have to urgently move from the kitchen in the United States to the bathroom in Canada.

Despite the renovation costs and the border stickiness, several would-be buyers have expressed interest in the building. So if you want it, better hurry up and make an offer.

Person Who Lost Out On Dream House Unleashes Nightmare On New Owners

Kathy Rowe in court with her attorney
after being caught harassing a couple who
outbid her on a house she wanted.  

The ABC show 20/20 did a piece on a woman in California who was outbid when trying to buy a house she really, really wanted.

I can understand her disappointment. But maybe she went a teensy bit too far on how she reacted to the disappointment.

ABC quoted Kathy Rowe thusly:

"I had put so much hope into this house......When I walked in, it felt like my house...its almst like, you know you hear bluebirds sing and music play. I walked in, it was my house."

Well, no it wasn't. It belong to Janice Ruhter and Jerry Rice, a married couple, and their yoiung child and another baby on the way. The couple poured their life savins into the house in a very nice Carmel Valley California neighborhood.

Not long after Ruhter and Rice moved in, strange things started to happen, ABC says:

"They received $1,000 worth of bills for adult diapers and magazine subscriptions that they never ordered. They found their house re-listed for sale online, and buyers started showing up in their yard. There was an online ad for a New Year's Eve party at their house that they said they never planned.

'You get scared, you know, that's your house. It should be a place of safety,' Ruhter said. 'With that out there, the safety just disappears.'

"Then things got worse One Valentine's Day, Rice said the neighbors' wives were sent Valentine's Day cards, with his name signed on the cards. Then Rice discovered online posts advertising sex with his wife telling strangers to just show up at the house during the day."

Now, that's extremely troubling. With that, Rowe could have easily set up a situation where Ruhter could have been raped or even worse.

This is the house Kathy Rowe really, really
wanted.  

If People magazine's account is true, what Rowe did was very, VERY scary:

"In email correspondences with men, Rowe, posing as Ruhter, wrote that she had fantasies of being raped while her husband was at work.

'I love to be surprised and have a man just show up at my door and force his way in the door and on me, totally taking me while I say no,' she wrote to one ma who responded to her posting."

Rice called police who investigated and figured out Rowe was behind all this. Surely Rice and Ruhter were relieved. I bet the neighbors were too. After all, upon the arrest of Rowe, the neighbors surely figured out the couple who actually owned the house were pretty normal.

I bet the neighbors were glad they didn't have Rowe as a neighbor. Who knows what she would have done had one of those neighbors gotten on her wrong side.

Rowe pleaded guilty to stalking in November.  A few weeks ago, she was sentenced to a year of home electronic surveillance, five years of probation and ordered to stay away from the Rice and Ruhter and their family for ten years.

Rowe told ABC: "I may be the least liked person in San Diego County....a horrible, evil person wanted to harm this nice couple. I did not intend to harm them."

Didn't intend to harm them?!?!  How is harassing them, complicating their lives and putting them in danger not harming them?

Rowe's attorney said she was stressed over caring or a severaly disabled teenage daughter and snapped.

Anyway, if Rowe is house hunting anywhere near you in the future, and you outbid her on a property, better just let her buy the place and look elsewhere. Your life will be easier if you do.

Share

Except For The Land Mines and Booby Traps, This Property Is Spectacular

This, and 100 acres could be yours for as little
as $250,000, if you don't mind the land mines in the woods. 

There's a beautiful piece of property up for auction in Plainfield, N.H, that includes about 100 scenic acres.

It also has a nice large house that maybe could use a little renovation but has TONS of potential.

The minimum bidding price is $250,000 so this place is a steal.

Yet, at the first auction, nobody submitted a bid.

It could be because the property might be laced with land mines or booby traps. 

Yeah, that isn't the best selling point for real estate is it?

The property in question is the infamous compound of Ed and Elaine Brown, who in 2007 said federal income taxes were illegal and they wouldn't pay them. Ed Brown was trying to demonstrate his belief there was no obligation to pay federal income tax.

That didn't get him very far.

They were put on trial for tax evasion, but stopped showing up for the trial and holed up in their compound for nine months.

They, and some like minded people there, who did not recognize the authority of the U.S. government, stashed homemade bombs, weapons and ammunition.

The standoff was quite a sensation during the summer of 2007. Adding to the drama, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and his wife Joanna had property across the street from the Browns that they stayed at every summer.

The Breyers weren't there that summer, for sure.

The Browns were arrested in October of 2007 without incident and are now serving long prison sentences.

According to TechTimes, federal authorities aren't even letting prospective buyers tour the property:

"Federal officials are banning potential buyers from touring the property over concerns the woods on the property could contain high explosives. During the standoff, Ed Brown told a radio interviewer that police forces raiding the property would die, describing the conflict as "war." However, during his trial, he testified the booby traps in the woodland areas would meant to scare, not harm intruders."

So if you don't mind your wonderful walks through the woods interrupted by land mines blowing off your legs, so you can't walk in the woods anymore, have I got the property for you!






           

Time Waster Of The Day: Hilarious "Terrible Real Estate Photos"

If you've put your house on the market and fret that it doesn't look impressive enough for potential buyers, don't worry.

Maybe Jackson Pollock lived here? 

It could be worse. Much worse.

A Tumblr site called Terrible Real Estate Photos is a hilarious time waster that shows properties that are, shall we say, unique fixer uppers.

A few sample photos from the site are in this post, but go ahead and peruse the Tumblr site. You'll never look at real estate sales brochures the same way again.

A property perfect for your weekend firing squad parties!  

Airy living spaces in this newly listed home.  

This bathroom leaves
quite an impression.