What "lives" in houses.

Ace has been looking for houses. As a born digger who can practically find every little last scrap of information about things, I've been helping out as best I can, going through records, ownership histories, looking for bargains...just an all-around real estate gal Friday.

Well, he received an automated listing from his real estate agent.  In Las Vegas, in a very posh neighborhood to boot, a 4,000 square foot house on a half acre of land was available for the dirt cheap price of (get this) $99,000.

You do realize we all just did the same thing, right?  We all said, "Okay, what's the catch?"

Here it comes.

When he saw that great big house on 1700 Bannie Ave listed for $99,000 he told me about it and we both kind of cocked our heads sideways. Over 4,000 square feet for $99K? 

I went straight to work on it.

It seems that house has a name.  It's called "La Palazza" and oh boy does it have a history!

The house “La Palazza Mansion” located at 1700 Bannie Ave. apparently seems to be haunted, and it’s not good spirits either. Apparently the mafia owned the house and installed a secret room where they would kill people in it. 

Malevolent spirits apparently drove out the last owner in 2009 and it has sat vacant ever since.

I found the first clue on a Travel Channel show called “Ghost Adventures.” Here is the link to the episode on YouTube.

Here is a synopsis if you don’t want to watch it: http://manofmystery24.hubpages.com/hub/Satans-Mansion

Okay, now we all know that I don't fall easily for reality show hype with my disdain for Bunny Foo-Foo and that kiddie beauty pageant stuff, so I went over to the City of Las Vegas Website and to the Clark County Assessors Office and started to dig through public records. 

Originally it looks that the house was 2600 sq. ft. built in 1959.

The last time the house was sold was in June of 2009 for $340,000.  (Remember, it's now listed as available for $99,000. I mean the economy tanked, but it didn't tank THAT bad.)

Here’s where I got freaked. The house was originally built in 1959, right?

Well it doesn’t show to be owned until 1962 when it was purchased by a Doyle E and Lenore M Jordan.

Apparently it was changed over to a trust, the D&L Jordan Trust in 1989.

After that, it doesn’t show any changes until 1994 when it was purchased by a Jonathan A. Allen.

Four years later, in 1998 it was registered as owned by a mortgage fund, Goodrich and Pennington.

In 1999, it was sold to a Jefferey Talley.

In 2004, it was sold to a Ronald Nocum on July 19.

Almost one year later exactly in 2005, it was sold to a Nicholas Joseph Santucci on July 1.

Then again, almost one year later, on August 10 of 2006 it was sold to a Diane Martinez.

This time it lasted a little over a year when it was turned over to HBSC Bank on December 6, 2007.

The final entry for this house is a little over a year later again...June 6, 2009 it was sold to a Keith Resnick.

The current parcel number for the house is 162-04-210-020 when Mr. Resnick (who now lives in Santa Monica, CA) sold to the the Interstar Land Company LLC almost exactly three months later for $10 on September 15, 2009 and has been unoccupied ever since.

Buy a house for $340,000 but sell it for $10?  Doesn't sound like good real estate savvy to me, but can you blame him?

Here’s the link for my source and you can flip through the building sketch, and ownership history yourselves.

Here is the link to the last sale deed. 

Oddly enough, for the vesting of this house it is shown as “no status”, since listed as “Joint Tenanacy” for Mr. and Mrs. Jordan in 1962.

When it became even freakier was when we looked at the comps: all of the houses surrounding it have all been sold within the last two years. Transactions 1000 feet from the house start at $72,000 for 1213 Charmast Ln. which is in foreclosure and go all the way up to $1.5 million for 1250 Shadow Lane. 

Here’s the odd part about the one for $1.5 mil...it’s new registered owner is DTP Shadow House LLC, but records are only available up to 2000 where it was owned by the Fox family the entire time.

When I started to want to run, not walk, and snuggle my entire body into Ace’s armpit and never come out again was when I discovered that the house on the opposite end of the street, the opposite corner to it, isn’t even a house anymore...it’s been demolished. 1415 Westwood Dr. is worth $125,000 and sitting vacant having gone through a similar churn as 1700 Bannie.

You know, I used to work at Disneyworld and I knew plenty of folks who worked over in the Magic Kingdom and had a blast putting on their costumes to work at the Haunted Mansion. Well, now that I’ve actually found one, Walt can keep it. 

I told Ace after digging through all those houses that I will be damned if I set toe one in that neighborhood, I don’t give a rat’s tinker how gorgeous the neighborhood is. I’m a white girl that is now whiter than a sheet. I grew up in a haunted house. I don’t like ghosts even though the ones I grew up with watched over us very politely.

Yikes. So before I get even more freaked out, I’ll leave you with that. I’m just glad I’ve got good digging skills because when Ace asked me to look into it and the Google Search came up with “haunted” with the address, the hunt began and sure enough, it’s too good to be true.

Oh and btw, the guy who’s in charge of the listing, has it listed as “no show.” No wonder!

Even if Ace begs, I am NOT letting him set toe one into that house. 

I mean I know I’m a real handful sometimes, but I ain’t nothing on what’s currently “living” in that house.

Mmmhmm...and some people complain about their leaky faucets or having to replace a water heater.

Eeek!