Looking for a last-minute gift? This estate could be yours

By Connie Sage

EDENTON

Looking for that special holiday gift for your loved one - say in the million-dollar range - but hate fighting crowds?

An 1850 mansion on the National Register of Historic Places might be just the ticket. Pembroke Hall, one of North Carolina's landmark Greek revival-style homes, is on a two-acre bluff in Edenton's historic district overlooking a bay. And you can buy it online without leaving your home or office.

What's unusual is that its owners are trying to sell it via an Internet auction that started Dec. 11 and continues through 6 p.m. on Jan. 9.

Marvin B. "Jerry" Smith of Sea Island, Ga., who with his wife, Sharon, owns the property, said they've tried to sell the home via traditional means "but have been unable to with this economy."

The house once was priced at $2.9 million and currently is listed by Edentonian Benbury Wood Jr. through William E. Wood and Associates at $1.4 million.

"With these auctions online, you can be sitting in Germany or Paris looking at the computer," Smith said. "If you know the value of the property, you can bid on it online. Hopefully it will work."

The opening Internet bid is $100,000.

Smith said there is at least one sales comparison that justifies the value of the property. Last month another historic 1850 house across the street from Pembroke Hall sold for $1.6 million.

With its 17 rooms, 12 Italian marble fireplaces and wine cellar, Pembroke Hall has a current tax value of $2,002,030, according to the Accelerated Real Estate Solutions' Web site at www.onlinehouseauctions.com.

"I'd be interested in seeing if it works," said Linda Staples of Richmond, Va., who is a licensed real estate broker and auctioneer in North Carolina and Virginia. She has sold properties via live auctions in the past. Staples said there are "static auctions" such as those on eBay, and real-time on-site auctions with an auctioneer who might incorporate live online bidding.

The Pembroke Hall sale is "a bit contrary to the concept of an auction," she said, because part of the appeal of a traditional auction is its short time frame, such as when it starts at 2 p.m. and ends at 5 p.m.

Pembroke Hall had been owned by Smith's mother, Gertrude Murray Rosevear, who died in December 1993. She is a descendant of Josiah Collins, whose family built the home.