Entrepreneur pulls mansion from auction

By KRISTI ALBERTSON

The Daily Inter Lake

Multimillionaire Glenn Patch decided to pull his Bigfork trophy home from the auction block hours before bidding was scheduled to begin Thursday because too few people had expressed an interest in buying it.

"With the softening of the real-estate market, we thought this might be a good way to sell it, but we just didn't get the level of interest I thought we'd get," Patch said. "We only had two bidders preregister on the Bigfork house, and that tells me there just aren't a lot of people around that can afford to fork out what it would take to buy it right now."

The nearly 9,000-square-foot house sits on a little more than 2 acres overlooking the Eagle Bend Golf Course. Patch, a real-estate developer and media entrepreneur, spent about $6 million when he built it five or six years ago.

The auction would have been an absolute auction, in which property is sold to the highest bidder with no minimums and no reserves. It's a popular method for people who want to sell quickly and easily, said William Bone, president of the Gadsden, Ala.-based National Auction Group, which was in charge of selling the home.

Patch, who owns and developed Harbor Village, a high-end subdivision in Bigfork, decided to sell his Bigfork home and a 380-acre ranch in Livingston because he plans to spend most of his summers in Branson, Mo. His daughters and grandchildren live there, and he has business interests in the city.

Patch had no guarantee that he would have made a profit or broken even had the auction taken place. He still plans to sell the property eventually.

"I love that house and am happy to hold on to it until the market is better to sell it," he said.

Patch did sell his Livingston ranch Tuesday for $3.1 million. Eleven people from six states and British Columbia bid on that property.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.