David Barbosa is one of the most prestigious brokers in the idyllic suburb of Westfield, NJ, with regular listings valued in the multimillions.
But in 2019, he was handed the strangest listing he’d ever had: a gorgeous 1905 Dutch Colonial at 657 Boulevard that had been at the center of one of the town’s most chilling mysteries.
The trouble began in 2014 when Derek and Maria Broaddus bought the $1.35 million six-bedroom dream home, only to be targeted by a series of anonymous, blood-curdling letters from a stalker calling themselves “The Watcher.”
Eight months later, fearing for their safety, the couple put the house on the market for a modest 10% appreciation. But even after several price cuts, the home wouldn’t move.
The home languished on the market for five years, and by May 2019, it landed on Barbosa’s desk.
“We had to find a buyer who didn’t care about the story,” Barbosa tells Realtor.com® exclusively.
The struggle to offload ‘The Watcher’ house
The couple struggled for years to offload the home at close to its worth. Stymied, the couple finally sued the previous owners, claiming they had also received a note from The Watcher and failed to disclose it. The former owners denied that and filed a counterclaim for defamation.
Both lawsuits were dismissed in 2017. According to the judge in the case, the Broaddus couple thought the letters were being written by someone who was “mentally unbalanced.”
The couple resorted to renting out the property for $5,000 a month while periodically retesting the market. In May 2019, the troubled listing’s luck changed when it was given to Barbosa, owner of David Realty Group.
This time, within a few months, the house was sold for $959,000, a steep discount off the original sale price.
The buyer was a man already in town who was familiar with the sinister goings-on.
“He knew and didn’t care,” says Barbosa. “He thought it was a great deal.”
Property records show that the buyers were a married couple who have thus far declined to speak to the press.
The agent says the house “has never had a problem since,” in terms of strange letters.
The case has not been solved. Police, FBI, and even private investigators looked into several neighbors and other leads but could never discover the identity of The Watcher.
According to New York Magazine’s The Cut, female DNA was found on several of the envelopes, but that still did not lead to a suspect.
How to sell an infamous house
The subsequent Netflix series based on the case had not yet dropped when Barbosa took over the listing, but the bizarre mystery of “The Watcher” had already made international headlines.
In fact, the story had reaped so much media attention that it inspired a 2017 Australian horror film called “3rd Night,” starring Naomi Watts, who went on to star in the Ryan Murphy–directed Netflix series. (The series was filmed in Westchester County, NY, not in Westfield.)
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