Simpson's mansion on auction block

  Jonathan T. Lovitt ; Richard Price

  07/14/1997

  USA Today

  FINAL

  Page 01A

  (Copyright 1997)

  LOS ANGELES -- O.J. Simpson's Brentwood mansion will be up for sale today

  in a foreclosure auction with experts predicting bids on the low side.

  Hawthorne Savings bank foreclosed after Simpson defaulted on $2.46 million he

  borrowed to pay legal bills for the criminal and civil trials following the 1994

  murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

  Bidding is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. PT on the courthouse steps in Norwalk,

  Calif. The bank is demanding a minimum bid of $2.5 million -- cash or cashier's

  check.

  If there are no other bidders, the bank takes over the title.

  Although the bank is the primary lien-holder, there are others. Even if the house

  sold for its appraised value of $3.5 million, the money would go to lien-holders,

  not to pay the victims' families civil award.

  Some observers expect it will be hard to sell the five-bedroom, six-bath mansion.

  ``O.J.'s house is associated with a terrible event,'' says Randall Bell, a real estate

  analyst who specializes in homes associated with tragedy. ``The kind of people

  who would buy a multimillion dollar house in Brentwood don't want to be

  associated with O.J. Simpson.''

  Simpson bought the 6,200-square-foot home in 1977 near the close of his

  football career.

  It also has a tennis court, a playground, an Olympic-size pool and a guest house,

  then-home to Brian ``Kato'' Kaelin, who gained fame as a witness in the criminal

  trial.

  And more than three years after the murders, the property continues to draw

  media and curiosity-seekers. Simpson posed with several Saturday, when friends

  and relatives gathered for his belated 50th birthday party.

  Simpson is shopping for a new home in the area. Losing the mansion, he told

  CNN, has given him ``sadness . . . but it's a material thing, and, you know, they

  come and go.''