Ed and Elaine Brown were sentenced to prison for tax evasion in 2007, but the government is having a hard time selling their booby-trapped property in New Hampshire. 
 
 The home of Ed and Elaine Brown in Plainfield, N.H., Jan. 7, 2007. The property, owned by convicted tax evaders, will once again be auctioned for sale on Thursday. 
 
 Officials in Plainfield, New Hampshire, are having a difficult time selling a 100-acre property once owned by infamous tax evaders Ed and Elaine Brown. 
 
 The Browns were sentenced to five years in prison for tax evasion in 2009, after staging a nine-month armed standoff with US marshals who were charged with taking the couple into custody. Now Mr.. and Ms. Brown are serving 37 and 35-year sentences respectively. 
 
 The compound will again be auctioned for sale on Oct. 22, after a failed attempt to sell the property on Aug. 15, 2014 for $250,000. Elaine Brown’s former dental office in Lebanon, N.H., will also be for sale. 
 
 To entice buyers, the minimum bids for both the Browns’ house and Elaine’s dental office have been cut in half from the first sale attempt, with price tags of $125,000 for the compound and $250,000 for the office. And now buyers will have 45 days to fund their purchase, up from the seven-day mandate in the previous auction. As an added incentive, buyers can now preview the site before buying. 
 
 A 6,000 square foot home on a 100-acre property may sound like a steal for $125,000. So why are liquidators worried the property still won’t sell? 
 
 During the standoff, Ed Brown assured law enforcement and the public that there were booby traps and explosives hidden throughout his property. 
 
 “The chief of police in this town, the sheriff, the sheriff himself will die. This is war now folks,” Brown said during a radio interview. 
 
 “They can’t guarantee that they’ve found everything,” IRS liquidation specialist Roger Sweeney explains to WMUR9 News. He also says the potential of explosive devices on the property is included in the notice of sale. 
 
 And the house comes with several other quirks. The Browns built their house on and around an existing structure, and portions of the original roof are visible from inside the home. There is also a hidden door at the back of a closet, which leads to an underground bunker and an escape route outside through a manhole. Another odd structure in the house is Ed Brown’s 360-degree turret that he used to survey his property during the standoff. 
 
 The real losers here might be the local towns of Plainfield and Lebanon, New Hampshire who are owed $196,000 and $324,000 in back taxes, respectively. 
 
 This report contains material from the Associated Press. ||||| Two New Hampshire properties at the center of an armed standoff with federal agents, including a compound that featured escape routes and once was believed to be booby-trapped, were sold at auction Thursday. 
 
 View photos 
 
 New Hampshire businessman James Hollander bought both properties belonging to convicted tax evaders Ed and Elaine Brown during a federal auction that attracted seven bidders and lasted only about 15 minutes. He paid $205,000 for the 100-acre compound and $415,000 for Elaine Brown's dental office; minimum bids were $125,000 and $250,000, respectively. 
 
 
 
 The Browns became anti-government celebrities in 2007 when they held federal agents at bay for nine months after they were convicted of tax evasion. 
 
 
 
 The Browns are now in their 70s and serving prison sentences of more than 30 years. The 2007 standoff started when federal agents came to take them into custody. 
 
 
 
 During the ensuing showdown, the Browns welcomed anti-tax and anti-government supporters to the compound, including Randy Weaver, whose wife and son were killed along with a deputy U.S. marshal in a 1992 shootout in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. 
 
 
 
 The Browns were convicted in 2009 of amassing weapons, explosives and booby traps and plotting to kill federal agents who came to arrest them. Before an auction last year, federal agencies couldn't ensure the entire parcel was free of booby traps. But the hilltop house and the grounds up to the tree line have been searched extensively and deemed free of improvised explosive devices. 
 
 
 
 The properties were seized and a federal judge ordered them auctioned to pay back property taxes owed to Plainfield and Lebanon. 
 
 
 
 Hollander is the owner and president of Hot Grips, which manufacturers heated handlebar grips for motorcycles, snowmobiles and off-road vehicles. 
 
 
 
 ||||| The home of convicted tax evaders Ed and Elaine Brown is scheduled to go up for auction, and prospective bidders are being allowed to take a look inside. 
 
 Click to watch News 9's coverage. 
 
 After the Browns were convicted, the 100-acre parcel with a fortress-style house was the scene of a nine-month standoff. They're now serving decades in prison. 
 
 Federal officials tried to auction off the property before but failed. The starting bid has been reduced from $250,000 to $125,000. 
 
 The structure has more than 6,000 square feet of living space, but it's largely unfinished. The building was built around and on top of an existing house. In one section, it's clear that a floor was built on top of the roof of the old home. (See more video of inside of home.) 
 
 In the back of a closet, a hidden door can be found. A ladder leads to a small bunker with a passageway that leads just outside. Dirt hides the manhole cover that provides an exit to the passage. 
 
 One of the predominant features of the house is a turret. From the tower, Ed Brown had a 360-degree view of his property. 
 
 "There's a lot of stuff that you need to look at and say, 'Do I want to finish it that way? Do I want to go a different direction?'" said Roger Sweeney, liquidation specialist for the IRS. "But it also comes with 100 acres, and with that price, it's a heck of a deal." 
 
 There are solar panels and a wind turbine on the land, but investigators have found explosive devices, as well. A warning is included in the notice of sale. 
 
 "They can't guarantee that they have found everything, but they have done a good-faith search over and over again," Sweeney said. 
 
 Elaine Brown's dental office is up for auction, as well. Its starting price is $250,000. 
 
 The auction will be held at 11 a.m. on Oct. 22 at 55 Pleasant St., Room 110 in Concord. More information is available at www.irsauctions.gov.
– Two New Hampshire properties finally sold at auction Thursday, despite the fact that they may be booby-trapped. The Christian Science Monitor has the backstory: A 6,000-square-foot house on a 100-acre property, plus a nearby dental office, were owned by Ed and Elaine Brown, who were convicted of tax evasion but managed to fend off federal agents during a nine-month standoff that finally ended with their arrests in 2007. During that standoff, they amassed an arsenal of weapons and explosives and claimed their compound was booby-trapped. There was an auction last year, but federal agents couldn't guarantee the property was booby-trap-free, and no one bought either property. At that time, the compound was listed with a starting bid of $250,000; this time around, the minimum bid was slashed in half. A businessman, James Hollander, ultimately paid $205,000 for it, plus $415,000 for the dental office. Authorities had been worried the properties might once again fail to sell; an IRS liquidation specialist told WMUR last week, "They can't guarantee that they have found everything, but they have done a good-faith search over and over again." The station reports that investigators did actually find explosive devices, and that a warning was included in the notice of sale. But WCVB reported Thursday that "the hilltop house and the grounds up to the tree line have been ... deemed free of improvised explosive devices." The former presence of booby traps isn't the only interesting thing about the compound: There's a turret with a tower that offers a 360-degree view of the property; a hidden door that leads to an underground bunker and an escape route to the outside via manhole; and, as the house was built over an existing house, in one section you can see that a floor was built atop the old house's roof. (A pot farmer's own booby trap led to his demise.)