High-end Bigfork home on the auction block

By KRISTI ALBERTSON

The Daily Inter Lake

There will be no "for sale" sign or real-estate agent involved when Glenn Patch sells his Bigfork home next week. He has opted for a less conventional approach and is auctioning his house instead.

The 2,900-square-foot home sits on a little over 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, but there's no guarantee he'll get that much in the auction, which takes place at 1 p.m. Thursday.

"With an absolute, it's going no matter what," Patch said.

In an absolute auction, property is sold to the highest bidder with no minimums and no reserves. To bid on the house, participants must register with a $250,000 cashier's check.

"It's going to be a great opportunity for somebody," said William Bone, president of the National Auction Group, the Gadsden, Ala.-based company conducting the sale.

So far, just a handful of people have expressed an interest in buying it, he said.

Patch, who owns Harbor Village in Bigfork, decided to sell the Montana properties because he intends to spend his most of his summers in Branson, Mo. His daughters and grandchildren live there, and he recently opened Dick Clark's American Bandstand Entertainment Complex, a $15 million theater complex.

Selling his Bigfork home via auction seemed like the simplest way to go about it, Patch said. He is going to keep a duplex in Harbor Village. His primary home is in Palm Springs, Calif., but he also has houses in North Carolina, Florida and Mexico.