BRADY TWP — Looking for a nice, little five-bedroom brick mansion on 25 secluded acres?

The Abbott estate is on the market.

With an asking price of $1.3 million, the property at 571 W. Liberty Road comes with a whopper of a list of amenities, but also with an equally sad, dark history.

Previous owner Kenneth Abbott and his wife, Celeste, were murdered there by Abbott’s son, Colin, in the summer of 2011. Investigators found burned bits of the couple’s remains scattered about the homestead.

Colin Abbott, who is serving a 35-to- 80-year prison sentence for the murders, was the estate’s main beneficiary, and prosecutors have asserted that greed was the motive for the killings.

As the courts continue to determine if Colin Abbott should inherit his father’s wealth or if it should go to Kenneth Abbott’s sister, the belongings have been being liquidated.

A series of eight auctions this summer at the estate sold off Kenneth Abbotts’ considerable collections of cars, guns, toys and antiques. The auctions, which raised about $1.3 million gross, ranged in sales from $36,000 to $563,000 for the auction that featured a collection of cars.

The final auction on Sept. 21, raised $43,000. But the highlight of that auction, the house and land, didn’t go.

Attorney Ron Elliott of Butler, representing the estate, said there were at least two buyers interested in the house in attendance. But the highest bid, $650,000, was rejected.

The auctions are now finished and the estate is exploring other options to sell the property, including the listing with Northwood Realty Services.

Listing agent Alice Minteer said that the property has been evaluated and the determined value already gave consideration to the crime that occurred there.

She stressed that the “immaculate” condition of the property and the private setting are positives in marketing it.

Minteer speaks from experience since she was the listing and selling agent when Kenneth Abbott bought the property from original owner Richard Lawniczak in 2005 for $875,000. Kenneth Abbott also paid commission as part of the sale.

Here are some of the property’s details, according to Northwood Realty Services’ online site:

Described as “private yet convenient,” the house has 4,800-plus square feet on the main floors and 2,900 square feet in a finished lower level. It comes with five bedrooms, five and a half baths and a gated security system. There also are three garages and a two-story horse barn.

According to the provided information, the monthly mortgage payment on a $1.3 million loan would be $6,842 if the buyer took a 30-year loan at a fixed rate of 4.75 percent and put down $130,000.

The agency’s Internet site does not mention the property’s history.

Whether the seller is legally required to disclose a tragedy is a topic under consideration in the state appellate courts.

Caveat emptor?

According to WestLaw legal services, a Delaware County home buyer, Janet Milliken, sued the previous owners of her home for fraud and misrepresentation because they did not tell her that the previous owner killed himself and his wife there.

According to the legal service, Milliken moved her teenaged children from California and did not know the history of the home she bought in 2007 for $610,000.

She bought the property from a couple who had bought it at an estate auction seven months earlier.

In 2010, the county court granted a summary judgment in favor of the previous owner.

In December 2012, the state superior court agreed, determining that murder/suicide is not a material defect to the property, and therefore does not have to be disclosed.

According to the ruling, written by Judge Kate Ford Elliott, psychological damage to real estate does not constitute a material defect.

“If psychological defects must be disclosed, then we are not far from requiring sellers to reveal that a next-door neighbor is loud and obnoxious, or on some days you can smell a nearby sewage plant, or that the house was built on an old Indian burial ground,” the majority opinion states.

However, three of the court’s judges wrote a dissenting opinion that notes Milliken’s proof that the undisclosed events harmed the value of her property as much as 15 percent.

“Murder is not such a common occurrence that buyers should be charged with anticipating and discovering this disquieting possibility,” states the dissenting opinion, authored by President Judge John Bender and joined by judges Sallie Updike Mundy and Davis Wecht.

The state’s Supreme Court has agreed to revisit the issue and hear the buyers’ appeal. The litigants are still submitting the paperwork before an oral argument will be scheduled.