BURRILLVILLE – The 300-year-old farmhouse that inspired the hit horror movie “The Conjuring” has been listed in a foreclosure auction to be held on the spookiest day of the year, bringing a possible end to the reign of its current owner.
JJ Manning Auctioneers has listed 1677 Round Top Road for sale in an auction scheduled online on Halloween, starting at 11 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 31. The 8.5 acre property is currently owned by Bale Fire LLC, a business that was started by Massachusetts-based real estate developer Jacqueline Nuñez after she purchased the lot for $1.5 million in 2022.
Known internationally from the 2013 supernatural blockbuster, the property had been turned into a business offering tours and overnight stays to curious thrill seekers and paranormal investigators by the previous owners. Nuñez expanded the ghost tourism business in the years that followed, adding “ghamping” – or camping with ghosts on the grounds of the property – to its list of allegedly haunted experiences.
But the house closed last year amid a slew of legal troubles for Nuñez, which began with her arrest last October, and would include labor disputes and verbal public battles with others in the paranormal community.
When Nuñez submitted a bizarre application to renew the house’s entertainment license last November, which included threats against local officials, the Burrillville Town Council denied the request. She reportedly continued operating the business until Burrillville police shut it down in December.
Her charges in Burrillville of DUI and eluding law enforcement from last year remain open, according to the state’s criminal database, and a judge issued a warrant for her arrest after she failed to appear for a court date in January.
The house has sat empty since, and neighbors recently told NRI NOW that the power appears to have been cut to the property.
“First time the place creeped me out at night,” said one source who has asked to remain anonymous.
Comedian Matt Rife and his business partner, YouTuber Elton Castee, have expressed interest in purchasing the property, even reportedly sent a certified offer letter to Nuñez in July. The pair recently made a related haunted purchase, buying an occult museum in Connecticut filled with artifacts once owned by Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens’ were famed paranormal investigators whose visits to the Burrillville farmhouse at the request of the Perron family in the 1970s are retold in the fictional horror movie.
Rife has reportedly said it’s a dream of his to own the Round Top Road property with his friend.
He may get his chance next month when it goes up for sale to the highest bidder. A mortgagee’s foreclosure auction is typically a public sale held after a borrower has defaulted on mortgage payments.
“This antique farmhouse that has become famous for historical paranormal sightings and activity,” notes the listing by the auction company. “Since the original film, 7 plus additional movies have been released by Warner Brothers/New Line Cinema, which has resulted in The Conjuring franchise becoming the most successful horror movie franchise in history.”
“This antique farmhouse that has become famous for historical paranormal sightings and activity,” this from the advertisement of the sale. The only problem with it, of course, is that the claim is entirely false. The “paranormal” is by definition impossible to verify by fact. It is inadmissible evidence in any court of law and it has no standing in historical inquiry. Inquiring minds will find that there is plenty of verifiable evidence in three centuries of public records concerning this property and the families that have owned it, debunking the claims made by the entertainment industry. That a comedian might buy it is, perhaps, an appropriate joke.