LITTLE ROCK — Across the nation, selling a home may seem impossible in the mess of a mortgage crisis and a faltering economy.
Try selling caves.
Mystic Caverns, a set of two tourist-friendly caves in the hills of the Ozark Mountains in north Arkansas, are up for sale on eBay Inc., its owner hoping to attract a spelunking-friendly shopper. However, as home loans remain tight, the caves' $899,900 price has yet to attract a serious buyer.
"It's a tough sale. You've got to find the right person," said Vickie Martin, a real estate agent trying to sell the caves. "It takes a lot of time and energy and run it. It's not something you can buy and let it run itself. You've got to take an active interest in it."
Owner Steve Rush, 49, purchased the caves near Harrison in 1988. He began tours in 1992 of Mystic Cavern and the Crystal Dome cavern. A third cave on his 28-acre property, Not Much Sink cavern, remains too dangerous to take tour groups through.
A nearby amusement park once brought more tourists down the steps into the caves, but the park closed in the 1990s, leaving Mystic Caverns to be its own draw, Rush said. Still, he said about 15,000 visitors pass under the cave's dripping stalactites each year.
Now, Rush said he wants to sell the caves to become involved in Christian ministries through his church. He recalled how the caves brought him to God in a way - one of his employees passed him a religious tape that helped him through a divorce.
There are other considerations too. He joked that he wouldn't have to trudge up and down the stairs everyday.
"It's always been a struggle for me, because you have to entertain people. ... I'm really tired of trying to entertain people," he said. "If you give cavern tours, even though you might have a wealth of information, people come here really because they want to be entertained."
The caves had been the on the market for a while now, originally priced at $1.2 million. The price dropped recently and the eBay posting has drawn some interest, something that gives Rush hope he will sell the land.
"It's a tough time in the marketplace to get a buyer, I think for any real estate and I don't think this business makes enough money" to make mortgage payments, Rush said. "However, if you had some money and you were not afraid of risk ..."