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Real estate agent who sold The Watcher house reveals client backed out over horror story: 'It was crazy'

"There was such a stigma on the house," the agent tells EW, adding that potential clients had to sign off on knowing the terrifying history that inspired Ryan Murphy's Netflix show.

By

Joey Nolfi

Published on October 13, 2022 05:52PM EDT

What's worse than living in a (potentially) cursed house? Trying to sell that (potentially) cursed house to prospective buyers. David Barbosa, a listing agent and owner of David Realty Group in Westfield, N.J., did just that, after Derek and Maria Broaddus approached him in 2019 to sell their $1.4 million home five years after they endured a horrifying ordeal within its walls.

Ryan Murphy turned the couple's experience into a new Netflix series starring Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale as parents who, after moving into an idyllic suburban mansion, are welcomed to town by a series of disturbing, threatening letters from an anonymous stalker. Barbosa had an equally difficult job: Turning the real-life horror story into cold, hard cash in the Broaddus bank account after other agents already tried (and failed).

"There were a million stories about what was going on with the house," Barbosa, a Westfield resident, exclusively tells EW, referencing the Broaddus' real-life nightmare at 657 Broadway, which was chronicled by The Cut in 2018. "There was such a stigma on the house. That was our biggest hurdle: Trying to get over that stigma. Plus, you had people riding by the house, taking pictures, walking up to the front door, it was crazy."

Barbosa says his team wasn't apprehensive about taking on the property, and listed it for $999,000 in March of 2019. From there, he recalls "a lot of interest in the house" from potential homeowners, and a renter temporarily occupied the space, adding to its credibility. Despite its grim history, he feels that many saw the house as an "iconic" representation of familial ambition for young couples who'd outgrown Manhattan.

Still, there were challenges. The Cut article's viral status made it difficult for clients to come to the house without knowledge of its backstory, but Barbosa required them to take an extra step before submitting an offer.

"The deal was that, if you were going to put an offer in on the house, you had to go down to the attorney's office and look at [all of the evidence], so you knew what really happened before we went into a hard contract," he explains. One man, whom Barbosa remembers confidently told him that he didn't "give a s---" about the hostile letters the Broadduses received, backed out after delving deeper into the case.

"He went down to the attorney's office and called me and said, 'Yeah, I'm out.' He just said, 'Listen, after reading everything, there's no way I'm going in that house,'" Barbosa says with a laugh.

Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale in 'The Watcher.'. Netflix

Ultimately, he struck a deal with a young couple that purchased the home for $40,000 under the $999,000 asking price in July 2019, ending the Broaddus' five-year torment.

"They had no concerns at all," Barbosa says, adding that they haven't had any issues with anonymous letters from creepy strangers during their time at the address. "They were really cool."

The Watcher — also starring Jennifer Coolidge, Margo Martindale, Mia Farrow, and Noma Dumezweni — is now streaming on Netflix.

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