Ghosttrackers explore property for show
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Learning Channel turns camera on hotel for segment on property 'flipping'
Ghosttrackers explore property for show
Jackie Schlotfeldt News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jschlotfeldt@news-bulletin.com
Belen For years, Belen native Carl Baca has been involved in real estate up and down the Rio Grande valley. When he finds a piece of property, he buys it, fixes it up and turns around and puts it back on the market.
This is called "flipping."
Baca buys both commercial and residential property, and through the Internet and several investors he's in contact with, he learned about a show on The Learning Channel (TLC) that was looking to document different types of "flippers." He applied and recently found out he would be featured in an upcoming pilot.
"TLC had been following my activities around real estate in general," Baca said. "They see how I track down properties in Albuquerque and Belen and remodel them."
Debbie Levin, the producer of the show, said that this program is different from many that are on television.
"It's not about following one single flip," she said. "It's really about following the stories of people, whether they're a first-time flipper or whether they've flipped many, many times like Carl."
Levin said this show is about learning the secrets to success. "It's kind of a live and learn motto," she said. "We want to provide as much information to the viewers as possible."
This production of TLC will show everything from the remodeling of the late singer Dean Martin's home to a piece about Baca, who flips property after property, to the story of a couple in Arizona who take an inexpensive route to flipping property.
"It will show varying degrees of experience, of money invested and money made," Levin said. "The different tips will be based on who these people are."
One piece of property that Baca bought two years ago is the Central Hotel in Belen. Although the majority of the filming was done on Baca's properties in Albuquerque, TLC decided to include the hotel in this series.
The hotel, which is rumored to be haunted, is up for sale and Baca said he's had several inquiries about it from people all over the country. While he may not believe in ghosts, Baca said he was intrigued by the thought and invited a team of ghost hunters in for the filming of the segment.
Tom? resident Ralph de Baca, founder of New Mexico Ghost Trackers, has been tracking ghosts for the past three years. With a team of five, three of whom are his children, de Baca has traveled throughout the state investigating the paranormal.
"I've been in it for two to three years and it's about following your instincts," de Baca said. "I've always believed in it and I've studied and researched it for years."
This was de Baca's second visit to the Central Hotel. Last spring, his team spent about eight hours inside investigating and photographing what some believe to be unexplained movements in and eerie events at the hotel.
"The main thing is you have to be logical, sensible and realistic in anything you do," de Baca said. "You can try to break down anything you find in a negative way and put a scientific explanation to it. That's the first thing we try to do on anything we capture (on film)."
De Baca said there is a lot of activity throughout the hotel, but the second floor is where most of the events have been documented. "There's a lot of activity on the stairway as you go up," he said. "but the bottom floor doesn't seem too bad."
By the end of the night, hundreds of pictures had been taken as well as a video feed of the main hallway upstairs. While not all of the photographs captured an image, several showed what appeared to be white spheres floating across the room.
"There's nothing like catching it on camera," de Baca said. "It's an awesome thing."
Carl Baca said he's still skeptical even though he himself has witnessed one or two strange occurrences.
"I'm an engineer. There has to be a scientific explanation for this," he said after being interviewed on camera by TLC. "But if there are ghosts in there, they better start paying me rent."
Although the show's air date has not yet been decided, Levin estimated it will be on the schedule in early June.
Reporter Clara Garcia contributed to this story.
Source: http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/60745-04-12-06.html
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