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The evidence in this case shows that Father Stevens, through
the Monks Nonprofit, was a willing seller. The Monks Nonprofit
would sell at the right price, provided that the purchaser would
use the subject property for religious purposes. If no purchaser
came along who would use it for religious purposes, Father
Stevens was prepared to have the Monks Nonprofit keep the subject
property. It turned out, however, that TRY, an unrelated party,
did come along and was willing to meet the Monks Nonprofit’s
conditions and offered a price that the Monks Nonprofit was
willing to accept. The Monks Nonprofit was not an entity forced
to sell at a depressed value because aggressive creditors were
closing in. It found a purchaser who was willing to accept the
conditions and who offered to pay a price that the Monks
Nonprofit was willing to accept. Hence, we find that the May
1997 sale was between a willing buyer and seller.
In sum, we find the sale of the subject property to be
probative evidence of the value of the subject property. We
shall consider this evidence along with the other evidence of
valuation in reaching our conclusion, bearing in mind the
conditions the Monks Nonprofit placed on the subject property.
On balance, however, we do not find these conditions
significantly affected the ultimate purchase price of the
property. The valuations of the Antelope County assessor and
respondent’s expert, both of which are reasonably close to the
purchase price, corroborate our finding.
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