Light Sleepers

A new breed of B&Bs; offers beacon and eggs

Chad Kaiser

Light Sleepers. A new breed of B&Bs; offers beacon and eggs.

Not long ago, Richard Neal, a 51-year-old software salesman in Charlotte, N.C., was killing time on a slow day at work, surfing the Web. "I had always heard that you could get fantastic deals on surplus government property," says Neal, who comes off as a straight arrow not prone to making impulse purchases. Typing North Carolina into the GSA website (the General Services Administration, in addition to its lavish spending habits, is known for unloading Uncle Sam's surplus property) brought up exactly what one might expect--worn-out prefab buildings, post offices, an old bank, ugly things. But then something caught Neal's eye:...

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