Bottom-Fishing on the East End

I’VE BEEN GETTING FED UP with house prices here in the Humptons. Yesterday my friend Debre and I stumbled upon an old farmhouse with a ‘For Sale’ sign on Old Stone Highway in Springs, below, found the door open (!) and the realtor’s flyers conveniently stacked on the kitchen counter. I was hoping it was under $1mil. In fact, they’re asking $2.5mil.

Turns out that’s for two houses — a barn-like 7BR place built at the back of the property in 2001, plus the renovated 4BR 19th century house nearer the road (suggested in the literature as a guest house), both on 1.5 acres. Still, that’s a big number, and this blog is supposed to be about affordable real estate.

So I decided to troll the listings to see what’s new on the low end of the scale here on the East End of Long Island, and turned up these three older properties — one in the Sag Harbor area on the South Fork and two in Greenport on the North Fork — for much more agreeable prices. (Click on the live links below for more details.)

I love the look of this 2BR Craftsman-style bungalow in Greenport, below, asking 365K. Said to be in excellent condition, with a couple of outbuildings, and well-located near the harbor.

These have always intrigued me: Breezy Shores is a bayfront community in Greenport made up of classic 1940s beach cottages, below, with a shared beach and marina. No heat, unfortunately, so their use is limited, and prices have gone up since I last looked. There are two available, asking 349K for each.

See how great it could look here.

This nondescript cottage, below, is really cheap for the South Fork: asking 299K. Not having seen it, I make no representations. It’s on Noyack Avenue in Pine Neck, near the water, with mooring rights and gas heat. Maybe it could be charmed up? I’m sure a team of editors from Domino magazine could have done it.

With summer ending, houses languishing on the market, and interest rates still low, this could be a very good time to look.

Check back soon for 5 under 500K in Sag Harbor – all pre-WWII cottages.

1880s Farmhouse in Springs 750K

IF I COULD FLIP the postwar cottage I’ve owned for three whole months now, and buy something like this farmhouse instead, I would. That would be premature, but it’s much closer to what I originally set out to find.

It’s on Old Stone Highway, which has been the winding backroads artery between Springs and Amagansett for three centuries, and still has a few 18th century houses on it.

This 1884 farmhouse is on 3/4 acre, a five-minute stroll down Landing Lane to the best kayak launch site on Accabonac Harbor.

Cedar-shingled, turn-of-the-20th-century houses like this one were going for around 950K a couple years back, a local broker told me.

So it’s all in how you look at it, right? This could be a great recession bargain, or else it’s triple what it would have cost if I, we, you had had more foresight ten years ago.

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Note: I am not a real estate broker, nor do I have any financial interest in the sale of any property mentioned on this blog. I just like spreading the word about unique, historic properties and what I believe are solid investment opportunities.

Victorian Farmhouse on Shelter Island

THEN

MY FIRST THOUGHT, when I met Debre DeMers last winter in a real estate office on Shelter Island, was “What is she doing here? She looks like she belongs in Brooklyn!” Turns out, Debre lived in Park Slope for a couple of decades before buying a Victorian farmhouse in near-shell condition “for the doors” (they’re arched and pointy and fabulous). The house had a new roof and a snazzy exterior paint job, but nothing on the inside except studs and insulation (the previous owner ran out of  oomph and money).

NOW

Aside from a few minor details (she’s from Montana, I’m from Queens), Debre and I have much in common: an interior design background; cats; collections (I’d never heard of Navajo bug pins before). I love the fact that almost all the building supplies and furnishings in Debre’s house came  from eBay, Craigslist, or yard sales, that she has two stacks of old doors on her porch, and that she’s laying a flagstone walk herself.

She’s been working on the house, which is on a small, sloping lot near North Ferry, for about 15 months, and the renovation is is well along. A wraparound screened porch has dramatically increased living space beyond the original 1,200 square feet. There are gorgeous new barn-wood floors, new doors and hardware, two new bathrooms, and most of a kitchen.

I’m impressed that Debre survived her first winter living full-time on Shelter Island, and seemed to like it. “It’s funny how quickly one adapts to life out here,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I’m always happy to return to my house in the holler.”