Will a 4% price cut on this house make a difference? Guess we'll find out. (Bumped)
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432 Field Point Road, known as "The Boulders" for some reason, dropped its price today from $5.199 million to $4.990 . I understand the owners' reluctance to budge on price, but they put this property up for sale in 2013 at $5.995 million, and if it hasn't sold in five years, a more substantial price cut may be called for.
When Ogilvy (of course) represented the previous owners, he priced it at $8.5 in 2003, and finally sold it in 2006 for $4.3 million (I used to get calls from the owner from time to time, asking me why her house wasn't selling. She finally got the message, but stayed loyal to David til the end, nor did I encourage her to leave him — I don't operate the way). It was, and remains, a lovely house inside, but I think the stone exterior put off a number of buyers. That, its price, and the ancient mechanicals. These owners didn't change that exterior, but put an extraordinary amount of money into modernizing it inside, and building a two-car garage to replace the original car port — back in 1880, I doubt the owners gave much thought to garaging vehicles.
Of the Belle Haven peninsula, but not in the association's boundaries.
The original staircase, one of the most beautiful I've seen, remains, but the kitchen is new, walls have been moved, new mechanicals installed, and so forth. I'm doubtful that those changes amounted to the $1.7 million they added on to the price they paid for the house. Or maybe it did, which would explain the owners' refusal to cut its original 2013 price of $5.995 from 2013 to 2016; alternatively, I note that the seller is a real estate agent, and agents are notorious for overpricing their own houses.
Still and all, if you can get past those rocks, and the nine bedrooms, a very nice home awaits you inside.
UPDATE: Oops!
I was just reminded of the basic flaw of this house: it has a narrow, windowless galley kitchen, which probably worked fine when only servants labored there back at the turn of the last century, but not so popular now. I've seen some redo/fixes of this problem in other old homes — one in Rockwood comes to mind — but because of the stone construction of this house, I don't see how one could grab some of the space from the dining or family room without screwing up the windows in those rooms. Then again, I'm neither an architect nor a builder, so perhaps there is a solution. The fact that these owners spent so much money renovating the place but left the kitchen as is makes me suspect that there isn't. (But see architect Formerly 06820's thoughts in the comments section about demoing the mudroom etc. Might be possible, though if I were representing a buyer, I'd expect the price to reflect the cost of that renovation/addition).
