Bargain of the decade

718 North Street, February contract, has closed for $2.350 million. This is a great house, one that I tried, and failed to get clients excited about over the years. Located on four beautiful acres set back from the road and across from the Babcock Preserve, the owners paid $3.2 million for it in 2010 and proceeded to pour money into it; if I recall, something like an additional $1.5 million (don’t hold me to a 1-year-old memory, but it was somewhere around there). Unfortunately, they put that money into the important things: new cedar shingle roof, copper gutters, double-insulated windows, furnace, electrical, whole house generator — everything a 1932 house needed for a complete restoration — and (many) buyers don’t care about such silly improvements. They want the flash, not the substance.

The owners had intended to stay a long time but their pans changed and they put it up for sale in 2013 at $4.8 That was undoubtedly too high, but its drop to $4.2 in the spring of ‘14 was, I thought, a pretty good reflection of what they’d put into it and in fact, would probably have caused them to lose money, after paying commissions. No soap.

But $2.350? An absolute steal.