"The Boulders" is finally on its way to new owners

432 Field Point Road, Belle Haven, is reported pending; current asking price is $4.450 million. I’ve always wanted to like this 1894 house because it’s so nice inside, but the massive boulders that comprise its exterior are just too off-putting, to my taste. And gracious or not, the interior really doesn’t work, probably because the house was built a time when servants prepared and served meals for the owners, and their convenience was not a consideration high on the masters’ priority list.

I’m not alone in this somewhat negative assessment: Ogilvy originally put it on the market for the previous owners at $8.5 in 2003, or even earlier, and finally sold it to these sellers in 2005 for $4.3 (that original owner, a lovely lady, called me a couple of times, wondering why the house she loved so much wasn’t selling. I told her that, at $8.5, and then $8.3, is was priced twice as high as it should be. I won’t looking to take business away from David, which was a good thing, because she stuck with him to the bitter end).

Anyway, back tothe current owners: after buying it for the aforementioned $4.3 in 2005 they poured money into modernizing it and replacing the mechanicals and put it back on the market in 2012 at $6.495. It’s been on and off since then, dipping its toe in the market and then retreating to the rent rolls, so it’s been a long slog.

But that’s soon to end.