It’s a deal that gives new meaning to “moving house.”
Nantucket is offering the bargain of a lifetime: a free $3 million-dollar home on the upscale Massachusetts island — as long as the owner is willing to move the house off the land within six months.
The unusual pact is part of the island’s Demolition Delay Bylaw program, which gives away dwellings to incentivize homeowners to transplant them to new locations rather than demolishing them and adding to the waste stream.
A Nantucket home is being offered free for the taking, as long as the next owner removes the home from the property and has it placed somewhere else within six months. Bokicbo – stock.adobe.com “Why would we put these houses into a landfill when someone can use them?” local real estate agent Shelly Lockwood of Pepper Frazier Real Estate told Realtor.com.
The three-bed, two-bath 1,736 square-foot home sits on a 1.04-acre lot, and is far enough away from the shoreline that it’s not subject to the erosion that usually calls for Nantucket homes to be relocated, according to the outlet.
Homes on the upscale Massachusetts island go for a median price of $4.4 million. Danita Delimont – stock.adobe.com Interested parties hoping to join the ranks of A-list Nantucketers like Bill Belichick, Dave Portnoy or former senator and secretary of state John Kerry must write a letter of intention to the town’s building commissioner as well as the home’s current owner.
The claimant must be ready to move the house to its final destination within six months.
The property last changed hands about six months ago. Lockwood said land is at such a premium on the tony island off the coast of Cape Cod that it’s likely the current owner bought the house for the acre of prime real estate the dwelling sits upon.
“Because the value of the land is so high—because there’s none left on the island, really—people will buy a house they don’t want just to get the land,” she said.
The cost of relocating a home ranges from around $150,000 to $500,000 or more, but with Nantucket’s median $4.4 million price tag for a house, and vacant land options hovering around $1.65 million, the transaction might still make a good deal for the right buyer.
“When they come up, they are very hot commodities,” Lockwood said. “Who wouldn’t want a house for $150,000 or so moving costs? You grab them if you can; it’s a hell of a value.”
