Mud Bay House for Sale

It’s always interesting when a house near yours is listed for sale. The usual questions become more relevant. Do you know the owners? Why are they selling? How much are they asking? And, because the outcome can affect your home’s value and property taxes, will they get it? In this case, the house (see photo) isn’t on the long driveway I share or even on nearby Rocky Point Road. It’s directly across Mud Bay from me, but it’s close enough that we could be in the same large cul de sac if we lived in a subdivision.

About once a month I ride my bike out to the end of Marine Drive—the road that provides access to the houses on the west side of Mud Bay. Yesterday I noticed a real estate sign for a house in the 2700 block. The photo on the accompanying flyer looked familiar although the picture showed the house from the land side. No wonder. The house is one of a dozen or so I see from my kitchen window. Sure enough, when I got home I noticed a Windermere banner hanging from its waterfront-facing deck announcing the new listing to anyone in a boat or looking across from the east shore of Mud Bay.

The house is listed for $485,000. That’s the only answer I can provide to the questions posed above. Although I sometimes see the kids who live there playing basketball in the backyard, I don’t know the family who owns it or why they are selling. The price seems reasonable given the home’s specs: 100 feet of waterfront, built in 1935 but with some recent updates, 2145 square feet plus a 2-car detached shop/garage. But the county assessor lists its value at only about 70 percent of the asking price, so perhaps the sellers are a bit optimistic. I haven’t been inside and have no idea how quickly it might sell given that real estate sales are still recovering from the mortgage meltdown.

More questions assuming it sells. Will the new owners paint it? It’s been painted gray with white trim for as long as I have lived here. Will they spend a lot of time outside enjoying the beautiful back yard? And will they put up Christmas lights? The past couple of years only one other house besides mine in our section of Mud Bay put up lights that you can see from the water.