Photo: Drone shot! 107 Marsh St. from 100 feet.
A recap of residential properties sold in the past seven-plus days in the “Town of Homes”:
64 Summit Rd. #1, Condo townhouse (2005). Sold: $1,425,000.
107 Marsh St., Mansion (2015). Sold: $3,250,000.
• 64 Summit Rd. #1, Condo townhouse (2005). Sold: $1,425,000. Listed at $1,495,000. Living area: 3,453 sq.-ft. 10 rooms, 4 bedrooms, 5 baths. On the market: 156 days.
• 107 Marsh St., Mansion (2015). Sold: $3,250,000. Listed at $3,650,000. Living area: 7,500 sq.-ft. 10 rooms, 5 bedrooms, 6 baths. On the market: 125 days.
As the average house sold in Belmont in the first month of 2016 has reached $999,999 (!), this past week saw the priciest homes in their category; a townhouse in the Woodlands across the road from Lone Tree Hill Conservation land that came in at a tad under one-and-a-half million dollars (it was sold new in 2005 for $1.3 so it was a wash for the original owners who have decamped to Florida) and that new Marsh Street mansion.
Where once stood a single-story, 2,500 sq.-ft. ranch now stands a gargantuan Colonial-inspired mansion on 2/3 acre of land. I can only guess the seller includes roller skates to the buyers so they can get around the place! Let’s say the “Tiny House” trend has not come to Belmont Hill. And you know its prominence in the home sales hierarchy as the promotional package includes a photo from a drone.
And I’ll let the broker describe the manse on Marsh:
This brand new grand estate is a stunning departure from the ordinary! Follow the winding streets and mature trees of Belmont Hill to a circular drive that paves the way to this authentic colonial. A gracious fireplace living room and formal dining room enhanced by spectacular millwork. The library/office has built in book shelves. The real joy of owning this home is the dramatic great room [Great Room?] and kitchen that open and extend onto a deck. Entertain in style in the great room with massive stone fireplace, bookcases and windows overlooking a scenic setting. Step out and off the deck to a patio with built[-]in outdoor grill. The 2nd [second] floor has a sun drenched family room with soaring ceilings. The master suite provides a soothing oasis of special conveniences including gas fireplace & [and] two walk-in closets. The master bath has double vanities and acoustic tub. The architecture detail found in older homes is epitomized in this upscale new home design in a stately neighborhood. CHALLENGES COMPARISON!
In brief, it’s big and faces south. It’s so “stunning” it no longer has a living room but a “dramatic great room,” – right out of the pages of Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall”! (Well, maybe not THAT grand but it does have offsetting entry columns.) The master suite’s bathroom required a five-fixture connection, likely for the separate milk and wine faucets. All said, it’s actually aesthetically pleasing as it pushes out to the back although it does have dormers that looked thrown onto the roofline.
The Great Hall with heating grate.
And while royalty or Thomas Cromwell (probably) weren’t the buyers, it took one princely sum to be its owner: three and a quarter million dollars. That closing cost makes it the most expensive house sold in the “Town of Homes” for some time, slightly more than the house on Wellesley Road that sold for $3,092,500 in December or the Polaris House on Somerset that could only muster $2.3 million.
And there is an interesting back story to 107 Marsh. In 2002, the property was sold for $851,500 to a professor at a local business school who would soon be inducted into the Northeast Region of the American Accounting Association Hall of Fame. (The AAA – which is celebrating its centennial – is here to “promote worldwide excellence in accounting education, research and practice.”) If you do internal auditing, you’ve read this gentleman’s books.
According to records, the professors trust sold the property in June 2014 for $1.3 million to Keystone Luxury Estates LLC in Watertown. Soon after, the old ranch was blown up and the firm put down $685,000 to a well-known contractor to build the new grand house on the Marsh.
Looking a bit into Keystone, the only known asset of the company was the property and land at 107 Marsh. And who happens to be the manager and agent of the LLC that registered with the state two weeks before the sale? The professor who sold the house. So he sold the house to himself, used the proceeds – at incredibly low interest rate – to pay the contractor/architect and then dispose it for a cool million dollar profit.
And THAT’S why he’s in the Accounting Hall of Fame.
