What do you do when Mother Nature is about to take your house from you? You sell it—fast. However, what happens when the situation gets so bad that you can’t even find good buyers?
Do you give up or sell to the highest bidder, even if they are offering just 10% of the house’s value? Jane Carlin and her husband, Ben Gifford, faced this dilemma in the past few months before making a tough decision.
Jane Carlin and Ben Gifford’s House
The couple are happily married people who have been together for decades. In 1988, they purchased their dream house in Nantucket, near the beautiful waters of the beach.
The beautiful summer home is on a 1,700-square-foot piece of land and is a breathtaking property. Its beauty cannot be denied, as the view from the house makes it seem like a vacation palace that many would kill to have.
Nantucket, Massachusetts
As mentioned earlier, the house is located in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Nantucket is a small, isolated island off Cape Cod in Massachusetts with a wide variety of beautiful beaches and views. The island is surrounded by many unpainted cedar-shingled buildings, many of which have manicured porches.
Sadly, the dream town is expected to experience a sea level rise of 1.15 feet by 2040, 2.36 feet by 2060, 4.36 feet by 2080, and 6.66 feet by 2100.
Shoreline Depletion in Nantucket
However, this dream town is getting smaller every single year. Nantucket is losing most of its land to the ocean due to its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. Its shorelines have depleted greatly over the years, and its habitable land has decreased significantly.
Therefore, those whose houses are getting dangerously close to the ocean have had to sell their properties to avoid a disaster. Due to the high sea levels, once valued very highly, these properties now see very low offers.
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A House Worth $1.9 Million
What happened to Jane Carlin and Ben Gifford is a prime example of the really low offers homes close to shorelines are getting. Their beautiful home was valued at $1.9 million in the earlier months of 2024, but that is not the case anymore.
The couple tried to sell their house before Mother Nature reclaimed it with the ocean, but sadly, they were unable to get any good offers—they barely got any offers at all.
Efforts to Save the House
Before giving up the house, the couple had tried to save it several times. “All winter, I had been really frantically trying to see if any of the organizations would consider taking the house and moving it, and we would help with the cost of moving,” Jane said.
Sadly, she was unsuccessful as companies did not want to take or move the house for them. She also tried to implement other safety measures that they could afford.
The House Is Almost “Ready To Go In”
While talking to the Nantucket Current, a local newspaper, Jane said that she believes the house is about ready to go into the ocean. The ocean has been relentless in the past years, and things are no longer how they used to be on the island.
“It used to be a neighborhood, and you knew who lived where. And now, if you take a drive out there, there’s not much to see,” she said.
An Offer for $200,000
Due to many years of erosion and storms, Jane and Ben’s house is dangerously close to the ocean. Because of this, their house could not get reasonable offers as most buyers were scared away by the fact that the sea could swallow it all up at any time.
Fortunately for the couple, their next-door neighbor offered them $200,000. While this is only about $10% of the property’s worth, it was the best offer they got.
They Didn’t Put the House on the Market
Although the couple knew they had to give up their house soon, they did not put it on the market; instead, they sent out offers to companies.
When asked why they did this, Jane said, “You don’t want to sell to someone when you know a storm could take it out next week. We wanted to be ethical and honest about it. Then this miracle dropped from the sky above, and we sold it to him for nothing.’
The Importance of the Unexpected Offer
Both Jane and Ben had been trying to sell off the endangered home and had just about given up when they got the offer from their next-door neighbor. “I didn’t want to see it fall into the ocean or get demolished. But I had no luck whatsoever,” Jane said.
Then, the neighbor, Don Navarro, a wealthy businessman, decided to offer the couple $200,000 to buy their property on Sheep Pond Road.
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The Couple Is Happy About the Offer
Although their neighbor’s offer is just 10% of the house’s actual value, Jane and Ben are happy they sold it. “I’m not feeling sorry for myself at all. Given the dire housing situation on Nantucket, we’re just grateful for the time we had there,” Jane said.
Now, they are happy that they got some money back, and their beautiful house is going to their neighbor, who would value it just as they did.
The Neighbor Is Aware of the Situation of the House
Vaccaro is very aware of the dire situation of the house he just bought for $200,000. As the property owner next door, he understands the dire situation that the house is facing and still bought it.
Vaccaro also rents his adjacent property to tourists and visitors for up to $13,000 weekly. While he does not plan to live on either property, he still has a vision for the future.
Future Plans
Vaccaro says the house may not last more than six months before the ocean claims it. However, he plans to implement some strategies to help the house last longer. “The easiest is sea grass planting – which should be done within weeks.
The second is V-shaped, low-height (less than 1 foot) bio-degradable silt fencing, which has been successful in a few other areas to a degree,” he explained.
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