I had a listing with a 2.5 car garage. Who bought it? A couple with two cars and two motorcycles who hadn’t been able to find a home that adequately housed their mobile lifestyle.
Hard-to-find or unique features are sometimes the precise reason specific buyers buy. What are some of the most exceptional features among today’s listings that buyers might want for their dream home?
A golf enthusiast might like the home in Marlborough with a personal mini golf course, complete with flags, driving range mats and signs. Golfers may also consider the Manchester home that has a state-of-the-art putting green, or the Walpole home which features its own private golf hole.
If swinging a bat is more important than swinging a club, then there’s a listing in Lexington that might be a buyer’s home run, as it comes with a complete batting/pitching cage in the back yard.
There are also homes available with a Pilates studio (Wayland) and a bowling alley (Lincoln).
For the more aerobic, there are listings with tennis courts that double as basketball courts in the summer, or are transformed to hockey rinks in the winter. If inclement weather is a concern, a house in Andover has a full-size indoor basketball court (not to mention a two-story, partly covered slide into a pool, a massage area, a fish pond, gym bleachers and many other unique amenities).
For the all-around indoor sports enthusiast, there is a home in Marshfield where you can play basketball, tennis, volleyball, soccer and baseball in “your private gymnasium.”
Creature Comforts
What are some unusual un-sportsmanlike features that are available in Greater Boston homes?
It’s always popular to advertise top-of-the-line brands like Subzero refrigerators (61 listings) and Viking stoves (98 listings), but if buyers are more worried about clean-up than they are about food storage or preparation, they might look for homes that have two dishwashers (18 listings). As far as dishwashers are concerned, a house in Braintree apparently took the cake plate with three dishwashers, and now that home is under agreement.
There are 45 homes on MLS with an elevator. The lower-priced listings generally have an all-important handicapped lift, while the luxury homes have lavish elevators.
If car storage is a buyer’s biggest concern, there’s a residential listing in Norfolk that has 10 garage parking spaces. On the other hand, the buyer of a property in Topsfield might not be concerned with car storage at all. Why? Because that home has the right to “land a helicopter” on the property.”
A home in Falmouth offers a novel way to beat Cape traffic. Its great room overlooks a runway and its hangar has room for two planes.
Need a dog kennel and a pistol range in the home? Check out a listing in Boxford that offers both.
Are you nervous about blackouts? More than 400 homes on MLS boast emergency generators. Are you anxious about the threat of Armageddon? A property in Attleboro (now under agreement) has a bomb shelter.
More than 22,000 single-family homes are currently listed on MLS.
What’s the most unusual feature among them? While I really like the roof-top infinity lap pool at 74 Beacon St. in Boston, my vote has to go to the operational lighthouse on the third floor of a $1.2 million, beachfront co-op in Brewster. Supposedly, it’s visible from Provincetown.
