“A Lot Of People Think I’m Crazy” – Nantucket House Just Feet From Sconset Bluff Sells For $899,000

Perched precariously at the edge of the Sconset Bluff above the controversial geotube installation, the house called “Swept Away” at 93 Baxter Road stands – for now at least – at the center of the ongoing debate over how to manage erosion at the east end.

Photo by Peter Sutters

The property sold earlier this month for $899,000 – one of the few sales on the island this year under $1 million – a reflection of its perilous position on the bluff and uncertain future. The former owners, Steven and Erin Freeman, are taking a haircut of more than half a million on the sale, having purchased it back in 2007 for $1.53 million.

The new buyers are Charles and Miglena Fotopoulos, who own car dealerships in Lowell and Westwood, MA, and are well aware their new home’s days are likely numbered.

“It was cheap and I said ‘hey, I’ll buy it’,” Charles Fotopoulos said this week. “The foundation is structurally sound, and with the geotubes there, unless we have a killer storm, I think we’re safe. A lot of people think I’m crazy, but if I get five years out of it, I think I’m good. I’ll take that any day.”

Built in 1951 when the Atlantic Ocean was still hundreds of yards away, the house now has only a few feet of land along its eastern property line before the 40 foot drop of the bluff. The geotubes, installed eight years ago, have slowed the erosion at that location, and Fotopoulos was critical of the Conservation Commission’s recent vote to remove them. From the window of the home’s living room, one can see only the blue of the Atlantic.

“It’s both a great view, and a scary view,” Fotopoulos said. “It is what it is. It’s a hole in the ocean on Nantucket. It’s really worth $8 million if you really think about it. The next comp down the street is $8.4 million. So what do you do? How long does it last? You and I don’t know that.”

The previous owners, the Freemans, did not return messages seeking comment. They were active members of the Sconset Beach Preservation Fund, the organization that is funding the geotube project, during the 14 years they owned 93 Baxter Road. When they purchased the property back in 2007, there was still 50 to 70 feet of land between the house and the edge of the bluff, according to real estate agent Jamie Howarth, who represented the Freemans during the sale.

“They knew the risks going in,” Howarth said of the Freemans. “I was clear with him and we were clear with him that there was serious risk.”

During the ensuing years after the sale in 2007, the Freemans moved the house back toward Baxter Road, and had their own run-in with the Conservation Commission which issued an enforcement order against the couple after unauthorized work was done in 2017 to stabilize the top of the bluff behind the home. Despite the losses suffered on the sale, Howarth said the Freemans probably recouped more than that through short term rentals over the years, as the house was listed for as much as $10,000 per week during the summer.

The Nantucket Coastal Conservancy, the group that has opposed the SBPF’s geotube project, also noted the sale of the property this week.

“The presence of that pre-1978 house is what provides the legal justification, in part, for the permitting of hard armoring,” said the conservancy’s D. Anne Atherton. “We’ve noted a number of property transfers that have taken place this summer on Baxter Road, north of Bayberry. I don’t know what that signals. Maybe they’re having difficulty keeping their coalition together.”

The Fotopoulos family is not affiliated with the SBPF.

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