286 Round Hill Road
286 Round Hill Road has taken yet another price cut and is now down to $3.250 million. This is a great house, built in 1900 (renovated and expanded since), on 3.5 acres in the 2-acre zone, and all-in-all, feels like a wonderful place to live. But it was placed for sale in 2009 at the daunting price of $5.375 and although as the years passed that price dropped, it moved slowly, step-by-step, inch-by-inch, so that now, when it’s probably priced about where it should have been four years ago, a buyer’s response upon seeing it the first time is likely to be “why should I buy what no one else wants?” Don’t let this happen to you.
12 Long View, Rvsd
Over in Riverside, where people do still want to live, 12 Long View Avenue (the short strip connecting Gilliam and Armstrong) has gone to contract after just two weeks, at $2.9 million. 0.8 acre in the R-12,000 zone and two separate building lots, but this buyer’s taking both, so look for a large house*. This is probably wise, because so much of the property is wetlands that a single house will be easier to fit around them, rather than trying to cram two houses onto what dry land there is.
The house it will be replacing, by the way, is the ugliest house I have ever seen, anywhere. The Fountain boys grew up just a few doors down on Gilliam Lane and have watched in wonder as over the decades owners came and went while the structure remained. Back in the 50s Popular Mechanics awarded it a prize for requiring the least maintenance of any home in the country, but it looks like a slate-sided outhouse and aside from the nostalgia of it all, I don’t think the neighborhood will miss it.
* it occurs to me that a builder may have bought both lots with the intention of building two houses. In my opinion, this would be the wrong choice, regardless of the presence of those wetlands, because there’s such a shortage of large (by Riverside standards) lots, a builder can expect a premium for building on one. Look at Kali-Naggy’s experience on Marks Road, also in Riverside. He took a lot of, I think, 0.6 acres, split it in two and tried selling the resulting houses for $4 million each. He never got it.
For What It's Worth 
Love the rabbit under the coffee table in family room!!! He looks like my Clive, who is also free range. Do not keep bunnies in cages, people!
My daughter Sarah’s dog Avett would agree with you – they’re delicious!
Likely the rabbit is not real (the owners seem to like rabbits statues – see the front porch photo).
free range? lol
Ugly now, and ugly in the ’50’s. Even back when I roamed the neighborhood, I never understood why an architect/builder would despoil that lot when it was surrounded by attractive, tasteful colonials such as the Dixons’, Van Burens’, Fidaos’, etc. Terminate with extreme prejudice.
IMO headline should be Price cut on Merritt. House looks very pretty though.
Re: Longview – Goggle maps shows that lot fronting *6* other lots. .8 is decent size. but who would want to abut 6 other homes?
Well here’s how it lays out: front, north, the (former) Dixon house, probably 300 yards away (200? – quite a distance). East side yard, the closest house is on Jones Park, separated, if memory serves, by quite a bit of woods and again, a long way away. Rear,south, Tom Ward’s former house (and Howie Hobb’s before Tom), which is close to this one’s back yard, but meh-. Also south and rear would probably be Alex Jackson’s Gilliam Lane home (the Baird’s, Cobra) and the portion that abuts this one would be the rear yard.Jackson paid something like $6 million to buy that land from the Fossums so that he could add a pool and pool house to his existing property – not bad for a guy who used to be Gilliam Lane’s paperboy, back in the day. The closest house would be on the lot to side, west (Fidao’s Cobra), that was built a few years ago. Very nice house, sold for something like $3.4 a year ago in a slow market.
So as Riverside lots go, this one’s pretty private. Unless, of course, the buyer crowds two houses onto it.
That sounds very private actually. Thanks Chris.
Jackson bought the pool house lot from the Farns for 5.
I stand corrected – chicken scratch.
Two houses on this site would be a mistake! Can’t see how the builder will be able to sell the corner lot.
Been in Round Hill home; very lovely. my only thoughts were that it stares at the back of one house and sits precariously close to the pool of another (think loud kids!) and the driveway is shared. Other than that, very pretty and well maintained.
$2.750?
I think 2.75 might still be high for this house. Given that 52 Round Hill seems to still be on the market which is in much better condition (beautifully renovated) on two acres way closer to town – and not on the Merritt. I think 52 will go at just below $3M, so this should be like 2.5-2.6 max.
Agree.