Real LI: Posts from our daily blog
BACHELOR'S OLD PAD
The Roslyn home where "Bachelorette" hunk J.P. Rosenbaum grew up has hit the market.
Listed for $895,000, the Colonial splanch hosted Rosenbaum's "home date" with Ashley Hebert, whom he would ask to marry on the ABC reality show. The date was filmed last Easter Sunday after the cherry blossom tree outside bloomed. "It warmed my heart," Rosenbaum recalls.
Rosenbaum's parents, Peter and Ilene, are downsizing to a new home on the North Shore. They're the original owners, living at the four-bedroom, 21/2-bath house since 1979. They raised sons J.P., 35, and Roy, 37, there. "When I think about my childhood and all the places I could have grown up, I am very, very lucky to have grown up in that house," J.P. says. "The next owner is guaranteed to feel the same way."
J.P. says the home "was the place to be" for all the children on his block. Halloweens were big, and the house often became the gathering point for sledding and watersliding down a hill in the back of the 67-by-127-foot property.
"It will always be home to me," says J.P., who will be moving to New Jersey with Ashley and planning a wedding. He says growing up at the house is a chapter of his life that is over, but that it is sad. "I won't be able to go home and smoke a cigar in the hammock with my dad."
In marketing the house, listing agent Michelle N. Cohen of Laffey Fine Homes has included an ABC photo of J.P. and Ashley from a group date in Taipei where they dressed in wedding attire. It hangs on a wall. Will it help sell the house? "Who knows what it takes to push something over the edge," says Peter, 71, retired from the real estate development business.
ALL-AMERICAN ABODE IN SOUTHOLD
Descriptions on real estate listings are getting more creative by the day, such as this one for a creek-front home in Southold with an asking price of $1.05 million: "House in apple pie order." It's a description rarely used in marketing a house.
Listing agent John Nickles of Lewis & Nickles says he used the phrase, meaning that "everything is in good shape" to characterize the house. "There are a lot of houses that are in perfect condition. . . . I could have also said it was in spic 'n' span order. I'm just trying to catch someone's eye," he says.
The Colonial has oak floors and a fireplace as well as three rooms facing the water: the living room, dining room and master bedroom. There are two more bedrooms and two bathrooms and a basement.
The 80-by-199-foot parcel, which has a dock, is landscaped for privacy. It's about a 10-minute walk to the downtown and about one mile to the nearest beach and bay, Nickles added.
