A $3.5 million home for sale in Brooklin with a short-term rental is the 12th personal project of California designer Victoria Hamilton-Rivers.
Hamilton-Rivers has designed and staged homes in Northern California for decades, but she always had coastal Maine and particularly the Blue Hill Peninsula on her “designer bucket list,” she wrote on her website.
In 2019, Hamilton-Rivers made that dream a reality. She purchased a home in the coastal Hancock County town that calls itself the boat building capital of the world which offers over 12,000 feet of water frontage for $755,000, according to tax records.
“She took it from a fairly rough state and took it back to the studs: redid the plumbing, electrical, worked with an architect … and totally redid it,” Laura Farr, the property’s listing agent, said.
It took two years of renovations, which included transforming a former boathouse into a barn and 2-bedroom apartment. Hamilton-Rivers now lives in the converted boathouse while renting out the 4-bedroom main house and its attached penthouse apartment for just under $1,500 a night, Farr said.
The rental has been successful these last few years and is booked out all summer, but Hamilton-Rivers is keen to start her next project and has listed the property for sale at $3.5 million, which is down from the initial ask of $3.9 million. That’s a reasonable price compared with similar properties on the peninsula, including a recent $9 million listing in Castine.
“She’s done more improvements, including renovating the barn, and we’ve lowered the price,” Farr said. “She’s just ready to move on.”
There’s plenty of buyer interest in the property already, though it was only listed Monday. Rooms are curated with one-of-a-kind furnishings and artwork that Hamilton-Rivers has picked up during her travels through Europe and Asia, Farr said. Inspired by the ocean, rooms have different color themes intended to be soothing.
Prospective buyers are most impressed by the 2.4 acre property’s sweeping ocean views, its fine craftsmanship, its private location on a peninsula, its established rental history and the potential for multigenerational living given its seven bedrooms and bathrooms.
“A family compound, where there’s two or three generations, I think would be the highest and best use [of the property],” Farr said.
Older relatives could have live-in carers in one of the property’s apartments, Farr suggested. The home is wheelchair accessible. If someone is unable to negotiate stairs, there are ground-floor bedrooms in the main house, she added.
Prospective buyers are split between wanting to rent the property out and bringing their families out to live there full-time. While Brooklin is deep into the Blue Hill Peninsula, the home is only a five-minute drive from a general store, town library and farm-to-table restaurant, Farr said. It’s just over an hour to Bangor’s airport.
“It’s a really cool community,” Farr said.