UPDATE: A fire has destroyed a significant fraction of the manor. https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/massive-fire-overnight-at-89-room-whitinsville-manor-in-northbridge/3294550/

Estate of Mind (https://est8ofmind.com/) is an intentional community located west of Boston, MA, USA. It is located in, and has spent the last 2.5 years trying to renovate and revitalize, a historic local estate. The members share a focus on creative collaboration, including art, events, crafts, performance, music, etc. We regularly host events of our own, welcome our local and regional neighbors to host events aligned with our mission, and occasionally rent our space for uses such as weddings and photo/video shoots. Due to a combination of slow recruiting of resident members, unpredictable changes in mortgage rates, increases in insurance costs, and various other factors, the project is facing financial collapse.

One major step in either wrapping up or significantly pivoting the project is to pursue selling the property, if other solutions do not begin to bear fruit by mid March 2024.

The property was purchased in 2021 for $1.35M. As of today (Feb 19 2024), Redfin suggests that the base pre-renovation value has appreciated to $1.78M. We have spent approximately $300k on labor and materials for renovations and repairs, plus further thousands of hours of labor in exchange for housing and/or access to the space as an event venue. Furniture, appliances, groundskeeping machinery, etc valued at approximately $50k may convey with the property. Bringing the current work to a close and leaving all of the necessary amenities operational (lights and electric outlets in all the appropriate rooms, working plumbing in all the kitchens and bathrooms, etc) may cost an additional $200-400k. Continuing to renovate the manor to a modern equivalent of its original luxury will cost $1M+. Optionally, the expected rental income for the non-manor buildings, occupied by the current residents continuing the Estate of Mind intentional community project, is approximately $15k/mo.

The outstanding mortgage is approximately $1.25M; a sale for less than this amount would require concessions from our mortgage lender. We already have three offers near this amount from a wholesale buyer, with different timelines and contingencies.

The property has, so far, only been listed FSBO on Zillow for $2.5M (https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/120-Hill-St-Northbridge-MA-01534/119239069_zpid/). This listing has served to get attention from agents and local buyers. The current intention is to retain a specialty agency to produce a professional listing, involving staging, professional photography and videography, rental income forecasts, etc. That process will start in mid-March 2024, or mid-May in the unlikely case that we pause to pursue, but fail to close, a separate sale of just part of our forested land. We expect to publish that listing across listing sites, MLS, web and print magazines, etc shortly thereafter. W, effectively putting a floor on possible offer acceptance and hence the bottome also intend to provide exceptionally thorough disclosures to potential buyers.

Additional information about this situation will appear in blog posts, press releases, social media, and other communications from the community as a whole and individuals involved over the next few weeks and months.

If the property does not sell in 2024 AND no professional listing is ever made due to our plans pivoting away from sale, the market will resolve N/A. If it does not sell in 2024 despite our best efforts to sell, the market will resolve to the "... or no sale" option. Otherwise the market will resolve based on the sale price.