In 2006, almost a decade before it was named The Wall Street Journal's 2015 House of the Year, Lamb Manor was being eyed for demolition. George and Nancy Corbett purchased the 1910 Queen Anne Victorian for $1, but there was a catch: it needed to be moved from its location in Palmetto, Florida. So, the Corbetts shelled out a quarter-million dollars to ferry the historic home 25 miles across Tampa Bay, by barge, to its new 5.2-acre location on the Little Manatee River in secluded Ruskin.
After a multi-million-dollar restoration, the Corbetts sold it for $1.15 million in November 2014. It was listed again in November 2016 for $2.4 million, but, after years on the market, its price was recently slashed to $1,595,000.
"It's very hard to measure the value of a property like this because there are no comparable sales," listing agent Jennifer Zales told Realtor.com. "It's not like a house in a community where there are 10 other homes with the same floor plan, and you're just trying to determine the differences and upgrades. So, when you price a home in the beginning, you just don't always know what you know the right price is."
The 4,815-square-foot home has four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, five fireplaces, and a 1,768-square-foot, two-story guesthouse with three en suite bedrooms, as well as a kitchenette and living area. It also has five-foot-deep lagoon, movie theater, and deep-water dock with direct access to the Gulf of Mexico.
"It is very much old Florida, and it's very peaceful and serene," Zales says. "It doesn't feel like a lot of the overdevelopment that we've done in Florida, it's really peaceful and unspoiled Florida, which is very hard to find."
Zales added that the ideal buyers could be either someone looking for a peaceful retreat within commuting distance to Tampa or a family looking for a vacation home with rental income possibilities.
"This house really has a lot of space for families and extended families to be able to vacation together," she noted.
