Daufuskie cottage may be a bargain at $190K, but you’ll have to take it with you
On the eastern shore of Daufuskie Island, water from the Calibogue Sound passes through pile dwellings, staining each of the stilts that hold a pastel orange cottage 15 feet above the waves.
Built on land that sold for $2.95 million in 1988, the 2,257-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bathroom home is on the market for $190,000.
Why the over $2 million price cut, despite the addition of a house at 33 Driftwood Cottage Lane?
“The lot that the house is on is washed away because of the erosion,” said John Campbell of The Native Islander Group, which is listing the property. “This is for the right person who wants a challenge.”
When the house was built in 1989, it had custom white picket fencing, brick-lined driveways and parking underneath. Now, slabs of concrete, tarp, wires and PVC pipes dot the sand below the house.
The lot in front of the house — 32 Driftwood Cottage Lane — eroded into the ocean more than 10 years ago, although it was never built upon. It also was purchased in 1989 for $2.95 million.
Campbell wasn’t able to provide photos of the home’s interior.
The property comes with another 0.13-acre lot — 526 Driftwood Cottage Lane — where potential buyers could relocate the house. That lot is “two blocks” back from the shore, according to Campbell. Previous owners received a $150,000 relocation appraisal three years ago, not including the cost of prepping and clearing the new lot.
“I’m looking for a buyer that wants to do a project,” Campbell said. “The house was built. It comes with the lot; you don’t have to move it on that lot. You could fix it as is, let it stay there.”
With the Daufuskie shoreline shrinking by up to eight feet each year, the cottage is inhabitable without adding more sand to the beach to compensate for erosion, a process called beach re-nourishment.
“When that’s going to happen? I have no idea,” Campbell said. “Hopefully that re-nourishment will happen. When it will, I don’t know. And if it does, you get beachfront property.”
The land has already been re-nourished at least once. Daufuskie’s last beach re-nourishment was in 1998 when private funds paid $6 million to provide the coast with 1.4 million cubic yards of offshore sand, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
More than 10 years ago, previous owners and two other homeowners on Driftwood Cottage lane attempted to ward off erosion on their own. A DHEC inspection in December 2009 found more than 100 exposed and buried sandbags and two concrete walls installed on the property next to 33 Driftwood Cottage Lane.
The property owners were issued a violation notice for putting “revetment material” on the beach without authorization.
This cottage follows two other homes on Daufuskie Island’s shore that were recently sold with the intention to be relocated inland to escape erosion.
A few lots down, a cottage sold for $275,000 in 2020 to a “buyer who weighs risk and reward,” according to the listing.
“On the risk side, erosion has brought the Atlantic to the back of the house at high tide,” the listing said. “It may be necessary to move the house in the future. Buyer to accept the home in current condition.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2023 at 1:01 PM.
