Situated on 2.5 acres in the heart of Otis village, this 3-bedroom, 2-bath bungalow has been home to 1 family for more than 50 years. They raised five kids here. They ran a construction business from here. When they needed more space, they built it, room by room, the way people used to. The result is a house with more space than it looks, wood floors throughout, single-floor living, and a full walkout basement ready for someone to claim it. It is priced at $375k because there is some work to do. The deck likely needs to be rebuilt. There are things a handy person will spot and address. The sellers have cleaned and prepared it honestly__ they are simply not doing the work themselves. What they′re leaving behind is solid bones, a nice, large piece of land, and a seriously useful garage building.
Out back sits an oversized detached metal building with electricity__ fully functional, genuinely practical. Right now it′s generating a very nice annual income on a month-to-month basis. That income could continue, or the building becomes yours: a proper shop, a place to store a boat or snowmobiles, a serious garage, or simply the kind of outbuilding that most properties in this price range do not have__ but this one does.
Otis sits at the intersection of Routes 8 and 23, in the Farmington River Valley at the southern end of the Berkshires. It has two market /gas stations, and right next door to this property__ Paige′s Place, a breakfast and lunch spot that regulars treat like a second living room. The Grouse House and the Knox Trail Inn are close by for dinner and a beer after a day outside.
Otis Ridge Ski Area is close enough to walk to__ you won′t, with gear, but you could. Big Pond′s town beach is 3.2 miles away, a seven-minute drive. Otis Reservoir__ the largest recreational lake in Massachusetts, over 1,000 acres of clear water stocked with trout, bass, and tiger muskie__ has public and private boat launches, docks for hire, and a campground in Tolland State Forest right on the water.
The Farmington River runs through this country and it is the real thing__ a designated wild and scenic river, one of the finest trout fisheries in the Northeast, with miles of public access. Otis, Tolland, and Sandisfield State Forests together put many thousands of acres of hiking trails, lakes, snowmobile routes, and hunting land essentially at your door.
Jacob′s Pillow, one of the great dance institutions in the country, is 5.6 miles away. Great Barrington__ which Vogue and the NY Times have covered, the Smithsonian named one of America′s best small towns, and locals simply call GB__ is 25 minutes west: farm-to-table restaurants, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Guido′s for locals, part-timers and serious foodies alike, and eclectic shopping. The Mass Pike and a Big Y supermarket in Lee are 19 minutes away.
The room to the right of the front door was once the office for the family′s construction business, with its own access from the outside. It sits within the Village zoning district which allows both residential and professional use__ a home office, a therapy practice, a studio, whatever the next owner needs it to be.
Worth knowing about Otis: this is a town that built its own wind turbine and funded its own fiber broadband network__ fast, reliable, reasonably priced. These are not accidents. They′re the decisions of a community that pays attention.
The Bottom Line:
This is a home you can move right into and do some work as you go. The land is real, the garage is productive, the bones are honest, and the village location is convenient and old school. Someone who knows what they′re looking at will move quickly.
