A recently finished home in Jacksonville Beach dubbed the “Skinny House” caused a furor online after it was revealed to be a mere 10 feet wide — but with a listing price of $619,000.
The home — located at 1952 Horn Street in Jacksonville Beach — features two bedrooms, three bathrooms and over 1,500 square feet of living space.
It went viral after hitting the market earlier this year, though listing broker Ryan Wetherhold told News 6 it was an uphill battle.
Lots in the area have historically all been 25 feet wide, Wetherhold explained, but many nearby owners combined their lots together to build houses, which left some uneven spaces.
The lot this home was built on was one such leftover plot of land.
“We have lots that were planted maybe a century ago, but then we have a building code that’s more modern, that’s been refined over time,” he said. “And it doesn’t necessarily fit some of these laws that were planted by municipalities decades and decades ago.”
Wetherhold said they initially wanted to make the house 15 feet wide — a standard for many townhomes — but building codes required the home to have 7.5 feet of space on either side of it.
While they tried to get the rule changed through the board of adjustment, surrounding residents of the high-end neighborhood who wanted the plot to remain open pushed back.
One such resident had started a garden on the plot and persuaded others to attend a public meeting to voice their disapproval.
“You get that mob mentality where it carries. The board members then can’t make it their own decision,” Wetherhold stated. “If there’s 100 people there that say no, and there’s no one that says, ‘Yeah, let’s do it,’ those folks carry. Those voices carry.”
As a result, Wetherhold and builder John Atkins were stuck with the 10-foot-wide option.
But that didn’t stop Atkins.
“He got creative within the code and was able to do bay windows, bump-out seating that really helped, and that was the difference,” Wetherhold said. “Being able to utilize his knowledge within the building code to make it, honestly, a very user-friendly, nice, practical home for a buyer.”
And while they only had 10 feet of width for the home, the property was 140 feet deep, giving them far more options to work with.
Stories about the home got picked up by outlets like Business Insider and Zillow Gone Wild, which helped the listing gain more traction.
During an open house on the property, Wetherhold saw hundreds of visitors. Even many of the neighbors began showing support.
“Normally, you get 50 views in the first few days, and this one already had 1,000 to 2,000 within the first few days,” he said. “So we knew right when we put it out there that it was something special, something unique and something that was definitely an eye-opener.”
In fact, Wetherhold said it was thanks to the viral coverage that he now has a buyer.
“That’s interesting because as a broker, I put a lot of effort into marketing, and you hope to just reach people through the normal avenues just by your marketing,” h said. “But (the buyer) actually did see it through all the publicity it’s gotten.”
However, Wetherhold provided a word of caution about the property. Because of the narrow scope of its width, it can be tough to store larger vehicles inside the garage.
“You can fit a truck in there, but to get the doors open and whatnot — it’s a pretty tight fit,” he explained. “In our community, though, we sell a lot of one-or-two garages, and we find no one in our community even parks in the garage. What they put in their garage, it’s golf carts, bikes, beach stuff and lawn equipment.”
Despite that, there are plenty of notable features on which to sell the house, Wetherhold argued.
For example: the built-in dining table was made out of reclaimed wood from a local pier that was destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
The home also has decent vertical space, with 9-foot-high ceilings on the bottom floor and vaulted ceilings (reaching up to 10 feet high) up top.
While he already has a buyer under contract, Wetherhold said he is still accepting backup offers for the home in the slight chance that the deal falls through.
“Everything at this point looks like it’s going through, but on any deal, you never know until it’s completely done,” he said.
To check out the listing on Zillow, click here.
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