Cape Cod cottage teetering on the edge of an eroding ocean bluff finds a buyer—after price went under $100K

A Cape Cod cottage that sits just a few feet from the edge of an eroding cliff overlooking the ocean has come under offer from a buyer—three months after its owner slashed his asking price to just $99,000.

The property located at 157 Brownell Road in Eastham, MA, was originally put on the market by owner David Moot for $199,000 in October 2025, less than two years after he purchased the beachside dwelling for nearly double that amount.

Just one month after listing his home however, Moot cut his ask by more than half, chopping $100,000 off the price in an effort to lure a buyer.

Now, it seems that tactic may well have paid off, with the Realtor.com® listing for the precarious property indicating that it is now pending sale—meaning an offer has been accepted by the seller but the deal has yet to officially close.

It is not yet known what offer Moot has accepted, although he stands to lose a significant chunk of his investment, even if the buyer has met the full asking price that was most recently attached to the dwelling.

Still, he has previously insisted that he did not buy the dwelling as an investment opportunity, but rather as a chance to enjoy the home’s proximity to the ocean—even if only for a short amount of time.

“Life’s too short, and I just said to myself: ‘Let’s just see what happens,’” he told Bloomberg in August 2024.

At the time, the property stood 25 feet away from the edge of the bluff, however it is unclear whether that distance has decreased in the time that Moot has owned the home, particularly in the wake of the brutal winter storms that have battered much of the East Coast in recent weeks.

When an adjacent property hit the market in September 2025, its listing agent, Jack Sullivan of William Raveis Real Estate – Harwich Port, revealed that nearly 60 feet of the land separating that home from the cliff’s edge had disappeared into the water in the five years leading up to its sale.

“When the seller bought the property, it had 75 feet in front of the house, and now it has 16 feet from the house to the edge of the bluff,” he revealed.

However, he insisted that a buyer would have around eight years to enjoy the home if there were no major weather issues.

That property, located at 153 Brownell Road, sold for $100,000 in November, having originally been listed for $239,000.

It is not known whether the neighboring home has experienced a similar loss of land, however aerial listing images indicate that Moot’s property is much closer to the cliff than stated when he purchased it.

There are other issues surrounding Moot’s property, which has been the subject of much controversy in the area.

According to the Provincetown Independent, Eastham’s board of health and its conservation commission have accused Moot of failing to respond to repeated notices asking him to “take steps to ensure the structure does not endanger the public.”

The key issues at hand relate to the home’s septic system and leaching field, which officials believe are at severe risk of being exposed to the cliff face, particularly after a brutal winter storm in December 2024 caused further erosion of the bluff.

A letter sent to Moot by local officials on Dec. 13, 2024, which was seen by the Independent, urged him to take swift action.

“We urgently ask that you act now. Taking no action will be costly and cause significant environmental impacts and will render your property unlivable when there is no sewage disposal or water,” the letter stated.

Officials say that, despite these warnings, Moot has failed to take any action to update the property.

He was slapped with fines totaling $300 per day as a result of that inaction, the outlet reported.

“We’ve advised him of multiple different scenarios he could do in the short term,” Eastham Health Director Hillary Greenberg-Lemos reportedly told the board at a meeting in April.

“The longer he waits, the more dangerous the situation is going to become.”

However, Moot has hit back at officials, insisting that the issues with the property’s safety date to its previous owners.

“There were things that were kept from me as the new buyer,” he told the Independent.

“It seems everything has come down on me, but these issues should have been addressed by the prior owners.”

He also claimed that he has attempted to tackle a relocation of the property’s leaching field, but said that he was unable to carry out that project because officials did not respond to his requests for assistance.

The listing for his dwelling hints at the risks involving the home, advising interested parties to not “walk on the property without permission,” while also noting that there are outstanding conditions that must be met by the buyer when they take over homeownership.

“As per town of Eastham, the well and leach field need to be relocated,” it reads.

“Conservation is requiring an engineered plan for a deconstruction protocol on file. Buyers are responsible for complying with all orders of conditions in order to close.”

Still, the listing makes sure to point out the many advantages of living so close to the ocean, urging prospective buyers to “imagine being so far East that you are one of the first to see the sunrise every morning!”

In contrast, the listing for the neighboring home called attention to the many updates that have been made in the five years since it was last sold, including several “eco-conscious” renovations.

“This home is eco-conscious and turnkey,” it noted, before listing the various upgrades: solar panel installation in 2022; the addition of new insulation, flooring, radiant heat, and charging station in 2021; an overhaul of the septic system in 2020; and upgrades to the well in 2025.