Long Island Horse Properties specializes in residential properties
Bernadette Starzee
Want a horse? Chances are your lot’s big enough, said Sharon Guzzi. She owns Long Island Horse Properties, a real estate agency specializing in the sale of residential properties that can accommodate horses. Horses are allowed almost everywhere, she said. In some towns, people with a half-acre property are allowed to keep horses.
The hot spots for horse properties are Smithtown, the Manorville/ Ridge area and North Great River/Central Islip, said Guzzi. People with horses choose these areas because they are near bridal paths, she said. Guzzi has her own horse property in Smithtown and often rides in Blydenburgh Park for hours at a time. The park has plenty of places for her horse to pause for a drink of water.
According to Guzzi, people buy horse properties so they don’t have to board their horses. The average cost to board a horse is about $600 per month per horse.
I had a horse, and my husband had a horse, so when we got married we had to pay to board two horses, she said. Then when our daughters were old enough to ride, they wanted ponies. The cost of boarding all those animals would have been more than a mortgage. In addition, she said, It’s nice to have your horses in your yard.
Seven years ago, Pat Schweickert was living in Malverne and boarding her horse. I was unhappy with the care and the feed that my horse was receiving, she said. No one takes care of your horse the way you do. Boarding a horse is like sending your kids to a babysitter. Her husband suggested selling the house and moving to horse country.
So now, Schweickert, who is the director of horse properties for Prudential Douglas Elliman, keeps three horses in her Central Islip backyard and works in Prudential’s East Islip office. Her property adjoins Connetquot River State Park, which she said has the best bridle paths in the world.
Guzzi’s parents-in-law live on their own horse property in Smithtown, but it does not connect to Blydenburgh Park. We can get there through the streets, but we usually put the horses in a trailer, said Sharon’s mother-in-law, Erica Guzzi. She and her husband, who bought their home in 1981, own two ponies and a donkey, and they have a half-acre riding ring set up in their yard.
Palomino gold
Since she opened her agency six years ago, Sharon Guzzi said business has grown steadily. She said she has 23 full-time agents, and currently there are about 140 horse property listings. The agency’s office on Main Street in Smithtown is a zoo of sorts. It has a backyard, and Guzzi brings her goat to work while employees often bring their dogs. Most of our customers are animal people, so they love it, she said, adding that many people who work on the block stop in regularly to visit the animals.
Prices of horse properties on Long Island start at about $380,000 and extend upward into the millions, said Guzzi. The average price of horse properties sold in 2005 was $640,000, she said. Horse properties in the $400,000 to $800,000 range are flying off the market, she said. If they’re priced right, we can usually sell them in two days. Guzzi said that beyond proximity to riding trails, people buying horse properties consider the same factors, such as the school district and the commute, as other buyers. Horse properties must have a barn and fence, both of which must meet certain restrictions.
Guzzi says the Town of Islip (which includes North Great River and Central Islip) is the most horse-friendly town on Long Island. It allows two horses on a half-acre property and four on an acre. Schweickert said her customers, many of whom come from Nassau County, think of the Central Islip-North Great River area as horse country, just as she did when she decided to move there. The typical price range of horse properties in her coverage area is about $400,000 to $600,000, she said.
In Smithtown, one horse is allowed on a half-acre and three horses are allowed per acre. In Brookhaven (where Ridge and Manorville are located), a property must be at least 40,000 square feet (almost an acre) and meet certain other restrictions to accommodate horses, and only two horses are allowed on a property that size. A maximum of eight horses is allowed in Brookhaven, no matter how large the property. According to Guzzi, Brookhaven is the only town with a maximum.
In Nassau County, there are many horse properties located on the North Shore. But according to Guzzi, There has been a sharp decline in sales of properties over $2 million, which is the typical price range of horse properties in that area.
In the Hamptons, there are horse farms of 10 acres or more, which typically range in price from $5 million to $40 million, said Paul Brennan, a regional manager in the Bridgehampton office of Prudential Douglas Elliman. Most of the properties are located on former potato farms that extend from Water Mill to Wainscott, said Brennan, who noted that at any particular time there will only be one or two on the market. Brennan said it is not part of the fabric of the community for Hamptons residents to keep horses in their backyard (which they did many years ago). Residents would rather go to a farm, ride their horse, and give it to the groom to take care of when they’re done, he said.
Colt community
Marketing a property as a horse property can increase the sales price, said Guzzi. For any given property, if you bring a regular family to see it, and then you bring horse people to see it, the horse people will offer more, she said. Their motivation is very different. They’re factoring in the cost savings of boarding. In addition, many people who buy a horse property will board other people’s horses. That helps offset the monthly mortgage payments.
Guzzi said many of her neighbors keep horses on their properties, and that her area of Smithtown has become somewhat of a horse community, something she and others have worked hard to achieve. My goal is a barn in every yard, she said.
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