UPDATE: Shelter Island's Shorewood Manor

With the the scent of summer coming on the spring air, real estate obsessed eyes turn towards the Hamptons to see who leases a slice of seaside serenity or plunks down the big bucks for a high priced trophy home. One such estate looking for a new owner with deep pockets, a world class architect, and a really good nice gay decorator is Shelter Island's Shorewood Manor, a graceful grandma of a sprawler that sits on 8.5 prime bluff top acres overlooking the Great Peconic Bay.

Your Mama first discussed this aging beauty back when it first hit the market in April of 2007 with an optimistic asking price of $33,000,000. We then discussed the property again in September of 2007 when the listing was ripped from one upper crust brokerage and given to another with a may-jer price reduction to $24,900,000. Your Mama still thinks that number is optimistic, but it's also far more realistic than the initial asking price.

Formerly owned by former New York State governor Hugh Carey, the 8,500 square foot (approx.) summer house with 11 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms sat empty for many years before it was purchased in early 2007 by a local man named Chris Knight for just $10,000,000. Mister Knight, seizing an opportunity to make a few million easy dollars, quickly and brazenly flipped the house back on the market at more than three times what he paid after making only minor cosmetic improvements to the house which, quite frankly, is in need of just about everything.

Every couple of weeks Your Mama receives a nice email from a real estate hungry child who wants to know what's happening with the property. Ordinarily, Your Mama does not have any news for little lambs. Until now.

Your Mama hears from a well placed source we call the Shelter Island Snitch that several big name real estate agents are quietly scratching each others eyes out in the hopes of securing the listing if Mister Knight decides to change brokers before the spring/summer buying season gets into full swing. We stress the "if" part because he may in fact chose to leave the listing right where it is.

Snitch also whispered in Your Mama's big ear that the perfectly private property has been eyeballed and circled by a number of hedge hogs, natch, several developers, natch again, as well as a prominent political family, a famous designer of beads and baubles, as well as a professional sports figure, who the Snitch declined to name.

Maybe Tiger Woods should have a look-see at Shorewood Manor since it seems the swimming in money professional golfer didn't buy that $65,000,000 Southampton spread after all. Plenty of room for sand traps, roughs and greens here. And, perhaps even more enticing, down to earth Shelter Island is fancy free of prying paps trying to stick their long lenses through the high hedges.