THE KALMAN Co.
ListingsKnow NantucketAbout
Contact Sean

Nantucket Real Estate Guides

The island, explained.
Every guide written by Sean Kalman — figures from LINK MLS data and town sources.
Thirty-plus guides on how this island actually works — what it costs to buy and own here, the rules that shape every deal, which shore fits which life, and what the place is like once the boats thin out. Start anywhere; each one stands on its own.

Buying and owning here

The buying guide + Nantucket Brief
The concierge version, with the free Nantucket Brief delivered straight to your inbox.
How we run a listing
Evidence-based pricing, quiet pre-launch exposure, and negotiation built on real comparables.
What it costs to own here
Taxes, insurance, and upkeep — the numbers nobody quotes you at the open house.
Caretaking, when you're away
What an island house needs in the months you're not in it — the cadence, the arrangements, the questions to ask.
Nantucket vs. Cape Cod
The bridge changes everything — access, market size, and price on each side of the Sound, with both markets' own 2025 numbers.
Boating on Nantucket
Moorings and waitlists, slips and clubs, the two harbors — and how a boat changes which house you should buy.
Golf on Nantucket
Four courses from moor to sea — the 1899 nine, two storied privates, the public Miacomet eighteen — and the addresses near them.
How Nantucket eats
The summer crescendo, the year-round core, and why walk-to-dinner is a property feature the market prices in.
Keeping the house in the family
The estate tax, trusts and LLCs, the Land Bank's family exemptions — and what to ask your attorney.
Financing a Nantucket purchase
How island lending actually works — and where mainland pre-approvals fall short.
Insuring a Nantucket home
The coastal insurance market as it stands now — carriers, costs, and the coverage that matters.
What Nantucket homes rent for
Real rental numbers by season and segment, and what they mean for a purchase.
Home valuation
What your Nantucket property is actually worth — from evidence, not algorithms.
The island home inspection
What a Nantucket inspection looks for that a mainland one never does — and the two with legal teeth.
The island vocabulary
Land Bank fee, ground cover, covenant lots, roofwalks — every term, defined plainly.
Selling as a nonresident
The Massachusetts withholding at closing on sales of $1 million or more: what you sign, and how the money comes back.
Why houses don't sell
What three years of LINK sales say about a listing that stalls, and what to change before you relist.
Selling from off-island
What you can handle from away, what still needs a person at the house, and how signing and closing work remotely.

The rules that shape every deal

The HDC, explained
Why the island looks the way it does — and how the review process really runs.
The Land Bank fee
The 2% every buyer should plan for, the exemption, and what the fee has preserved.
Title 5, septic, and sewer
What to check before you offer — bedroom counts, inspections, and upgrade costs.
Flood zones and insurance
Reading the FEMA map before you fall for the house — zones, rates, and elevation certificates.
Coastal erosion
A buyer's guide to a moving shoreline — where it moves, how fast, and what that means.
Conservation land
The protected 40%+ that shapes every price on the island — and every view.
Building new
The honest path from lot to house — approvals, timelines, and where budgets go sideways.
Zoning, explained
Ground cover ratio, districts, second dwellings — what the bylaw actually lets you build.
ADUs & secondary dwellings
What a lot can hold beyond the main house — the island's own second-dwelling rules and the state's 2025 by-right layer.

Find your kind of property

Luxury homes
The $10M+ tier — live estate listings, private-market access, and discretion both ways.
Land for sale
Buildable lots and estate parcels — zoning, septic, and what buildable really means here.
Waterfront homes
Harborfront, oceanfront, and pondfront compared — three different waters, three different lives.
Vacation and investment homes
The second-home purchase as both a lifestyle decision and an investment case.
Condos
The island's smallest market, explained — where they cluster and who they fit.
Entry-level Nantucket
What "affordable" means when the median is $3.3M — and where the entry points hide.
Estates and compounds
The quiet end of the market — acreage, guest houses, and how compounds trade.
Historic homes
The real thing — antique construction, what it asks of you, and why it rewards it.
Cottages
What the word still means here — whale-house history, and whether you can add on.

The market, measured

The Market Report
The flagship read — prices, inventory, and absorption, updated with LINK's latest numbers.
Recent home sales
What actually closed last month, sale by sale — verified against the LINK record.
Reading the big portals
What Realtor.com shows well, and what the island's own MLS feed adds that it can't.

Choosing between places

All 32 district guides
Every neighborhood compared — character, drive times, and what homes actually trade for.
Nantucket vs. Martha's Vineyard
The real estate decision between the two islands, honestly argued.
'Sconset vs. downtown
Two islands in one — village quiet against walk-to-dinner streets.
Madaket vs. Surfside
Two shores, two temperaments — sunsets west, surf south.
Downtown vs. Mid Island
Two kinds of convenient — historic address or year-round practicality.
Wauwinet vs. Polpis
One road east, two ideas of quiet — harbor light against rolling moors.
Polpis vs. Tom Nevers
Established acreage against open-sky value on the island's east end.
Cliff vs. Brant Point
One mile apart on the north shore — harbor-edge walkability against bluff-top room.

Living here, year-round

Living on Nantucket
A sixth-generation native's honest relocation guide to the year-round island.
The residential exemption
Year-rounders pay less by right — the 25% exemption, what it's worth this year, and how to claim it.
Getting to Nantucket
The honest logistics — boats, planes, cars, and how islanders actually plan them.
Getting around Nantucket
Do you need a car? The bike paths, the free 2026 Wave shuttle, taxis, parking, and how each district moves.
The beaches
Honestly ranked by what you want from a beach — waves, calm, sunsets, or solitude.
Schools and family life
The year-round island for families — schools, activities, and the rhythms of the school year.
The off-season
The island after the boats thin out — what stays open, and why some prefer it.
Short-term rentals
Where the town's rules stand and what owners and buyers need to know now.
Can't find the question you're carrying? Ask it directly — Sean replies personally.
Back to Know Nantucket →
Explore
HomeListingsOpen HousesNeighborhood Guides
Insights
Know NantucketTalking NantucketMarket Report
Guides
Buying GuideSelling GuideHome ValuationAll Island Guides
Company
About & TeamContact
THE KALMAN Co.
InstagramFacebookLinkedIn
Nantucket, MA 02554 · 508-228-4578 · sean@thekalmanco.com · Brokered by eXp Realty
© 2026 The Kalman Co. · Equal Housing Opportunity