1887 North Adams Colonial with Slate Roof and Powered Studio, Steps from Mass MoCA — $137,900

The slate roof is the first thing. Original to the house, which went up in 1887, and still doing its job. That alone tells you something about how this place was built. Slate roofs last well over a century when they're sound, and replacing one costs more than this house is asking. So that's where you start when you're thinking about what you're actually getting here.

The house is a Colonial, 1,271 square feet, four bedrooms, one bath. That's a tight bathroom situation for four rooms, but the bedroom count is real, and at this price in the Berkshires, four bedrooms doesn't come up often. The layout is what you'd expect from something built in the late 1800s: rooms with doors, defined spaces, walls where walls belong. It needs work. The agent description calls it "livable and functional," which is a specific kind of honesty. It's not a ruin, but you're not moving in and leaving it alone.

Out back there's a detached studio with power and electric heat. That's a legitimate separate workspace, not a shed someone ran an extension cord to. For anyone who makes things, teaches things, or needs to keep a business out of the living room, that building has real value.

The location is specific. Chase Ave puts you close to Mass MoCA, which is one of the largest contemporary art museums in the country and the center of gravity for what's happening in North Adams. The neighborhood has old mill buildings and a post-industrial texture that's been drawing artists and institutions for a couple of decades now. Whether that matters to you depends on what you're looking for, but it's a real place with a real identity.

At $137,900 for a four-bedroom house with an original slate roof and a powered outbuilding two blocks from a major arts institution, the math is unusual. The house needs attention and the bathroom count will frustrate some people. But the structure is old and apparently solid, the roof is a genuine asset, and the studio is the kind of thing you'd otherwise have to build.