“They didn’t put in central air - you can see in pictures 11 and 15 (and others) they put in a bunch of those long thin wall units. I wonder if those heat as well? I see baseboard in some of the second floor shots but nothing else on the first floor.”
Those are called mini-splits. I gather that they are heat pumps, so they would lose efficiency in places where the temperatures can get either too hot or too cold. Might work in Seattle… 
They are certainly not pretty.
^ That article is behind a paywall. Heat pumps would be an odd choice for heating in the NE, though. I think you would need some sort of backup.
Interesting! It opens just fine on my ancient iPhone. All it says is that these units were tested in NE weather and were found to be not as efficient as they claimed to be. Duh. So not much savings compared to regular ducted heating, if you include the higher cost of install. But they work well in retrofits where baseboard heat was the only source of heat.
My neighbor has that system but never uses the heat on them. Just the AC. All the homes around me have baseboard heat and it’s less expensive then putting in ductwork for central air. Iirc, it was only $5k for her system.
I agree with @emilybee.
We also live in New England where we don’t need AC every day all day all summer. We have a number of friends who have installed the ductless AC units. More efficient and better than window AC.
As an aside, when the weather is cooler…it IS possible to use these to take the chill out of the air as opposed to running the furnace or boiler.
Yes, they work. But again, at what cost? A window AC is under $500. A mini split is over $5000 here easily - for 3 rooms. Neither is pretty to look at… We bid on one house which was a builder’s own house. He went to great lengths to hode them tastefully. Otherwise, they are an eyesore.
In a $725,000 house, I don’t think you can get away with “use window units”. There doesn’t appear to be basement or attic space (nothing mentioned in any of the listings anyway), so doing any kind of duct work would have been a challenge, i.e. expensive.
Just saw the price has been reduced to $675,000. That’s a pretty big drop after only 10 days or so…
Window units are much more expensive to run. They use lots of electricity. Otoh, the mini splits are much more energy efficient and don’t all need to be on all day and night. My neighbor doesn’t put the one on in their bedroom until an hour or so before they go to bed - and the one in the guest room is only ever on when a kid comes home. Their 3rd unit cools the lvrm, dining and kitchen but is shut off at night.
It’s a very good alternative for those of us in older homes with baseboard heat.
I honestly don’t notice them at all when I’m in their house.
I want to put it in, but H wants central. But I hate air conditioning on during the day and only want it for when I’m sleeping. So we are at a standstill and still using the window units - though haven’t had to put them in yet because we’ve only had a couple of really hot nights. And once it’s in, I lose the cross ventilation in that room so it has to be on every night even if it’s not that hot.
I am not talking about this specific house. It probably made sense to put those units in, but when I see them in new construction, I cringe.
I think they are better looking than window units:) I always thought they were for AC only. Didn’t know they were heaters also.
I’ve never seen them used for heat, either, but I don’t see any other heat source on the first floor.
But don’t this units make noise? I know window air conditioners do, and that would be a deal breaker for me. What I like about central air is you get the cooling without the fuss. It’s also the reason why I prefer a three star or higher hotel. They have a quiet heating/cooling system, which makes a BIG difference in a LITTLE room.
Nope. They are very quiet because the compressor part is outside you house (like with central AC)
We just returned from visiting my SIL in Bermuda and they have these units in their house and they work well. We would turn the one in our bedroom on an hour before we went to sleep and it cooled the room well to sleep.
Here you go, cb. Houses in this neighborhood are in the 4’s, upper-4’s/lower 5’s if expanded a little bit. Bank-owned!
https://www.redfin.com/MA/Falmouth/114-Portside-Cir-02536/home/132532300
Move to Cape Cod! 
OMG!!! I’m salivating. I would love to buy something for $200k and have the chance to bring it out at $500k!!!
The listing is interesting because it shows asking price $213,000 but the written remarks state asking $292,000 bank owned (meaning it was foreclosed)
I could add a big master suite at about 450 sq ft and spend about $75k fixing up and still have profit!!!
You can live in my cape house(4 miles away) while you fix up this one, then fix up mine. Or do them both at once!
A nice 3-4 month respite on beautiful Cape Cod.
Not even kidding. 
Well…maybe it would cost $75,000 to fix up. Since there are NO details…is it on a septic or town sewage system? Well or town water? Is it in a flood plain area…because that would preclude additions…or wetlands.
But really…if the place has “good bones” and doesn’t need a new septic or well…wow. It needs serious re doing.
There are virtually no public sewers on the cape, everything is septic. Almost everything is public water.
One issue with adding a master suite is that it may require putting in a bigger septic system, assuming it would go from 3 br to 4 br. Or it might fail Title V, considering it was built in 1971. It last sold in 1999, they might have had to put a new septic in then.
It does appear to be in the flood plain. No idea what the rules are for expanding in that case, although I imagine you can go up. The house right next door which is in the flood plain is for sale for $638,000. If you get private flood insurance it’s not all that expensive.
The bank foreclosed on it last August. They are probably trying to get a bidding war going by listing it so low.
And it’s summer…so they are probably hoping someones in the vacation crowd will bite!