Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more.
Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more
156 Taconic, last asking $5.350 million, has passed through the contingent contract stage to “pending”, and we should see a completed sale soon. Built in 2014 for the current owners (so it actually is a “custom” home), it encompasses either 9,000 square feet or 14,000, depending upon whether, unlike the tax man, you include the basement.
Not to my taste, in any way, any detail, but I’m not the market for this type of structure, so who cares?
30 Club Road, now down to $5.499 million from its opening ask of $6.549 million, and substantially below the $6.453 these owners paid for it in 2012. It’s a beautiful, 1900 home completely renovated by the previous owners, and Club Road’s a popular location — the same house, in excellent, but unrenovated condition, sold in just 14 days back in 2007 at full ask, $4.350. My guess is that the 2012 purchasers was too high; I certainly thought so at the time, and now they’re getting down to current value.
Zebra combo, with orange tiger
There are lots of phony claims in real estate listings. “Renovated” is not necessarily completely false, but is certainly wide open for a particular agent’s interpretation, and can range from a complete, down-to-the-studs gut job and rebuild, to new kitchen cabinets, to sweeping the dust bunnies from out under the beds. But what really riles me is the description of a spec house as “custom built”. A bespoke suit is one thing, while an off the rack sack from Jos. A. Banks is another.
So today’s price cut on 12 Shore Road in Old Greenwich, from $3.199 million to $2.799 caught my eye, because it’s described as “custom built” — it was not.
A spec builder put it up in 2010, priced it at $3.495 (a silly price) and after giving up on that and renting it out, finally sold it to these owners in 2014 for $2.5. It’s a perfectly nice house on tidal waters bordering Stamford, but custom built it is not.
At least the description doesn’t claim that it’s been renovated since 2014, but that does raise the question of why it’s worth so much more today than what the sellers paid for it.
For $5.350, and especially $7.2 million, won’t you at least repave the drive? First impressions count.
32 Pecksland Road, priced at $7.2 million in 2017, has taken another price cut today and is now asking $5.350. The owners paid $5.2 for this 1929 home back in 1997 and some modernization attempts have been made, but the value has certainly not kept up with inflation, and given the market for tired old estates, the eventual sale -price will surely disappoint.
As an aside, the listing describes it as offering “external beauty south of the Parkway”. Is that a concession that the interior needs (a lot of) work?
4 Holly Way (off Cat Rock), reports a pending sale, last asked-for-price $3.495 million. Decent buy, I’d say, even if its design is pretty much indistinguishable from so many of the houses that went up on Cognewaugh and Cat Rock in the 2000s — you build what sells, and this design sold.
It sold when new in 2005 for $4.295, just 27 days after hitting the market. New construction is just as attractive as a new car, I suppose, but once it leaves the dealer’s lot, ouch.0
Way back in the enlightened 90s, HUD urged realtors to stop describing the principle bedroom in house as a “master” because it implied sexism, or racism, or whatever. Some folks thought that was about as silly as demanding that ads change descriptions from “ a short walk” to town, to “a few blocks from” — not everyone can walk, see, and implying that they can is disabilist.
Or whatever. Anyway, new construction at One Martindale, a good street, probably a nice house, listed today at $4.950 million, lists a “principle bedroom”, with nary a master to be found.
Too bad the architect slipped and labelled the lower, windowless nanny room in the basement “slave quarters”, but progress is made one step, or one turn of the wheelchair at a time.
And proud of it
That’s the DNA result 23andMe came up with a few years ago. Does that mean I cn get a teaching position at Harvard? Claim Oklahoma?
Those are cavemen I smell in the faculty lounge, Kemosabe — I’m outta here
314 North Maple
Friggin Squarespace — it published an early draft of this post and didn’t include the revisions/additions that were meant to comprise the final draft. That’s been happening a lot recently, and it’s driving me crazy. I’ve tried to recapture what I originally wrote, and am reposting it now.
314 N. Maple Avenue, $3.4 million, hit the market a couple of weeks go, and I neglected to mention it. My bad, because it’s a beautiful house. Originally built in 1925, it’s been completely redone by my friend Ferdinand Steyer, principle of Mountain Works.
Ferdinand is one of the very best of the builders working in our neighborhood — he’s at least the third generation of Austrian woodworkers in the family and though he’s been here on our shores for 40 years or so, he carries that heritage with him. Scrupulously honest and a fantastic builder, if he re-did this house, it’s perfect. Go see this house.
And of course, it has the Zebra (s)
Zebra One
Zebra chairs
We’ve seen this pelican before, and Zebra Three — do you Suppose David Ogilvy rushes around toting the same pelt and art work around the house, or hire assistants?
111 Dingletown Road dropped its price today to $2.8 million from $3.250. Back in 2013 my pal Joe Barbieri had it listed at $3.250, a price I suggested to him was pretty steep for a dated builder colonial on a back lot, but Joe still managed to sell it for $2.8 that year, demonstrating why Joe’s gotten rich at this gig while I have not. (Mind you, a final $450,000 off that price didn’t quite prove me a fool.)
The new owners spruced it up so that it is no longer dated, but it remains what it was, and lipstick only goes so far.
My guess? Watch for further discounts.
Reminds me of Idle-a-while airport
65 Clapboard Ridge Road is back today with yet another broker but the same price it expired at last month, $7.995 million. The owner paid $10 million for it back in 2007, —more fool he — and has been trying to get rid of it since 2015, when he priced it at $12.995, apparently under the mistaken impression that he’d scored a coup with that 2010 purchase. Wrong, so very wrong.
The demand for 15,000 sq.ft homes is limited these days and, to this eye, they all seem pretty much the same: big, swooping entrance halls, kitchens with spaghetti faucets and Viking ranges that will never be used, unless the caterer forgets to bring her hot plates, dated master bathrooms, high taxes, and land that has to be maintained, never mind that the family and their guests won’t venture past the fencing that keeps deer and their ticks at a safe distance. If these houses aren’t exactly a dime a dozen, there are certainly dozens of them searching for buyers.
I wish the new agent luck; he’s a friend of mine, and sells a bunch of these things, but I’m not convinced that substituting brokers while retaining a failed price will accomplish much. What’s that (falsely attributed) '“Einstein” quote, now reduced to a cliche? “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”. It’s a cliche because it’s true. Get out an eraser, call the accountant, and work out the benefits, if any, of a long-term capital loss.
genius kitchen design: fill a pot with 8 pounds of cold water at the stove, add a pound of SPAGHETTI, bring to a boil and then manhandle the whole steaming thing over to the sink to drain it. Unwieldy, but at least you got to pay a plumber to provide a cold water line above the range. Trickle down economics, in a way.
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