It's obviously a Tommy Hilfiger day

(Tommy is quite small)

Hilfiger’s former property (and Joseph Vernor Reed’s before that) at 591 Riversville Road is new to the market today at $30 million. 17 acres.

The listing claims that this is the first time the property has been on the market in 49 years, but I used to mend the stone fences here for Mr. Reed when I was in high school, and he sold the place to Hilfiger long after that, so I’m not sure where the 49-year figure comes from — perhaps it’s a reference to how long it will take to sell at $30 million?

100 Doubling Road, foreclosure property, finds a buyer

Just two weeks I ago I wrote about 100 Doubling Road being brought back on the market by its new owner, JP Morgan, for $4.295 million. I thought that was a considerable improvement over the defaulting borrower’s original asking price of $7.150, and someone obviously agreed, because a sale is already pending.

Owners of comparable houses in the $5-$7.5 range might want to take notice.

Was it the Hilfiger name, the bubble, or both?

Tommy Hilfiger sold his house at 578 Riversville Road to its current owners for $7.8 million in 2005, after asking $7.995 and waiting just 31 days for these chumps to show up at the table. They, in turn, have been trying to resell it for the past year, and today they dropped its to $4.995.

It’s a nice house, and not unreasonable at its new price, but it’s going to be a real bargain at next year’s price of, what — $3.5?

Drop it by half, and ... maybe

1 Tinker Lane, former residence of stock scammer (and owner of WGCH) Michael Metter, was brought to the market today by the group that bought it out of foreclosure. They’re asking $1.950 million — at that price, you’d get a tear-down permeated by the stench of a low-life criminal, located on an undesirable street. That’s a poor deal, in my opinion.

Why not burkhas? Why allow them to be educated at all?

Get Thee behind me, Satan!

San Diego Catholic school bans skirts — too tempting to faculty and boys. Girls protest.

Students at Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego are protesting a new anti-skirt policy that is supposed to encourage “modesty” and prevent male teachers from feeling “uncomfortable” while addressing violations.

Kevin Calkin, the principal at Cathedral Catholic High School, sent Yahoo Lifestyle a copy of the new policy, created as a last resort for students who don’t adhere to the knee-length minimum: “… The most significant change is that skirts will no longer be an option for girls. Dress code is a perennial challenge. The dress code exists for at least three good reasons: to foster unity, to encourage modesty, and to minimize pressure to conform to particular styles or clothing brands. Basically we hope to foster a faith-based environment where students are focused on learning and not on outward appearances.”

And of course, there’s the obligatory nod to transgenders: “A school spokesperson tells Yahoo Lifestyle the revised dress code is a gender equalizer.”

I suppose it’s an improvement that this school is now hiring males who prefer girls to boys, but the new dress code seems eerily slilar to the Muslim requirement that females drape themselves in curtains lest they stir the loins of their randy masters.

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” comes to mind, though perhaps St. Augustine’s anguished prayer of lust might be more appropriate: “Lord, make me chaste, but not until the end of term”.

Oh goody, we have a Brother Gid listing to make fun of

Early days, and perhaps we won’t have the opportunity, because Gid’s something like the third agent for 33 Ferncliff Road, and he’s managed to get the owners down to $1.550 million, a considerable drop from the first agent’s suggested retail price of $2.1, and even below the $1,743,750 these owners paid for it in 2012. $1.5ish just might do it.

It’s interesting to see that 2012 price: so precise, it must surely have been the product of some keen negotiating, yet seven years on, those pennies saved amount to nothing. Real estate’s not really a sport of sharp pencils .

Mind you, a diligent agent would have gotten out of his Jaguar and painted this foundation, but ….

Sale on Wyckham Hill

675 North Street, technically, for $3.5 million. That’s a bit of a letdown from its 2017 ask of $4.750, but 1989 won’t be entering our “Great Architecture of Greenwich” annals, and Wyckham Hill itself is a bit of a dodgy address, so $3.5 seems appropriate. The town’s been carrying it on our tax rolls at an appraised value of $4.719, by the way; that will change.

Need I mention that the buyers and their agent are from away?

If you won't change the price, at least spring for new pictures

400 North Maple Avenue sat on the market for a full yeqr — July, 2015-June, 2016 —unloved and unwanted, with its price stubbornly lodged in lace. The owner did concede a bit half way through and dropped her price from $3 million to $2.999 million, but even a full dollar failed to lure buyers her way, so she pulled the listing.

Now it’s back, and priced at $2.950 million, which amounts to no change at all. So be it; its her house, she doesn’t have to sell it if she doesn’t want to, but why didn’t her agent (same one as before) take advantage of the hiatus to declutter the place and have new photographs taken? The 2015 iPhone snaps may offer a fair and accurate representation of the house as it exists, but they are unlikely to draw in buyer from the Internet. Proof of that is their failure to do so in 2015-2016, so why reuse them? Go ahead: spend a day with a dumpster and bring in a professional photographer. It won’t cost you a thousand bucks.

And if all else fails, drop your price.

Or at least remove the time stamp

Perhaps the owner’s agent should take her to see the kitchens of other $3 million homes

For a fat girl, she sure don't sweat much

It’s considered simple good manners — neighborly, in fact — to find something nice to say about a person or his house, but that’s a tough pull for 5 Neighborly Way, a spec prefab in NoPo that has finally sold, for $1.645 million. Finish quality is appalling, location is poor, and the design is as odd as you’ll encounter in the real estate business: what on earth is a kitchen doing an a section of a two-story barn, just as a for instance?

But even an ugly duckling can find someone to love it, and this one has. Out-of-town broker/buyer, if that makes a difference.

Old Greenwich house at least held its own

404 Sound Beach Avenue, purchase3ed for $2.150 in March, 2017, has sold again for $2.120 million. It’s an older (though updated) house on a back lot, so price seems about right, and unsurprising.