New construction sale, Old Greenwich

67 Sound Beach Avenue

67 Sound Beach Avenue, $3.5 million. Some years ago a purchaser paid $4 million for the new construction next door, and I thought he was nuts (and said so here). Now, five years on, the market’s creeping closer to him.

Here’s a new Riverside listing

24 Meadow Road

24 Meadow Road, asking $2.195 million. Sellers paid $1,932,200 for it in 2013, which, to me, seemed high at the time ,considering the dated (but quite charming) condition. Nonetheless, after installing a new kitchen and opening a wall, it’s very appealing, and I think it will sell quickly – there’s just not that much that’s nice in this price range.

New kitchen

Although they did put some real money into this home, all the sellers really had to do was stop at ripping out the furnishings

21 Byfield Lane has sold for $2.8 million. The sellers paid $2.650 for it in 2010 (it probably seemed like a bargain after it had dropped from $3.995), and turned it into a very nice house. Unfortunately, the Greenwich MLS rues dictate that all listings be yanked from the internet immediately upon their sale, but here are some pictures of what it looked like in 2010, and what it looks like today. I’m amazed it sold at all back then.

2010

2015

2010

Another win for Barry O, the man who vowed to be “the Anti-Reagan”

Take that, you girly-girl

Putin warns U.S. aircraft to vacate the area, starts bombing Assad’s foes; not ISIS, but “our” rebels.

If you really loved her, you’d let your agent pocket double the commission

“Don’t worry, I’ve got your 6.”

When buyers use a home’s listing agent as their “own”.

Consumer advocates have long cautioned against dual agency in real-estate transactions. That’s when the real-estate agent advocating for the seller also represents the buyer.

Common sense dictates this scenario can be detrimental to both parties. The buyer’s agent is supposed to help his or her client get a home for the lowest price; the seller’s agent is supposed to fetch the highest price. Advocating for both sides seems impossible, yet some consumers still end up in that scenario. 

A high percentage of those agents advertising on Zillow enjoyed more dual-agency transactions as a result, according to a recent report from Morgan Stanley. Specifically, it found that 60% of those real-estate agents who advertised as a “premier agent” on Zillow received a 30% increase in these dual-side deals. Financially, that means a big payday for the agent, who doesn’t have to split the commission with someone else — effectively doubling his or her pay.

Nobel Peace Prize winner update

We’ve GOT to get a grip on our spending, John -can you help?

Saudi Arabia has intercepted (another) Iranian ship stuffed with weapons for Yemeni rebels.

RIYADH—A Saudi Arabia-led military coalition that has been fighting Iran-supported rebels in Yemen said Wednesday that it had stopped an Iranian boat carrying arms to the war-torn country.

The boat carried 14 Iranians and was laden with missile launchers and anti-tank weapons, the coalition said in a statement, including firing guiding systems.

“This is all part of my strategy of befriending Iran,” President Obama told FWIW. “By freeing up billions in new cash for them, we’re encouraging them to waste their money on profligate schemes to arm their terrorist allies and have nothing left to build nuclear bombs. I call it Smart Diplomacy™.”

Drunken mother stabs pedophile neighbor to death, gets 11 months

Let’s see what you’ve brought me for Christmas

Note that the filthy old man had not touched, or even approached, her children. she just didn’t want them near them. I realize that, after the fact, it would have been too late, but there was no “fact” here – nothing had happened. English justice is bizarre.

It was the night of Nov. 28 when Sands decided to confront him.

Sands drank two bottles of wine and some whiskey before grabbing a 12-inch kitchen knife and marching next door, according to the Daily Mail.

Even in Riverside, it’s still possible to overprice a house. Thank God.

11 Stoney Ridge Lane

11 Stoney Ridge Lane, a 1953 house that was renovated and transformed about as much as one can for this era house, sold for $2.2 million in 2011, and put back up for sale this past March at $2.885. Today it was reduced to $2.145 million.

And my favorite house in OG also reports a contract

4 Cove Ridge Rd

4 Cove Ridge Road, asking $4.5 million. We’ve discussed this property before as it’s come on and off the market, but this is reported as “pending”, which is far more solid than a mere “contingent” contract. The agent assured me a couple of years ago that it rode out Sandy high and dry, so that’s good. We’ll see how it fares in this weekend’s hurricane.

Apparently there’s nothing wrong with Old Greenwich that the right price can’t cure

17 Shore Acre Drive

17 Shore Acre Drive, nice, older home in a great neighborhood (and above flood waters) was priced at $1.650 million and has a contract in 14 days.

I’d prefer to see whoever hired him arrested

How does one say “oops!” in Spanish?

Illegal  (?) alien stopped just in time.

Police said a flat-bed truck with a large load was observed heading down Indian Field Road and pulled over last Thursday while it was about the cross the bridge there. The bridge there has an 8,000-pound limit. The truck that police stopped weighed 19,500 pounds, according to authorities.

Elmer Oswaldo Ortiz, 26, of 308 Greenwich Ave., was issued a number of violations. He only had a Guatemalan ID, police said, and not a valid driver’s license. In addition, due to a prior DWI arrest, he should not have been driving.

He was charged with operating a motor vehicle under a suspension, driving without an operating license and disregarding a road sign. He was later released on $210 bail and ordered to appear in court Oct. 9.

Not that this is surprising but ….

Redistribution for thee, hypocrisy for me

Owner of the Washington Post made $16.2 billion last year while his paper editorialized about “income inequality”.

Thats’ billion with a “B”

Well here’s a critter who heeded the world’s leaders about wasting food

(Almost) All done!

Great White gobbles up skin diver, leaving only his weight belt and speargun behind.

“Naturally, we’re very disappointed,” PETA spokesman Natalie Jarnstadt told FWIW. “Lead is a terrible pollutant, and could kill many precious seabirds. I hope the shark will realize this, and come back to finish his supper. Bad shark.”

When liberals write “business” websites

Kick me, I’m stupid

Just like their brethren in Washington, the young children at Business Insider have confused cause and effect. Liberals see middle class people living in nice neighborhoods in nice homes and assume that, if they place non-middle class people in nice neighborhoods and in nice homes, those unfortunates will become middle class too. Hence the last housing bubble, and the renewed push to punish banks for not making enough bad loans.

The liberals don’t understand that it’s the character traits of the middle class that produced the results they enjoy: a strong work ethic, diligence and thrift. Take away those, and the houses disappear.

Which brings up the latest twaddle from Business Insider, “Here are the watches worn by the richest, most powerful people in the world”. Any young dolt who thinks that buying a particular watch will bring him riches and power is hopeless. And if he spends his money on an extravagant piece of jewelry in order to make people think he’s rich aNd powerful, he’s not only hopeless, he’s a delusional cretin.

Maybe that blood moon destroyed the real estate market here, instead of the whole world

The lonely real estate blogger searches the horizon

Once again, no sales, contracts or pending deals to report. In years past, the fall market opened in September and lasted at least until mid-November.

Not in 2015, apparently.

The circus hits town

If you can name a single Armenian, I’ll clean my plate. Otherwise, shut up

World leaders eat pigswill at UN, claim it shows their solidarity with the moonbats. 

The lunch, which was hosted by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for world leaders as part of an ongoing discussion about the Paris climate accord likely to be finalized in December, was designed to make a unique point: food and sustainable agriculture are an important part of the energy transition discussion.

Some of the featured ingredients included spent grain (grain mash left over from the brewing or distilling process); vegetable scraps (scraps, stalks, and outer leaves, salvaged from the waste stream of a large-scale food processor); off-grade produce (produce below a commercially recognized standard of quality, which is often left in the field); cascara (the dried skins of coffee cherries, typically discarded after the seeds have been removed); and nut press cake (the byproduct of a nut oil producer).

Barber said he hopes that more meals like this for world leaders, CEOs and elite thought leaders can have an impact. “You don’t do that by lecturing, you do it [by] making these world leaders have a delicious meal that will make them think about spreading that message,” he said.

If food waste were a nation, in fact, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. At the consumer level, an average family throws out $640 annually. The global economy could save $300 billion from wasted food. More than a third of all food produced worldwide, 1.3 billion tons of edible food each year, goes to waste.

Approximately 28 percent of the world’s farmland produces food that is never consumed. That loss every year is roughly equivalent to more than 3 billion tons of carbon that’s responsible for climate change.

“It’s just unthinkable, the inefficiency in our system, particularly when you look at something of this magnitude,” Kass said.

So why is all this mere posturing and unserious? Because the answer to food wastage is not collecting coffee skins and feeding them to the poor (all world leaders, although I’d be strongly in favor of that), but in improving packaging.

According to the FAO, the total value of lost food is $4bn per year in Africa and $4.5bn a year in India, with up to 50% of fruit and vegetables ending up as waste. In developing countries including China and Vietnam, most food is lost through poor handling, storage and spoilage in distribution. It is estimated that 45% of rice in China and 80% in Vietnam (PDF) never make it to market for these reasons.

One of the most effective ways to reduce food waste is to improve packaging, for example by using Modified Atmosphere Packaging (Map) – a technology that substitutes the atmosphere inside a package with a protective gas mix, typically a combination of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen – to extend freshness.

This is a well-proven solution that calls for technology transfer rather than invention, which has been the approach of the Sustainable Product Innovation Project in Vietnam. Through the project, Map has been applied to over 1,000 small-scale farmers, resulting in reductions in post-harvest food waste from 30-40% to 15-20%.

Another simple packaging solution being promoted in developing countries is the International Rice Research Institute Super Bag. When properly sealed, the bag cuts oxygen levels from 21% to 5%, reducing live insects to fewer than one insect per kg of grain without using insecticides – often within 10 days of sealing. This extends the germination life of seeds from 6 to 12 months and controls insect grain pests (without using chemicals).

Improved storage and transportation

Besides improved packaging, a second way to reduce food loss and waste is through improved storage and transportation. A new report on creating a sustainable “cold chain” in the developing world estimates that about 25-50% of food wastage (PDF) could be eliminated with better, more climate friendly refrigeration. For example, Unilever has committed to using hydrocarbon (HC)refrigerants, which saved 40,000 tonnes of CO2 in 2013.

The greenies have it backwards, as usual. Instead of promoting “local farming” and opposing technology, the way to feed the poor and cut down on waste is to improve packaging, transportation infrastructure and bringing refrigeration to third world farmers.

But, as demonstrated today down in Turtle Bay, this whole movement is about photo-ops and hot air, not solutions.

It’s been 500 days – do you know where your planet is?

Blood Moon, 2015

500 days have elapsed since French Foreign Minister warned that global warming would throw the climate into “chaos” in 500 days.

In May 2014, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius declared during a joint appearance with Secretary of State John Kerry that “we have 500 days to avoid climate chaos.” Late last week, time ran out. Fabius’s original remarks were as follows:

Well, I’m very happy to be with John. There is no week without a phone call or a visit between John and myself, and we have on the agenda many items, many issues – Iran, because negotiations are resuming today; the question of Syria, and we shall meet next Thursday in London together; Ukraine as well; and very important issues, issue of climate change, climate chaos. And we have – as I said, we have 500 days to avoid climate chaos. And I know that President Obama and John Kerry himself are committed on this subject and I’m sure that with them, with a lot of other friends, we shall be able to reach success on this very important matter.

Reached for comment, Secretary of State Kerry told FWIW, “Jesus Christ, I just saved the world from ending last week during the eclipse, now you want me to worry about some stupid cheese-eater’s prediction from last year? Gimme a break; these things have a shelf life of two weeks, if we’re lucky.”

Land goes begging in our northwest corner

Looking north from 646 Riversville

646 Riversville Road, 5 acres with the claim to being “the highest point in Greenwich” was purchased for $2 million in 2001, mortgaged to $2.5 million in 2006), and has been for sale since at least 2007, when it asked $4.995 million. Today it’s been reduced to $2.795, with, I’d guess, still more to go.

Did they do it in the Lincoln Bedroom when they visited Obama?

Welcome! You’re almost there!

Couples who earn their living televising their sex life on webcams.

Webcam is their sole source of income and they have used the money to fund a once-in-a-lifetime trip, which has seen them visit all 52 American states with their motor home and seven pets.

And I don’t even know what year’s prices this one will finally sell at

549 North Street

549 North Street asked $12.5 million in 2007, and has been marked down to $8.750 today.

UPDATE: Heh – Reader “Chris” points out this 2014 GT article in which the selling agent expressed hope of unloading this property on a rice bowler. Hasn’t worked, so far.