All that’s old is new again

70 Sherwood Ave

70 Sherwood Avenue, way out west, is up for sale at $4.975 million after being purchased in 2010 for $3.375. The house is a 1986 house that was totally, completely redone back in 2007 by a spec builder and put up for sale that year for $5.775.  As noted, it sold three years later for $3.375.

The seller justifies this $1.6 million price jump by citing the renovations that have been done since it was purchased, but the house was essentially brand new back then and in need of no “renovations” – I don’t get it. I’m further confused because, looking at the 2007 listing and today’s, I don’t see much difference in their descriptions, even though they were written by different brokers. Perhaps Joe Biden wrote the second one.

Here’s what the 2007 broker said about the house:

FRENCH STYLE COUNTRY 2 ACRE ESTATE HAS BEEN EXQUISITELY RENOVATED TO REFLECT THE BEST OF THE OLD & NEW WORLD. GRAND INTERIOR OF THE FINEST WORKMANSHIP. JULIET BALCONIES OVERLOOK THE BREATHTAKING 20 FT FOYER. 5 BEDROOMS, FORMAL LIVING & DINING RM. LIBRARY, KITCHEN W/BRKFT RM, FAMILY RM, ELEVATOR, MEDIA & FITNESS RMS. 3 CAR GARAGE & MORE. BEAUTIFUL TERRACES OVERLOOKING PICTURESQUE POND & NEW LANDSCAPING, UNDERSTATED ELEGANCE & EXQUISITE WORKMANSHIP THROUGHOUT.

That certainly sounded nice – so nice, in fact, that the new broker, three years on, seems to have kept everything, including that “understated elegance”. Looks to me that the pool, the gate and the generator are new; not sure they’re worth $1.6 extra, but then, I haven’t seen the gate.

FRENCH STYLE COUNTRY 2 ACRE ESTATE HAS BEEN EXQUISITELY RENOVATED TO REFLECT THE BEST OF THE OLD & NEW WORLD. GRAND INTERIOR OF THE FINEST WORKMANSHIP. JULIET BALCONIES OVERLOOK THE BREATHTAKING 20 FT FOYER. 5 BEDROOMS, FORMAL LIVING & DINING RM, LIBRARY, KITCHEN W/BRKFT RM, FAMILY RM, ELEVATOR, MEDIA & FITNESS RMS. 3 CAR GARAGE & MORE. BEAUTIFUL TERRACES OVERLOOKING PICTURESQUE POND & NEW LANDSCAPING. UNDERSTATED ELEGANCE & EXQUISITE WORKMANSHIP THROUGHOUT. NEW INFINITY POOL. NEW GENERATOR AND ELECTRIC GATE.

Slow day for real estate

Three small items to note.

241 Valley Rd

241 Valley Road, asking $895,000, reports a contingent contract. This is a 1924 shack on 0.08 of an acre overlooking, but far uphill from, the Mianus River. But a beautiful view, and no neighbors to the east, at least. I’m sure you can do something interesting here. To keep score, this sold in basically the same condition in 2000 for $515,000.

44 Hunting Ridge

44 Hunting Ridge Road has taken another price cut and now asks $5.495 million, which is better than the $7.925 it wanted back when it was first built in 2006.

414 Stanwich

And back again, 414 Stanwich is now priced at $1.525. It sold for $2.1 million in 2003, so the owners can (almost) be excused for first pricing this at $2.695 in 2006, but buyers weren’t buying it. A number of rentals, a handful of brokers, and many price cuts and years later, it’s down to this level. I like this house; it’s always been the price that put me off. Perhaps this will do it, but if I were advising my own clients here, I’d suggest that they negotiate, hard.

Foreclosure price cut on Round Hill Road

We’re not in La Tuna anymore, Toto

516 Round Hill Road is now offered to the discriminating buyer for $7.750 million. This property has had a colorful history, beginning back in 2003 when that lovable rascal Dom Devito bought the land and persuaded his friend Marcus Zavataro at Patriot Bank to lend him $6.143 million to build  a spec house. The foundation went in, the framing went up, and there things stood for a long time, while most of the Patriot/Zavataro loans went belly up, Dom was sent off to La Tuna Federal Medium Security prison outside of El Paso, and the market for big ticket homes on Round Hill Road fell off the cliff. Eventually, Patriot won title via foreclosure (June, 2010), Marcus went off to offer financial advice to new clients and even Dom has returned, fit, rested and raring to go. He’s even driving a rather fancy Indian car around town these days – the boy knows how to land on his feet.

In any event, Patriot sold off the shell of this house for $3 million to the present owners, who finished it and put it back up for sale in January for $8.3 million. Today’s price cut indicates how that’s gone, so far. The two problems I see here (aside from price and location) are what to make of that four years or so it sat unfinished, and the affect, if any, weather and cold had on the structural integrity, and the land: Dom sort of bulldozed a pile of dirt together, just large enough to support a house footprint, held it back with a retaining wall and left the rest as an ironic reference, for movie buffs, to “The Guns of Navarone”. Tough sledding, if you will.

But there you have it. If you want to live in Dom’s neighborhood; and you should, or just down the road from the Raj, when he gets out of his prison, this is the spot for you.

After Greenway’s $50 million cut, a mere $2 million doesn’t sound like much.

This one won’t last!

Nonetheless, that’s what the owner of 918 North Street has shaved off his price, so what would have cost you $13.9 million yesterday can be yours today for $11.9 million. This property has been on the market since 2009, when it asked $16.9 million and so far, it’s proved to have the attractiveness of a junked Corolla. Perhaps this latest reduction will fix that.

Which is why we call it Rogue’s Hill

Brutal attack by bat-wielding husband up at 261 Round Hill Road.

261 Round Hill Road

The husband, Michael DeMaio, (who does not work for JP Morgan, Teri Buhl reports, even though Greenwich Time says he does) explained to the police that “he lost it” when his wife announced she was leaving him. Had the idiot kept track of the listing price of his (wife’s) house, he might not have been taken by surprise. It started at $8.998 million in 2012, suddenly dropped a million in November of last year to $7.998 and dropped still later to $7.299. On August 8, 2013, the house was withdrawn from the market; I’m guessing that was on the advice of a divorce lawyer as a dissolution suit was being prepared.

I am certainly not making light of this horrible act: the woman is in critical condition and has, according to the police, probably suffered permanent brain damage. But it’s interesting how Round Hill Road seems to draw far more than its share of criminals.

Moving day?

Round Hill deportees

Ten new listings priced at $9 million and above have been added to the market in the past thirty days, joining thirty-nine homes already there. Only five in that range have sold thus far this year, but obviously the revival of the $1-$3.5 market has convinced some people that their time has come.

They may be wrong.

A buyer for everything, at some price

Two listings to illustrate that.

326 Cognewaugh

326 Cognewaugh Road, $1.275 million, reports an accepted offer. This is about as typical a 1993 builder house as you can find, and stuck in the middle of winding Cognewaugh Road, with no back yard to speak of and plain, plain plain. One of my clients asked about it and I told him, “it’s not for you, but at this price, someone will buy it”. Looks like they have.

18 Porchuck Rd

18 Porchuck Road, on the other hand, is still trying to find the magic price. It was brought on the market by Ogilvy at $9.5 million back in June, 2012 and has suffered the indignity of a number of price cuts since, one of which was the subject of a certain amount of derision on these pages back in August.  Another cut came today, when $1.3 million was sliced off yesterday’s price and the house can now be yours for just $4.5 million. Will this do the trick? We’ll see.

Brad Hvolbeck had a busy weekend

Two accepted offers reported, one large, one a mere starter home, by Brad’s standards but hey, he’s not proud.

44 Conyers Farm

44 Conyers Farm asked $14.5 million and 535 days after first making that request, it has a buyer.

545 North Street

In the lower range, 545 North Street, $6.495 million, also is reported as under contract. Sold new in 1999 for $4.4.

We’re back!

First, some market activity that was reported while I was out enriching the Saudis.

4 Cat Rock

4 Cat Rock Road closed, for $1.750 million after 302 days on market. Nice old (1908a house and nicely renovated, it’s real problem was that it sold for $1.880 in 2005, was improved, yet sold for $1.860 in May, 2011, and when this was put back on a year later at $1.995, buyers balked, probably because they saw the price decline and speculated that it would continue down. If that’s what they guessed, they were right.

1361 King Street

1361 King Street sold, $2.125 million ($2.495, ask), proving only that you can get a lot of house for $2 million if you’re willing to live under the flight path a long way from town. Some people are.

5 Butler Street

5 Butler Street, Cos Cob, on the other hand, didn’t linger. It was priced at $835,000 and went via bidding war for $842,100. As an aside, it’s often smart to throw in an odd number in one of these things. Win or lose, you don’t want to tie, which will only set off another round of bidding.

15 Upper Cross

And waay, way up in nose bleed territory, 15 Upper Cross whacked a cool million from its price today so that what would have cost you $9.1 million yesterday can be yours today for $8. That’s an improvement over its 2011 price of $11.995 but, at least to my taste, this is about the land this old pile of stone sits on and not the house itself. So, what’s five acres near the Banksville border worth? Not $8.1 million, certainly, so we can anticipate more price reductions in the years to come. Of course, that’s just my opinion of the house; someone else may come along who falls in love with the place and will pay for the privilege of restoring it. Maybe.

Adjusting to the new reality of the Greenwich market

646 Riversville Rd, 2015 – ADA compliant

646 Riversville Road is back on the market, now offering a 9,000 sq.ft. house to be built for $6.975 million. This five-acre parcel was purchased for $2 million back in 2001 and since then the builder/buyer has been trying to either unload the land (starting at $3.295 in 2003, increased to $4.750 in 2008, reason for increase unknown, then back down, to $3.795, since 2010) or build you a house on it.

That proposed house was originally to be 14,000 sq.ft., priced at $12.9 million, then 11,500 sq. ft. for $8.9 million in 2010 and now, as noted, 9,000 sq.ft for 6.975.

It will be interesting to see how much house they’re offering in 2015.

It’s not Round Hill, but it will have to do

577 Round Hill Rd

Greenwich’s Raj Rajaratnam has temporarily (about 11 years) moved abodes from 577 Round Hill Road (purchased in 2000 for $7.5 million) to Ayer, Massachusetts, but apparently things aren’t as uncomfortable there as you may have feared.  I know I’m relieved.

Fat-cat financial felon Raj Rajaratnam is kickin’ it big in the Big House — with a personal “manservant” at his beck and call, a prison insider tells me.

“He’s reigning like a king,” said the source of Rajaratnam’s new digs at the Federal Medical Center Devens, in Ayer, Mass., where he’ll spend the next 11 years on an insider-trading conviction.

“He’s doing his time in the lap of luxury compared to the other inmates.”

What’s more, the source tells me, Raj “has a very delightful guy doing all sorts of stuff for him — sort of like a ‘manservant.’ When Raj needs something, this guy gets if for him.”

The manservant is a “gentle giant,” an American Samoan named Eddie, whose main job in the P3 unit is to push wheelchair-bound prisoners. He got himself transferred to P3 after befriending Raj, according to the snitch.

“He became enamored of Raj, and Raj started talking about how much he once paid his chauffeurs. Now Eddie wants to be Raj’s driver when he gets out,” the insider told me.

He even cooks for Rajaratnam using a nearby microwave when the fallen financier doesn’t want to hoof it to the dining hall.

P3 residents have private toilets, a shared balcony for sunning themselves, televisions and adjustable beds. The doors aren’t locked — but neither are they in most of the buildings at the Devens facility, according to my source.

UPDATE: Forbes columnist offers a different perspective. No one I know who’s ever been a prisoner (including myself, when as a 16-year-old cross-country hitch hiker I spend four days as a guest of the government in the San Luis Obispo County Jail) would confuse jail for freedom, regardless of amenities like a microwave oven and a private toilet (neither of which were provided in my accommodations, damn it).  I’m sure Raj is no exception.

Auction at 160 John Street

160 John Street

Raul Villacis has listed 160 John Street, 18 acres of horse farm originally priced at $45 million in 2009 and offered at other prices since, from $36 million to $28,500 (just for 22 days, in February, 2013, and discussed here back then) for “one million dollars”, but notes that this will be an auction, so the million is presumably a token price – you need to have some number to list on the MLS, and your mileage may (will) vary.

I’ve never had much luck dealing with Mr. Villas, so won’t be investing any of my time on this, but I suppose he may break his historical pattern and actually be offering it for sale to a non-client, so if you’re interested  in some decent land and a house at some unspecified price – count on it, it won’t be a million – go for it.

I can’t sort of the status of this property on line – there’s no significant mortgage shown on the tax card and a check of the judicial docket turns up nothing, but if Raul’s involved then so too is a lender. Doubtless, by the time of the scheduled auction October 15th, more will be revealed.

UPDATE: a reader points out that, rather than be cancelled, David Ogilvy’s listing for this same property is still active (and will be through February of next year). So how’s Raul involved with this? Can one skip Raul’s services and just deal directly with David, handing over $28.5 million? That’d probably be a cheaper approach than dealing with Mr. Villacis, and certainly a more straightforward one.

Sale and an eve-of-foreclosure price cut

Two bits of real estate news.

10 Boyd Lane, that cul du sac off of Riverside Lane north of the Post Road, sold for $2.178. New construction was selling here in NoPo for around $1.8 at the height of the market in 2007 – we’ve exceeded that now. Not my cup of tea, but apparently Cos Cob School is a real draw for some people.

47 N. Stanwich

The owners of 47. N. Stanwich Road has been fighting off the foreclosure of at least one, possibly two Washington Mutual mortgages ($1.6, 2004, and an earlier one from 2003 for $921,000, unless it was rolled into the 2004 mortgage – in those days of easy money, probably not), since the beginning of 2012, but a motion for summary judgment hit the docket last week and there seems to be a new seriousness of purpose: it came back on the market in May after expiring unsold in December 2012 and just dropped its price today to $2.399.

That’s still too high, in my opinion, for a so-so 1979 builder’s special in the hinterlands (although it does have Parkway and Central as its school district), but it’s a far sight better than its laughable price of $3.925 million back in 2005, or even the $3.450 the owners were seeking in 2010.

Too bad it took the pending loss of everything to bring reason to this situation, but as Dr. Johnson observed almost 250 years ago, “Depend upon it sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” And so it goes.

Sales, contract

Two sales, one contract reported.

8 Dempsey Lane

8 Dempsey Lane (just off North Street) asked $8.495, sold for $7.375. Not a bad price for the seller, even with that $1 million disappointment. They paid $6.930 for the house in 2005 and thus came close to, if not breaking even, after deducting 10% for transaction fees and the various improvements like a pool and landscaping. Eight years in a beautiful house and most of your money back – not bad.

15 Od Kings Highway

Smaller in price, 15 Old Kings Highway sold for $816,000. It, too, has a pool so apparently the buyer of this place decided to settle for a smaller house and pocket the $6,599,000 difference between here and Dempsey – smart move.

542 North Street

And 542 North Street, $3.995 million, was reported here yesterday as rumored to be under contract. That rumor has been confirmed. Very quick sale – came on the market July 30th.

In case you’re wondering, there’s been no real estate news reported today

Stables for us, the 0.01%

Broker open house tour probably has kept agents with activity to report away from their desks, so check in later. But must people are away or otherwise ignoring real estate and I don’t expect that to change umuch until after Labor Day.

I did receive an invitation to view the new listing at 429 Taconic Road but the pictures are now up, and since it (a) looks quite presentable and (b) I have no clients actively looking in the $23.5 million range (feel free to give me a call and change that), I thought I’d save the gas and send the money saved to the owner’s favorite charity, the federal budget deficit campaign. As I’m sure she’ll agree, the people in Washington can put my five bucks to use far more wisely than I can, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to let them do that.

There’s still money north of the Parkway

Beached Whale: reports of its demise may have been greatly exaggerated

One contract, one new listing, for 13-14,000 sq.ft. mansions.

5 Old Round Hill Lane, asking $10.750 (selling price not yet disclosed, obviously; it hasn’t sold), is now under contract. The owners paid $11.2 million for it in 2007 when it was new, so if they get close to what they’re now asking – they started at $12+, they’ll be doing well. I’d want more than 2 acres for that kind of money, but tastes have changed.

One new listing that does offer four acres is 111 Hunting Ridge Road, new today, asking $11.450 million. It sold for just $9.050 in 2006; these owners clearly hope to do better than those over on Old Round Hill Lane, and perhaps they will.

Corey Kupersmith’s former Cowdray Road auction coming up August 25th

Here’s how to bid – basically, you must place your bid before hand and the three highest bidders will be invited to duke it out on the 25th.

Cheytac 408-M200

We’ve written about Kupersmith before, most recently just this past July. In response to that article I received this interesting email. Apparently there was – is- more to Mr. Kupersmith than just a rapacious, failed real estate developer.

Hi Chris:

I was one of Corey’s partners for about five years when I founded Cheytac * and my other partners voted him in as an additional partner.  He and his criminal gang of hangers on from NYC were interesting fellows.

From never paying their taxes to outright defrauding [or attempting to] their partners, they were the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, literally.

When the little prince got involved with  Cheytac he determined that we didn’t need process control on weapons manufacturing…..  We could discuss that for hours….  We have enough damaged clients out there from that.

He also tried out various fully automatic weapons in Arco, ID and once shot a School Bus, fortunately coming back empty, no kids…….  I guess there is a God some where.

Crocco died under suspicious circumstances [no mention of that in Keith Crocco’s obituary – it was a motorcycle accident- Keith C rear-ended an SUV – Ed] after Corey stated that he was going to send him to his grave as he didn’t trust him any more…..  Most of the Greenwich cops partied at his Cowdray mansion or the Jupiter FL mansion…..

Real Estate?  Chris, you have barely scratched the tip of the iceberg…..

Interesting about the GPD partying with the man, here in Greenwich and in Florida. Any readers want to contribute to that angle?

* Cheytac makes some very, very cool rifles that can reach out and kiss someone as far as 3,000 yards away.

UPDATE: Googling around, I found this mention of Kupersmith’s involvement with Jamison International. “In 2003 Marc Jamison teamed with the owner of Greenwich Ballistics, Corey Kupersmith, who had recently acquired Cheyenne Tactical (CheyTac USA).”

Patent suit brought by Greenwich Ballistics against Jamison bankrupted Jamison (or it shut down as the result of the expenses of defending against the suit). Here’s the original complaint.

Two Merritt Parkway homes go begging

A couple of houses on the broker open house today that merit discussion, if not an actual visit, because neither is selling and both are right on the Merritt Parkway. Coincidence? I think not.

329 Riversville: lights on, no one home

329 Riversville Road is literally in the shadow of the parkway, and long ago brought down its builder, who lost it to foreclosure in, I think, 2010. It sat empty for years before the lender sold it off (at a great discount, I hope) to a third party. It’s been unsuccessfully auctioned (no takers), priced at $2.799 million (expired unsold) and now it’s back for a third attempt, at $2.695. Someone’s bound to want this at some price, but between the issue of sitting vacant and unfinished for so long and the looming presence of the Merritt overhead, I don’t know what that price will be.

A bit further east, there’s a house on Porchuck that’s been reduced, again, to $5.8 million. It started at $9.5 million in 2012, and I’m sure its listing broker could have profitably read this weekend’s profile of David Ogilvy on the proper selling of a high-end home. He obviously didn’t, so it sits.

UPDATE: checked the tax card for the history of 329 Riversville, and here are some more details: IndyMac bank loaned $2.6 million for it in 2007, foreclosed on it and the successor to the failed IndyMac sold it off to the present owners for $1,489,952 in February, 2012. It’s the current owners who finished it, so it’s been empty for five years now (notwithstanding the listing’s claimed construction date of 2010, it was in fact built in 2008).

Sale and a haircut

111 W. Lyon sells, 543 Stanwich keeps going down.

The Lyon Farm condo sold for $700,000. Last sale was back in 1994, for $512,500. According to the government’s CPI index, that 1994 price should be $807,813 today, so no home run here, but twenty years of shelter is certainly worth something.

543 Stanwich

And 453 Stanwich, which originally asked $4.225  in 2009 has been reduced yet again today, to $2.590 million. It’s a 1966 house “renovated” in 2007, and being marketed primarily as a four-acre building lot. Nice land, but how much better is this than the 4 acres on Mohawk, a mile south on Stanwich, that sold yesterday for $700,000? Stanwich has flat lawn, Mohawk is woods and swamp, so Stanwich is worth more, but how much more? If you built the 10,800 sq.ft. house touted in its listing as the maximum size permissible here, you’d probably pay $400 (or higher) to get the quality and level of finish work demanded by such a size house, so …(gezuntagezunta…) $4,320,000, plus pool, plus etc. Pay $2.5 for the land and be all in at $7 million. That could actually work, economically, but I wouldn’t plan on moving soon.

House sale, land contract

 

16 Annjim

16 Annjim, $995,000, went in 13 days, sold for $970,000. Low inventory.

Land on Mohawk Lane (off Stag, borders Stanwich) once asked $1.8 million for its four acres and didn’t get it. The owner died of heartbreak and her estate lowered the price to $700,000. That’s done it.