More Mid Country blues

Going down?

16 Dingletown Road takes another price cut, to $5.095 million. I like this house: it’s removed from Dingletown itself, has a nice back yard and a convenient location, but I did wonder at the owners’ decision to price it at $6.150 this past April after they’d paid just $5.6 for it in 2011. Now the elevator, having paused at the ground floor, is heading for the basement. Oops.

The owners aren’t alone in their overestimation of the value of this house, however; the spec builder who put it up in 2008 tried $8.995 and various lower price points until he found these people three years later who were willing to pay that $5.6.

I wonder if the buyers made the mistake of looking at the original asking price and figured they were getting a bargain? It happens.

We’re not in Riverside anymore, Toto

17 Windabout Lane

We’re in the mid country, where the prices keep falling. 17 Windabout Lane just cut its price, again, and now asks $2.695 million. To be fair, that’s still a price that, for this house, might face resistance even in Riverside, but the owners can be excused for pricing it at $3.250 million 222 days ago because, after all, that’s what they paid for it in 2002.

Ouch.

So what were they thinking in 2007?

195 Pecksland Road

195 Pecksland Road has a new price, $3.685 million, and notes that it now sports “a fabulous new master bedroom suite” and a new kitchen.  That sounds very nice, and the price looks attractive, but if all that new stuff now makes it worth $3.7, what on earth was the justification for pricing it, pre-improvements, at $6.250 million back in 2007?

Another demonstration, if one were needed, that the authors of Freakonomics were wrong to conclude that real estate agents not only price their own homes higher than comparable homes, but get those higher prices.  In Greenwich, at least, agents are notorious for overpricing their homes, but they never get what they think it’s worth. Emotionalism beats objective assessment, every time, just as it happens so often with normal people.

On the other hand, here’s someone who disagrees with the previous post

26 Taconic

Having failed to sell for $5.495 million in 2010 (it started at $6.495 in 2007), Kaali-Nagy has brought 26 Taconic Road back on the market for $5.950. Much as I like Mr. Kaali-Nagy’s work, and I do; he builds a beautiful home, I’ve never liked this one as much as his others. The land sucks: 2 acres, but much of it is underwater in the form of a pond or found on the hill sloping down to that pond. On the busy, lower end of Taconic. The house itself is, to my taste, too dark, in part because of a porch roof on the east side that blocks the sun.

East wall

When he couldn’t sell it he rented it, for $17,500 in 2008 and $16,000 in 2010. Now that lease has apparently ended, so he’s spruced it up and offered it for rent at $27,500 or purchase, as noted, at $6 million.

I bet he doesn’t hit either number.

Abandoned Ridgeview Ave. house finds buyer and (unrelated), the Synagogue expands its Cos Cob footprint

 

9 Ridgeview Avenue

9 Ridgeview Avenue, placed on the market by its bank-owner at $2.999, reports a contract. The failed developer paid $2.355 for the land in 2008 and took out a $4.7 million mortgage to build this shell. I assume all of that sum hadn’t been advanced before the project went south, but it’s a fair bet that there was a serious write-off here.

I personally would be wary of a house that has sat empty for so long, but I assume an inspector has signed off on the structural integrity.

88 Orchard Street

In Cos Cob, an Irish realtor, Francis X. Fudrucker, has sold a Scotsman’s house on 88 Orchard Street to a Jewish synagogue; are we a multi-cultural town, or what? 88 looked for $2.355 million in 2011 and dropped as low as $1.795 before its listing expired on Halloween, 2011. The treat finally arrived last Friday, when they sold for $1.6 million.

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.

Dang, I was hoping to snag this one for my own kids

555 Lake Avenue

555 Lake Avenue under full contract, $26.5 million. 19,000 square feet, 8 acres, but just 8 bedrooms – there’s still room to expand, thank goodness. This property was never on the market but supposedly it was going to be and a buyer moved in and snapped it up.

 

She wore an itsy bitsy, teenie weenie, yellow polkadot …

Price advisor

After nearly six months on the market, 45 Hillside Drive has dropped its price $100,000, and now asks $4.495 million. I suppose the idea behind taking such an itsy bitsy teenie weenie price cut is to signal that the owner is finally willing to at least listen to a lower offer, but the message I get is that, if he wouldn’t budge for six months and is barely budging now, he’s intransigent.

Which would be fine, if the entire market hadn’t been telling him since April that his price was wrong. I’ll pass.

And back for another try…

45 Husted Lane

45 Husted Lane, now at $6.895 million. Brother Gid tried selling this for them back in 2006 for $7.995 and it’s been on and off the market since, at various prices and with various brokers. This was built by Hobbs, according to the listing, so there can be no question as to its quality. Is there anything else, except its price, that’s preventing its sale?

I don’t remember seeing this, although I’m sure I have sometime in the past seven years, so I can’t say what the problem is with the place, if a problem there is. One clue, perhaps, is that in all its listings, even when it was new, there are no pictures of its yard. It’s on two acres (two separate, one-acre building lots, in fact), so there’s certainly room for a yard unless the topography prevents it. Swamp? Cliffs? Maybe.

But that’s just a guess. I’ll check it out next time there’s an open house and report back. Or I could just ask Gideon.

UPDATE:  Another agent reports “zero yard”. No pictures: the dog that did not bark.

Deep pockets

6 Meadowcroft: should be a rather generous negotiating buffer now.

Two days ago I mentioned that 6 Meadowcroft Road, priced at $13.750 million, was back on the market after reporting a fully executed contract back in June, and I wondered whether, as there were no contingencies, the defaulting buyer had forfeited his 10% deposit. I now hear that indeed he did; he found another house he liked better. As a product of the “new math” curriculum of the late 60s, I’ll have to leave it to you math wizards to calculate ten percent of $13,750,000, but it’s a lot.

Sale reported, (limited) open house report

 

140 Indian Head (representative)

140 Indian Head, Riverside, has sold for $11.9 million, which I’m sure is the all-time record for non-waterfront property in Riverside. It’s a spectacular home, custom built for the sellers by Doran Sabag (Sound Beach Partners), I’m not really surprised by this price. But it’s a lot of money.

I didn’t get to that many broker open houses today – the ones I wanted to see were pretty spread out, but two I thought were of particular interest were 41 Baldwin Farms South and 363 North Street.

41 Baldwin Farms, $4.995 million, surprised me because I’m not a great fan of the French provincial (? Frenchy, anyway) look, but it’s a beautiful home, on great land that abuts the pond running along this road. Open the front door and step into the foyer and even a complete hermit like myself can see its potential for entertaining: the house just invites you in. High ceilings, easy flow, immaculate condition, everything is here. If one insisted on redoing the kitchen, which is in perfect shape, so why bother?, the layout’s there, so you could buy new cabinets and appliance if so inclined. Again, entirely unnecessary. If there’s an objection to the layout itself, it would be the location of the master bedroom on the first floor. For some buyers that’s a turnoff, for others a plus. Your call, but I’ll mention that there’s a newer (1999) addition above the three car garage that presently serves as an exercise room ; with its full bath and separate stair it would be a great nanny suite, and if she’s upstairs dealing with your future New Lebanon students you can be a floor away, happy and contented.

363 North Street

I did expect to like 363 North Street, and I wasn’t disappointed. I mentioned this a day or so ago because it had just been returned to the market after an 18 month renovation and I was curious to see what the owners had done. Just about everything, it turns out, from new wiring, new crown moldings, walls moved, radiant heat installed in many rooms, new baths, new flooring, restored flooring, paint, custom panelling, new kitchen, and on and on and on. New price, too, $5.295 million instead of the old, unsuccessful, pre-renovation price of $3.495. I think the new price is closer to its current value now than the old one was then. Nice house.

Sealed bids (!)

6 Lita Drive

6 Lita Drive, lower North Street, is an uninhabitable cottage on .3 of an acre in the R-20 zone, which means it is allowed a house no larger than 3,000 sq. ft. The tiny lot it sits on sucks. It came on the market at $1.395 million a few days ago and has received four, perhaps five bids, the highest of which is said to be around $1.3 million.

The buyer better hope this isn’t one of the addresses being reassigned to Parkway.

Activity, or not

Results of a February bidding war and two more price cuts.

8 Dearfield

8 Dearfield Drive, cheek by jowl to the commercial zone, asked $1.195 last February and promptly entered a bidding war. It closed just now, at $1.4 million.

39 Hearthstone

39 Hearthstone, on the other hand, has cut its price to $1.795 just 59 days after starting off at $1.950 million. It sold for $1.450 in 2009 and when it first came on this time I questioned whether it could really fetch such a premium price for some fairly modest improvements. Guess not.

12 S. Baldwin

And back with yet another broker and a brand new price, 12 S. Baldwin Farms is now looking for $5.295 million.

Jay Silver assembled this spec home in 2007 and priced it at $12.495. That proved to be the wrong price for this French Chateau/farm house/American Eclectic style (the “Dog’s Breakfast Model”, I’d call it) and its price dropped down to $8.995 in 2008, when Patriot Bank started a foreclosure suit. The bank eventually prevailed and brought the house back on in 2011 for $7.499. That price was no more popular than Mr. Silver’s suggested retail so now, another broker, another price.

At $2.975, you might have a deal.

Quick sale

9 Roberta Lane, $3.1 million, already has an executed contract after just 18 days. I always thought that the chief virtue of Roberta Lane was its Ez-On, Ez-Off access to the graveyard behind St. Michael, but young families live there too, apparently.

And 363 North Street is back again, with an impressive new price tag of $5.295 million. The owners tried and failed to sell this from 2008 -2012, starting at $4.350 and dropping all the way down to $3.495, which still proved to be too much. This is a great old 1930s house but it was quite a prospect to bring it up to date and no buyer was willing to step up and take on that job. So the owners have done it themselves, according to the listing, and performed a total renovation.

I’m curious to see how this works out, but it could come out well for the owners. Project houses are not popular these days, so a gracious older house, ready-to-go, might find buyers that it’s older version could not. I’m thinking of 49 39 Doubling Road, same era, which is either at the foreclosure knackers or soon to be there. It once sold, foolishly, for $6.250 back in 2007 and $2.5ish would have taken it last month. Sooner or later, someone’s going to restore it and return it to the market, I hope, and maybe a success here at 363 North will inspire that effort.

And speaking of Barry’s new friend

605 North Streert

605 North Street is back up on the listings, still looking for a buyer and now priced at $8.995 million. This spec house reported a contract for $12 million back when it was new in 2004 but the story I heard was that the would-be buyer, a Russian, went back to Moscow to check on his holdings and Vladimir still holds him in Siberia. True or not, he never came back and the house never sold.

I showed it to a client back when it was priced in the mid-nines but, while he loved the house, he wouldn’t bite: “No way would I spend this much money to live next to the highway”, he said and, so far at least, neither will anyone else.

Buyer remorse

21 Midwood Drive

21 Midwood Drive is back on the market at $10.850 million after selling just this past June 28th for $10.650. The house languished for years as its price dropped, ever so slowly, from $16 million to that final selling price. Let’s hope the new owner doesn’t suffer the same fate.

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.

One’s a mystery, one’s approaching a bargain price

37 Fairway

The mystery house, at least to me, is 37 Fairway Lane, a 1958 bungalow seemingly untouched since it was built. Fairway is nifty little street with some beautiful houses on it; this is not one of them. It sits on an acre, all of it ledge, has no usable yard space at all and the house, while livable, would not be acceptable to most of us. It was priced at $1.195 and as I left it on its open house day I thought that I had finally seen a Greenwich property that had no value, either as land or as shelter.

I was completely wrong: it sold, and within three months, for $1.065. Go figure.

394 Stanwich Rd

395 Stanwich Road is the house that, I think, is looking like more and more of a bargain, especially with today’s price cut to $3.950 million. That’s not chump change, but the owners paid $3.7 million for it in 2000 and it still remains at least what it was then: a beautiful 1944 home, on 2.3 acres of great yard, with pond. If, with some negotiation, you can buy a good property in 2013 for a 2000 price, you’d be doing well.

Clapboard Ridge

Leslie McElwreath’s new listing at 218 Clapboard Ridge, $25 million, is profiled in today’s Greenwich Time.  Here’s what Leslie has to say about the street, and the house at 218:

“There’s been a lot of activity on this street, starting from here and going all the way over…”

On July 3, a home at 75 Clapboard Ridge Road went for a little more than $9 million. Twelve days later, 89 Clapboard Ridge Road fetched $3.45 million, followed by 124 Clapboard Ridge Road’s $3.65 million sale on July 17.

At Linden Court, the current owners “took it down to the studs and expanded it” when they purchased the house in the early 2000s. With a modern exercise room, theater, eight fireplaces and eight bathrooms along with three powder rooms, it balances old world charm with modern conveniences.

“It’s really a trophy property,” she said. And while a price tag of $25 million will certainly narrow the perspective buyer pool, she said she’s not concerned about the possibility that it will sit on the market long.

“There are pockets of people looking for something special,” she said. “And this, this is something special.”

Leslie’s a top agent – truly one of the best- and if she’s optimistic about this home’s prospects at $25 million, who am I to gainsay her?

Bust heck, what’s this blog about except to do exactly that?

To date, the top selling price on Clapboard Ridge is $10.6 million, and while there have been 6-8 sales in the $10s ,$10 million is not $25; not even using math as taught today.  Of all those top-end property sales,  the one I see as most comparable to 218 is 97, which sold in 2008 for $10,350,000. Here’s why – take a look at the two listings, both on the same road, same neighborhood (218’s listing describes it a located in Khakum Woods, but it’s entered via Clapboard, not the association’s main drive, which places it “of the wood, but not in  the wood”, as I see it).

218 Clapboard Ridge: 1929 construction, renovated “from studs out” in 2004. 5.11 acres, 13,080 sq.ft. asks $25 million.

97 Clapboard Ridge: 1925 construction, renovated by Hobbes, a premier builder, in  2006, 5.34 acres, 12,200 sq. ft., sold in 2008 for $10.350 million. 

I understand the art of fruit comparison, and appreciate the difference between an orange and an apple, but these two look like peas in a pod or, if you insist, two apples. A Jonathan and a Northern Spy, perhaps, but they didn’t fall far from the same tree.

Of course, that’s just my opinion, and like Leslie, I’m “not concerned about the possibility that it will sit on the market long”. But the cause of my indifference is different from hers: it’s not my listing, so why should I care?.