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.

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.

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.

Warren Buffet buys Prudential Connecticut

 Your money’s safe in Washington, and you get a hearty handshake

In fact, he seems to have snapped up all of Prudential’s business nationwide, but the sale of the Connecticut and Rhode Island portions was announced today. Buffet’s been buying into a number of industries, like newspapers, that most investors have written off as dying relics. I’d have included traditional real estate brokerages in that category but I’m not Warren Buffet, and surely he sees value where I can’t.

As an example of my short-sightedness, I’d have thought that the new Buffet “GIVE BACK” program, which imposes a special fee on sales by its millionaire customers would be unpopular: not so, if Greenwich resident Carole Dollard’s reaction is typical. Dollard, founding member of Buffet’s tax-us-millionaires club, PatrioticAmericans.org. and whose Taconic Road horse farm is presently listed with Brad Hvolbeck/Prudential Realty for $23.5 million, told FWIW, “I’m delighted. I’ve been quite troubled by the fact that while I pay no income tax, my bootblacks and stable boys pay as much as 30%. Now, with the Give Back Program, 10% of my farm’s sale proceeds will be automatically deducted and sent directly to Washington, where they can be spent to help Hezbollah,  Al Qaeda-in-Syria freedom fighters, and the NEA. I couldn’t be more pleased, and I think it’s just wonderful that Brad has promised to match all such deductions from his own pocket – that Bradley: such a mensch!”

So maybe it will all work out; stay tuned.

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).

Dreaming of a bleak Christmas

12 Grigg Street is a 1900 single family house just off Greenwich Avenue on a 1/10 of an acre. It sold for $260,000 in 1994 and, although the owner made no improvements during the next 13 years, she listed it for $3 million in December, 2007 as a potential commercial opportunity (zoning allows it). I thought that was a steep price to pay for something off the Avenue with no parking and said so at the time. No doubt that was the reason it didn’t sell (ha!) as its price dropped down through the 2’s finally coming to rest at $2.349. It expired yesterday, unsold. If the seller tries again, I’d suggest she use a commercial broker and get a better grasp of its value.

Is hogsh.. biodegradable?

An article written by a flack flogging his book on the subject and presented by MNBC as a legitimate news item claims that there’s money to be made in marketing “green” homes. Like every other story I’ve seen on this subject, the proponents are long on assertions of a growing market and an increasing willingness of home buyers to pay more for eco-friendly houses but short on any supporting data. I just haven’t seen that here and I believe it’s a myth, perpetrated by the National Association of Realtors, in part, to push its new “eco-educated” agent designation program.

“in real estate, the goal is to have something to talk about,” [agent] Bartle says. 

Mr. Bartle has just confessed the real reason for this new buzz.

The real estate market’s just fine in Hattiesburg, Missouri

Or so say its realtors.

That was the point drummed home by various real estate professionals at a meeting of the Hattiesburg American editorial board Wednesday. In attendance were Adam Watkins, president of the Hattiesburg Association of Realtors; Dick Munton, president of Prime Mortgage; developer David Thompson; and area real estate agents Debbie Sinopoli and DeLois Smith.

While national news outlets have been reporting alarming housing trends, they vigorously argued Hattiesburg does not reflect these conditions.

Emphasizing that local economic conditions play the largest role in any market, Watkins stated that Hattiesburg, with its autonomous employment sectors, can weather difficult economic times and continue on a path of moderate, stable growth.

Well that must certainly have been reassuring to local homeowners and would-be buyers. It’s just unfortunate that the article concludes with this little concession:

So far, that message has not sunk in.

“I have been through many periods of time when the confidence is low,” said real estate agent DeLois Smith. “But I’m not sure I have seen one that is lower than it is now.”

I knew we shouldn’t have invited DeLois to that meeting!

Update: Reader Hiram insists that Hattiesburg is in Mississippi, not Missouri. here’s a picture of the town – look like Mississippi to you?

Everything’s coming up roses

The housing market is due to come roaring back, says this group. Of course, the issuer of the press release happens to be in the business of selling foreclosure information so maybe, just maybe, you’ll want to take their forecast with a grain of salt. That business, foreclosures.com, is run by this “nationally recognized expert”. Never heard of her.

None so blind …etc.

Realtors praise  Efforts of Fair Housing Advocates for Ensuring Equality in Homeownership

WASHINGTON, Dec 09, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — The National Association of Realtors(R) commended the collaborative efforts of hundreds of fair housing advocates who participated in the National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.

Earlier this year, the commission conducted daylong hearings in Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta and Houston and collected information and heard testimony about the nature and extent of illegal housing discrimination. The commission also gathered data on the origin of housing discrimination, its connection with government policy and practice, and its effect on foreclosures and segregation in the community.

I love it – I’m forced to pay dues to the very yokels who played such a large part in creating the current mess. Salt in the wound is that I’m represented by Senator Chris Dodd.

More on Apollo

Things are heating up with the parent company of Realogy (Coldwell Banker, Sotheby’s, et als)

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Apollo lays an egg

clipped from www.crainsnewyork.com Apollo’s $8.8 billion LBO of Realogy in April 2007, threatens to turn into an even worse blunder. Cash from operations collapsed by 86% to $44 million through the nine months ended Sept. 30, a dire situation considering that the company is on the hook for about $600 million in annual interest expense on its $10 billion debt. Realogy is trying to stop the bleeding by swapping debt for new bonds, but investors are balking. Activist investor Carl Icahn sued last week, contending that Realogy is insolvent and the proposed debt swap is a fraudulent transfer.

Coldwell Banker Moves

The firm is moving (has moved?) from its Field Point Road headquarters to what was Preferred Properties glass box on the Post Road. Too bad – those were nice digs.

And without getting into some sort of “who’s better” contest, I notice that they have an ad in today’s real estate section of the Greenwich Time boasting that their 120 agents were involved in 22% of every transaction that went down between August 1st and November 30th of this year. That’s great, and certainly better than I’ve done this fall, but the actual numbers behind those statistics aren’t all that encouraging: We saw 66 contracts in those four months, 17 condos (22% = 4) and 49 single families (22% = 11). Divided among 120 agents, it would seem that many of them had the same disappointing fall that I did. Oh well, onward and upward.

Call me next year

Just received a call from an appraisal company – someone’s about to be foreclosed, I suspect. Could I do a drive by property opinion in the North West corner of town, supply three comparable sales, three photographs of the subject property and aerial shots of the subject property and its comps? “Uh, sure, I guess”. “And can you supply them by tomorrow afternoon?” “It will mean rearranging my schedule a bit but sure, I can do that”. “And we pay $60 for this – is that alright?” End of conversation.

Maybe next year but I’m not working for minimum wage, yet. What surprises me is that the caller was surprised that I wasn’t interested in the job for that pay. There must be more hungry real estate agents out there than I thought.

Slow payers

I just learned of an agent who has been owed a smallish -$4700 – rental commission from a firm here in town since August. The firm admits it owes her the money but just doesn’t pay it. A harbinger? Who’s the firm? All in good time – I wouldn’t want to libel a fine company that’s temporarily down on its luck. But if I hear of more such incidents, I’ll report them here.

10 Little Indians

One of Nashville’s largest real estate brokerages is closing shop. It’s a Realogy -owned firm (ERA) but the real story I suppose is that the current market couldn’t support a 250 agent business. The soon-to-be-idle owner doesn’t see the Nashville market coming back for at least 12 months. All real estate is local, as a commentator below points out, but I suspect we’ll see more of this happening around the country.

He qualifies to sell real estate in Greenwich

Dublin truck driver strikes two bridges within a half hour. If you’ve ever watched Greenwich real estate agents attempt to maneuver at broker open houses, you might think this guy taught them, and you’d probably be right.

Whew!

According to this poll, the public blames bankers, not real estate brokers, for the sorry mess we’re in. Of course, that may be because the public already had taken the measure of the ethics and knowledge of real estate brokers and is just disappointed to discover that bankers are moronic thieves, too. I’m okay with this – after all, I came from the legal field – moving to real estate was a step up in public esteem. Wait until I start my used car business and then I’ll finally get some respect.

They over-price out west, too

From Tucson comes this tale of stupidity. The blogger is too kind to mention names and addresses but out here in Greenwich, dumb sellers aren’t so lucky.

how not to inspire confidence in your listing

Start out by listing it way high, let’s say, $1,750,000, 
then drop the price to $1,455,000, and keep dropping it to $1,355,000, $1,295,000, $1,249,000, $1,195,000, $1,145,000, $1,095,000, $999,000, $950,000, $925,000, $900,000, $950,000, $900,000 and then to $850,000, for now. I bet they’ll get it right eventually.

OK, the pricing strategy didn’t work, so how ’bout this,
OWNER FINANCING/LEASE PURCHASE AVAILABLE. EASY TERMS, ANY CREDIT! INSTANT EQUITY! CALL WITH CREATIVE OPTIONS OR OFFERS!OWNER-AGENT.

Yep! It’s an Owner-Agent. (see, we’re not all perfect)
Nope, I can’t give out the address, MLS #, etc, but this is for real and I’ve probably said enough.

Why realtors make you sign 1,000 silly forms

EPA seeks to fine real estate firm $1.2 million for violation of lead disclosure law. That’s 34 violations spread over five or six states and thousands of transactions: $29,400+ for each violation. Understand that these forms essentially do nothing because they permit the seller to simply check “no knowledge of lead either way” and leave the tenant or buyer to find out for himself. The rule may be worthless but the fines for not having the proper paperwork are horrendous, so look for your agent to be even more of a nitpicker. And then the world will be safe for democracy.