14 Meadow Lane: land sold for $8,725,000. Finished house got $32,500,000.
and it came with 14.48 acres, and more outbuildings than you could shake a stick at!
A misguided reader commented something to the effect that “buyers of spec houses get hosed when they try to sell them”. Completely untrue, of course, and I’ll prove it in my next post.
In the meantime, can you name the most successful spec house in Greenwich history? You’ll recall, in my last post, I pointed out that local builders hope to get at least three times what they paid for the land when they sell the finished house. Well, this builder got 3.72 times the land cost!
The address is 14 Meadow Lane, between Zaccheus Mead and Pecksland, and the land (included a nice but moldy stone house) sold for $8,725,000 in 2005. Six years later, in 2011, the finished new house got $32,500,000. Lots of risk in this deal, I admit, but what a pay-off!
This had been the property of actors George C. Scott and Trish Vandevere for many years, and had sat largely unlived in for at least a decade. Every builder in town came to look at it, but all of them wanted multiple building lots. It’s a huge but relatively narrow property, so a nice, neat sub-division seemed unlikely.
Eventually, a couple named “Ritch”, who lived around the corner, came along and apparently decided just one lot and one gigantic house would be the best use, and the market agreed.
14 Meadow Lane, broker credits:
Listing agent was Brad Hvolbeck (shhh…the “v” is silent)
Selling agent was Joann Erb
Greenwich Bored And Razed 
The price of new houses reflects the fact that they’re brand spanking new. The price of spec houses reflect the fact that they’re convenient and brand spanking new — move right in, without waiting a year to finish! Neither incentive to pay top dollar exists at resale.
The first owner of any new house gets to find and fix the kinks. The builder can’t come running for each problem so usually accumulates a bunch before action. The subcontractors put callbacks on the later-list.
If you buy and sell quickly, the aroma of new and could reap a well deserved profit.