24 Indian Field Road (rear-view). Asking $550K, selling for…?
THIS JUST IN
Broker Julianne Ward has just put the word out to interested parties: “Highest and best offers must be submitted to Judge David Hopper’s office by Thursday noon!
(alternative link to above property)
Some guy named Casey Neistat, snowboarding behind a Jeep, driven by his brother, through the streets of snow-covered Manhattan. Very cool!
My brother John sent me the link to this video. My favorite part is the beginning where De Blasio warns citizens not to go out for a drive lest they be “subject to arrest”.
Breaking all the rules, don’t tell the Mayor! (2-minute video, a must watch)
Taking the Jag out for some winter exercise. Unfortunately, this model isn’t all-wheel-drive, so even with snow tires, it was a tad “adventurous” (remember, panthers likes the jungle, not the tundra)
Go out, of course! The roads (around Greenwich, anyway) are fine, as long as you’re comfortable driving in snow. Don’t be a cry-baby!
The Jaguar stands in front of broker Jean Dana’s listing, at 3 Gisborne Place, off Old Greenwich’s Tomac Avenue, $3,995,000.
(alternative link if the one above becomes disabled)
24 Indian Field Road: rough shape yes, but at $550,000, it’s a steal.
I drove by this place yesterday and peeked in the windows. It looks like a former occupant might have been a bit of a hoarder, there appeared to be cardboard boxes stacked to the ceiling. Oh, and according to the remarks, there is “water damage from a broken pipe”.
One could also gripe about the relatively busy street it’s on, and the proximity of the gas stations, but at $550,000, you can dismiss these petty objections! A price like that in Greenwich puts it near the bottom of our price range, so you take what you can get.
And what you get isn’t all that bad. The property is .3 acres in the R-7 zone, so that means it’s practically a double lot, and it backs up to a fairway of the Milbrook Golf Club. I stood in back yesterday and was amazed by how quiet it was. It dawned on me that this was potentially a good deal.
So what will the market think? I predict the price will be bid up by quite a bit, maybe all the way to $700,000+, who knows? And I think this was smart pricing, either by broker Julianne Ward, or the seller, or both.
Let’s watch this one and see how a (apparent) strategy of under-pricing plays out, shall we?
alternative link if the one above gets disabled: 24 Indian Field Road, Greenwich, CT
I like this place, glad I joined.
24 Field Road in Riverside. Started at $5.295M, now offered at $4.795M.
There are phrases we brokers like to over-use…”location, location, location” is possibly the worst offender. It’s the punch-line of a trite little saying, “What are the three most important considerations when buying real estate?”
Then there’s “This won’t last”, “Owner says SELL”, “Spacious and gracious”… all rot! Garbage! Tiresome, hackneyed clichés! Do not use these phrases.
Having said all that, I’d like to use another one, almost as bad as the above…”Motivated Seller”. I use it to describe the owners of 24 Field Road, Riverside, CT. They paid $5,350,000 back in 2011, now it’s offered at $4,795,000. This is a Sound Beach Partners creation and, like all their stuff, it is superior quality and design (they have three, or is it four, going up right now on Club Road and vicinity).
P.S. This price-reduction will inspire one of my readers to exclaim: “Ah HA! See what happens when you buy a spec house? You lose money!” but the reader will be wrong. These folks bought the house when it was five years old, now it is ten years old. But they’ve updated it beautifully, so it looks fresh. Here’s how it looked back in 2006.
Alternative link, in case the ones above are disabled…
George Soros, clown? evil genius? he’s both!
George Soros has gotten it right enough times that he’s piled up a net worth estimated by Bloomberg at $27.3 billion. But he’s also sly enough to proclaim his “concern” for the markets last week only after he’s shorted everything he owns. Now that he’s got his 1,000+ point Dow drop, he and his minions can pick up the bargains!
That’s just the normal fun & games of the market, but what really bugs me about Soros is that, when he’s not busy fleecing un-wary investors, he works actively to undermine free markets and free enterprise in general. Every far-left nut-group in the world can count on a yearly check from Soros because a., that’s his philosophical viewpoint, and b., he knows no matter what happens, he will still make money. Who cares if the little people starve, their businesses collapse, and dissenters get locked up (Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea), it’s all good in Soro’s book.
Viva revolución!
The saddest part of this is that the loonies are actually pressuring comedian Chris Rock to boycott his own Oscar’s master of ceremonies job! Why? The nominees are Caucasian, not African American.
Maybe it’s time for the Justice Department to…
A. Launch an investigation, and then…
B. Reach a settlement with the movie studios that a “percentage” of Oscars must be awarded to non-whites. After all, it’s only fair!
Absolutely beautiful house, right on the water! For eleven years, no one has wanted it (could it be the price?)
Here’s another absolutely beautiful house, starting its 11th year on the market (how about this, might it be the price?)
There are 73 active Greenwich listings priced $7,000,000 and up. Guess how many have been languishing for 2+ years? If you said 33, you’re right!
So that’s almost half the properties in the top of our price-range, just sitting around, wasting everyone’s time. Each one has a wealthy owner that has gone to the trouble of signing up a broker, who then advertises it, holds open houses for it, shows it, and gets nothing for it at the end of the year. And at least 10 of these properties have been on FIVE years, and a couple are starting their ELEVENTH year!
But why, oh Great One *, you are asking, would a broker take such a dopey assignment? The reason is publicity. The broker knows the place will never sell at anywhere near the price being asked, but those big, splashy print and Website ads for it maybe will attract some actual serious clients. That’s why they do it.
And these non-serious sellers, why do they do it? People at this rarefied level love to start the listing conversation with the words “I don’t need to sell”, and they mean it! They have multiple residences, they’re no longer using the one in Greenwich, so they’re content to have it sit there. Every once in awhile they check in with the broker: “Any action?”, they ask. “Nope”, says the broker, and another year rolls by.
Sadly, you are not, which is why we Realtors are, um, discouraged, from using the word “investment” in our sales pitches. Certainly people do make money, especially down here in lower Fairfield County, but it should never be counted upon to automatically happen.
And it can be difficult to calculate whether or not a profit was made. If you live in a $3M house, a comparable house on the rental market would run you around $15,000/mo. After three years, you’ve saved $504,000 in rent you didn’t have to pay, but wait! maybe you had maintenance expenses like a roof repair, a paint job, window replacement? Renters never have to worry about such expenses.
On the other hand, renters can’t take advantage of the tax deduction for mortgage interest (for loan amounts up to $1M). So, to get an accurate answer, you’ll need to calculate all this into the profit equation. Oh, and there is another consideration, namely that somewhat intangible “feeling” you get from owning your own home.
And finally there is the “forced savings” effect. When you own, you tie up money, often quite a bit, which is therefore unavailable for possibly unwise other uses like bad financial investments, boats, and sports cars! When you’ve lost everything else, you may still have your house.
8 Old Club House Road just sold for $2,151,000. Back in 2007, it got $3,000,000. Attached link shows before/after for this property (if link doesn’t work, use the one below).
8 Old Club House, in the good old days of 2007. A better market, plus, this 1999 new construction was, by 2016, 17 years old!
Alternate link for 8 Old Club House
Greenwich Bored And Razed 