Days On Market. Sale to List Price Ratios
I’ve mentioned these two worthless statistics before but it won’t hurt to bring them up again. At first blush one would think that these are two numbers of vital interest to buyers and sellers; they would be, if they weren’t so often manipulated. The Board claims to be doing something about days on market but so far, a remedy has eluded it. So here’s how the process currently works: A house come on the market in, say, January ’05 at $10,600,000. It sits unsold through numerous price reductions before its listing is deleted or expires and it’s immediately re-listed at yet a still lower price. It finally sells in April of this year for $8,500,000. Time on market would appear to be, to a rational person, 16 months, and the sales to list price ratio would be 80%. Ah, but you aren’t a professional Realtor – if you were, your logic would tell you that days on market only began at the time it was re-listed and you’d calculate the sales ratio based on the house’s last asking price of $8,995,000, giving you 48 days and 95%, respectively. I am not picking on this house, by the way; this is done all the time. I use its example only to illustrate that, until our Realtor Association’s data collection methods are revised, you should be highly skeptical of numbers that show the average days on market is 118 and the average sales to list price ratio is 96%. It ain’t necessarily so.

Takikomi in Cos Cob
Because I’ve never detected any evidence of use of those ten-burner professional stoves and million dollar kitchens that are now standard in town, I assume that Greenwich does takeout. If so, here’s a great opportunity to expand your taste horizons. Takikomi is a hole in the wall at 395 East Putnam Avenue, just beyond (heading east) Dunkin Donuts in the Minute Man dry cleaners mall. It specializes in absolutely delicious Japanese foods and, while it holds two tiny tables, it’s really a takeout and catering operation (free delivery on orders over $25). I’ve driven by the place every day for three years and only just discovered its existence. I’ve been eating my way through their menu ever since. Lots of fish, but also many cooked items: Karaage (chicken), pork cutlets, teriyaki, hibachi, etc. Everything is served in large, divided trays – easy dining, easy clean up, and everything is good. Inexpensive– complete meals run from $7.50 to $10.95 and nice, pleasant sales help. There’s a separate menu for corporate and private party catering. (203) 422-0448 or you can order online at takikomi.com

21 Hendrie Lane
Mary Louise Morgan has just listed this Riverside house for $2,295,000 and it seems well worth its price. Its present owners completely renovated it three years ago and it shows nicely. Four bedrooms, huge eat-in kitchen (see above) and a reasonable backyard, for Riverside. I still miss my family’s acre+ on Gilliam Lane but, like the pick-up baseball games we held there, those days are long gone.

Summer Jobs for Kids
Just as no modern, responsible parent would let their child engage in any unsupervised sport activity, every summer job for the little darlings must somehow nurture their future as investment bankers, or so it seems. I ran into Charlie Ford the other day and we discussed just this issue (as well as the crummy, disposable houses being built these days, but that’s another article). Charlie’s father taught me how to paint houses years ago and after he retired his son took over the business (he’s great, but I can’t find his number. Check back next week). Although Charlie is flooded with job offers he can only accept about half – not enough good workers in town and during the summer, the busiest time for exterior painting, no college kids. “Greenwich kids don’t do painting” he says, and I’m sure he’s right. Most seem to be off in the corporate world serving as unpaid interns. I think the children and their parents are missing something here. By working for Charlie’s dad, I learned all sorts of things: showing up on time, customer relations, time management and, once our crew was experienced enough to work unsupervised, responsibility and decision making. We made good money, too. Did the experience pad our resume? Probably not as much as an internship at Goldman Sachs, but I never worried about that. I still don’t.