Charge of the Light Brigade
Someone's got to be daring!
There's a new listing today on Thornhill Road (north of the Post Road, between Riverside Lane and Sheephill: $850,000 for 0.23 acre, which yields a maximum FAR size of about 3,600 sq.ft., if you dared build a house that big on this street and, the listing promises, "endless possibilities".

Well okay then, if there are endless possibilities, let's go for it. Applying the traditional rule of thumb of 3X land cost, you'd want to get $2,550,000 for your new project but, because the highest sale on this street is only $1.2 million, in a good year, you might want to reduce that ratio a bit. Tossing in carrying costs and overhead, figure that you'll spend $900,000 building this house. Add in the $850,000 cost of land and you'll break even at $1,750,000, if you pay the real estate commissions and taxes yourself. You don't want to do that, better price this thing at $1,850,000. You want to be compensated for your time and effort, you ungrateful wretch? Okay, take an extra $150,000 and sell it for $2,000,000. If you can accomplish that, you're a friggin' genius and should be snapping up all those failing projects on Round Hill rather than wasting your time here in bungalow land.

Is it unfair to point out that a Stamford broker priced this house?