Good news for The Golden Girls
Not everything is bleak. This auctioneer is offering a Lakeside Chateau in New Canaan. It's a 6 bedroom, 7 bath place, has parking for 9 cars, pool, guesthouse and of course, that "Lake" they mention, which is no doubt a pond. Appraised at $9.5 million, starting bid is set at $3 million. New construction (of course).
This may present a solution for older folks who don't want to live alone in a big old mansion. If six couples snapped this up for $3 million, they could sell off their own unwanted digs, move in here and enjoy all those amenities like a brand new kitchen and that pool (oh - and an elevator and tennis court, too) etc. for far less than they'd pay at Edgehill (is that a play on "Edge of Death"?).
We'll leave Edgehill alone. With this latest idea, I may have just discovered a new marketing niche.
Update: Ya know, I've already received one comment from a reader who'd been discussing just this approach with her friends. Maybe it would work. Any interest? I'll find the mansion, you find your friends and won't that be fun. I'd want an invitation to the first party, though.
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5 comments:
Don't laugh--it might happen!
We were having dinner just the other night with two other baby-boomer couples from Greenwich. We all agreed that if things got really bad, we would sell our back country houses for whatever we could get for them and live together happily ever after in a three-family in Chickahominy.
Who's laughing (well, who's laughing really hard?)
Something's got to happen to 119 spec houses, why not communes for aging hippies? I think I'll see what our zoning regs have to say about unrelated adults living together. Probably nothing and if they do bar it, I'd think it wouldn't pass Constitutional scrutiny.
Out of the box thinking, I love it.
Chris, I have a real estate question for you. I took my place off the market (and GMLS) about 1.5 months ago. I just got sick of cleaning it spotless everyday for no reason.
But since then I have had 2 direct calls from local real estate agents wanting to show my place. Now if anything were to happen (I know, highly unlikely) what type of commission arrangement would you expect? After all, my place is not listed and they came looking for me.
Would the buyer pay? I am trying to think out of the box!
There are agents out there (this will shock you) who do nothing but sit on the phone, dialing the owners of expired listings and suggesting that they have a buyer for your house. In my experience, these people are lying dogs, new to the business and desperate to drum up business by gaining entry to your house and hoping to con you into re-listing with them. I'd refuse to have anything to do with them if you'd like to keep your sanity.
On the other hand, there are agents who have an actual client who they think would like your house. I've had exactly one such situation in my career and I called the owner, explained the situation and asked permission to show the house to one specific buyer, that's all. Would the owner sign an agreement, with the buyer clearly identified, promising to pay a 2.5% commission if that one buyer bought the house. In that instance, the seller readily agreed. Before we proceeded further, however, the buyers, despite my urging that they not do so, drove by the property and decided they weren't interested (I urged them not to drive by, and the house hadn't sold, because it looked bland and boring from the front. You had to get inside to appreciate the beautiful addition the owners had added to the rear and the incredible back yard).
So that didn't work out but both the owner and I were satisfied that we'd dealt with each other honorably and that was the end of the matter.
So again, beware: most calls you receive are from agents mining the expired list and who have no real clients. If they'll lie to you at the beginning, why trust them to treat you well later on?
(oooh, this ought to make my next experience at a real estate get together fun!)
Thanks for the heads up.
It is hard to believe that someone would waste their time and make the effort to track me down and schedule an appt. to see my place just for the heck of it ... wow, maybe things are that slow!
2.5% seems fair.
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