Kitchens
I enjoy cooking and often suffer intense jealousy pangs when I tour some of the luxury kitchens installed around town (the fact that, judging from their unused looks, these marvels of granite, 16-burner stoves and huge refrigerators are there solely for the convenience of caterers only increases those pangs, but never mind). The New York Times recently reported on what’s sure to be the next essential for Greenwich kitchens, the TurboChef oven, a combined micro-wave/convection/conventional appliance that cooks chickens in 12 minutes, soufflés in 2, and so forth. I want one, but I don’t think I’ll be shelling out $7,800 to buy one (unless all of you, right now, call me to sell your houses). But for some of my fellow residents that’s just chump change and I predict that as soon as one happy homeowner installs one all his friends (I suspect this particular gadget will be a guy thing) will want one too. Just think how happy your caterers will be.

And homes to put them in
So you’re ready for a new TurboChef but you worry it will dwarf your little Havemeyer kitchen. What to do? You might want to check out two new listings, either Joan Sutter’s at 25 Kenilworth, $6,195,000 or Jean Ruggiero’s at 12 Intervale Place, $6,450,000 .Both were built to exceptional quality standards (and both are Raveis listings, but regular readers of this column will have noticed that I don’t use that as a criteria for mentioning a house). If you think that this kind of price guarantees quality in new construction, you’re wrong; I’m not sure why, but possibly a combination of a shortage of skilled craftsmen and the natural desire of a builder to cut a few corners. Both these builders, Aberdeen (Kenilworth), Jeff Knapp (Intervale) resist that temptation, as evidenced, in a small way, by the crown molding in every closet. No sane buyer will pay extra for crown molding in a linen closet. These guys make the effort, I think, because their pride insists on it. In any event it’s a pleasure to tour houses like these after seeing some other new construction in town.

7 Old Kings Highway
I missed this house when it held a broker open house but I heard very, very positive feedback about it from my fellow agents. An attractive 1939 house updated in 1997 with three bedrooms and a small backyard, Dundee and Eastern school district, asking $960,000. From what I heard, that’s a good price. Catherine Stahl (David Ogilvy) listing.

Anecdotal Market Report
While out showing houses the past two weekends I noticed that at almost every house we were either preceded or followed by other agents and their clients. Offers are being tossed around, contracts signed and, I think, we’re seeing the end of winter doldrums. I’m waiting for the month to end to compile first quarter statistics but things feel busy. Feelings, of course, aren’t facts, so stay tuned. But if you’re house hunting and think there’s no urgency, you should probably reconsider.

A final food item
Did you see that PETA has chastised Al Gore for eating meat? In an open letter to Mr. Truth, PETA points out that “ the United Nations [has] determined that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined.” The ex-VP, says PETA, should switch to a vegetarian diet if he really wants to save the world. If this is true, and who am I to doubt the United Nations, why isn’t anyone else talking about it? Could it possibly be that Americans might be willing to consider buying smaller cars and a few fluorescent light bulbs but, threatened with having their Big Macs wrenched from their hands they’d rebel and start examining the whole global warming panic? Certainly there must be some reason why Al Gore and his friends in the press never even address the number one source of deadly carbon gasses in the world. Of course, judging from his ever-expanding size, I suspect Gore is eating far more than his share of meat and, probably, buying sirloin offsets as compensation but, as with his private jet, shouldn’t he be at least telling the rest of us not to do it? I want a new movie.

Mail Boxes
I received a number of emails from readers squawking about the Old Greenwich Postmaster’s dictate that his carriers will no longer deliver mail on foot and that every household without a mailbox must have one by March 1st if they wish to continue to receive their mail. Has the Postmaster had ever tried digging a posthole in the middle of a Connecticut winter? The ground’s frozen this time of year, sir. By the way, I suppose that the Post office’s new motto will be something along the lines of, “neither rain, nor sleet nor fear of snow will keep us from our jeep’s window”. Not quite as inspiring as the original.

Parkway School
Parkway’s predicted extinction is casting a long shadow over sales in that area. Parents with kids in public school seem determined not to send those children to Glenville or Western – a prejudice that I believe is completely unfounded – so listings in the Parkway district are lingering, at least among public school buyers/parents. That’s a huge area of town to hang in limbo, and I hope a resolution is coming soon. My preference, even as a taxpaying resident of Riverside, is for Parkway to stay open. My political sources tell me, however that the school is 40% underutilized, feeds almost no students to Western Middle School and is therefore doomed. What happens if it closes? Where will those elementary students be sent and what about houses in the Parkway/Central district? Will the Central kids be shipped to Western? If you own a house in the Parkway area, count on your buyers being limited to private school parents or on owning the property until the situation clarifies.

505 Cognewaugh
Here’s a nifty house, listed by Krissy Blake (Prudential/ Brad Hvolbeck). A 1927 farmhouse that’s been completely redone and expanded, on an acre of beautiful land. The owners utilized some of my favorite things in redoing this house, including miniaturized air conditioning (essential if you’re dealing with plaster walls) and a “slate” roof made from recycled tires, great stuff which lasts forever. A brand new, modern kitchen, all top appliances and the house itself has been beautifully finished. It didn’t work for my clients (when the 6’4” husband ducked his head entering the old, low-ceilinged living room I suspected as much) but for short guys like me, just perfect. The living room is the exception, by the way: most of the house will accommodate even Allan Houston of the Knicks.

Riverside tops out?
As a life-long Riverside resident I have always touted this section of town as the perfect place to grow up and to raise a family. But recently, while showing houses to a Riverside family, I was struck by the huge disparity between what a dollar buys in Riverside and what you’ll get in the Mid-Country. Riverside and Old Greenwich have always been priced, per square inch, at the highest level and you get something for that: kids can walk to school and their friend’s houses, there’s a real feeling of neighborhood and, assuming you belong to either Riverside Yacht Club or Innis Arden, your playground is just around the corner. All that said, I sense that we’re a bit out of whack here in the eastern part of town and either prices will level off for a spell or other areas are going to rise. Riverside has always been bomb-proof and I think that will continue but I wouldn’t count on soaring appreciation until other parts of town catch up. Just one man’s opinion, of course, and one from someone who’s often wrong.

Six Frigates
For history buffs, this new book by Ian Toll recounting the founding of the U.S. Navy is a great read. Mr. Toll is, I guess, an amateur historian (he once worked as an analyst for the Federal Reserve, which greatly increases my respect for that institution) but he’s collected all sorts of well and little-known facts into a compelling story of the navy. The bickering, back-stabbing and second-guessing that went on during this period of 1795-1815 will be strikingly familiar to anyone living now during our current war, and the descriptions of Decatur’s battles against the Barbary pirates and the Brits are well told. It’s not on U-Tube, yet, so you’ll have to actually read it, but there are pictures.

FAR and House Values
39 Edgewater Drive in Old Greenwich, a long-abandoned structure, has been placed on the market with an asking price of $895,000. The lot is a mere 0.15 of an acre in the R-12 zone yielding a permissible building size, by my calculation, of just over 2,000 feet. That’s a lot smaller than most people demand these days so I’ll be curious to see what happens to the place. Someone will certainly buy it – the question is, for what price? Regardless, I’m sure the neighbors who’ve watched this eyesore deteriorate for years will be glad when it disappears. By the way: while I’m no fan of the floor area ratio regulations, this lot is an argument in favor – it’s just too small to support a mega-mansion. I still think that set back rules and height restrictions would suffice to control what’s to be built here but, for once, FAR may be helpful.

Woodsman, Save that Tree! Or some of them, anyway.
We now have a new advocacy group in town, the Greenwich Tree Conservancy. Most of their goals, such as updating our inventory of town-owned trees and taking better care of them seem worthy but I worry about their push for a new ordinance that will regulate trees on private property (other than trees in danger of toppling over and damaging a neighbor’s property, which are already regulated via our nuisance ordinance). I share most people’s distaste for clear-cutting and, if builders knew better, they’d appreciate that mature trees add to, rather than subtract from a building’s value, but Greenwich, bastion of free enterprise and property rights, seems an odd place to champion yet another diminution of those rights. And I hate to see yet another layer of regulatory approvals added to the building process. When your neighbor wants to add on, I’m sure you’ll appreciate all the delays and hurdles now built into the building process but when you seek to build your own project, you opinion may change. It’s a jungle out there.

Still Crazy After all these years?
Prices of many new listings still seem out of whack to me and to other agents I respect. So much so that it’s become a steady source of conversation on the open house circuit, as in, “did you see that house on X Road? What are they thinking?!” We could all be wrong, of course, and sometimes are, but it won’t help your prospects for selling quickly if those of us who at least try to be professionals think you’ve been smoking dope. We won’t waste our clients’ time showing houses that are hugely over-priced and, by the time a seller accepts reality and drops his price, we’ve long since forgotten about the property and moved on. I point this out so often because (a) it’s true and (b) sellers just don’t seem to get it.

But Wait, There’s More!
Not every seller is nuts. Tamar Lurie has just listed 19 Lakewood Circle South for $7,745,000, a price ordinary mortals might deem a wee bit high but in fact, it’s a terrific value. A number of us who viewed this completely restored 1930’s house thought the owner could have added a couple of million to its asking price. Of course, that would have entailed months of disruption, keeping everything in showroom condition while buyers strolled through at all hours of the day and, eventually, some sort of negotiated price. Instead, the owners priced it just right and they should be able to get through the process fairly quickly and painlessly. “They want to sell it,” Tamar told me, when I complimented her on the price. What a concept.

Hedge Funds and Greenwich
A panel of financial types recently examined the hedge fund industry and determined that no further regulation was required. Our state’s Attorney General, Michael Blumenthal, crowed that this finding opened the door for people like him to do their own regulating. I sympathize with the man – he’s just watched Elliot Spitzer be promoted to Governor on the basis of whacking Wall Street regularly and no doubt wants to follow him upwards – but, while I’m no particular fan of our country’s financial industry, I have more confidence in the judgment of experts, including three Goldman Sachs alumni, than I do in an ambitious lawyer. I’m not worried about losing money in hedge funds - I have no money- but I do worry about an over-zealous politician driving these people from our state. Who else can afford to buy your house?

How to Win Friends and Influence People
At a public hearing held to discuss what to do with Glenville School: tear it down, rebuild, wait and do nothing, etc., the Parkway PTA school sent a representative down from the Back Country to scold the crowd. Parkway, not Glenville, she argued, should remain open because Parkway parents pay more taxes than Glenville. Properly chastened, the Glenville folks knuckled the tips of their caps and bowed their heads in shame. Or something. Here’s a tip I’ve learned from spending a half century in Greenwich and observing its politics: people with less money than their betters don’t seem to understand that they should get the dirty end of the stick when it comes to town services. Hard to believe, but it’s true and, surprise! They vote. Try another tactic.

Contracts
As of February 12th, 57 singe family residences have gone to contract this year, which seems healthy. Of those, only seven were new construction, indicating that the market for older homes appears to be coming back.

Prices
I cannot figure out what’s going on with sellers these days. Week after week, we’re seeing houses on the broker open house circuit that are millions of dollars too high, and that’s not just my opinion; other experienced agents say the same thing. So what gives? Have sellers lost their collective mind or are agents telling them anything they want to hear to get the listing? Either way, it won’t work – the market is just fine, but you can’t sell a $2,000,000 house for $3,000,000, or a $5,000,000 house for $8,000,000, not matter how attractive your marketing.

Zillow.com
The Wall Street Journal recently compared 1,000 actual sales to Zillow’s estimate of value and came to the same conclusion I did when I conducted my far less scientific survey: the site is generally accurate but, when it’s wrong, it’s way wrong. The Journal cited one house that Zillow said was worth $600,000 – it sold for $2,600,000. Oops! The danger here cuts both ways because buyers pass on great deals when Zillow says a house is worth far less than its true value and sellers insist on pricing a house far above what it’s worth if Zillow says otherwise. Look: it’s a stone throw’s distance from Hamilton Avenue to Belle Haven. Zillow doesn’t recognize that proximity doesn’t necessarily yield a comparable sale. Be careful.

Marketing
Can’t sell your corner lot house for months and months? One Realtor’s decided to change the address to the other street and raise the price $100,000. Seems silly to me – how dumb, exactly, are we supposed to be? – but it kind of makes sense, in a sneaky sort of way. I’ll let you know if it works.

For this we need Republicans?
Governor Rell has proposed raising taxes on Greenwich by another ½%. Already our tiny sliver (less than 2% of 3.4 million residents) pays 10% of all income tax. Rell wants us to pay more. Connecticut is already the third most expensive state in which to do business. In the past two decades we’ve loaded on an estate tax, an income tax, doubled (!) the number of state employees, are looking to add a “millionaire’s tax” (defined as anyone earning $500,000, by the way), and are now proposing to tax internet sales. As a state, we’re tops in the number of young people leaving and job growth is falling off a cliff. We’re third in the nation for spending per pupil, with dismal results, so Rell wants us to be first. Greenwich’s own Livvy Floren describes the Governor’s budget as, “ gutsy and very visionary”. I have a vision, all right; one that doesn’t include Ms. Floren as a state Representative.

Delta’s Not Ready When You Are
My youngest daughter is off to Costa Rica for a semester. Delta gladly sold us a one-way ticket online (return date is uncertain) but, when we dropped her at Kennedy at 5:00 a.m. she was told that Delta will not board any passenger flying one-way from one country to another. Besides the incredible rudeness of the ticket agent and his absolute refusal to even attempt to resolve the problem, further insult was added when Delta would only “cure” things by selling us a second one-way ticket at a huge premium. Absolutely appalling service; next time this airline returns to bankruptcy and its employees whine about losing their jobs, I’ll be cheering, loudly.

“A Compelling Value”So says Diane Carnegie of Barbara Hindman’s new listing at 16 Barnstable Road (off Stanwich), priced at $2,395,000. While I can’t duplicate her English accent, when Diane says it, it sounds extremely convincing. In fact, even before her pronouncement, I liked it too. This is a 1960’s colonial, renovated in 1987, sitting on two plus acres and complete with five bedrooms, a solarium and all sorts of great living space. If you’re insane, the FAR allows a 9,000 sq.ft. building on the land but I’d leave this house exactly as is. Either way, you’re paying just about land value for property that happens to include a very nice house. As an aside, one of the late Mr. Kessler’s projects, unfinished, stands nearby. This bit of history will be gone soon and, if the foreclosing bank knows its business, it will probably be sold for just about the price of 16 Barnstable, thus proving my point.

And Also Nice
Liz Dagnino’s listing at 31 Stonebrook (nee Hooker) Lane asking $1,495,000. It’s a four bedroom contemporary –gasp! - which means it’s bright, open and comfortable. The current owners have updated and maintained it so that it really is in move-in condition, a phrase that’s frequently misapplied in this business. On two acres, with the nice plus that it’s just around the corner from the Mianus River Park, on of my favorite in-town locations for hiking and X-Country skiing (if it ever snows again). Stonebrook leads to Cognewaugh, perhaps one of the least convenient streets in town, but people who choose it obviously are willing to trade a few minutes of driving time for the privacy and serenity of this area.

Price It, Sell It
Touring the latest batch of new listings coming on the market, I am struck by how far off the mark so many prices are. It’s no wonder that there’s no sense of urgency among buyers: they know that the houses they’re seeing have many months, and hundreds of thousands (or millions) of dollars to go before they sell. What’s frustrating is that many of these buyers, having been stupefied by seeing so many over-priced wonders, don’t believe their agent when told that a particular house has been well priced. And they lose out thereby. Moral here is to trust your agent. If you don’t, find another agent.

Beach Passes, Again
I see that the town’s knickers are knotted again over what to do with beach access by non-residents. I really don’t get the controversy here because, much as we all love and appreciate Tod’s Point, it’s hardly a big tourist draw and, so far as I can tell from attendance figures, we’re just not being swamped by busloads of folks diverting from Jone’s Beach. The real reform called for, in my opinion, is to return to the days of yore when summer renters could obtain a pass at the resident price upon presenting a copy of their lease to Parks & Rec. If you ever care to rent out your own house while you traipse through Europe for a few months, you’ll find that access to the beach by your tenants is a real selling point. Or it used to be. Of course, if you’ve read my book, “Greenwich Mean Time” (you haven’t? Why Not? Just Books! E. Putnam Variety, next to Whole Foods! Amazon!) you’d know that we’re about to cede the Point to a remnant of our original Siwanoy Indians so that they can build a casino and they, of course, will have an admissions policy so liberal that all of this will become mute, dead and buried.

The Island at the Center of the World
I really enjoyed this book by Russell Shorto, chronicling the early history of Manhattan. As the author points out, victors write the history so the Dutch founders of the island were pretty much wiped off the page by the Brits. Now, thanks to a thirty-year effort translating old Dutch to English, a more complete history can be written, which Shorto has done admirably. It’s his contention that Dutch Manhattan, a polyglot society of Jews, Dutch, French Huguenots (my ancestors included), freed slaves and slaves, created a tolerant, boisterous settlement that, far more than the stern Pilgrims to the north, set the tone for modern America. It’s a fascinating read and, reviewing the behavior of those hard-living Huguenots, I was reminded that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Published by Random House with a Vintage paperback edition.

No More Cops?
I’ll be sorry to see the patrolmen directing Greenwich Avenue traffic disappear, but the logic of such a move seems compelling. Unlike thirty years ago, when the Avenue rolled up its sidewalks at sunset, the new restaurants there now produce almost as much traffic after dark as they do during they day, yet the patrolmen quit at 5 (or so), and then there’s no control at all. And while it’s true that an occasional crime has been thwarted by one of these men and women, even more have gone unnoticed. Remember the guy who cut the window out of Betteridge’s while working fifty feet from a manned intersection? The robbers of Putnam Trust who, having pulled that heist off and in the face of an all-points bulletin, continued down the Avenue to duplicate their crime at People’s? The police say they’d be more effective walking the sidewalks and Jim Lash says we’d save money. It’s probably time to listen to them, even if we’ll all miss those white gloves.

What Are Our Builders Up To?
When I recently suggested to another agent that, unlike Naples, Florida, whose housing market is collapsing, Greenwich doesn’t have speculators, she reminded me that we do: they’re called builders. Some recent open house tours made me appreciate her insight. These guys are building on ever-more-marginal lots: swampland, back lots and rocky little outcrops and pricing their creations at ever-higher levels. I’m not at all sure that there are buyers out there willing to pay $6,000,000, or more, for a mosquito- infested yard, even if the accompanying house comes complete with all the latest and most expensive French appliances. Of course, if the buyers come from the City, perhaps they won’t know about the relationship between swamps and insects. Sell ‘em in the winter, is my advice. (By the way, speaking of the French, did you see the recent article on “Google bombs”, whereby someone with too much time on his hands creates a Google search result with er, an unexpected answer? “George Bush” yields “miserable failure” or did until Google stepped in, and “French military victories” still comes up with, “no such documents meet your search criteria”. Hoo hoo hoo).

Belle Haven
David Ogilvy has just listed 31 Bush Avenue, a six bedroom, 1890 house on almost an acre, with pool. I toured it after a long day of seeing some of those new monstrosities I write about above and told David that it served as a palate-cleanser, which it does. This is what a house should feel like, in my admittedly idiosyncratic opinion. Great, flowing rooms that can accommodate anyone’s entertaining needs and yet still serve as a wonderful family home. There’s lots of old paneling, human-sized ceiling heights, and it’s nicely renovated throughout. I’m not as enthusiastic about its price of $8,850,000 but that is very much just my opinion, and not fact; besides, if you’ve climbed far enough to afford Belle Haven, surely you’ve acquired some negotiating skills along the way. A very, very nice house.

You’ve Received an Offer – Now What?
In what seems to be a rejuvenated market a number of sellers are receiving and accepting offers almost as soon as their house is listed. It can be an agonizing decision – hold on for something better or seal the deal? There’s no one answer, appropriate for every seller and every house but I think there are more would-be sellers who regret turning down an initial offer than there are those who think they sold too soon. Often, after that first offer is declined, another buyer won’t come along for months and usually at a lower price. Hurts.

But accepting an offer doesn’t necessarily mean you should stop showing your house. I’ve been surprised recently to see several houses, with impressive price tags, stop showings within days of being listed. It may be jealousy speaking (I’d have liked to have had a chance to try to sell them to my own clients) but, in my experience, so many things can go wrong between accepting an offer and entering into a signed, contingent-free contract that it seems foolish to pull your house off the market so quickly. Remember that, until a real estate contract has been fully executed by both parties, all the promises and good faith in the world can’t compel the buyer or seller to perform. It’s good to have a back-up.

29 Stanwich Drive
Renee Gallagher (Round Hill Partners) has just listed this house for $4,450,000. A great old house (1918) with high ceilings and very nicely renovated. It’s close to town but I think its best feature is its setting on 1.24 acres in an R-12 zone. It’s getting harder and harder to find a decent yard these days and, while I acknowledge that most kids are too busy with organized sports and Nintendo to actually play outdoors in their own yard, it’s nice to be able to offer that opportunity. Great house and, in my opinion, good price.

Poisoning our Minds
Did you see the story recently where some hapless homeowner dropped a rectal thermometer and spilled an 1/8 of a tsp of mercury on his floor? More than one hundred emergency workers responded, evacuated the family, donned space suits and cleaned up the mess, presumably using a single Kleenex. My former wife Nancy, a doctor’s daughter used to play with this stuff – rolling it into little balls, running it down inclines, etc., and so did the Fountain boys. Nancy turned out just fine, with no mutations, so the odds are pretty good that the substance is as harmless as most non-alarmists claim (we Fountain boys had other issues). I blame main stream media for collectively instilling an irrational fear in our minds of any number of toxic poisons du jour. Dan Rather, commenting on a teaspoon of dioxin spilling from a train wreck some years back looked solemnly into the camera and proclaimed, “Dioxin, of course, is the deadliest chemical known to man”. It’s the “of course” that slayed me – he was dead wrong, but anyone who disagreed was a no-nothing moron. These same people have taught us to fear urea-formaldehyde insulation, mildew, radon, asbestos, underground oil tanks, child abductions, and on and on. I think it’s time to get a grip.

Threat to Greenwich Real Estate Prices?
Okay, probably just a distant threat, but my less-than-favorite Senator, Chuck Schumer, has teamed with my favorite mayor, Michael Bloomberg, to release a report that the U.S.’s position as the world’s financial center is at risk because of the onerous effect of our strict immigration laws (prevents firms from hiring talented experts), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (the post-Enron “reforms” that impose huge, costly accounting requirements on all companies) and a securities litigation explosion (no explanation necessary). Just as there is no longer a need for financial firms to be stuck in Wall Street’s canyons, hedge funds IPOs and other consumers of capital are free to roam the world for accommodating places to do business. I’m not advocating eliminating all regulation of our financial industry but the report’s statistics are frightening: in 2002 (these figures are all quoted from the New York Times) London hosted 3 of the largest 50 hedge funds and now has 12. New York dropped from 28 to 18, while Connecticut (Greenwich and Stamford, really) grew from 6 to 8. The U.S. controlled 16% of the global stock-offering volume last year compared to 57% in 2001, while Europe’s share has grown from 33% to 63%. Hong Kong and other Asian markets are seeing similar growth. Between 2002 and 2005, London’s financial work force grew by 4.7% while New York City shrunk by 0.7%. The two cities are now just about equal in financial service jobs: 318,000 in London, 328,000 in NYC.

While it’s true that Wall Street had a great year in 2006 and its profits are higher than ever, much of those profits were earned overseas. Greenwich real estate prices depend heavily on a robust Wall Street and if the combination of harsh national laws and increased Connecticut taxes (which are being touted in Hartford as I write) make it more convenient to do business elsewhere, the capital, and the financial industry, will move. That may please some of my liberal friends who’ll respond, “good riddance”, but it won’t help you sell your house.

Pricing Strategy
Put your house on the market in September for $8,995,000 and it doesn’t sell. Response? Raise its price to $9,995,000. That’ll teach ‘em. I’ve yet to see this tactic work.

Whole Foods is Hiring
And offering ten bucks an hour, plus benefits. We may finally see a drop in the number of licensed Realtors in this town.

Two Nice Houses
Traci Vaccari (Round Hill Partners) has a listing at 94 Valleywood Road that I think is a good deal. Originally priced at $2,100,000, the owners have now finished the basement and dropped the price to $1,850,000, which should do it. Completely renovated in 2004, four bedrooms, 3 baths, good street and a decent, if small backyard. Only in Greenwich could this be considered a starter home but there you have it. Good house for a family with small kids.

And if, in addition to kids, you’ve got a whopping end-of-year bonus just sitting around catching dust, Mary Crist, (David Ogilvy), has listed 39 Doubling Road for $6,250,000. A 1930 Spanish style (says I – Mary claims it’s “English Manor” – go look and decide for yourself) renovated two years ago, this is a really nice place. Five fireplaces, a billiard room, for heaven’s sake, over an acre of land plus an addition acre of conservation land that’s nothing more than a huge, level yard you can use freely, pool, gardens and very close to town. Funny thing – in the early eighties I was in this house as a young lawyer conducting my first foreclosure sale. I haven’t been back until last week but the subsequent owners have obviously retrieved this beauty from its wrecked, awful condition and given it new life. Which is nice because I hate when bad things happen to good houses.

Oops!
Nationally, new housing starts are up for the second month in a row and unemployment continues to seek a new, low level, but pockets of the real estate market continue to suffer. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on a condo-glut in Naples, Florida, where speculators are stuck with un-sold units. One lady has seventeen of them – make her an offer. In Washington D.C., according to the New York Times, condo developers have also over-built and are now converting their projects to rentals, for far less profit or even at a loss. Around here, things feel much better. Maria Ruggeberg, of Raveis’s Greenwich office, represents developers of a number of Stamford condo projects and she tells me that the market is hot, with lots of pre-construction contracts, but single-family homes are languishing. Pure guess here is that USB and RBS are bringing in a lot of young, single workers who aren’t interested in settling down yet, but who knows? The Greenwich single family market continues to be robust – statistics shortly – but I’m aware of one house on Stanwich Road that, a year to the day that if sold, went to contract again for $135,000 less. This was a real apples-to-apples case here, in that the house was unchanged in any way that caught my eye, so it serves as a reminder that one can indeed lose money in Greenwich real estate if plans change and you have to get out as soon as you got in.

Star Bucks in Cos Cob
Great place, friendly staff but limited parking unless you park on Strickland Road and take a 10 second stroll through the little park. I am amused at how many drivers eschew such a simple strategy and wait, endlessly, for a parking spot to open up directly in front of the store. I’m usually in and out with my order while these guys are still sitting. Many of these drivers look as though they have at least a passing familiarity with gyms, so what gives? Exhausted from working the treadmill, no doubt.

Manners
Since moving to Raveis’s Old Greenwich office a few months ago, I’ve noticed a most unwelcome change in this end of town’s citizenry: they’ve discovered their car horns. I’m not speaking of the brief toot some people might use to alert the driver ahead that the light has changed but rather the angry, hand on the horn five- second blast, repeated two or three times to drive home the point. What gives? Do we have new, rude people in town or has something made everyone furious? I think that, in the past, people refrained from such aggressive behavior out of fear that they might be blasting their neighbor. That no longer seems to control the louts, so perhaps we should adopt Mayor Koch’s brilliant proposal and make car horns sound inside, as well as outside the car. Cool.

We’re Back
So here we are in January already, looking forward to what we all hope will be a strong spring market. I’m encouraged because there seems to be a large group of lookers out there. All lookers aren’t buyers, of course, but all buyers are lookers (learned that one in my logic class). We shall see.

Real Estate Returns to WGCH
Several years ago the new owners of our only radio station in town dumped most of the local content, including my brother Gideon’s show, in favor of out of town business news. I never listened after that but now Russ Pruner and Rick Loh, both of Shore & Country, are coming on air. Knowing Russ, I expected the show would discuss window treatments and flower arrangements but no – they’re going to discuss Greenwich real estate something that Rick, at least, knows a lot about. Friday mornings, from 10:00 – 11:00, the “LiveInGreenwich Real Estate Hour”. Brad Hvolbeck likes to make crank phone calls to shows like this (which is why I write, rather than broadcast this column) so tune in – should be good.

Reverse Mortgages
A while back I investigated a reverse mortgage for an older family friend. We ultimately concluded that the program didn’t make sense for her but I was impressed by the safeguards built into these programs to protect elderly people from getting ripped off. You’re probably familiar with the concept: someone living in a valuable house but with limited cash can take out a mortgage that pays a fixed amount each month. Upon death or sale of the house, the loan is repaid. The borrower cannot be forced from her house, even if she uses up her equity, and the heirs aren’t stuck with owing more than the house is worth. Federal regulations require financial counseling before anything is signed and, as I noted, there are a lot of sensible protections written in. But beware: there are plenty of charlatans out there, ready to fleece you. If you’re interested in the program, check with your banker or financial advisor (that’s the guy who used to be called a stockbroker, but never mind) and, if you have a child in the financial services industry, run it by them.

459 Field Point Road
This beautiful 1888 carriage house was renovated by David Ogilvy to be his new home but a change in plans has put it back on the market. As you’d expect from anything Mr. Ogilvy puts his hand to, the renovation is terrific. Beautifully landscaped outside, with deeded winter water views, everything inside has been redone at the highest level of quality. The only thing I might change is the master bedroom. The current bedroom is fine as is but there’s FAR room to create a new master suite that would have even better views and, of course, free up another bedroom (there are already five, so you could also choose to save your money). Asking $4,350,000 which, for the Belle Haven neighborhood and the condition of this house, sounds fair.

Splash
For years, my greatest fear as a real estate agent was that a client would ask to be driven around in my car. No one should be subjected to that horror but fortunately most folks today insist on driving themselves, either because they have kids strapped in car seats or, thanks to the internet, they know a property’s location and prefer to meet their agent on site. Still, no lucky streak lasts forever so it was a great relief to receive for Christmas a gift certificate for a detailing at Splash (thanks, Nancy). I told the manager that I didn’t expect miracles after four years of spilling coffee, riding my poor Honda hard and putting it away wet but he smiled and said, “I think you’ll be surprised.” Wow. It’s as close to new as an old car can get. It’s an expensive, four + hour procedure but what a result. Every nook and cranny is spotless - they even take the seats out so they can clean the grunge out of the runners. The seats are clean, the carpet shampooed, etc. I don’t expect its new, pristine condition to last through the winter (if winter ever comes) so if you ever wanted to tour the town with me, now’s the time to call.

Not All Bleak News
Back in May, Francine Colby listed 50 Dingletown, a beautiful old house on six acres, for $9,850,000. It sat through the spring and summer markets but in October a bidding war broke out and it sold last week for $10,250,000. Odd how that happens but this phenomenon of no one wanting a house and then two or more buyers appearing simultaneously occurs in all price ranges. Joan Crossman’s listing at 11 Center Road in Old Greenwich sat for three month this fall before three different buyers appeared at once. Nice for sellers when that happens, of course, but it’s a lesson for buyers: if you’re seriously attracted to a house, make the bid – you never know how much time you have, regardless of how long a house has languished.

Wall Street Follies?
Far be it from me to criticize Wall Street, the source of so many of my buyers, but the recent announcement that Reology (formerly Cendant’s real estate division) is going private in a leveraged buyout has me scratching my head. Reology holds under its umbrella several of the country’s largest real estate firms, including Century 21, Coldwell Banker and Soetheby’s. It was created just last August (?) when Cendant spun off its real estate business and now its President has suddenly discovered that the publicly traded marketplace doesn’t like cyclical businesses. Shouldn’t he have noticed this during the years when Cendant owned them? Realogy shareholders will receive a nice premium but both Moody’s and Standard & Poors are knocking Realogy’s credit rating to junk status while Realogy’s President is walking away with $135,000,000. To this non-expert, the deal seems to more about bankers’ fees and cashing in on stock options than about business, but I guess we’ll see. My guess: look for them to go public again in a couple of years, thereby generating another round of fees.

Cos Cob
There’s a nice house in Cos Cob that sold two years ago for $2,312,500. Its owners returned it to the market this spring at $2,675,000 and now, two expirations (and three brokers) later, it’s still unsold, asking $2,449,000. Even if it sells for anything close to that the owners will not stand to gain much after taxes and commissions are deducted. I don’t know if there’s a lesson here, other than it can be tough to buy at the height of the market and have to sell when it’s down (they did teach you in school that real estate is very much not a liquid investment, didn’t they), but the house’s travails caught my eye. I know that the Cos Cob market has been particularly slow this year – the same house in Riverside or Old Greenwich would almost certainly have appreciated – but still a surprising predicament for Greenwich. Oh – there is at least one more lesson here: if your house isn’t selling, you’re better off lowering its price rather than firing your broker. All the marketing in the world won’t move your house if it’s over-priced.

Starting Over
If you’re planning to sell this year, now’s the time (well okay, enjoy New Year’s Eve) to start getting it ready. Historically, the third week of January sees the start of the spring market and there will be a new crowd of buyers (we all hope) getting out and about, seeing what’s available. Your house will certainly show better when its gardens are in bloom but by then you’ll have missed a lot of buyers. Betty Moger, who ran Cleveland, Duble & Arnold forever used to preach, “if you wait for the dogwoods to bloom, you’re too late.” What was true for her long career still holds, in my opinion.

What if your house sat unsold for the fall market (or since Spring, like that Cos Cobber)? Now’s an excellent time to sit down with your agent to discuss what you can change. Price is always a good place to start, but is the master bath a wreck? Kitchen obsolete? I’m not suggesting you sink a ton of money into a sinking ship, but $10,000, say, in improvements might be more effective than dropping the price that amount.

See You Next Year
So that wraps up 2006. Not a terrible year for real estate – some of us had our best year ever – but it certainly saw a significant drop from 2004, the all-time high. Don’t panic and remember, as Realogy’s President just discovered, real estate’s a cyclical business. Happy New Year.

Do Your Homework
Senator John Kerry and that lovable Congressman Charley Rangel both
claim that if you don't do your homework you'll flunk out of school
and have to join the Army with all the other losers (I'd love to see
either one of them personally present that theory to Old Greenwich's
Stephanie Whittle, who turned down Harvard in favor of West Point and
is now flying helicopters with her fellow losers. She'd whup Kerry's
and Rangel's flabby butts). But the idea of spending time on
unpleasant tasks does have merit, especially when you're thinking
about selling your house. Finishing those partial renovations and
sprucing up the yard are always good things to do, but one that's
rarely done, and can create the most value, is determining whether you
can carve an extra lot from your yard. I hate seeing properties split
up as much as any Greenwich resident but if you're a homeowner you're
certainly entitled to do with your land whatever the town's zoning
laws permit. I think it's unwise, therefore, to bring a property on
the market with a description, "includes possible extra lot". If you
have an over-sized yard that could possibly spin off an extra building
lot, you'd be well served by paying for the legal and surveying fees
and finding out. No one likes uncertainty and you'll gain just about
nothing for a "possible" extra-lot. An officially approved second lot,
however, can be worth millions.

Pricing Strategy?
A fellow puts his house on the market in December last year for
$2,125,000. It doesn't sell so in March of '06 he lowers the price to
$1,995,000. Smart move, but it still doesn't move and so, presumably
to punish the stupid buyers who didn't recognize its value he raises
the price in May to $2,145,000, more than its original price. Well
that didn't work either – can't imagine why not - and last week he
jacked it up again, to $2,195,000. If he keeps this going, we'll soon
have the first $10,000,000 house in downtown Greenwich. He probably
thinks that the way to end poverty is to raise the minimum wage to
$1,000 per hour, too.

12 Lockwood Road
I'd place this hose in the "mystery" category of great houses that
haven't sold. Grace McCarty(Prudential) has it listed at $2,495,000
which seems right to me: it's on a half acre, has a great location,
and yet it's been on since June, with no takers. Someone's missing a
bargain here.

And on the Western Side of Town
David Ogilvy has listed 111 Duncan Drive for $2,300,000. The challenge
in selling this house is to get your buyer out of the car – the
Merritt is next door, and, in winter, you can see cars rushing past
not too far away. But forget that, and go inside. The entranceway
opens to a fantastic view of a pond and a great back yard. The house
itself is quiet and of impeccable quality. Everything is completely
up-to-date and, all in all, the house works perfectly. Duncan Drive is
part of the Baliwick community which means you get a swim/tennis club
with the package. Good value, nice house.

Buy This Book!
You're all invited to a book signing party at Arcadia Coffee House in
Old Greenwich next Monday, December 11th, from 7- 9:00 ish. "My book,
"Greenwich Mean Time", tells the story of a sorry bunch of
faux-Indians who try passing themselves off as Golden Hill Indians in
Bridgeport and do badly at it until a certain Stamford lawyer rescues
them from obscurity by transforming them into Siwanoys and bringing
them to Tod's Point so that they can claim the place for their own and
establish a casino. Everyone's favorite Realtors are here: Prunella
Russell, Davinia Mather Barbie Hopkins and my pal, Martha Kelly (you
get a free book, Martha – sorry to have abused your name). How, you
ask, did I navigate that fine line between satire and offending
Native-American sensitivities? With a Caterpillar DC-10, of course.
The story is an equal opportunity offender, making it a perfect
Christmas gift for almost anyone.

Will those two stalwarts of Greenwich Time, Bernie Yudain and Jerry
Dumas be there? Probably not: I told each of them that the reporter
"Jerry Yudain" was based on the other guy, so their noses are probably
out of joint. But the offer of free wine and food might just lure them
out, who knows? Anyway, come yourself, and have fun.

Maher Avenue – Barbarians at the Doors
Some years ago a local real estate columnist wrote about what a wonderful place the Mahr Avenue neighborhood (next to Brunswick) was for trick-or-treating. He unleashed a monster. Today, it seems, every Back Country and Westchester County resident loads her kids into the SUV and drops them off to pillage the area. My brother Gideon and his significant other, Suzie, simply shut off their lights and flee; those who stayed behind did not fare well. One neighbor reported that she served 1,100 (I kid you not) bandits. Bad enough were the parents carrying infants and toting adult “gift bags”; the worst were kids who, surveying what this beleaguered homeowner offered, demanded, “what else you got?” This situation will cure itself, of course, as more and more homeowners follow Gideon and Suzie’s example and thus diminish the attractiveness of this area as a source for looting, but what a shame; what had been a great neighborhood tradition has descended into a mire of greed and bad manners.

14 Buena Vista Drive
After writing about multi-million dollar homes, it’s always refreshing to discover a starter home under a million (okay, that’s ridiculous, but …) that’s worth mentioning. Pete Fina, Weichert, has listed a Dutch Colonial on Buena Vista Drive for $839,000 that I think is well priced and, in fact, a bargain. Buena Vista’s a really nice street in Glenville; quiet and filled with kids. This house has four bedrooms, two baths and is already rough-plumbed to accommodate a master bathroom, which I’d do, as a new owner. Not much of a yard, given its 0.11 acreage, but what are you going to do? It is, as they say, what it is, and I liked it.

Greenwich Shellfish Commission
When I was a very young kid I used to dig for steamers at the Riverside Yacht Club beach. That ended around 1963 when the health Department got around to sampling our local waters and was apparently horrified at what it found. Ooops; no wonder I turned out the way I did. But time, and pollution control marches on and in 1986 Lucy Jineshian, Dan Barrett, Bill Crane and Scott Wakeman (and Sue Baker, soon after), began a long campaign to reopen our waters for shell fishing. This band of volunteers spent more than five years procuring water samples and delivering them to the state health authorities before finally achieving their goal. The Shell Fish Commission recently hosted a twenty-year anniversary celebrating those efforts at, fittingly enough, The Riverside Yacht Club. A grand time was had by all but I’m writing this to remind, or inform you all that clams, mussels and oysters are waiting for your taking at Tod’s and other locations around town. You need a permit ($15, at Town Hall or Sportsmen’s Den) and implement of destruction like a rake or fork, a bucket, a size ring so you don’t grab under-sized clams and probably a pair of rubber boots. That’s it. It’s a great way to get outside on otherwise dreary winter days and it’s something kids especially seem to enjoy doing with their parents. Beats standing on the sideline of a soccer field, in my opinion.

What to be a volunteer warden? Call the Commission at 622-7777 (or check out greenwichct.org/shellfish/shellfish.asp (hey, I didn’t come up with such an awkward address) for additional information, including clamming locations, tide charts (you’ll want to do this at low tide, duh) etc. I can’t vouch for the payment wardens receive but you do get a nifty hat, much improved over the original, and it offers other benefits. I was speeding through Damarascotta, Maine late one night when I was pulled over by a trooper. I couldn’t immediately locate my driver’s license so I proffered my clam warden’s card instead. “Clam Warden, eh?” he said, “well slow down!” Yessir. I can’t guarantee this trick will work in an inland location but heck – better than nothing.

And Speaking of Waterfront
Anne Simpson just listed a fantastic piece of it at 20 Shoreham Club Drive in Old Greenwich for $6,900,000. Great house but even better views so my guess is that (a) it will sell quickly and (b) it’ll be torn down and replaced by some 10,000 sq.ft. eye sore. Well, what do you expect to happen to a house built as long ago as 1984? The thing’s obsolete!

Book Party!
I’ll be signing copies of “Greenwich Meantime" at Arcadia Coffee House Monday, December 11, 7:30 – 9:00. Food, wine, fun, I hope.

Landscaping
When I recently revisited 160 Bedford Road (which I wrote about last week) I initially thought that I’d pulled into the wrong driveway. What I remembered as a wooded property, albeit with a great lawn in front, was now wide open with great, sweeping vistas over all its eight acres. Because there’s nothing worse than barging unexpectedly and uninvited into a stranger’s home, I snuck around back to make sure that the distinctive pool and pool house were still there. They were so, emboldened, I entered the house and met its listing agent Jane Gosden. “So what happened?” says I, and Jane explained that last summer’s tornado swept away sixty-five mature trees and a similar number from the neighboring property. “Mother Nature’s vacuum cleaner” was how Jane described the process, and she was absolutely right. It cost the poor homeowner close to $100,000 to clean up the wreckage (home owner’s insurance pays for damage caused by trees that hit your house; otherwise, you’re on your on own here) but the salutary effect was probably well worth it. My point is, if you’re cleaning up your house to prepare it for sale, take a look at your grounds. Trees have a habit of growing ever larger and, if you’ve owned your house for a long time, they may have crowded close and now block your views. I’m not suggesting a clear-cutting operation but there are very few homes in town that wouldn’t benefit from a session with a chainsaw-wielding tree-cutter.

26 Mayfair Lane
Carolyn Sarsen (David Ogilvy & Associates) has just listed this beautiful old home for $8,350,000, which is a tad out of my price range but perhaps not for you Wall Street bonus babies. It was built in 1936 and last renovated in 1971 which means it’s due for more, but what a house. Set on five acres off of Pecksland Road, it reminds me of some of the houses of my (rich) friends that I used to visit growing up. Beautiful grounds, a nice pool and terrace it is, as the owner described it, “just a good house to live in.” It certainly is; today’s buyer will probably want to expand it, needlessly, in my opinion, but there’s plenty of room to do that, should you wish.

Moving Down the Food Chain
Alice Duff (Soetheby’s) has listed 27 Doverton Drive, off of Sabine Road, for $3,985,000. A terrific contemporary that was completely rehabilitated by its present owners-fellow agents who remembered it in its previous condition were astonished when we attended its open house. Big, wide open spaces, a nice 2 ½ acre lot and an excellent location. Good deal.

Will Morton’s Rotisserie
Some time back, traveling to New Mexico to research a book, I left the interstate somewhere in western Arkansas and drove for miles searching for my favorite food, barbeque. I finally found what I wanted at a run-down spot, with a screen door that slammed behind me, and filled with locals, all in their Sunday best, chowing down. Ambrosia. I’ve never found its equal around here until a friend, Wilson Alling recommended Will Morton’s new restaurant at 280 Railroad Avenue. Will’s a Greenwich native and graduate of France’s Cordon Bleu who for some reason decided to combine French rotisserie cooking with southern barbeque, and has produced a felicitous marriage of both. His pulled pork is the best I’ve had, ever, and his ribs and chicken are just as good. The restaurant is easily overlooked, as it’s located in that small building complex next to Pet Pantry, but it’s convenient to the movies and the Avenue. As an eat-in destination, I’d describe the place as somewhere between bleak and cozy (bleak’s too harsh; perhaps “utilitarian”), but there’s take-out available and delivery for just $1.50. If you eat in you’ll gain the presence of Will himself who’s always there, cooking. Very nice guy. There’s a very tasty sandwich menu and, for Thanksgiving, he’s offering an incredible range of dishes that obviously take advantage of his training and which go far beyond “mere” rotisserie foods: Turkeys, roasted or uncooked, a huge variety of side dishes and deserts, soups, salads and so on. I smoke cigarettes precisely because it frees me from worrying about such lesser hazards but health-nuts will be relieved to know that everything served is free-range, all natural, pesticide free, etc. Call 661-0100 or hit willmortonsrotisserie.com to order or view the menu. You’ll thank me for this, just as I did Wilson.

Statistics
The third quarter sales statistics are out and they provide some interesting reading (if you lead a very dull life, that is). Sales are down ( -17.8%) for the year (481 vs. 585) and (- 44.6%) this September vs. September 2005 (31 vs.56). Average price is up 11% for the year ($2,716,737 vs. $2,447, 408) and 18% this September. Days on Market were 73 September 2005, 112 September 2006. So, there’s been a significant slowdown, but notice: prices aren’t collapsing nor will they, in my opinion. Many buyers are sitting on the sidelines waiting for what they expect will be bargain basement prices – I think they’ll be disappointed.

Buy a House?
If you’re still awake after reading all those statistics, here are a few more: there are 555 single family homes for sale as of this writing, compared to 488 the same week last year. That’s a 14% increase in inventory but this past August we were facing an inventory 26% greater than the year before so the trend seems to be improving. Those 555 houses range in price, by the way, from $575,000 (123 Henry Street, Byram) to $39,500,000 (65 Meadow Wood Drive, Belle Haven). You should be able to find something you like somewhere between them.

Price it Right
The sales book also revealed an example of the importance of pricing. Two nearly identical houses on Florence Road were sold last quarter. Each was built in 1963 and renovated in 2001, each had 2,202 sq. ft. One was priced at $875,000 and sold 14 days later for $880,000. The other was originally priced at $925,000 and sold 132 days later for $870,000. The lesson here is that stretching to get that last dollar on a sale will make your house look less attractive than its competition and may cause it to sit lifeless on the market. That’s bad, so don’t do it. Look at the statistics above, recognize that we’re in a slow market and price your house accordingly.

If You Want to Get the Big Bucks
You have to put in big bucks. I toured a $5,500,000 house the other day and remembered another builder’s cutting remark: “he built a nice $3,000,000 house but priced it at $5 ½.” I think that’s not quite accurate but certainly there are details that should be in a house this expensive that were not there: custom closets, for instance, instead of pegboard California ones. Trim molding inside those same closets: don’t know what good it does but the top builders do it. Routered trim panels, instead of window frame build ups. This was a perfectly nice house and it sits on a great piece of land but if I were a buyer at that price level, I’d demand more.

160 Bedford Road
I love this house and the eight acres it sits on but it remains unsold. I assume the house’s age (1932) deters buyers but I visited it with an architect and he came up with several great ideas for building new and incorporating the old. With eight acres in the four acre zone, you could finally build that 45,000 sq. ft. house Bitsy and the two kids have needed for the proper development of their souls.

I thought this was well priced at $5 million. At its current price of $3,495,000, it's a bargain. It's jane Gosden's listing.

Overheard on the Golf Course
No, I don’t play golf but my brother Gideon does (why?)and says that he heard a builder complain, “you just can’t make a profit in Greenwich if you buy a property from off the Multi List – you’ve got to buy direct.”

Now that’s not true, and I can point out many, many profitable land transactions that Realtors were involved in but here’s my point: what the builder was complaining about was he couldn’t get as good a deal if other people knew about the land and competed with him for it. But what’s bad for a builder/buyer is good for an owner/seller so, when a builder knocks on your door you might want to at least consider exposing your home to the full market, rather than accept the builder’s promise that he’s offering you the best possible price. Sometimes they don't, you know.

Real Estate Advertising
Having tried my hand at it myself, I’ll vouch for the difficulty of writing ad copy for houses. One of the best in our business recently ran an ad boasting that “A River Runs Through It”. I think I get the point but it just doesn’t seem like a selling point, unless you want to go trout fishing in your basement.

Mainstream Media
I don’t watch much television but I’m told one of the nightly news shows has been running a week-long set of stories depicting the horrors of our current real estate market. Young couples facing ruinous mortgage payments and foreclosure, sellers unable to sell their houses, give-backs by builders and on and on. I realize that it’s an election year and the traditional media wants very badly for the electorate to believe that the economy has gone to Hell but mortgage rates are low, unemployment is just about non-existent and Wall Street continues to roll in profits. Even Greenwich’s real estate market has succumbed to this media pressure so our inventory has increased 16% - I don’t think that’s the end of the world. Well priced houses still sell quickly: Ginnie Ridenour’s listing at 48 Carrigleah Drive,a waterfront acre in Riverside, came on at $4,995,000 and went to contract (via John Cooke) almost immediately. In the past two weeks, thirty-five houses went to contract, at (asking) prices ranging from $10,000,000 on down. Some of these were dogs that had lingered on the market for years and finally moved only after their owners dropped their prices by huge fractions but, if you couldn’t sell an over-priced house in 2004, your finally selling it for less money in 2006 is evidence that it wasn’t priced properly to begin with. That’s not evidence of a collapsing market: it’s market forces at work.


10 Audubon Lane
Another agent told me that I had to be certain to view this house because it was so awful. As you might imagine it’s much more fun to write about bad houses than it is good so I scurried over to Bedford Road with gleeful malice in my heart. Imagine my disappointment when I pulled up the driveway and found myself admitting, “not bad”. Things only got worse for me when I entered the house: it’s well built, well laid out and bright and airy. All in all, a very nice house indeed. The only thing that could be held against it, I suppose, is that it’s not a traditional “Colonial” (gasp!) but it’s close enough to that design to be confused for one. Set back off Bedford on a private four acres, asking $4,795,000. Claudia Hirsch of Preferred Properties has the listing.

Real Estate Signs
The Greenwich Board of Realtors is about to crack down on open house signs. It’s early days but the plan may include Realtors paying for the services of a sign confiscator who’d travel around town confiscating signs that violate the law. It’s a start and, with the election about to fade away and with it all the political signs, some improvement is coming. By the way, Bernie Yudain recently posed the same question that’s been plaguing me: has anyone in the history of the world ever switched candidates because of a road sign? I think it’s just a harmless way for parties to put their dumbest, most enthusiastic supporters to work while keeping them from underfoot. It’d be more useful if they prowled Probate Court, looking for dead residents to solicit votes from.

Cookie Cutters
I don’t have many customers in the $10,000,000 range (okay, I don’t have any customers in that range) so I asked a friend who does why every new house on Round Hill and its environs looks identical. Simple: it seems that no trophy wife with a trophy home wants to be shown up, so each must have exactly what her peers have. The builders of these monstrosities know that and build accordingly. Mystery solved. And, just so you’ll know what’s coming, a New Canaan mommy recently told me that the new house I was showing her was inadequate (at 5,400 sq.ft.) because it lacked a second floor playroom for her (only) child. “All the new houses in New Canaan have them”, she informed me and I’m sure she’s right. Look for them in your neighborhood soon.

Sidewalks
For decades, Riverside residents pressed for a sidewalk on Lockwood
Road and, as a member of the Riverside Association once upon a time, I
added my voice to that effort. It took twenty years but we finally
have a very nice sidewalk protecting school kids and commuters. I was
astonished, however, as I watched the process unfold over the past
year, how much work was involved: new storm drains had to be
installed, utility poles and wires moved, stone walls torn down and
replaced, etc. I now understand why we had to wait so long.

But having said that, it would be nice if the town could find it in
its budget to build a sidewalk on that section of Riverside Avenue
between Mark's Road and the top of Ross Bottom Hill, a distance of
perhaps 200 yards. This stretch is a blind curve and, while we
negotiated it safely when we were kids and I haven't hit anyone on it
lately, that's due to the fact that I know what to expect: the other
day I came around the curve and encountered three boys in the road- if
I hadn't been traveling at 15 mph, ….

6 Jofran
This was a fabulous contemporary I wrote about some months ago. I
loved the house and said so at the time but expressed doubt that it
would sell quickly. It depends on how you define quickly but I was
pleased to see that it's gone to contract. I don't know its selling
price yet but the asking price was $2,950,000.

207 Farms Road
This column is usually restricted to Greenwich matters but Terry
Beaurline (Coldwell Banker) has just listed "The Block House" a
fantastic house built in 1721 and well worth notice here, even though
its location in "Stanwich Parish" has been subsumed by Stamford.
History? You bet. Revolutionary War soldiers, fleeing from a defeat in
White Plains, hid in a stone barn behind the house for weeks. In 1858,
in that same building, Simon Ingersoll built the first automobile, a
steam vehicle, and drove it eight miles to Stamford (where the sheriff
promptly ordered him to return home and stay there). The original
two-foot-thick granite-walled house, with all its beauty of
wide-planked-floors, beamed ceilings and great fireplaces, has been
embellished with an addition designed by a Yale-trained architect.
Mention of "Yale School of Architecture" brings to mind the
(misattributed) quote of Herman Goering: "When I hear the word
Kulture, I reach for my revolver!" But in this instance, the fellow
must have slept through class, because the new blends marvelously with
the old. A great house, on wonderful land (2 acres, with pool), asking
about $3,500,000. You couldn't come close to such a house and property
in Greenwich.

Another one Bites the Dust
In the movie "Shawshank Redemption", Tim Robbins demands of the prison
warden, "how can you be so obtuse?". He's rewarded by a lengthy stay
in isolation because the warden is corrupt and interested only in
protecting his position of power. I don't think our Planning and
Zoning Committee is corrupt, but "obtuse" came to mind when I attended
a hearing this week on a proposal to save a historic house. The
question presented to the committee was blunt: do you want to preserve
historic houses or do you want to adhere to our floor area ratio
rules? The answer was, essentially, that FAR is sacred and houses be
damned.
Too bad – most of Greenwich's few remaining old houses are stranded on
odd, under-sized lots carved out of their original farms. The P&Z
says, "well, just build a small (3,000 sq. ft., in last week's
example)". This is so stupid, so ignorant of market realities that,
despite my disclaimer above, I wonder if our P&Z isn't as corrupt as
the Shawshank Prison warden. Could anyone possibly be this obtuse
without a wad of bills suppressing their brain? Wellyes, of course he could and our commission proves it. Its members aren't crooks, they just suffer from a fanatical devotion to the flawed concept of the FAR. As I write, a Cat 10
bulldozer is pushing the house in question into yet another dumpster.

Gift to GHS
Despite attending high school with me, my friend Michael Horton
akshually learned to reed – he points out that the $1,000,000 donation
I recently wrote about went to the donor's college, Colgate, rather
than to the high school. Still a very impressive gift but if someone
else has a wallet itching with good intentions, I'd urge that high
school kids need such a program even more than older students; to
conquer demons, you must start early.

200 Cognewaugh
Ed Mortimer’s new listing is pretty impressive, to my eye. Anyone who traveled this road over the past year must have marveled at the huge quarrying going on as the builder prepared the site (and its neighbors all wrote to me; they weren’t as impressed). But the work’s done now and a beautiful house sits on a beautiful, flat lawn of two acres. I realize it sounds silly to say so but I was struck by how much house this is for “only” $5,000,000. I’ve seen comparable construction in other locations asking more than $6,000,000. Cognewaugh is not my favorite road in town; a bad place to forget a pint of cream for the morning coffee, but 200 is close to its Valley Road terminus and that mitigates things. By the way, while I’m not wild about the street itself I do love the sign someone with a sense of humor in the traffic department has posted near its end: “Caution, Winding Road”. If you’ve made it down far enough to read the sign, you’ll have figured that out by yourself.
Over reaching a remodeling permit
The old trick to get around the requirements of a new building permit was to apply for just a remodeling, take everything down except one wall and then, when no one was looking, knock that down too. The town’s cracked down on this recently, which is a good thing, but the stricter enforcement has caught up some innocent folks, too. Well, if not “innocent”, then people acting in good faith. What happens is that you start out with the intention of remodeling but, as I can attest from my own projects, you never know exactly what you’ll find behind walls until you open them up. When you do, and discover, say, extensive termite damage, then one wall has to go, then another and so forth, all while your contractor is saying, “you know, it’d be a lot cheaper just to knock down this part and build new.” Before you know it you’ve exceeded the limits of your permit and Jim Mahoney, our zoning enforcement officer, has stuck a bright red “stop work order” on your project. Your subs all disappear to work other jobs, you miss the summer building season and you’re stuck in bureaucratic hell. That’s bad. My advice is be aware, and wary, of how much of the house is coming down and try to keep Mr. Mahoney abreast of your doings. He’s a pretty reasonably guy, in my experience, and if you look like you’re acting in good faith, rather than trying to evade the rules, I’m sure he’ll work with you.
Get Our Attention
As the fall selling season slips away (only six more weekends before Thanksgiving!) sellers are taking price reductions in the hope of not having to wait for Spring to unload. Good idea, but don’t nibble: a $2,000,000 drop from $18,995,000 is a good start; $250,000 from a price of $7,500,000 is just silly. If that’s all you’re willing to drop it you’d be better off putting the money in the house – updated bathrooms, perhaps, or new kitchen counters. Of course, if your house isn’t going to fetch what you’re asking for it then you’re running the risk of just sinking in more bucks that can’t be recaptured but hey – you probably knew that when you over-priced it in the first place.

Flowers for Ferdinand
Or for Old Greenwich merchants at least, courtesy of Scott Frantz. Two days after the President left town Mr. Frantz delivered very nice bouquets and a polite note of apology to every retail establishment, including our Raveis office, that had been inconvenienced by the loss of parking. These weren’t the $10 bunch of roses you pick up at the gas station to make up for abandoning your wife while you played golf, either. Regardless of your feelings towards President Bush, Mr. Frantz is indisputably a class act.

I've Moved!
The column is, as of two days ago, now being printed in the Greenwich Post on the front page of its real estate section. Since, like the Citizen, the Post is free, you can continue to get exactly what you pay for.

Buyer Representative Agreements
A colleague of mine recently encountered a house-hunting couple she knew at an open house. They liked the house and they wanted her to represent her but, they confessed ruefully, they had signed a buyer’s representative agreement with agent that locked them in, for the entire state of Connecticut, for a year. They couldn’t stand the guy, had no intention of ever getting in a car with him again so they’d resorted to limiting their search to public open houses on Sundays. That’s ridiculous and it cost them the house because, by the time they freed themselves from the first agent’s tentacles the house was gone.

I’ve written about these buyer rep agreements before but it’s worth doing again. Our legislature mandated these be signed by buyers at the first face-to-face meeting with an agent. It was supposed to be a consumer protection aid, allowing us agents, in a departure from traditional agency law, to represent the buyer instead of the seller (before, buying and selling agents were considered to owe complete loyalty to the seller.) But the document was hijacked by my industry group and studded with provisions that favor us and hurt you. If you’ve worked with an agent before and are comfortable with that individual there’s certainly no harm in agreeing to work with them exclusively for, say, six months. But if you’ve never met the person before, why on earth would you lock yourself into a long-term relationship? Or agree to half the stuff in this contract? I drafted a simple agreement that contained no offensive terms and submitted it to the Connecticut Association of Realtor’s legal department for approval but was shot down, so we’re all stuck with the current form. But, by law, these things are negotiable so my advice is to, if you don’t know the agent you’re dealing with is to (a) realize that you’re being asked to sign a binding contract and not some meaningless form, (b) limit its duration to one day and one town and (c) cross out all the bad stuff. It’s your right.

Listen to Your Realtor
I saw a very nice house recently, which I intend to write about in a later column but there’s an object lesson worth pointing out now: the house and its grounds are immaculate and I was bowled over by the place. Until I headed for the master bedroom and noticed a worn, frayed runner. If the rest of the place had been in the same sorry condition I wouldn’t have picked up on this defect but, as it was, the owners might just as well have painted the thing Day-Glo orange. And, having been conditioned by that sight, I noticed that the master bath was a bit dated. Again, something I wouldn’t have cared about had the mood not been set by the worn carpet. The listing agent is one of the smartest, most experienced agents in town and I am absolutely certain she must have mentioned this to her clients. For whatever reason, they obviously declined to spend- what, a $1,000?- on a replacement runner. I think this was unwise. If your house is a wreck, don’t sweat it; price the thing as a dump and move on. But if everything about your house is bandbox perfect except for one or two glaring defects, fix them. You’ll more than make up the cost in the eventual sales price.

Lucky Me
When Greenwich Time ran an article about my finding a prehistoric spear head in Riverside photographer Bob Luckey was assigned to take my picture. He produced the first image of me that my kids were willing to admit being related to so, when I needed some new publicity shots I hired him. Amazing results. If you’re an ugly Greenwich native like myself or, more likely, one of the beautiful people, this is the guy to take your picture. And Realtors take note: Bob will photograph houses, too. If he can take this sow’s ear and come close to producing a silk purse, imagine what he can do for that crummy listing you’ve been trying to unload. Reach him at (203) 940-5593.

Good Read
Just finished “The Looming Tower – Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11” by Lawrence Wright. Horrifyingly fascinating and brilliantly written, it’s received rave reviews from the entire political spectrum (heck, even Dan Rather liked it), which is a tribute to the author’s objectivity. He has no axe to grind here and contents himself with presenting a thorough history of Islamic terrorism from 1905 to date. Read it if you want an in-depth, fast-paced explanation of what we’re facing. When you finish, may I suggest a light- hearted digestive like my “Greenwich Mean Time”? Available at Just Books!

The “Visit”I’m writing this just a few hours before the arrival of our President and the excitement here in Old Greenwich is high; helicopters overhead, cops on every corner, motorcycle cops and state troopers behind the firehouse, all parking barricaded, and Secret Service agents with a bomb-sniffing dog checking the entire route, including Tig Smith’s port-a-potty. But my excitement was tempered when I learned that, while the President expected to raise $500,000 at the Franz house in Riverside, Greenwich’s tab for police overtime will be $250,000. Add in the costs of those state troopers, a couple of Presidential jets, a squad of secret service agents, lost income by shop owners who lost their customer parking and just general inconvenience and it seems to me we taxpayers could have effected an economy by sending the RNC a check for, say, $10,000,000 and asking that the President stay home. By the way, it’s sort of amusing that everyone in Riverside knew days in advance that the fundraiser was to be held at Scott Frantz’s place while at least two patrolmen I spoke with did not. Odd sort of security when you don’t tell the protectors what they’re protecting, no?

Back to Real Estate
There is a house in Riverside that was for sale by its owner seemingly forever. Many months, if not more than a year – my memory fades. The owner finally gave up and listed it with Maureen Fox of ReMax. She priced it right (sellers tend to over-price their own homes) and had it under contract in a week. So the poor guy ended up paying a 5% commission he didn’t want to, but he also sold his house, which I assume was the ultimate objective. Sometimes, you do get what you pay for.

And Sometimes You Don’t
I saw the strangest house on the open house tour last week. Hugely expensive new construction it held, to my eye, every architectural mistake one could make. It almost seems to have been built as two, separate wings, with most of the bedrooms contained in a odd, warren-like setting that another agent said reminded her of a dentists’ suite. That’s about right. I’d give further details but then you might identify it and I really don’t want to embarrass the owner. Besides if I’m right, and he never finds a buyer at the price he’s asking, he’ll be embarrassed enough. I think my message here is that, if you’re building spec houses in Greenwich be creative but not too much so: most buyers expect a Colonial with a traditional floor layout and you depart from that at your peril.

Apples to Apples
A house on Nearwater Lane sold in April 2004 for $1,285,000 and just resold this month for $1,560,000. It’s often hard to get a grip on price appreciation because so many houses are renovated between sales but this one, if not untouched by its owners, wasn’t changed dramatically. So $275,000 in a year-and-a-half. Not too shabby.

Husted Lane
A building lot at 56 Husted Lane sold for $3,500,000 in August of 2005 and, after its buyers changed their minds, resold last week for $3,250,000. That’s a haircut but probably more indicative of what happens when you try to flip real estate too quickly. I still think no one’s ever lost money on Greenwich houses when they hold for a reasonable period of years (3-4, say) and the Nearwater Lane example shows that you can sometimes get away sooner, but there’s a risk.

Two Good Riverside Houses
Barbie Jackson (Cleveland, Duble & Arnold) has just listed 45 Breezemont for $1,695,000. This is an impeccably maintained house (I’m friends with the owner and boy is he er, retentive) with a decent yard and a huge basement. The current owners converted one of the original four bedrooms to a master bath, which was a smart move but I suspect there’s plenty of expansion space if you care to add on.
Jim Foote (Greenwich Custom Realty) has listed 25 Bayside Terrace for $1,565,000. I’m no fan of split-levels even if, as this one is, they’re called a “colonial ranch” but this has a huge amount of space and feels very livable. Bayside’s a traffic-free dead end street with some highway noise, compensated for deeded access to the water. I liked this house very much.

Glut?
You tell me, but our bi-weekly listing book has exceeded its printer’s binding capacity and arrived last Friday as two volumes. I don’t believe that’s happened before. Agents I talk to agree that there are plenty of buyers out there making offers but there’s a big gap between what they’re offering and what sellers are demanding. The sellers have history on their side; the buyers the media. We’ll see.