Buy now, sell (much) later

36 Brookridge Drive

Notwithstanding a reader's positive experience flipping a condo at 73 Pheasant Run (Weaver Street - I'll write about it soon), the general experience of Greenwich buyers who purchase a home, fix it up, and then try to sell it shortly thereafter has been negative. Case in point is 36 Brookride Drive, purchased in 2011 for $2.770, and reported as under contract today — current asking price, $2.495 million. 

The purchasers, according to the listing, redid the kitchen and baths and added a new roof and a generator, then put it back in the market in 2013 at $3.475 million. I haven't seen the place since brother Gideon had the listing, and sold it, back in 2011, so I can't vouch for the improvements, but they obviously weren't sufficient to convince buyers to pay for them until now, a million dollars (less) later. 

Nothing wrong with buying a house you like and fixing it up — in fact, as a buyer's representative I heartily encourage it, but my advice is to make those improvements as an "investment" in your own enjoyment of the property and not as a means to make a profit. The value of the land the house sits on may increase, but the house itself, including that new kitchen and master bath, will almost certainly depreciate.

A reworked kitchen (with countertop microwave) did nothing, even with the addition of an expired cow

Update: back in February, I wrote about this property after it raised its price from $3.150 to $3.250. I suggested at that time that increasing the asking price of a house that had failed to sell at a lower price was a dubious technique, and, at least for this home, that proved right.