So crazy, it just might work

That’s a line from McHale’s Navy, usually uttered by McHale in response to Ensign Parker’s latest lamebrain scheme. The scheme always did work, of course, because the show was, believe it or not, entirely fictional and not really based on fact. But perhaps the new owner of 57 Center Drive didn’t realize that, or maybe he’s just crazy like a fox. Either way, he paid $450,000 for the place last week, and has now relisted it as a to-be-renovated home at $795,000. I think he might just get it.

No one will claim that this portion of Center Drive, jammed up against and in the shadow of I-95 is the garden spot of Old Greenwich, but $795 for Dundee and Eastern, and walking distance to the Village hits a sweet spot in the market. I think an end-user might have done better here, without the need to generate a profit, but depending on how cheap this contractor can source the “stainless steel appliances, granite counters and rain shower and soaking tub” he promises, he might pull it off.

UPDATE, NOVEMBER 20: I just noticed that this builder got two lots for his $480,000. Tiny — 0.14 acre each — but many of the houses on Center Drive are similarly cramped, so that should work. And at $240,000 per lot, how bad can it be (for him)?