Charm isn't always enough

176 Stanwich Road, parts of which were built in 1800, has sold for $2.2 million. The sellers paid $3.165 for it in 2015, so this must have stung a bit. But it does confirm my own prejudice against older houses as safe places to park one’s money. I personally love antique homes, have lived in several over the decades and I prefer them. But finding buyers for them is difficult, even when totally renovated, as this one was in 2014.

This all comes to mind because just last week I was asked for my opinion on a particular house from this one’s era that needs a complete renovation. I told him that I’d value it at the land it sits on and not much more — maybe throw $700,000 at the house itself, just as an inducement to the seller to move off his price, but that total still came in a million shy of the current ask. We’ll see how that works out, if it ever does. I do think that, if not now, then not too much later, the seller will figure out that if he hasn’t found a buyer after eight years, even after cutting his price by half, a bolder haircut must be taken.

One exception to this rule of diminished expectations is the 1864 Federal at 63 North Street, which just last week was reported as pending after just 17 days. Price this year was $2.950 million; it sold for $2.850 in 2018, after just 14 days, $2.995 in 2013 (19 days) and $2.775 in 2012 (20 days). I don’t know why no one seems to want to stay here long (traffic?) but there’s been no shortage of buyers willing to step up and try it for themselves.

63 North Street, which sold quickly, despite the owners’ er … “bold” color choices, exterior and interior