Gideon Takes North Street: “Greenwich’s version of Petit Trianon finally hits the market”

Greenwich’s Petit Trianon, 408 North Street asking $32,000,000.

Listing agents: Jan Milligan and Joe Barbieri of Sotheby’s.

The original Petit in Versailles, France.

Similar lines as the White House in D.C., but, as you can see… different.

Gideon Fountain posting for Christopher Fountain

To paraphrase Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry, “the question you gotta ask yourself”, as you drive up to this magnificent structure is, will anyone save it? After a thorough inspection of house and grounds, I’ll say probably.

It all depends on you buyers and your mindset: do you or do you not place value on such an historic property? And if you have $32,000,000 to spend on this, you also have many hundreds of more millions that could be spent building exactly what you want, rather than “adapting” this one.

And yes, it will need loads of adapting. But the reward for all that trouble will be enormous. Instead of yet another 20,000 square-foot modern conglomeration of forgettable architecture, you will own a true landmark that will enhance everything about your life. The house will become your trademark, your monument, a place for parties and meetings and festivals that participants will never forget.

Yep, you can have all that OR…. you can build a future tear-down that no one notices or cares about. Need some examples? Take a drive through Conyers Farm!

Secrets Only Realtors Know

Gideon Fountain posting for Christopher Fountain…

There’re plenty, but I’ll give you two good ones that apply to buyers:

There will always be another house.

There will always be another buyer.

Really , Capt. Obvious, those are examples of your big real estate secrets? Yes, my sarcastic friend, it is true.

Let’s take that first one, “there’ll always be another house”. If you are a real estate agent and your clients are absolutely desperate to win a bidding war for some particular property, you could, if you were feeling especially honest that day, remind them that other, equally nice properties will appear, maybe even in the next few days. But typically, we brokers do NOT whisper those magic words and are only too happy to have you bid $300,000+ over the asking price. Don’t lose your dream house!

And what about “There will always be another buyer”? That applies to you buyers who are making life miserable for a seller by demanding all sorts of concessions like repairs, delayed closing , reduced deposit requirement, demands for furniture, etc., etc., etc. You are convinced that you’re the only one in the world who wants this property and the seller is “dammed lucky you came along!” And then, it happens. Out of the blue, the listing agent picks up the phone and receives a new offer from a much nicer buyer with no demands, no delays, and maybe even a higher price! How quickly will the seller dump you, Mr. First Buyer? The closest that scientists have been able to measure it is 1 millionth of a second, but it might be even faster.

So, human nature being largely unchanging, these two real estate truisms have likely been in place since Babylonian times (1895 BC), but lately, one of them has been altered. That one, “there will always be another house”, has been shaken to the core, if not utterly destroyed. The lack of inventory is so bad right now that, if your broker doesn’t urge you to bid higher and higher, that broker is guilty of malpractice. In various parts of town this year, if you lost a bidding war, the odds are good that you are still out there looking. It’s that bad, and no end in sight.

In summation: for the nonce, bid hard, bid high when you find a house you like. It may be the last one you’ll see for a year.

And for you buyers making it tough on a seller? the second rule still applies. You can and will be replaced!

25 Shore Acre Drive, Old Greenwich, CT: asked $1.789M, sells for $2.3M. Buyer paid $511,000 over ask. Would you have done that?

If you answered no, and chose to wait for the next house on this street (or any nearby street) with first-floor master bedroom, cute little pool, and street association beach rights, under $2.5M, guess what? You’re still looking!

Listing broker: Cynthia De Riemer of Coldwell Banker

Buyer Broker: Cynthia De Riemer of coldwell banker

Oh, My Aiken Back (16 Years And Done)

Gideon Fountain posting for Christopher Fountain…

There’s nothing wrong with making fun of house sellers who sit on the market for decades but there is one fact about most of these people that must be acknowledged: they’re rich and they don’t need the money.

When you or I go to sell a house, we expect the whole thing will take a month or two, right? Maybe, if we really screw things up with an ill-advised (stupid) asking price, perhaps we waste a whole year. But the type of seller Chris Fountain and I like to write about? One year is just the beginning! And real estate agents, you hire ONE, right? Not these guys… one broker just won’t do! You will need at least FIVE or, in the case of 13 Aiken Road, a total of SEVEN agents fought and died for this hill. Now THAT’S how you sell real estate when you’re rich and just don’t give a [hoot].

FUN FACT: The final listing agent for this property was in 6th grade when it first hit the market in 2005!

13 Aiken Road, Greenwich, CT FINALLY FINALY FINALLY has a pending deal! The fun began in September, 2005 at $11,975,000. Seven brokers, 12 price reductions, and 16 years later, with an ask of $3,999,000, a deal gets struck, say hallelujah!

Listing broker: Joy Kim Metalios of Houlihan Lawrence.

Buyer broker: Robin Bartholomew of Berkshire Hathaway

Is It Even Possible To Blackmail Hunter Biden?

Gideon Fountain posting for Christopher Fountain….

Seriously, what more horrible crap could this guy be involved in? Maybe a contract for murder? Kidnapping? And would it make a difference to his media protectors? Would they finally cover the story or, like NPR, FaceBook, Twitter, et al, declare it to be “Russian disinformation” and refuse to report on it? You know the answer.

Here’s his latest video, as usual, shot by himself in his continuing Nixonian need to chronicle every moment of his wretched life. In one part of this repulsive display, he worries aloud about being blackmailed, I love that! By who? The Chinese? Maybe the Russians? And what would they do with this damning evidence that is already fully available to anyone who has the stomach to watch?

He admits to everything here, the crack, the prostitutes, the selling of access to his father (and complains about the 50% kick-back to Dad!), but who is left to be shocked and outraged? The answer is, no one. His Pop will be re-elected in 4 years, and all of Hunter’s escapades will not have mattered one bit.

A Shack By The Sea?

Gideon Fountain posting for Christopher Fountain…

This place is not far from my own little shack by the sea and I will be absolutely thrilled to see it fetch $2.5M. The creek we live on is exceedingly tidal, so half the day, you get to see mud (and an interesting array of shore birds) and in the other half, you can kayak, sail, motor out to Long Island Sound. Not a bad place to live, I’ll admit. Somebody go buy this place, would’ja?.

346 Riverside Avenue, Riverside, CT. Asking $2,495,000.

Listing broker: Ann Simpson, Berkshire Hathaway

More impressive from the back…. n’est-ce pas?

Your own little sea-side cafe, monsieur! (but be sure and time the tide)

Mystery Sale Of The Week

Gideon Fountain posting for Christopher Fountain…

Every once in a while, we see a report of a sale price that seems “off”. Very rarely is it a ridiculously high price, more often it’s a price that is clearly too low. Today’s MLS hotsheet includes one of those “reporting purposes only” sales where a property sells off market but usually still involves a couple of brokers. The brokers report the sale, pretty much as a courtesy to fellow brokers, because all of us are in constant need of fresh ‘comps” to help us price things.

Got the picture? Ok, so today we learn that 4 Chasmar Road, Old Greenwich, has closed at $850,000 which, to me, seems surprisingly low. And it’s not just me, the Town of Greenwich has it at $959,000 and (those Bozos at) Zillow have it at $1,427,100. For once, I agree with Zillow.

So what happened here? Certainly there are property owners out there who shrink at the thought of putting their house on the market and “having all those people come walking through”. In fact, that fear, or reservation, is particularly common among the ultra-high-end clients. They instruct their broker to sell their $20M+ property “quietly”, off-market. It almost never works so eventually the broker wins the fight and puts it up on the MLS and bingo! it sells immediately.

So that’s just rich people being silly, but what was the excuse on Chasmar? A quick, easy sale is nice but if it comes at a cost of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS, maybe not.

4 Chasmar Road, Old Greenwich, closed today at $850K. Previously sold for $760K in August, 2001. (lot is .43 acres in the R-7 zone, about 2 1/2 times the size of the minimum lot requirement in that zone)

What Do You Get For $645,000?

Gideon Fountain posting for Christopher Fountain…

You get 4 Relay Court in the middle of downtown Cos Cob. Does that amount of money buy you a nice big house with a 3-car garage and maybe a swimming pool or two in more normal parts of this country? Yes. But if you really, really want Greenwich and $645,000 is your budget, this isn’t such a bad little spot.

How little? The lot is .09 acres, just a tad larger than the mat you throw down for the game of Twister. The house has 1,029 square feet. and is actually pretty nice. You get three bedrooms and one bath, everything updated in 2014. And here’s the kicker: the newly renovated Chicken Joe’s is approximately 300 feet from your back door, how sweet is that!

4 Relay Court, Cos Cob, CT. Started at $685K, reduced to $650K, closes at $645,000.

Listing broker: Angela Swift of Compass. Buyer broker: Angela Swift of Compass. both sides, baby!

Hey! We could build a house on this thing!

Builder home run? On the train tracks??

61 Summit Road, Riverside CT. Ask: $2,995,000. Sell: $3,200,000+ ?

Gideon Fountain posting for Christopher Fountain….

The current record price in this town for a property on the railroad tracks is $3,187,250, on Riverside’s Miltiades Avenue. That happened in 2016 and a bidding war pushed it up above the ask of $3,075,000. Now, it’s happened again, this time, a few blocks away, on Summit Road. The builder paid $827,825 in June, 2020, for the cute little shack that stood there since 1952. The ask was $895,000 and it took many weeks to find a buyer, so obviously, other builders did not see the potential here (Covid concern was still running pretty hot back then).

11 months later, the new house hits the market at $2,995,000 which I was certain was over-priced. That weekend, July 9th, 80 couples showed up for the public open house and, as with Miltiades, the ensuing bidding war pushed the sale price above ask. My guess is $3,200,000 (we’ll know soon), so the Miltiades record falls to the new king.

Listing broker: Kristy de la Sierra (Houlihan Lawrence)

Buyer broker: Julia Allan (Houlihan Lawrence)

61 Summit: the BEFORE picture.

Speaking Of Quick Sales

16 Norton Lane, Old Greenwich (in the Hillcrest Park Association). Asked $2,950,000. Got $2,800,000.

List: Chris Fountain/Michael Dinneen

Sell: Susan Isaak

I forgot to give credit where credit is due… Dinneen and Fountain put this place on at the very wise price of $2.950M and had a deal a few days later, for $2.8M. Chris and Mr. Dinneen got it staged beautifully, photographed perfectly, and on and off the market in a matter of days, exactly how it’s supposed to work!

Houlihan’s Susan Isaak provided the buyer.

How's The Market?

Chris is on vacation, so brother Gideon will provide occasional updates on the Greenwich real estate market

I’m hearing loads of complaints from fellow brokers about how slow the market is. Year-to-year, volume in some parts of town is down 50+ percent, which does sound a bit scary. But there’s a part of town where volume is actually up: The backcountry, referred to as “north of the parkway”.

Could it be because sellers up there long ago threw in the towel and cut their asking prices? The answer is yes, and, as a result, some of the best deals in Greenwich can be had there. Want a big house with guest quarters, pool, tennis, extra acres, and privacy, all for $1M less than a 4,500 sq.ft. new construction in Riverside on half an acre? Head for the hills!

It is worth noting that, as usual, the top agents are all having a great year, despite this slow market. I think it’s because top agents have more credibility than less experienced ones. A top agent tells the client “No, your house is not worth $4M, it is worth $3M”, and the client listens and prices accordingly. The result: a quick sale. Newer agents, lacking experience and depth of market knowledge, don’t have the authority needed to influence the client, so they end up taking a listing at a crazy price, either because the client suggests it, or the agent mistakenly believes the property is worth it. The result: one or two years of misery, with endless showings, multiple public and broker open houses, and ultimately, loss of the listing.

Here are three fresh examples of how it should be done:

58 Winthrop Drive, Riverside

Asked $1,649,000, attracted multiple bids immediately, closed today at $1,910,822.

List: Russ Pruner

Sell: Liz Dagnino

12 Bryon Road, Old Greenwich

Came on the last week of March at $3,550,000, immediately attracted multiple bids, now pending. Smart, smart pricing. While others sit and wait, this one sold.

List: Ellen Mosher

Sell: Lynne Carriello

190 Clapboard Ridge Road, Greenwich

Listed in the middle of March at $6,790,000, reports pending today. Again, VERY smart pricing.

List: Leslie McElwreath

Sell: Diddle McAllister