August 6, 2004
Low Priced Houses
A reader recently wrote to complain about the poor showing of Realtors at her broker open house. It was suggested to her (not be me) that agents can’t be bothered with showing listings under one million dollars. When they do show up with a customer they are seeing it for the first time and merely pace through the house, blind to its features. There is a grain of truth to this but it’s not, I think, the whole truth. There are certainly agents in town who only leave their clubs to view mansions, but they aren’t serious about the business. They use their license as a kind of personal house tour conduit and, if they sell anything at all, they sell a house every couple of years to one of their social circle. We tend to ignore them. As an aside, it costs approximately $4,000 a year to comply with all the licenses and regulatory fun associated with this business which seems like an awful lot to pay for a house tour, but boredom is a heavy burden, for some people.
On the other hand, there are some extremely dedicated agents—I’d estimate a hundred or so out of the nine hundred licensed with the Greenwich Board of Realtors—who you will see at every open house in every area of town, all the time. Not surprisingly, these are the people who sell most of the real estate in town. They know the market: what’s on, what’s selling and what’s over-priced, and they impart that knowledge to their customers. They also aren’t too proud or too stupid to neglect houses under one million dollars. Buyers of these ‘starter homes” (and what else would a $895,000 house be?) tend to buy more houses in the future. Those agents who are this for the long run treasure such buyers and try their best to serve them well. So my advice to my disgruntled reader is to ignore the agents who ignore her or who venture into her house with a client on a first-time voyage of discovery and to relax: the real agents are aware of her house and will sell it for her if the price is right.
New Listing
The slow market continues but houses are still selling and some good new ones still pop up now and then. Joan Epand (Shore & Country) just listed a very nice five bedroom house at 36 Deepwoods Lane in Old Greenwich for $2,150,000. It’s part of a development of new homes built in 2000 that, when built, were scoffed at by people like me for their “outrageous” asking prices in the $1.3 range. They sold out instantly and have appreciated about 12.5% every year since. With good reason; the houses were well built and the developer, new to Greenwich, heeded his Realtor’s advice and put in top quality kitchens and baths, used hardwood floors upstairs (he’d been tempted to cover plywood with carpet, which would have been a major mistake) and so forth. That Realtor, Bob Jensen, I think, told me that he’d had a hard time getting Greenwich agents to show these houses (see above) but New Yorkers started coming out to see them. One couple asked what was going up between the model house and another house under construction. “Another house”, Bob admitted, and the New Yorkers replied, “great! We hate this ‘Little House on the Prairie’ feeling!” A shift in marketing to focus on urbanites followed immediately.
The neighborhood still appeals to city folks buying their first suburban home and the houses still sit on smallish lots (this one is on 0.28 of an acre) the houses are standing up well, a real feeling of community has developed and, all in all, Deepwoods is looking good. The area is in the Dundee School district, it’s an easy walk to the train and there are lots of kids around. That’s an excellent combination in this town and the prices of these houses reflect it.
Charity Begins Away from Home
Former Old Greenwich resident Susan Henshaw now teaches in Bridgeport (as well as Greenwich Country Day Summer Camp) and is affiliated with a community group, Groundwork Bridgeport, that, among other activities, creates pocket gardens in the city and trains young people the entrepreneurial skills required to start their own landscaping businesses. They need money, material and volunteers. You can reach Sue at (203) 332-1721 and she’ll tell you more. Perhaps instead of sending that contribution to Ralph Nader’s campaign you can do a little good locally.
A reader recently wrote to complain about the poor showing of Realtors at her broker open house. It was suggested to her (not be me) that agents can’t be bothered with showing listings under one million dollars. When they do show up with a customer they are seeing it for the first time and merely pace through the house, blind to its features. There is a grain of truth to this but it’s not, I think, the whole truth. There are certainly agents in town who only leave their clubs to view mansions, but they aren’t serious about the business. They use their license as a kind of personal house tour conduit and, if they sell anything at all, they sell a house every couple of years to one of their social circle. We tend to ignore them. As an aside, it costs approximately $4,000 a year to comply with all the licenses and regulatory fun associated with this business which seems like an awful lot to pay for a house tour, but boredom is a heavy burden, for some people.
On the other hand, there are some extremely dedicated agents—I’d estimate a hundred or so out of the nine hundred licensed with the Greenwich Board of Realtors—who you will see at every open house in every area of town, all the time. Not surprisingly, these are the people who sell most of the real estate in town. They know the market: what’s on, what’s selling and what’s over-priced, and they impart that knowledge to their customers. They also aren’t too proud or too stupid to neglect houses under one million dollars. Buyers of these ‘starter homes” (and what else would a $895,000 house be?) tend to buy more houses in the future. Those agents who are this for the long run treasure such buyers and try their best to serve them well. So my advice to my disgruntled reader is to ignore the agents who ignore her or who venture into her house with a client on a first-time voyage of discovery and to relax: the real agents are aware of her house and will sell it for her if the price is right.
New Listing
The slow market continues but houses are still selling and some good new ones still pop up now and then. Joan Epand (Shore & Country) just listed a very nice five bedroom house at 36 Deepwoods Lane in Old Greenwich for $2,150,000. It’s part of a development of new homes built in 2000 that, when built, were scoffed at by people like me for their “outrageous” asking prices in the $1.3 range. They sold out instantly and have appreciated about 12.5% every year since. With good reason; the houses were well built and the developer, new to Greenwich, heeded his Realtor’s advice and put in top quality kitchens and baths, used hardwood floors upstairs (he’d been tempted to cover plywood with carpet, which would have been a major mistake) and so forth. That Realtor, Bob Jensen, I think, told me that he’d had a hard time getting Greenwich agents to show these houses (see above) but New Yorkers started coming out to see them. One couple asked what was going up between the model house and another house under construction. “Another house”, Bob admitted, and the New Yorkers replied, “great! We hate this ‘Little House on the Prairie’ feeling!” A shift in marketing to focus on urbanites followed immediately.
The neighborhood still appeals to city folks buying their first suburban home and the houses still sit on smallish lots (this one is on 0.28 of an acre) the houses are standing up well, a real feeling of community has developed and, all in all, Deepwoods is looking good. The area is in the Dundee School district, it’s an easy walk to the train and there are lots of kids around. That’s an excellent combination in this town and the prices of these houses reflect it.
Charity Begins Away from Home
Former Old Greenwich resident Susan Henshaw now teaches in Bridgeport (as well as Greenwich Country Day Summer Camp) and is affiliated with a community group, Groundwork Bridgeport, that, among other activities, creates pocket gardens in the city and trains young people the entrepreneurial skills required to start their own landscaping businesses. They need money, material and volunteers. You can reach Sue at (203) 332-1721 and she’ll tell you more. Perhaps instead of sending that contribution to Ralph Nader’s campaign you can do a little good locally.
posted by Chris Fountain at 11:35 AM
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