September 10, 2004
37 Mahr Avenue
Betsy Galindo brought this great old house on the market last week and, notwithstanding that almost everyone in town seems to be out of town, I’ll be surprised if it’s still around when people return. A 1910 house that was renovated just a few years ago, it still has enough of its original yard—almost an acre—to sit very nicely up from the street. Six bedrooms, three floors, great yards front and back, it seemed well priced at $2,750,000.00. It last sold in 2001 for $2,100,000; if it goes for its current asking price now, that would yield a 31% gain in three years or, for the math challenged, a little over 10% per year. That’s not up to dot.com money but then, neither are dot.coms, these days.
Do Your Homework
Wilson Alling, of New England Land Company, contacted me recently with a pet peeve: agents who accept a listing and then leave it to the selling agent to dig up plot and septic plans, surveys and the like. Most of this information is available at Town hall (building permits, in particular, are filed under one of the most arcane filing systems imaginable) and Wilson’s point is that it the listing, not the selling agent, who can do that research in advance. By the time a buyer is interested, time has usually become a factor and everyone’s rushing around like madmen. So if you’ve listed your house, ask your agent to do a bit of legwork now, rather than later. It might save a deal and it will certainly spare your agent from Wilson’s wrath.
Speaking of Wrath
I heard a rumor recently that a local builder, after working with an agent for many, many months to unload a certain house, finally found a buyer for it and, rather than pay the commission he owed, “sold” the property to a limited partnership with the intention of having that entity sell to the would-be buyer. The agent, our rumor continues, has now filed a lien against the property which, if true, should certainly make for an interesting closing. The point being, I suppose, that like tax strategies that appear too cute to be true, creating dummy entities to avoid contractual obligations usually isn’t a brilliant idea. Greenwich’s own Long Term Capital gurus just got whacked with a $53,000,000 tax bill, Noble prizes or not; this builder won’t be paying that much but it was still a dumb move. As a lawyer, I was often puzzled by a client’s stratagems to avoid paying commissions: it made more sense to stiff someone like his lawyer than the person who put money in his pocket (actually, they usually tried to do both). In any event, it sounds as though this particular builder will be paying up after all, however reluctantly.
The Market Returns
This is the week that the market finally begins to stir back to life or at least I hope so. While a lot of houses were sold over the summer, not much new inventory came on, especially in the past few weeks, so those of us with buyers who had already seen everything in their price range and rejected it have been left in a rather boring holding pattern. “Wanna look at that house again?” “No!”. Next year I intend to leave town from August 1st until the second week of September. But with schools finally back in session (and the Post Road returned to its usual morning and mid-afternoon mess) a great many open houses are being scheduled for new and re-priced listings and buyers are again calling. Next week, traditionally, will see the number of new listings at their peak and the buyers will be out there. Your house should sell between now and Thanksgiving; if it doesn’t, either lower the price (by, say Halloween, to give the market time to respond) or prepare for a long cold winter.
Patriotism
I noticed one of those “ACK” stickers pasted on a Lincoln Navigator the other day but this one had a red, white and blue flag motif as a background. I guess that’s so, while our soldiers are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, this vehicle owner can loll on Nantucket and show his support. I’m sure the troops will be pleased.
Betsy Galindo brought this great old house on the market last week and, notwithstanding that almost everyone in town seems to be out of town, I’ll be surprised if it’s still around when people return. A 1910 house that was renovated just a few years ago, it still has enough of its original yard—almost an acre—to sit very nicely up from the street. Six bedrooms, three floors, great yards front and back, it seemed well priced at $2,750,000.00. It last sold in 2001 for $2,100,000; if it goes for its current asking price now, that would yield a 31% gain in three years or, for the math challenged, a little over 10% per year. That’s not up to dot.com money but then, neither are dot.coms, these days.
Do Your Homework
Wilson Alling, of New England Land Company, contacted me recently with a pet peeve: agents who accept a listing and then leave it to the selling agent to dig up plot and septic plans, surveys and the like. Most of this information is available at Town hall (building permits, in particular, are filed under one of the most arcane filing systems imaginable) and Wilson’s point is that it the listing, not the selling agent, who can do that research in advance. By the time a buyer is interested, time has usually become a factor and everyone’s rushing around like madmen. So if you’ve listed your house, ask your agent to do a bit of legwork now, rather than later. It might save a deal and it will certainly spare your agent from Wilson’s wrath.
Speaking of Wrath
I heard a rumor recently that a local builder, after working with an agent for many, many months to unload a certain house, finally found a buyer for it and, rather than pay the commission he owed, “sold” the property to a limited partnership with the intention of having that entity sell to the would-be buyer. The agent, our rumor continues, has now filed a lien against the property which, if true, should certainly make for an interesting closing. The point being, I suppose, that like tax strategies that appear too cute to be true, creating dummy entities to avoid contractual obligations usually isn’t a brilliant idea. Greenwich’s own Long Term Capital gurus just got whacked with a $53,000,000 tax bill, Noble prizes or not; this builder won’t be paying that much but it was still a dumb move. As a lawyer, I was often puzzled by a client’s stratagems to avoid paying commissions: it made more sense to stiff someone like his lawyer than the person who put money in his pocket (actually, they usually tried to do both). In any event, it sounds as though this particular builder will be paying up after all, however reluctantly.
The Market Returns
This is the week that the market finally begins to stir back to life or at least I hope so. While a lot of houses were sold over the summer, not much new inventory came on, especially in the past few weeks, so those of us with buyers who had already seen everything in their price range and rejected it have been left in a rather boring holding pattern. “Wanna look at that house again?” “No!”. Next year I intend to leave town from August 1st until the second week of September. But with schools finally back in session (and the Post Road returned to its usual morning and mid-afternoon mess) a great many open houses are being scheduled for new and re-priced listings and buyers are again calling. Next week, traditionally, will see the number of new listings at their peak and the buyers will be out there. Your house should sell between now and Thanksgiving; if it doesn’t, either lower the price (by, say Halloween, to give the market time to respond) or prepare for a long cold winter.
Patriotism
I noticed one of those “ACK” stickers pasted on a Lincoln Navigator the other day but this one had a red, white and blue flag motif as a background. I guess that’s so, while our soldiers are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, this vehicle owner can loll on Nantucket and show his support. I’m sure the troops will be pleased.
posted by Chris Fountain at 8:44 AM
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