Beware Hiring an agent who will "sell your home" for TOO HIGH of a price

Meeting With Realtors

So you've decided to sell your home and have a fairly good idea of what you think it is worth. Being a sensible home seller, you schedule appointments with three local listing agents who've been hanging stuff on your front doorknob for years. Each Realtor comes prepared with a "Competitive Market Analysis" on fancy paper and they each recommend a specific sales price.

Amazingly, a couple of the Realtors have come up with prices that are lower than you expected. Although they back up their recommendations with recent sales data of similar homes, you remain convinced your house is worth more.

When you interview the third agent's figures, they are much more in line with your own anticipated value, or maybe even higher. Suddenly, you are a happy and excited home seller, already counting the money.

A Sales Practice Called "Buying a Listing"

If you're like many people, you pick Realtor number three. This is an agent who seems willing to listen to your input and work with you. This is an agent that cares about putting the most money in your pocket. This is an agent that is willing to start out at your price and if you need to drop the price later, you can do that easily, right?

After all, everyone else does it!

The truth is that you may have just met an agent engaging in a questionable sales practice called "buying a listing." He "bought" the listing by suggesting you might be able to get a higher sales price than the other agents recommended. Most likely, he is quite doubtful that your home will actually sell at that price. The intention from the beginning is to eventually talk you into lowering the price.

Why do some agents "buy" listings this way?

There are basically two reasons. A well-meaning and hard working agent can feel pressure from a homeowner who has an inflated perception of his home's value. On the other hand, there are some agents who engage in this sales practice routinely.

History Of Greenwich

Greenwich Connecticut is world-renowned for its mystique, coveted beauty and image of affluence. Diverse in its appeal, Greenwich holds a highly distinguished place in American history. Many of the names and places around town have great historical significance, unbeknownst to many who scurry by during their daily routines.

The icon of perfection that Greenwich is today came to fruition during the twentieth century with the social and economic boom of the town. This growth was achieved by the corporate and social leaders who have come here most recently as well as by the many families in town who are descendents of Greenwich¹s early settlers. Operating under a traditional New England town government and blessed with a sophisticated network of dedicated volunteers, Greenwich is like no other place in the world.

Over fifty square miles in size, Greenwich is bordered by Stamford on the east, the Long Island Sound on the south, and Westchester County, New York on the north and west. The town has many distinct sections, each with its own personality and past. The historical development of each of these sections is the story of how Greenwich evolved from the coastal farming and fishing community of the early American colonists to the bustling and intriguing waterfront town that it is today.

Historical Facts

Laddin's Rock Sanctuary is the site of the legend of Dutch settler, Cornelius Labden. In 1642, Ladben rode his horse off a cliff to avoid capture by the Indians who had just tomahawked and scalped his wife and daughter right before his eyes. Today, Laddin's Rock is an 18-acre preserve on the Greenwich/Stamford border.

Post Road Iron Works on Putnam Avenue is the site of a former toll gate for wagons and carriages traveling from New York to Boston between 1792 and 1854. Putnam Avenue at that time was called Toll Gate Road.

The Second Congregational Church on the Post Road was designed in 1856 by Jewish architect, Leopold Eidlitz, inspired by the design of the historic synagogue in his boyhood home of Prague.

In 1884, a group of capitalists purchased land in anticipation of developing Greenwich's first residence park. The price of the land was $46,000. Today this part of town is known as Belle Haven. Among the investors were Nelson Bush, Augustus Mead, John Barrett, James McCutcheon, Robert Bruce, Thomas Mayo, Nathaniel Witherell and Julian Curtiss.

Armstrong Court is the site of the former switch station for the Greenwich Trolley, which ran through town between 1901 and 1927.

The Greenwich High School playing fields are the site of the former Ten Acres, a big open pond where long-skirted ladies and their escorts would arrive by Trolley for a day of ice skating in the early 1900's.

Saks Fifth Avenue on Greenwich Avenue is the former site of both F.W. Woolworth and the Greenwich Library.

Greenwich Avenue, originally called the Road to Piping Point, was paved with soft-colored bricks in the early twentieth century and given the nickname "Yellow Brick Road".

Greenwich Academy, founded in 1826 and originally coeducational, is the oldest girls' school in Connecticut.

The locations of Greenwich High School have been The Board of Education Havemeyer Building (1891-1906), the low-income housing building on Mason Street (1906-1926) and the Town Hall building on Field Point Road (1926-1970). The present High School is located on Hillside Road, at the bottom of the famous Putnam Hill. High school students living in Old Greenwich in the early twentieth century attended school in the building that is now the Old Greenwich Elementary School.

Robert Kennedy and Ethel Skakel were married at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church on Greenwich Avenue.

The Eagle Hill School Boulders property was the former home of Charles William Post of the Postum Cereal Company.

The name Semloh Farm, on the arched entry to the Stanwich Club, is the backward spelling of the name Holmes, a former owner of the property.

In 1957, Montgomery Pinetum (meaning collection of Pines) was dedicated as a park in Cos Cob with 80 specimens of conifer (cone-bearing) plants on the land dedicated to the town by Colonel Robert Montgomery.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were married in the Hunt club, formerly located on Riversville Road in Glenville. Today, the location is a private residence.

Chickahominy, a small community of Italian descendants was reportedly given its name by Civil War veterans who fought in Virginia in the valley of the Chickahominy River.

The Belle Haven Club was founded in 1889 by the residents of this luxury waterfront area. It was originally called The Greenwich Casino Association and later called The Beach Club. The name Casino was chosen based on an original meaning of the word - a social gathering place - not one which provided gambling.

The Greenwich Library building was once a Franklin Simon department store.
Binney Park in Old Greenwich was donated by Edwin Binney of Binney & Smith, makers of Crayola crayons.

The Greenwich Representative Town Meeting (RTM) was organized in 1933.

WGCH Radio began broadcasting in 1964.

Prior to 1970, Greenwich Avenue had two-way traffic.

On June 28, 1983, the Mianus River Bridge collapsed, killing three and causing serious injuries to others.

The Merritt Parkway ceased toll collections in 1988.

In 1990, Greenwich celebrated its 350th birthday.

In 2001, a state Supreme Court ruling overturned Greenwich's residents-only beach policy.

After a long, highly-publicized lawsuit filed against the town by Stamford resident, Brenden P. Leydon, the court concluded that such a restriction was constitutionally prohibited by both the United States and Connecticut Constitutions.

Greenwich Neighborhoods

Byram

Cos Cob

Glenville

North Mianus

Old Greenwich

Pemberwick

Riverside

Greenwich Real Estate News - Home Improvements Myths to Avoid for Home Sellers

When selling your home, there is so much to think about, showing, house value, making repairs or improvements, as well as thinking about your future and new home. It is important to remember that only certain home improvements may help you sell your home faster or for an increased value. Before improving your home for a sale, here are some home improvements myths you should know and avoid. This way you will not spend more time and money than you need to.

Any home improvement project will add value to your home
This is not necessarily true. If you make a home remodel or improvement such as knocking down a wall to make more space, that may be good for you as the homeowner, but it may not increase value for a home buyer that wanted that divided space or wall. Be careful and wise about your home improvement projects.

Buying the highest materials adds more value and attracts more buyers
This again is not always true. Buying the highest materials may actually make buyers look at other homes because they do not consider your home to be as affordable. If this happens, you will lose money and time because it may take your home longer to sell.

Only use simple colors and textures when decorating
This is not really true either. If the homes are simple and plain, the buyer may not be able to picture themselves in the home very well or see it from other points of view. Hiring or consulting with a designer may actually help save you time and money.

Doing it yourself improvements will save you money.
There are many of us that know this is not true. If you are a professional already, you may know how to do the job properly, but if you do not, trying to do it yourself will actually cost you money because you will need to hire a professional to fix problems later.

These home improvements myths should be avoided and carefully thought about before selling your home. Knowing about these myths in advance can help save you and your family time and money as you go about selling your home. That way you can focus on what is really important and sell your home with fewer worries and stress in the future.

Greenwich Real Estate Market Explained

How to Set a Price For Your House

By PATRICK BARTA

Question: My husband is retired and I expect to work for about the next 10 years. We own our home and have lived in it for 27 years. We've found a condo we like very much and feel that our home has topped out in appreciation, so we're thinking of moving. We need an investment that will see us through the next few years and appreciate faster than our current home. The Realtor tells us that our home will sell in 45 to 60 days if we price it right. Should we price it higher so we have room to negotiate?

-- Jack and Rose

Jack and Rose: Pricing a home above the market can be a big mistake. To understand why, consider the following story.

The owners of a 3,000 square-foot Colonial home, recently decided to put their house on the market, without a real-estate agent, for $899,000. When a potential buyer offered $825,000, they refused to sell.

A month later, with no takers, the sellers decided to hire a real-estate agent to list the home. With some quick research, the agent determined that the house should be listed at $799,000, in part because there was another house nearby that had been sitting on the market for a long time at an even lower price, $760,000.

After some negotiating, the sellers finally agreed to list their property for $849,00, but after several more weeks, there were still no takers. They agreed to drop the price further to $799,000.

Not long afterwards, the owners found a taker -- the same buyer who offered $825,000 two months earlier. But this time, the buyer agreed to pay just $775,000 -- a full $50,000 less than they had originally offered.

The moral? Don't ask too much for your home. Buyers aren't stupid, and they have more tools than ever to gather market information, including a slew of home-listings web sites that allow them to research the marketplace with a click of the mouse.

"Buyers are so sophisticated today that they almost know better than the brokers what the homes should be priced at," says Garry Klein, an associate broker at Prudential Rand Realty in the New York suburbs -- and the agent who listed the White Plains house.

All of this is even truer this spring, amid signs that the housing market, while still very strong, is cooling a bit in some areas. Sellers who used to be able to pick prices out of the air are finding that buyers have more supply to choose from, and are less willing to fall into bidding wars with other buyers. Plus, a home that sits on the market for a long time, or has its price reduced, can often appear undesirable. You don't want the buyers to leave your property wondering why the house couldn't attract any interest, a possible sign that something was wrong with the house.

If you ask a more reasonable price, on the other hand, you're much more likely to draw interest from more than one buyer, a situation that always favors the seller. With competitors in the picture, buyers will be more willing to overlook dings or problems that appear in the inspection process, and they might even be willing to bid up the price of property.

All of this leads to a key question: How do you set the right price, anyway?

One good way is simply to rely on real-estate agents. They're not likely to talk you into asking too little; after all, their commissions are tied to the final sales price, so they have every incentive to sell your home for the highest possible figure.

Typically, a real-estate agent will perform a "comparable market analysis," in which the agent looks at recent sales prices of similar homes in the neighborhood to get a feel for what the market will bear. Agents also can bring other knowledge to the table, including a sense of how many similar properties are listed on the market. If there are lots of comparable homes available in your area, they might advise you to lower your price a bit to make the home more competitive.

Of course, you don't have to go through a real-estate agent to calculate a fair-market price. But if you don't, it's wise to do some homework. Some web sites, including forsalebyowner.com and domania.com, allow sellers to pull up sales prices of nearby properties, though it's sometimes difficult to obtain certain details about the homes, like the number of bedrooms or square footage.

It's also possible to get your house appraised yourself. Electronicappraiser.com will provide an "automated" valuation of your home using information culled from electronic databases, often for about $30. Some real-estate experts believe it's more accurate to have an appraiser actually visit your house, but that can cost between $200 and $500 and take several days -- or weeks -- to complete. Even so, a traditional appraisal might not be a bad investment, especially if you're not planning to go through a real-estate agent and therefore not paying their 6% commission.

No matter what you do, however, make sure that you base your sales price on some real information about the marketplace, and make sure it's in line with what the market will bear. If you don't, selling your home could turn into a much bigger headache.