M14| Friday, March 13, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
LISTING
Price: $949,000
Scarsdale, NY
Distance from NYC:22 milesA five-bedroom Colonial built in
1928 that is in Eastchester’s Green-
knolls neighborhood. There are
glass-paned french doors, a formal
dining room and an updated
kitchen.
Listing Agent: Happy French-Zingaro,MANSION
This Old
House
couple of years, many of these old
houses have gone up for sale, as
their longtime, baby boomer own-
ersdownsizeormovetowarmer
climes.
Unless they have been thor-
oughly renovated, these older
homes tend to sit on the market,
real-estate agents say, as many
buyers don’t want to do any reno-
vation work. “They want to walk
in with a suitcase and a tooth-
brush,” says Lori Hoffman, an
agent with the Usha Subramaniam
team at Compass.
This attitude is changing as
prices continue to rise: The me-
dian sales price of homes in
Westchester increased 6.4% to
$500,000 in the fourth quarter of
2019, according to a report re-
leased in January by appraiser
Miller Samuel and brokerage
Douglas Elliman Real Estate,
which estimates that some 61% of
the homes in Westchester were
built before 1960.
Annie Qadir, 32, and her hus-
band, Ahsaan Qadir, 34, spent
more than two years searching for
a home in Chappaqua, N.Y., where
Mr. Qadir grew up as a teenager
and where his parents still live.
They wanted a renovated house
but “the numbers just didn’t make
sense,” says Ms. Qadir.
Mr. Qadir first balked when
real-estate agent Lindsay Roth-
man with Compass introduced
them to a four-bedroom, 3,776-
square-foot ranch built in 1953.Continued from page M1But when Ms. Rothman showed
them the neighborhood comps,
the couple, both pharmacists, de-
cided to go for it, paying $799,000
this past December—significantly
less than the original list price of
$1.395 million in 2017.
Mr. Qadir has been watching
DIY videos on YouTube, and has
already bought items for the up-
stairs bathrooms. “He tells me it’s
easy to change out the toilet and
vanity. I’m a little nervous about
that,” says his wife. The couple
have spent about $5,000 and ex-
pect to spend a total of $25,000
on renovations when they are
done. Ms. Rothman estimates the
finished home will be worth over
$1 million.
Jackie Newman, 39, and her
husband Mark Newman, 40, had
been living for eight years in a
circa-1900 house in Irvington,
N.Y., that they’d bought for
$540,000. Ms. Newman, who is in
digital advertising, and Mr. New-
man, an attorney, loved the area,
but with three children and a
nanny, they “were busting at the
seams,” she says.
Ms. Newman was attracted to a
five-bedroom Colonial on a large
lot with a swimming pool asking
$975,000, but worried it would be
too much work. Every room re-
quired something: The floors
would need refinishing, the wall-
paper would have to go, there was
a wall between the kitchen and
the fireplace she didn’t like, and
the bathrooms were outdated.
What she did like was that the
house, built in 1965, had been the
home of one family who had
raised their five children there. “I
know its history. I have friends
who swam in that pool,” she says.
The Newmans closed on the
house this month for $932,000.
They think they got such a deal
because the ad said “as is,” scar-
ing off others.
So far they have only taken
down the wallpaper and painted
the walls, but they expect to even-tually spend around $200,000
overall. “We know we will get
more for our money than by buy-
ing something already done,” says
Ms. Newman.
Jenn Whittem, a 38-year-old
executive assistant, ran into a
hornet’s nest—literally—while
working on her living room in her
four-bedroom fixer upper in Cro-
ton-on-Hudson. She says her fin-
gers went through what had
looked like drywall but had been
turned into a gaping hole by hor-
nets. After some time panicking,
she looked up how to pack a hole
on YouTube and finished painting
the room, saving thousands of
dollars. She says she and her hus-
band, Lior Galanti, eat dinner on
the workbench and spend all of
their free time working on the
house. He recently read much of
the National Electrical Code, a
guide of over 800 pages, to do
electrical work.
The couple, who paid $700,000
for the home in September, say
they have no regrets. They looked
at over 70 homes, almost all of
them renovated, and found that
even when something was nicely
done, it wasn’t exactly what they
wanted, and they’d rather take a
discount and spend the money
they saved on their own projects.
On the other side are the own-
ers, who can find it difficult to get
their homes to move. Michael De-Marco has taken a Nyack, N.Y.,
home, which he had gutted after
he bought it and had listed for
$732,000, off the market and
plans to do the renovations him-
self before trying to sell again.
Jeff Edelman didn’t think it
would take so long to sell the Co-
lonial where his parents lived for
60 years. The three-bedroom
house in Hastings-on-Hudson,
N.Y., has original wood floors with
inlaid mahogany, Palladian win-
dows and views of the Hudson
River and the George Washington
Bridge.
Mr. Edelman listed the house in
March for $1.095 million. He is
now on his fifth reduction, with
the current price at $849,000. He
says the house is in great shape
except for the porch, which needs
to be redone—something his real-
estate agent told him has deterred
buyers from even looking at it.
“It’s in decent condition. People
just don’t want to update,” he
says.DUNCAN URQUADT (2); ROBERT H. SHAW (SCARSDALE)
The rationale for buying a
new home versus an exist-
ing home varies, but in
general, real-estate agents
say it comes down to a ra-
tio of perceived value ver-
sus work. The latest survey
by the National Association
of Realtors had the follow-
ing findings:39%
of buyers who recently pur-
chased new homes were
looking to avoid renova-
tions and problems with
plumbing or electricity.33%
of buyers who purchased
previously owned homes
were most often consider-
ing a better overall value.85%
of buyers said heating and
cooling costs were the
most important environ-
mental features in a home.Source: National Association of Realtors
2019 Home Buyers and Sellers ReportOLD OR NEW?
Paid$932,000in March 2020;
estimated renovation cost$200,000Jackie Newman and Mark Newman bought this five-bedroom, 3,192-
square-foot Colonial in Irvington, N.Y., and are planning updates.Owner Michael DeMarco gutted a home he owned in Nyack, N.Y., and had it on the market for $732,000. Earlier
this month he decided to take it off the market and fix it before trying to sell it again.Paid$450,000
in August 2019DONNA COX/BHG RAND REALTYInterior projects ranked by
what real-estate agents
think appeals the most to
buyers:- KITCHEN
- HVAC
- WOOD FLOORING
- BATHROOM
Source: National Association of Realtors
2019 Remodeling Impact ReportBIGGEST DRAWS
160 Ocean Palms Ctview:Ocean sq ft:5,384PRICE:$5,862,000
beds: 6Isitpossibletofeelnostalgicthefirsttimeyouvisitaplace?
KIAWAH GETS YOU
Prices and availability are subject to change. Square footage and acreage is approximate. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.kiawahisland.com/explore | 866.312.1780349Governor’sDrview:Lagoon sq ft:3,542PRICE:$1,599,000
beds: 520 Rhett’s Bluff Rdview:Marsh sq ft:6,628PRICE:$3,950,000
beds: 5KiawahIslandinvokesafeelingyoucan’tquitedescribeyetneverwanttoletgo.WhenyoufallforKiawah,youfallhard.
204 Sand Fiddler Ctview:Ocean sq ft:5,154PRICE: $8,500,000
beds: 54 Ocean Course DrPRICE:$7,700,000
view:Ocean beds: 4 sq ft:6,54222 Marsh Edge LnPRICE: $1,890,000
view:Lagoon beds: 4 sq ft:4,281171FlywayDrview:Ocean sq ft:6,295PRICE:$7,900,000
beds: 625 Marsh Cottage LnPRICE: $1,750,000view:Ocean beds:^4 sq ft:2,786