TAKING A DIP
Across the HAMPTONS, summer’s end signals the coming of deep real estate discounts
D AVID Shaulian and Yonel Devico’s eight-bedroom home in Bridgehampton measures 11,000 square feet with a chef ’s kitchen, a finished basement and a pool. The cedar-shingled manse also includes eight full bathrooms and is set on about half an acre.
Yet, despite its fancy trappings — and a particularly robust Hamptons real estate market — 114 Lockwood Ave. has failed to find a buyer. It’s been listed since 2014, but the duo shaved $100,000 off the price this month. The property is now asking $5.89 million through Douglas Elliman’s Dianne McMillan Brannen and Lori Barbaria.
“We just really wanted to make the home more appealing to prospective buyers,” says Devico, a home builder who financed the investment prop- erty with business partner Shaulian. “Showing some movement on the price is the best way to do that.”
As the dog days of the season come to a close, home sellers on the East End are adding one more item to a to-do list that usually includes packing up beach chairs and putting away bikinis. Many are also slashing prices on properties that have sat unsold
all summer in a last-ditch effort to lure buyers before the leaves change.
While a flurry of latesummer price cuts is not uncommon, 2017 has seen more than usual, brokers report. The reductions range from the extreme (a 15-acre spread at 4 Sandacres Lane in Quogue that dropped its price from $24.99 million to $17.49 million) to the relatively slight (Devico and Shaulian’s $100,000 chop, or the $300,000 shaved off a modern farmhouse at 16 Fieldview Lane in East Hampton that is now asking $5.39 million).
“No one is panicking, but moving the price lower ensures that your listing gets attention,” says Corcoran broker Gary DePersia. “If your home hasn’t sold yet, it’s time to take action, and cutting the price is usually the best thing to do.”
A four-bedroom at 781 North Sea Road in Southampton with 1,700 square feet got a $36,000 discount this week to $739,000, while a beach cottage at 15 Oak Road in Sag Harbor is now on the market for $649,000 after a $40,000 reduction in June.
The practice can mean serious savings for buyers. Take the spacious two-story contemporary for sale in the East Hampton hamlet of Wainscott. On 4 acres, the four-bedroom, threebathroom house at 8 Liano Drive, with a heated pool and hot tub, is just a short drive from the town’s pristine beaches.
Yet, despite its copious amenities, the property’s most appealing feature may be its relatively affordable price tag. After failing to lure a buyer all summer, the home’s ask is now $1.55 million. The property originally hit the market last year with an asking price of $2.34 million.
“Sellers get motivated at this point of the summer,” says William Wolff, the Elliman broker who has the listing. “The best way to make these properties more attractive is to cut the price before summer ends.”
And because many people rent their homes for the season, late summer steals are common as renters begin to pack up, Elliman’s McMillan Brannen says. She adds that even the slightest price reduction could make a property more appealing. “Buyers typically come out here looking to make deals now,” she says. “Even when we get past Labor Day, we’ll still see people looking for bargains.”
Heeding this wisdom is Marilyn Stanco, a 68-yearold retired college administrator who put her Sag Harbor weekend home at 71 Franklin Ave. up for sale in late 2016. She recently reduced its asking price by $100,000 to $1.1 million. The two-bedroom sits in Sag Harbor Village and includes a secondary building that could be converted into an artist studio or guest house.
“We got some atten- tion and even a few offers [before], but nothing close to what we wanted,” says Stanco (the home has been in her family since the 1950s). “Hopefully the new price will get us what we’re looking for.”
The flurry of price markdowns in the Hamptons at this time of the year comes in spite of data that supports a booming East End real estate market.
Home values continue to soar and the pace of sales has accelerated. The median sale price for a singlefamily house hit a record $1.07 million in the second quarter of 2017, a rise of 7.5 percent from a year earlier, according to a report by appraiser Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman. Forty-eight homes priced at $5 million or higher changed hands in the three months from April through June, the most for any quarter since the end of 2015, the report shows.
Meanwhile, sales of single-family houses jumped 26 percent in the quarter from a year earlier, to 674, Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman add. The nnumber of listings on thethe mmarket fell 4.1 percent as eageeager buyers snapped up homehomes at the fastest pace in years. Those hhopinging to capitalizecap on the hehealthy property market include ququite a few celebrities.celebr Yet Hamptons
high-fliersh are not immune to the rampant fall-is-coming priceslashing; a slew of listings with boldface names attached have had their asks dropped.
Hollywood heavyweight Harvey Weinstein shaved nearly $1 million off his Amagansett property in July. Originally asking $13.5 million, the gated estate on roughly 2 acres, dubbed Broadview on the Bay, is now priced at $12.4 million, according to Sotheby’s.
There’s also “Today” show host Matt Lauer and wife Annette Roque, who reduced the price of their Sag Harbor property this summer for the second time. The 25-acre estate at 2301 Deerfield Road now has a $14.9 million price tag, down from its $17.99 million ask in 2016, according to Corcoran.
And Tiffany & Co. chief artistic officer Reed Krakoff and interior designer wife Delphine have again cut the price of their palatial estate Lasata, Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ childhood summer home. It’s now on the market for $47 million down from $53.99 million, according to Elliman.
See, even the mighty fall. DePersia, of Corcoran, says he’s not surprised to see asks at the very high end of the market lose their luster.
“People tend to over price a property at the start of summer,” he says. “But they usually come back down to Earth as we get closer to Labor Day.”