Every Monday, “06880” features 4 “Then & Now” homes: one that was torn down, and the home that replaced it.
There are many reasons why new owners opt for new construction. The house they bought may not fit their needs. It may be too small, architecturally outdated, or lacking modern amenities.
But there’s another reason: It was not maintained well.
For sellers who hope their home survives the wrecking ball, that’s one variable they can control.
Our friends at KMS Team at Compass know all about maintaining a home. They say:
Westport’s teardown issue isn’t just about developers. Deferred maintenance plays a role, too.
Plenty of buyers appreciate older homes, and see them as a more affordable way into town. But when years of deferred maintenance add up, renovating may no longer make financial sense, and the value shifts to the land.
Taking care of our older homes helps preserve the character of Westport, and gives the next buyer a reason to renovate rather than tear down.
Maintenance is preservation. Homeowners who consistently care for the fundamentals of an older home give future buyers the option to renovate and preserve it, rather than making the land itself the property’s greatest value. The goal is not to make an older home new. It is to keep it healthy.
This 1939 River Lane home has been expanded to 6 bedrooms. Its architectural details have been well maintained.
Maintaining a home does not mean constantly renovating it, or having the latest kitchen and bathrooms. It means taking care of the bones of the house — the roof, foundation, drainage, electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling systems, chimney, septic or sewer connection, and environmental and safety issues.
Cosmetic updates are relatively easy for a buyer to envision. What can become overwhelming is a house with years of deferred maintenance. An older kitchen can be charming; a failing roof, water intrusion, outdated electrical system and neglected mechanicals are much harder to overlook.
Buyers are much more willing to work with an older home when they believe the underlying house is sound.
We see buyers who genuinely appreciate Westport’s Capes, ranches and older colonials. They may be perfectly happy renovating a kitchen, opening up a floor plan or adding a primary suite. But when they start adding up a new roof, windows, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, drainage, mold remediation and structural work, the economics can quickly change.
At some point buyers stop asking, “How can I make this house my own?” and start asking, “Does it make more sense to start over?” That’s often how a perfectly appealing older home becomes viewed primarily for its land.
Owners should think of home maintenance as an ongoing program — not something to address right before selling.
This High Gate Road home looks fresh and appealing.
Start with the basics: Clean your gutters, keep water away from the house, address leaks immediately, service HVAC equipment, inspect the roof and chimney, maintain septic systems where applicable, watch for rot and insect damage, and periodically evaluate plumbing and electrical systems.
Keep trees and vegetation from damaging the house. Pay attention to basements and crawl spaces for moisture.
Save invoices, permits, warranties and information about major improvements. When it comes time to sell, being able to show buyers that a home has been consistently cared for creates confidence.
Fall is a good time to address maintenance issues. Focus on gutters and drainage, roof and chimney condition, heating system servicing, exterior wood and trim, tree limbs near the house, outdoor faucets and irrigation, and identifying any areas where water or ice could cause damage over the winter.
If you’re thinking about selling but have not done much maintenance, there are several steps to take. But putting money into cosmetic renovations before addressing deferred maintenance can be the wrong investment.
Don’t assume you need to renovate everything. First, look at the house the way a buyer and home inspector will. Identify significant structural, mechanical, environmental and safety issues first. Then prioritize the items most likely to frighten buyers, or make the cost of owning the house feel unpredictable.
A homeowner preparing to sell might be much better served spending money correcting water intrusion, repairing a roof, addressing electrical or plumbing concerns, servicing mechanical systems, removing mold or repairing exterior rot than installing a brand-new kitchen that the next owner may replace anyway.
Real estate agents can also help homeowners prioritize. The objective is to determine which improvements will give buyers confidence that the house is worth preserving.
(“06880” reports often on all aspects of Westport’s real estate market. If you enjoy our coverage — or anything else on our hyper-local blog — please click here, to support our work. Thank you!)
This is a silly post, I think. By far the majority of “tear downs”are motivated by new owner wanting to put their own (show- offy??? )
imprimatur on the property.
Nah, we sold our home for good ole fashioned MONEY and to escape the radical transformation of a town we used to love.
Curious about this ‘radical transformation’ statement?
Can you elaborate?
Thanks Jo Ann
My husband moved to Westport in 1953, I moved to the town in 1984. Both time periods included block parties, kids playing in the streets, folks really getting to really know their neighbors and a real sense of community. A pride. The COVID NY aliens destroyed that and now we have horrendous traffic, a Post Road expressway, neighbors who barely know each with little interaction and a sense of entitlement that comes with money. I realize much of my opinion comes from getting older and while I totally accept eventual change, but to me, I don’t even recognize the town now. We moved to Bernuda.
Dan (Katz, not Woog),
I totally agree with you. This is a silly post. But please give Dan (Woog, not Katz) a break. It’s Labor Day (which is typically a long weekend but in Westport they ALL are) and Dan hired an intern from Staples (High School not the office supply superstore) to cover “Westport breaking events” while he was resting (from covering Westport not creating the universe). The kid got carried away (figuratively speaking, not literally) and wrote what you pejoratively called “a silly post, I think.”
As my Staples Latin teacher Edna Kearns reiterated ad nauseum:
“Cogito Ergo Sum” (but I never did so I never was).
Let’s give 06880 a rest for the long weekend. It doesn’t deserve it (but we certainly do).
Both are true.
Many old homes suffer from neglect, & many developers leap at the opportunity to overbuild.
So, John,
Your summary conclusion is that we should encourage tear downs, not prevent them (as Dan’s headline implied)?
I’m seeking to understand, not be understood (that cause was lost when I moved to the “big city” in 1978).
I’m not sure it’s a Town priority to encourage the preservation of structures which have historic merit, but if it actually is, the RTM could, per CGS Sec. 12-127a, adopt an ordinance providing for property tax abatement ( in whole or in part). The HDC and ARB could review the matter and, if such an ordinance appeared to have support, could make a recommendation to the First Selectman and the RTM.
The piece focuses on deferred maintenance on the part of the seller, who by the way may be a long time senior resident living off retirement income and less interested in the house surviving them. It omits the fact that, even if perfectly maintained up to the sale date, a centuries-old house will require significantly more ongoing maintenance post-sale over the new buyers tenure. It will inevitably be a bigger hole in the ground into which to pour money. Our Town incentives for a buyer taking this on are performative rather than effective.
An important practical point follows from this excellent advice. Owners of contributing residences in a National Register historic district—such as the Bridge Street National Register District—may qualify for Connecticut’s Historic Homes Rehabilitation Tax Credit.
The program can provide a credit equal to 30% of approved rehabilitation expenses, up to $30,000, with a minimum project cost of $15,000. Eligible work can include many of the fundamentals discussed here: roofs, chimneys, gutters, foundations, structural repairs, windows, exterior carpentry and painting, masonry, electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling systems, and hazardous-material remediation.
The program favors repairing historic materials rather than replacing them, and several projects may be combined in one application. The crucial proviso is that the homeowner must apply and receive approval from the State Historic Preservation Office before beginning the work; it cannot be claimed afterward.
National Register status itself does not impose the controls of a local historic district. In this instance, however, it can provide a genuine financial advantage to owners who maintain and preserve their houses.
KMS does a valuable service in discussing this issue. The Town of Westport might do more to make owners of eligible properties aware of this opportunity… perhaps the Historic District Commission could provide seminars or counseling?
Maintenance is preservation—but helping homeowners afford appropriate maintenance is preservation policy.
Sometimes neglect can occur from inertia or perhaps from medical or financial constraints or perhaps from chronic “whatever…” If neglect does not occur from those things, it would not be surprising if some people have never been taught how to take care of their things. This begins in early childhood and by the time adolescents inhabit the house they can behave in a civilized way (admittedly, occasionally grudgingly). But that’s how life is…. there are responsiblities at all ages and for myriad reasons and throughout one’s life. Get used to it. I was brought up in what now probably would be considered a rather formal atmosphere. Manners were learned when my sister and I were toddlers and as we grew up, at each phase we learned about our share of household chores. Make your bed before school every day. Help doing the dishes (drying or putting away); dust the staircase (this was an 1893 Victorian requiring extra and frequent care). If we grumbled, we were firmly reminded this was our home and not a resort and therefore we all participate in taking care of it; our responsiblities increased as we became adolescents. Each week we received a small allowance (now small, then adequate) to spend as we wished while understanding that if spending it all right away, there would be no supplemental allowance until the next Saturday (that was allowance day). Or, we could save up our weekly allowance for awhile in case there was something special or fun that we each wanted. This taught us how to budget and to consider immediate gratification vs saving for a goal. That applied to the house as well. The house was kept in fine shape. I would have appreciated interior heating being installed on the third floor, which was my room, but at least rooms on the main floor had central heating as did one of the bedrooms and the bathroom upstairs. That’s right, there was one bathroom. The point is, work within financial limits to do what you can with your surroundings. Service your furnace annually, make sure you have a good plumber and electrician; check your roof whenever you go outside; if you look up to the clouds and trees you can look down again…to your roof. Get your gutters cleaned out every Spring and while the gutter guy is walking around on the roof ask him to inspect it for damaged areas and make sure that there is no moss on the roof. Check for mice. Make sure your front walk is safe. Inspect the exterior of the house and if a woodpecker has found a favorite place to damage, repair it immediately or call your carpenter. This is called home maintenance. It is less expensive to fix a small job than to allow what was small grow to large and more costly. This will keep one’s dwelling in condition regardless of age or size. But if you like your house which has some patina (resulting from being inhabited by a family) and has pleasant architecture regardless of the era, that’s terrific. And keep in mind that if the location is important to somebody, the single thing that cannot be altered with a house is the piece of the land on which the house sits. Oh yes, it can be adjusted– graded or flattened– but it cannot be moved. After that, if somebody is looking for a brand new currently modern house but is looking at your house which may not be up-to-this minute modern, remember there are some large white newly built houses for people who want them.
Elizabeth actually comments constructively on the initial post instead of dismissing it as “silly”. Both things can be true – maintenance is critical to any structure and some people just want new.
The pool of buyers includes investors and, of course, private buyers. Once you pay the Town entry fee the only way for ROI is to extravagantly build, sometimes ‘overbuild’. Maintenance is part, but ‘base price’ for the opportunity to live in Westport is prime feature. Iconic architectural gems in Greenwich on/close to the water have been torn down and replaced by supersized-and genuinely ‘desirable’ for a class of buyers.