REAL ESTATE

INSIDE STORIES BEHIND AREA
REAL ESTATE DEALS

SMALL BUT SPECIAL (click photo for larger view)

For those willing to up the ante a bit, you can get even more. One of Susan Breitenbach's listings, a 2,500-square-foot cottage on Little Noyac Path in Water Mill with three bedrooms, four baths and a media room, is listed at $2.45 million. "A house that size on almost three acres is an anomaly," says the Corcoran agent. "It's totally renovated, beautifully done, sleek, modern and perfect, yet small."

(click photo for larger view)

FIRE UP YOUR
SEARCH ENGINES
The moral of the story is that there are great small houses to be found in the Hamptons—if you know where to look. "Sag Harbor boasts the historic small fisherman village houses, North Sea has the campy cottages of the 1940s and the Springs of East Hampton offers cottages on or near Accabonac Harbor with bay views," Keber says, adding that Gerard Drive and Louse Point feature lovely cottages, some in their original state and others newly built to conform to zoning restrictions that have resulted from wetland issues. "Peconic Bay used to offer vacation cottages, but they've been discovered. A lot have been renovated, and prices have soared to reflect the water views and accessibility."

Southampton Shores is a private community with older homes, Keber adds, some larger than others and some renovated to perfection, while Noyac has a cluster of vacation homes with beach access in the vicinity of Cromer's Market. "Adorable! Some are renovated and rebuilt, and others remain in their original condition," she says. "A good area to buy for starters and have fun!"

THE INSIDE SCOOP
by Scoop Drummond
"Price upon request": It's a quandary to many brokers whether to summon those three words, when being direct might ultimately be the better path. When a property is egregiously priced, especially in this challenged market, brokers take the discreet route by not publishing the asking amount, thereby invoking this catchall phrase. The theory is that these three little words will draw potential buyers in, when in reality the reaction to such an ad is often three very different little words: "another overpriced house." ¶ In the old days of carriage trade real estate, the term was used to denote a certain cachet, and exclusivity to what were essentially "important" properties in high-WASP enclaves where the mention of money was in poor taste. These days such enclaves hardly exist, yet the lingo survives in still-trying times when a listing just clearly seems too expensive. ¶ Recently, I saw an ad for two rentals in East Hampton placed side by side in one of the local papers. The properties were your average estate-area houses, and upon further investigation I discovered that their pricing wasn't out of line. But there was the familiar phrase, looking like a smudge on the photo: price upon request. The dirty phrase lives on.