Meet the ‘Condo King’

This story was awarded an Honorable Mention in In-Depth Series from Society of Professional Journalists’ Connecticut chapter in 2010.

Part two of a three-part real estate series on buyers, agents and sellers

Maxwell Wiesen has prided himself on being creative when it comes to selling houses and condominiums in Greenwich.

His home office on Widgeon Way, accented with a pair of fish tanks and visited often by his three Yorkshire terriers, is filled with advertisements from over the years that have diverged from the usual property photos and descriptions. One is designed to look like a Monopoly board, showing the real estate Wiesen has brokered. Another is printed in fancy script and reads like a restaurant menu, promising of one home: “you’re sure to find a pearl in this unique oyster.”

But even Wiesen has had to get a little more creative over the past several months, as the real estate market has slowed to a crawl.

When Wiesen won Associate of the Month in Coldwell Banker’s office on West Putnam Avenue in December, he had sold one house. That’s how bad the market was.

Since the beginning of the year, Wiesen has sold five houses and one townhouse. That’s not much for the so-called ” Condo King,” who has sold 123 condominiums since starting in real estate in 1996, after teaching literature and creative writing at the college level.

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