Schoolmates at New Rochelle High School, Jason Epstein and Victor Naar now live in Manhattan, are partners in EN Properties headquartered in Yonkers, N.Y., and have recently entered the real estate market in lower Fairfield County.

"You gotta have a gimmick," said the co-presidents. They buy distressed properties, with a renovation plan in mind, bring in a large crew and redo the home in short order.

Since a brief turnaround is important to them, they have been known to sell under the market by a percentage point or so to effect a quick sale.

"We like to get in and out quick," Naar said. "On average, we have a house four to five months. We don't get greedy. But if numerous people are interested, I let them drive the price up, if they are willing to do so."

In business together just four years, the partners purchased 45 homes in Westchester County and five more in this area last year. They recently sold a two-bedroom, one-bath home on Center Street in Stamford for $233,000. In the weeks it took to complete the redo, they painted the outside, put in a new kitchen with hardwood floors, redid the bath and refinished the floors.

"We have found a niche in the business," Naar said. "We are protected, if the market turns, while a builder, starting from the ground up. May have to wait a year to a year and a half to sell a house."

They also have a formula for determining whether or not to buy, according to Naar.

"If the house fits the formula, we buy it," he said. "But like at KFC, the formula is a secret recipe."

Most of their monies have stayed under the $500,000 line, but not their most recent projects.

In New Canaan, EN updated a three-bedroom, 2.5-bath condo at Canaan Close with stainless steel appliances in the redone kitchen and new hardwood floors. They also added square footage by finishing the basement as an office.

The condo is listed at $819,000 by Regina Van der Hayden of Coldwell Banker Mabel C. Lamb in New Canaan. Van der Hayden will also list their remodeled four-bedroom colonial on 2 acres on Pheasant Drive above the $900,000 price point.

"Both have professional appliances, granite and stone, and neutral, sophisticated tones," Van der Hayden said.

In Stamford, EN has taken a giant step up the price mountain, remodeling the Hemlock Estate on Erskine Road, that the listing agent, Rick Carnes, whose Stamford agency carries his family name, has priced at $1.975 million.

"There's more opportunity and less competition, to some degree, in the higher priced ranges," Epstein said. "There's more risk but also a greater reward over $500,000."

On 2.7 acres with old lichen- and moss-covered stone walls, the estate grounds showcase centuries-old beech trees, a fish pond bedecked with water lilies, sweeps of lush lawn and old stone paths. The estate was built by Henry White, whose family helped settle the area, according to the Stamford Historical Society. The original house, built in 1839, was 31 feet by 28 feet, with later additions bringing today's basic dimensions to 45 by 110 feet.

The 7,000-square-foot house was in foreclosure when EN bought it, winning out eight competing bidders. Naar and Epstein have restored fireplaces, the random-width plank floors, the old dentil moldings and the unusual 15-over-15 windows. Old pocket doors have been scraped and painted and the original brass hardware restored to its early gleam. The Viking kitchen is all new, as is the wiring. The original summer kitchen will be an art gallery, there's a hidden wet bar in the very large living room and the master suite has a new bath, four closets and a separate sitting room with balcony.

The five-bedroom, five-bath, three-powder-room manor house is complemented by a refurbished greenhouse, a three-bedroom home over a four-bay garage, and an au pair or guest cottage, with a beamed living room with brick fireplace, kitchenette, bedroom and bath and outdoor his and hers changing rooms for the renovated swimming pool. The restoration and updating has been thorough, but the neighborhood justifies the cost, according to Naar.

"We like areas that have spillover," said Naar, who previously worked in city government in Stamford. "North Stamford gets spillover from Greenwich. The trick is not to do more than the market and the house call for."

How did it all begin?

"I worked for two years for a developer and got a master's degree in real estate development at New York University," Epstein said. "I found one house in a bad neighborhood in South Yonkers that was rundown and in foreclosure. I called Victor, who was always interested in real estate. We bought it for $78,000, and put in $25,000 or $30,000 and sold it for $160,000."

"We were going to keep the house for rental income, but when we saw what we could resell it for, we knew we were on to something," Epstein said.

Today Epstein is in charge of property acquisition, and Naar handles construction management and property sales. EN has two "buyers", one in Westchester County, the other in Fairfield County, and one grandfather, Sam Werber, doing research and finding deals.

Future plans call for amassing a portfolio of multi-family rental properties to insulate against any downturn in the market and forming a satellite crew, with a foreman, for even better quality control, Epstein said.