House of the Day: 698 St. Marks Avenue
Now that a few renovated places in Crown Heights have closed for $1,600,000, this unrenovated limestone is asking $1,650,000. Going by the photos, there’s lots of original detail to work with, but this baby is going need the works. We see a pier mirror, miles of unpainted wood work, original mantels, built-ins and an intriguing…
Now that a few renovated places in Crown Heights have closed for $1,600,000, this unrenovated limestone is asking $1,650,000. Going by the photos, there’s lots of original detail to work with, but this baby is going need the works.
We see a pier mirror, miles of unpainted wood work, original mantels, built-ins and an intriguing if narrow room with a coffered ceiling — perhaps a dining room or a center hall?(A floor plan wouldn’t hurt.) Less appealing are the old-style fluorescent lights and a kitchen crudely inserted into the passthrough between the master bedrooms.
At least it isn’t an SRO. Currently configured as four units, it’s listed as a two-family, so the seller might have to rip out a few kitchens to get the deal done. Couldn’t hurt, in our opinion.
After a lis pendens, it sold to an LLC in December for $515,000. Do you think they’ll get ask?
698 St. Marks Avenue [B.H. Tal Real Estate] GMAP
Update: The floor plan is up!
This house is a genuine beauty for those that can appreciate the original details , you have it all in mint condition, this only needs a repaint and new kitchen and its like going back to the times it was built! After seeing the floor plan which is now on street easy , I can see how huge this house is!
My fellow Brooklynites, realize something good when you see it ! this baby is a gem!
This is my dream house! A real limestone on st marks under 2 million. 4 floors and a basement and an extension this house is huge. It’s mine. I can’t wait for open house. I already sent broker my offer!! I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.
The inside is ABSOLUTELY horrid!!! in every aspect. The wood is way to dark and depressing looking.
blech !!!!!
So let’s say someone buys it with a traditional mortgage. They put down 20%, which is 320k. Then they spend an additional 400k (?) renovating and turning into a triplex with a garden rental for 2500 a month. The mortgage is 8400 a month leaving them with about 6000 to pay on their own.
That means a potential buyer would be a couple, each making 120k+ a year, with 750k in the bank. Schools are rated 4 out of 10.
Does this couple exist? Two executives with no kids? Kids in private school? I suppose the market indicates that this couple does exist.
I was trying to be sarcastic. Ah, well. Maybe I should have picked an example that was $20m instead of just $8m.
But no, I don’t expect anybody to be DIYing the upper west side house, nor the Crown Heights house. If you have $1million in cash and kids in private school and 250k in income you are not wearing overalls and painting stuff.
I agree that Queens is looking more tempting. I would love to stay in Brooklyn for friends and work. So we’re talking Midwood, Flatbush, Sunset Park (though already priced out), Kensington, or Borough Park near Greenwood Cemetery.
To be honest this week California is looking more tempting.
Here’s a beautiful fixer-upper with lots of historical detail only steps from the park. Why not feature it as a house of the day?
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/1049676-townhouse-31-w-89th-st-upper-west-side-new-york
OK, good for them. $1mil in cash. Former wealthy Manhattanites, now wealthy Brooklynites. Or maybe they still live in a Manhattan that stretches all the way to western Crown Heights.
At the risk of repeating myself, their real estate searches, rolled over equity, their renovations, and their brownstone purchases are as dull as the pages of Architectural Digest detailing some celebrity’s interior decorator in suburban Maryland. There is no sense of a bargain, a fixer-upper, putting blood sweat and tears into the wreck.
The thrill is gone. Its just a story of “millionaire buys house, hires high-end contractor to renovate, lives happily ever after”. If the amount of money changing hands, the buyers, and the building stock is pretty much the same as the Upper West Side circa 1994, why bother listing it on this site? As dull now as it was then, just across the river now.
right, no way you get it done for $400k, agreed
PWND