House of the Day: 396 Vanderbilt Avenue

Given the fact that almost no inventory exists in Ft. Greene, Park Slope, Cobble Hill for brownstones at the moment, I say it's not too far off the mark.

I won't be suprised if it sells or sits, to be honest.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 1:30 PM

"I won't be suprised if it sells or sits"

Given that those are the only options, what would surprise you then? If it danced a little jig, or perhaps a vigorous tarantella?

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 1:36 PM

It will sit like all the others on their site that are among the supposedly nonexistent inventory of brownstones.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 1:36 PM

I wish this place still had it's front doors.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 1:37 PM

So hideous. 1.25M at most and only because people are still a little crazy even for what is no longer a brownstone on the inside.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 1:38 PM

Wonder if pulling it from their site is because it is HOTD here. No one wants to see their pricing and home trashed here.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 1:52 PM

Amen to that. 1:52... we're putting our place up for sale next week, and we're trying to figure out a way to do it without garnering any attention from Brownstoner...

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 1:55 PM

" Given all that, we think this is off the mark in the current market by at least 10 percent. If not more."

HUH??!!!!! How did you come up with that conclusion!

Allow me! It's a 4 Family so income will be a factor. I can't get comps for it (because of the 4 Family thing). Taking comps on both side of this dreck, it's worth 1.4 tops!!!! A asshole will need 450 k to get in. Oh yeah Wall Street bonus money!!! I forgot.

The What

Someday this war is gonna end...

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 1:57 PM

I've been in this house. It does have the front doors 1:37, piled up in the basement. This house needs work. I'd have to agree with 1:38. It's not really located in "prime" Fort Greene. It's on a busier stretch on Vanderbilt (across the street from old commercial properties.) My guess is at this price, this one will sit.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 1:57 PM

Sell is FSBO.

No reason not to.

Did it with mine. It's easy as pie.

You have to hire a real estate attorney anyway, and they handle everything after you'd gone through the rigors of showing it though.

And if you price it well, you can feasibly hold ONE open house and sell it in a day.

You are already gaining an extra 6%, so might as well price it low and get it sold fast and cut out the middle man.

And the added bonus of not having to deal with the place showing up here.

I'd never want my house profiled here.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 1:58 PM

You new to this site, 1:59??

People trash any house and EVERY house on here.

What about the completely trashed Park Slope Lincoln Place house that was a HOTD recently that ended up selling for 250K over ask??

Granted it sold just fine obviously, but your theory of pricing it correctly to alleviate trashing does not happen on this website.

Some people are attached to their homes and have raised a family there and don't want to read comments about how their digusting, chachki filled rooms remind them of a ghetto in Calcutta.

Imagine that?

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:04 PM

1:59: you're right. i've never read any comments on this board about the subpar quality of fixtures, location, etc...

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:05 PM

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/rfs/584442233.html

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:14 PM

it definitely helps to be on 'stoner but you also need a thick skin to deal with everyone's nit-picking.
there are people out there who would hate on versailles ("so gaudy. . over the top!") or the taj mahal ("marble is so 1600's!)
they live for the hatred. . . and going to open houses and proclaiming that every house needs to be gutted.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:21 PM

nuh-huh, brownstoner. Try again.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:23 PM

2:21, good one and so true!

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:27 PM

I don't know why this house seems so unattractive. The plywood front door doesn't help and the bars on the parlor floor winows.
It can be restored and brought back to prime condition. But right now it telegraphs "Inner City Dump".

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:28 PM

You've clearly never been on this stretch of Vanderbilt then 2:28.

Nothing about it screams inner city dump.

It's a fantastic location and not quite sure how you can tell so much from one picture.

I've decided that people who comment on Brownstoner are the most closed-minded people lacking ANY sortof vision at all.

Guess that's why they like brownstones so much. Not too much to work with. Leave them alone because my mind could not possibly imagine anything else.

Don't get me wrong...I love them too...but I also love lots of other things and don't see ONE picture and say something is an inner city dump.

Yikes.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:33 PM

I think being on here helps for attractive properties, but surely doesn't for unattractive ones priced as if they were actually attractive.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:33 PM

Wow, the owners are taking down the links as soon as brownstoner fixes them. They really don't want the attention.

This is going to turn into a funny situation down the road.

"Hey neighbor, I see your house is the HOTD on B'Stoner. Why'd you price it so high? Your're killing our home values by having people bashing our neighborhood, bashing the price,etc...".

Homeowner: "Sh&%, you're right. I better call the realtor and tell them it is no longer for sale."

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:34 PM

In case you haven't noticed, 2:34 bashing a neighborhood only makes it hotter. So far, anyway.

Ever heard of a little place called Park Slope?

Houses selling for 250k over ask, no inventory, studios selling for 375K.

My cousin is a broker at Brown Harris in Park Slope and she said the past 2 months have been incredibly fruitful for her. She said she does not see a slowdown in that neighborhood at all.

And this despite all the bashing of the neighborhood, prices continue to climb...

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:38 PM

No doubt your good friend "Mr. Benjamin Franklin" will be making numerous "requests," Mr. z.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:39 PM

It's just a little "hhttp" trouble. No need to get all tin-foil-hat about it.

try: http://realestate.nytimes.com/sales/detail/253-NS8020915

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:40 PM

B'stoner has a bad link.

http: not hhttp:

http://realestate.nytimes.com/sales/detail/253-NS8020915

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:42 PM

Payment in Euros or Dinars, please.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:42 PM

Do people in Fort Greene/Clinton Hill still feel a need for bars on their parlor floor windows? Just asking. One usually does not see bars on featured houses in Park Slope or Carroll Gardens or Brooklyn Heights. It is a real visual clue to the safety of a neighborhood. I would stay away from an area where an entire row of houses all have bars on their parlor windows. That is Inner City.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:43 PM

Bars were necessary in the 80s. Still necessary for ground floor apts; not sure about upper floors. But once you've got them, why remove them?

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:46 PM

Lots of windows bars in Park Slope too. Seems a bit excessive to me, but there you have it.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:48 PM

Don't know about the price, but that is one zany interior. I like it.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:49 PM

Last year when I was still living in Cobble Hill, in the middle of the day, I saw this MF**ker trying to break into a ground floor apt{with bars).

Very weird experience.
I think he was on drugs as he didn't realise the ridiculousness of his act.

Cops came and took him away.

Cobble Hill!

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:49 PM

All homes in Park Slope have bars on the Garden level, 2:43.

Especially in the landmarked blocks.

I happen to think they are interesting and lovely and add to the period detail of the homes.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:50 PM

that was a buzzkill, 2:52.

racist much?

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 2:58 PM

whaddup with the dead link, yo?

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 3:07 PM

re bars on window- we kept them so our little kids didn't crawl out the parlour floor and splat... not just to deter crime. fyi

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 3:32 PM

Decorative ironwork on the "garden" level (I'm not s realtor so I call it the basement level) is of course a historically appropriate and even lovely feature of these old homes. It is the bars on the parlor windows, and at the front door, and even on second stories that are hideous and give the impression that the area is unsafe. Child guards are something different altogether. People with these ugly grandfathered bars should understand that in case of emergency they will find themselves caged in the house, modern bars must have a release mechanism by law. Anyway I think these bars are anachronistic and actually unsafe homeowners should try and get rid of them if they feel they possibly can.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 4:02 PM

Frankly I can't see why the seemingly normal people keep posting here there are so many rude bashers and racists. I guess the answer is the site is great... shame there is so little fact and so much low quality opinion disguised as fact.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 4:13 PM

4:13...this was one of the better threads.

what exactly is your beef?

you haven't seemed to add anything to the thread other than call some people nice, some racist and some bashers.

do you not see the hypocrisy in your post?

you've actually added less to the thread than the people who wrote things you didn't agree with.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 4:17 PM

The first post on the thread said: "Given the fact that almost no inventory exists in Ft. Greene, Park Slope, Cobble Hill for brownstones at the moment . . ."

I read stuff like this on these threads all the time, but I have no idea what people are talking about. Go to the NYT site, where this very listing was pulled from, and there are at least 30 different townhouses in those neighborhoods listed. Are you really saying that that's too few properties for a buyer to look at?

Even weirder, people point to the lack of inventory as evidence that the market is still strong. But it's not. If the market were still strong -- that is, if there was still a great deal of demand out there -- then supply would rise to meet it, and currently unlisted homes would be put on sale. (Or do you think the number of people who want to sell their homes somehow dramatically dropped between 2006 and 2008?) The fact that people aren't listing homes for sale is evidence that they know the buyers aren't there, and they're waiting until they come back. Could be a long wait if prices don't adjust, though.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 4:23 PM

I cannot think of a single house in Carroll Gardens with modern security bars on the Parlor level.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 4:25 PM

OK back to the house.. it seems to be painted which is good for preserving the brownstone for a while. The ornamental details around the door look great and in place… I am so glad that the original doors are still in the house. So many of you people keep talking about how the house is priced so high. LOOK YOU MISSED THE CHEAP DAYS 10 YEARS AGO GET OVER IT. Houses in Ft. Greene are not cheap anymore no matter what the condition.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 4:26 PM

4:23...

I can answer your post quite clearly.

30 homes in an area the size of Park Slope, Ft. Greene, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights is MINUTE. Smaller than minute, actually.

15 years ago, at any given time there were 200 houses on the market in those same areas at one time. At least!

So yes...inventory is at HISTORICALLY low levels.

You just have to know more about New York than has happened in the last 8 years. Which more and more it seems a lot of people think the world began in 2000.

Everyone can make excuses to validate their own soapboxes, but it does help to throw a few facts into the mix. 30 homes and bidding 250K over asking show that the market is still quite healthy.

It is defying other areas of the country, but that doesn't mean it's not happening. The market is becoming more "normalized" which for New York is still quite good as compared to other areas suffering right now.

That may or may not change, but one thing is for sure. MANY of us have seen 200%, 300% increases in home appreciation over the last 10 years here in Brooklyn.

If the absolute worst case scenario of a 15% drop happens in NYC, I and many others will continue to live our lives without the prospect of the apocolypse.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 4:30 PM

One bid for 250K over asking is evidence of nothing. It's applicable to one house, but you're trying to use it as applicable to the market as a whole.

As for the absolute worst-case scenario, it's not apocalypse for you, who bought a home ten years ago (or whatever). But if you put 20% down on a $2 million house last year, and it's now worth 15% less, you're going to pay the bank $1 million in interest over the next decade, during which time that house is only going to appreciate in value at a minuscule rate. So at the end of that decade, you'll have spent $1.4 million for a $2 million house, and you'll still owe the bank $1.6 million in principal and another 20 years of interest at $100K a year. Good luck with that.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 4:39 PM

Some people would rather take their chances, 4:39.

The alternative is to throw money down a toilet and make your landlord ever richer.

I lucked out I guess.

But I do still think that owning property is financially better than renting for the long term.

And while 250K bid over asking is certainly not a bellweather for the entire market, I have heard more than one crazy story that leads me to believe the market is doing just fine.

And if there were enough homes on the market, there would be NO REASON to bid 250K over ask on ANY property.

To me it's a sign of low inventory, thus a market not oversaturated with product.

As we have here in Brooklyn.

The reason things are so bad in other parts of the country is the increased pressure to lower prices because as was released today, there is an average of almost 11 MONTHS WORTH OF HOMES SITTING ON THE MARKET.

As opposed to a month or two here in Brownstone Brooklyn.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 4:45 PM

Yeah I take your point 4.17 and this would have been better added to some of the other treads I've seen.

My beef: "Inner City Dump" if you walk past this place that just couldn't be further from the truth.
"signal "minorities present!", I doubt this person even knows he insulted anyone.
"So hideous. 1.25M at most" yeah right keep dreaming, everyone including renters are in trouble if this goes for that.

But 4.17, I agree tame in comparison to other comments I've seen.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 4:50 PM

Ok you're right also, 4:50.

There have been some pretty bad one liners on here.

Sorry to jump down your throat.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 4:53 PM

Is painting a brownstone considered a good thing in Clinton Hill? Seems a little odd, to paint a stone house.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 4:54 PM

The interior of this house is horrible looking from the pics. So many things wrong with it (or is it just the pics. You would think that taking better pictures would benefit all.

Exposed brick - YUCK!!!!

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 5:37 PM

Renters are so bitter. Get a life. Go buy something and stop complaining.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 6:37 PM

"Go buy something and stop complaining."

Or the terrorists win!

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 6:41 PM

Everything about real estate in Brooklyn is shifty. It is corrupt, and evil.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 6:58 PM

Correct, 6:41, Renter = Terrorists, esp. on this site.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 8:30 PM

So the renters should buy something, because if they don't, the terrorists win. But if the renters are the terrorists, then, uh, hmm?

Could you summarize your stance in a powerpoint presentation, please, 8:30?

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 9:09 PM

Back to the house. YEs, the interior is hacked up, but not so bad as others. The exposed brick means that you've got a clean wall to work with, at least, rather than 50 layers of cracked and patched plaster and lead paint. If the foundation and infrastructure are solid, I say the price is reasonable. If there are structural issues, it's high.

Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 9:40 PM

To a novice brownstone buyer in a new area, believe it or not, these posts, good or bad, are very interesting to say the least. When looking to buy a property, a seller can describe his property in a way that he sees his property, or his description can be an outright lie, but ultimately the buyer decides for himself when actually spending time in the area and seeing the property. Online exposure to a property for sale helps a new buyer looking in a new area to the extent that a property exists.

Posted by: guest at April 27, 2008 6:42 PM