House of the Day: 274 Clinton Street

This listing is truly hilarious. It has been on the market FOREVER. And it's never had more photos than the ones you see--obvious red flag.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 1:26 PM

"it's impossible to say whether this falling knife has reached the ground"

I disagree. IT HAS NOT REACHED THE GROUND. Market wise, an inevitable "rush for the exits" is delayed but not avoidable. This is in addition to the lack of interior information.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 1:30 PM

Best location in Bklyn. Henry st and Clinton st best of both worlds.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 1:41 PM

Re: Future Brooklyn Fleas...

Have you considered organizing a raffle.

Participating vendors donate the prizes.

The money raised goes to some community initiative/project.

Crazy idea?

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 2:28 PM

I love the location in general, but Clinton St would be kind of a drag

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 2:53 PM

There is more regulation for a raffle than there is to renovate your brownstone. Sorry, what seemed like a good idea is a gov't nightmare.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 2:55 PM

For the same reason you are complaining about it; they have nothing better to do. At least they're not pedantic.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 3:03 PM

Hilarious. I won't even look at a $1500 rental without a picture. You would think that someone selling a $2MM+ home would take a day to clean up and snap some photos.

P.S. Brownstoner, you've really gotta fix your commenting. This has been going on two weeks now. We'll see if this even posts.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 3:04 PM

There is indeed a reason why this listing has no interior photos. Although this is an owner's duplex with rental units, the rentals are not segregated from the owner's living space at all. The parlor entrance, hallway and staircase are configured the same as it was originally, when it was a single family home. The owner (a very nice grandma) has chosen to rent to people she trusts, and by extension she trusts them and their guests to maintain her pretty hallway. It's like a bed & breakfast in there. The only thing between the owner's space and her tenants' is her locked interior door at the far end of the parlor hallway.

The parlor floor has some nice details but the rest of the house does not. The rental units are mediocre, pre-fab laden constructs that have to be updated or gutted, depending on whether you want to eliminate the units or not. They are good enough to rent as-is, I guess, but not for top dollar. In any event you would most likely NOT want to keep the open architecture of the parlor access if you were buying this place to live there and rent at the same time. Therefore, you're looking at significant costs to renovate even if you keep the rental configuration.

If you wanted to convert this to a single family or an owner's triplex, you're in for a more costly project. The rentals and the garden floor would need to cosmetically gutted, perhaps more (I couldn't tell just by looking around).

Bottom line: people won't pay the big bucks for a house that needs a lot of work. That's why it hasn't sold.

Posted by: guest at April 11, 2008 3:32 PM