House of the Day: 208 Washington Avenue

It's hard to know for sure without seeing interior photos, but this new listing at 208 Washington Avenue in Clinton Hill sure looks interesting on the surface. The two-family frame house, which is perched on a hill, allegedly has "many original details" as well as its own garage. The asking price of $995,000 seemed pretty low at first glance, but it turns out, according to Property Shark, that the house is only about 1,600 square feet. That said, because of the large lot, there's a whole bunch of extra FAR. It is landmarked though.
208 Washington Avenue [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark

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How could that house only by 1,600 square feet? It has to be more. If I were looking, I'd be all over this.

Posted by: Atlantic Frantic at September 11, 2008 1:25 PM

based on the floorplans, it's definitely larger than 1,600sf.

it must be a wreck inside if corcoran is listing it at $999k.

Posted by: z at September 11, 2008 1:27 PM

Both a wreck and severely chopped up. Given the renovation costs, $999K might be optimistic. And if you're not going to do a complete renovation, why bother with this house?

Brownstoner, don't you do even 1 second of research on these houses before posting? The 1600 sf is based on only 2 floors, according to the city records. Obviously there's more.

Posted by: NorthHeights at September 11, 2008 1:41 PM

There are four floors according to the plans. At 1,600 sq. ft. that makes each floor 400 sq. ft.... doesn't make sense.

Looks like:
Garden & Parlor Floors are 33'x25' = 825 sq. ft. each
And two uppper floors about 500-600 sq. ft. each.

Also, top floor depending on the pitch of the roof, half that space might not be usable up there and not considered part of the sq. footage.

Posted by: bayridgegirl at September 11, 2008 1:42 PM

This looks like the kind of house one often sees on TV news where a dog eats a child or where a horrible fire turned out to be a cover up for murder. Yech.

Posted by: sam at September 11, 2008 1:58 PM

I suspect, given that even the broker is basically saying that this will need a gut reno, this place will sit for a while. I'm of the opinion that it's harder to reno a frame house than a brick rowhouse, just because everything could be seriously cockeyed or termite-ridden. At least with a brownstone you start with 2 solid walls...

So you could be looking at basically doubling the price. Guess you could do it cheaper but it would be a hack job.

Posted by: Bolder at September 11, 2008 2:00 PM

It's an old listing, first showed up in late April or early May, I think with Corcoran, but I can't quite remember who it was who first had it...

Posted by: tanner at September 11, 2008 2:33 PM

I have no comment on the price, but on that stretch of Washington there are some truly lovely frame houses similar to this one. It is nowhere near the shape they are in, but for someone that has deep pockets and is stout hearted, it has the potential to be lovely.

Posted by: Schultz at September 11, 2008 3:37 PM

Absolutely costs more to renovate a frame house, especially a detached or in this case, semi-detached. In addition to 500K for the interior, add on another 200k for the exterior. Minimum. Then consider the retaining wall in the front....

Posted by: Susan Elkins at September 11, 2008 4:04 PM

There's a house up the block from here that has the coolest little one-room cottage in it.

Posted by: plgdude at September 11, 2008 4:58 PM

Anyone that spends anywhere near $500K renovating interior of woodframe house has sucker written across his forehead.

Posted by: Petebklyn at September 11, 2008 5:08 PM

I don't see why your comment is specific to wood frames. Either $500K is a ridiculous amount to spend on any interior renovation or it isn't, but I don't see why the price really changes depending on the construction type - it's all just walls inside.

Posted by: NorthHeights at September 11, 2008 5:18 PM

in my experience, woodframe houses are easier and cheaper to renovate than brownstones, which are basically wood-framed houses with brick and veneer stone facades. re-doing clapboard is much much cheaper than brownstone, or than properly re-pointing old brick.
This house doesn't appeal to me, don't know, the siting of it and the enclosed porch. I must have been frightened as a child in a house like this. I think it's creepy.

Posted by: sam at September 11, 2008 6:02 PM

This house is half of a duplex and both sides are in really horrible horrible shape. You could easliy spend $500,000 in renovation and still not be fininshed. There have been a few price reductions already. The lot is a little too close to Myrtle (Murder Ave) to be command the price a renovated version of this house would need to make a profit.

Posted by: FloatingWorld at September 11, 2008 6:29 PM

If you are still referring to myrtle ave as murder avenue you haven't been in the neighborhood in a while.

Posted by: Putnamdenizen at September 11, 2008 9:06 PM

"close to Myrtle (Murder Ave)"

Dude how did you see the house and fail to notice all the cool stuff on Myrtle? Being in proximity to Myrtle is not a negative.

Posted by: Aussie at September 11, 2008 10:27 PM

« Co-op of the Day: 40 Prospect Park West, #6K Streetlevel: New Dry Cleaner For the Slope »

September 11, 2008

House of the Day: 208 Washington Avenue

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