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January 12, 2009

House of the Day: 205 12th Street

We love the feel of this petite woodframe at 205 12th Street in the South Slope. Unfortunately, a property that didn't sell a year ago at $1,450,000 is unlikely to sell today for $1,350,000. Still, these two front rooms on the parlor floor have such a great vibe that we're almost ready to forget the fact that the house clocks in at less than 1,500 square feet. Or that there's a larger place a couple of blocks away for only $1,095,000.
205 12th Street [Brooklyn Properties] GMAP P*Shark
Open House Picks 2/15/08 [Brownstoner]

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Comments

There seems to be a lot of Park Slope stretching going on these days. More than normal anyway. I just can't believe that 12th between 3rd and 4th can fit into anybody's conception of Park Slope. And I certainly don't feel that these prices are closed to justified. Park Slope is great but this is not Park Slope.

Posted by: wasder at January 12, 2009 1:18 PM

No fireplaces???

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at January 12, 2009 1:18 PM

Very Cute...but yet ugly at 1.35m

Posted by: bayridgegirl at January 12, 2009 1:20 PM

DIBS, you can see in the 2nd / 3rd foto from the top where the FP's were boxed in.

Posted by: bowl of dicks at January 12, 2009 1:21 PM

12th between 3rd and 4th is really more gowanus than south slope.

Also, woo! Check the wood-paneled dishwasher. Classy :)

Posted by: cwbuecheler at January 12, 2009 1:21 PM

Would this be called Gowanas Beach?

Posted by: Amzi Hill at January 12, 2009 1:21 PM

Gowanus Heights? od SOSLOGO South Slope of Gowanus?

Posted by: BH76 at January 12, 2009 1:23 PM

I live in Far North West Slope. It's the NJ offshoot of Park Slope.

This house is too adorable for me. It screams dollhouse.

Posted by: TownhouseLady at January 12, 2009 1:24 PM

THL, Google streetview it and do a 360, you might change your mind!!!!

Posted by: bowl of dicks at January 12, 2009 1:27 PM

It's BeSlo (below the slope), and it should be priced at 999K.

Posted by: shillstoner at January 12, 2009 1:27 PM

do you really need more than 1500 square feet?

Posted by: sam at January 12, 2009 1:28 PM

Welcome, yet again, to Park Slope Shores (see Friday's open house thread).

Boxed in chimney looks weird. Mantels must have been ripped off and the brick in bad shape.

Posted by: slopefarm at January 12, 2009 1:28 PM

I thought that was the case bowl...it just looked like those pics were of the original walls. A lot of the homes built in the late 1800's actually only had small chimeys and used wood stoves...no fireplaces.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at January 12, 2009 1:28 PM

I must say, a pet peeve of mine is brokers who describe a wood-frame house as a "farmhouse."

Unless you own one of those old Dutch houses out in Flatlands, Gravesend, etc., take a hike.

Posted by: NorthHeights at January 12, 2009 1:42 PM

Ridiculous. This place has been on the market an awfully long time - price is delusional.

Posted by: Miss Muffett at January 12, 2009 1:42 PM

"Park Slope Shores" is good but "Park Slope Riviera" is a more up-market name for the neighborhood formerly known a Red Hook. Part of the plan would be to rename that stretch of the BQE "The Corniche".

Posted by: sam at January 12, 2009 1:49 PM

All that decorative molding does not scream farmhouse. In fact, in the lower slope through to Gowanus, there was a farm about every three blocks, according to an old map I've seen. These farmers ran essentially from the Gowanus or the bay up the hill in long narrow slivers. Thus, between what is now 9th street and the PPE, there were probably no more than three or four actual farmhouses. In 1838, the City of Brooklyn mapped out a street grid for the area and by 1850, many of the farms had been subdivided and sold off to speculators. The chances that any frame with a porch in the S. Slope was actually used as a farmhouse is slim to none, no matter what the realtors say.

Posted by: slopefarm at January 12, 2009 1:54 PM

would someone seriously pay 1.3 million to live between 3rd and 4th ave?

seriously

i would live there but not for that much.

Posted by: Santa at January 12, 2009 1:55 PM

Well, now that Park Slope is pretty much the new murder capital of Brooklyn, expect all these Slope houses to come down substantially in price...

Posted by: gordy at January 12, 2009 2:02 PM

Achingly lovely little place with a tender hand and eye needed, but 1.35 million? Probably about 3 hundie over.

Sam, need is a funny thing indeed, but, yes.

And damnit, no, this is NOT Park Slope.

Posted by: Nokilissa at January 12, 2009 2:12 PM

Doesn't this house have two stories plus an attic? If so, at 20X45- isn't it really 1800 sqft plus whatever is usable in the attic?

The 'farmhouse' category is indeed really crazy. Most of these were probably built in the 1800s when this area was already populous and full of rowhouses. These were just one spec builders version of the workingman's rowhouse. Why don't brokers just call these late federal or italianate?

Posted by: Park Place at January 12, 2009 2:14 PM

It IS SO PARK SLOPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It says so right in the ad! Plus, the name "Park Slope" is set right next to the arrow on the map.

When I was growing up, Park Slope didn't even exist!

Posted by: slopenick at January 12, 2009 2:43 PM

At a certain point, New York City passed a law requiring all new construction to have brick or stone outer walls.
But I don't think the city of Brooklyn ever had such a requirement.

Posted by: sam at January 12, 2009 2:43 PM

I've been watching this place since it went on the market early last year to see what would happen. The price is definitely way to high. We bought our victorian frame "farmhouse" in South Slope about 2 years ago for around 200K less than this one. Granted this house has many more of its original features(and that would be noted in the price), but our place is more than twice the square feet, has a rental and is above 4th Ave so I would think that this would make the prices much closer in comparison. I've also walked by it on a number of occasions on my way to lowes and it does not seem to have been maintained all that well. I think that it will sit until its closer to 1 million or under.

Posted by: Turtlejam19 at January 12, 2009 2:45 PM

TJ19, sorry I didn't get back to you about your graveyard. It was great (don't tell benson, he might get ideas). Did your broker actually call your house a farmhouse, or did you get its fraternal twin -- "country living in the city."

Posted by: slopefarm at January 12, 2009 3:02 PM

We saw this house when looking for ours. I could swear it was priced at just under a mil. When Corcoran had it, they were touting the extra FAR.

Yes, it's in the Gowanus, and yes, it's in the flood zone big time.

It needs a lot of work on the outside. Like a lot of houses, the photos of the inside look better in the photos than up close.

There's just enuf detail so you'd hesitate to do a gut, but restoring as opposed to gutting will take a few bucks also.

Still, it's nicely paid out and has a nice 'feel'. But given the ridiculous price, the risk of flooding, it's no wonder people pass.

To me that's a 600-700k house, given the work it would need, the flood insurance, and the general risks of living that close to the Canal.

Posted by: denton at January 12, 2009 3:24 PM

Wow, this worn out piece of crap will be @ 500-600K when its all said and done. "Great Vibe..."? Looks and feels like a prison. Have a nice day ;)

Posted by: cornerbodega at January 12, 2009 3:31 PM

500-600K with risk to the downside...

Posted by: cornerbodega at January 12, 2009 3:33 PM

Nothing like "may at any time be flooded with waters from a gonorrhea-infested canal" to add to property value!

Posted by: cwbuecheler at January 12, 2009 3:55 PM

Can't imagine any self-respecting "farmer" would have located his residence so low in the floodplain.

Posted by: slopefarm at January 12, 2009 3:57 PM

I wonder if one could buy this and move it to Carroll Gardens?

Posted by: sam at January 12, 2009 5:14 PM

Sam, it be better if they moved it to Park Slope!

Posted by: bayridgegirl at January 12, 2009 5:51 PM

I like Carroll Gardens better, there is more space, easier parking, and it's more ethnic. I really like that. Also, it is two minutes to the Battery tunnel to Manhattan, and it is very safe. Park Slope is more, you know, vegan inter-racial gay ville, which is perfectly fine, but not where I'm at.

Posted by: sam at January 12, 2009 8:16 PM

Carroll Gardens stopped being ethnic 5-10 years ago after the old time Italians completed the ritualistic sale of their houses to yuppies and moved on to Florida.

Posted by: Boerum Hill at January 12, 2009 8:44 PM

so all the "old time Italians" have moved out of CG?? i've lived here 14 yrs. The same Italian social clubs r still on Court St, Henry St. The same funeral homes, bakeries and street fairs r still around. In the midst of the greatest economic collapse in 80 yrs how many houses r for sale in CG ?? Fewer than when i was looking 14 yrs ago. U know why ? 'Cause very few of those ritualistic Italians have mortgages unlike lovely Boerum Hill which has only been "discovered" in the last 5 yrs by people who r almost universally under water on their mortgages. Enjoy Angry Wade's and American Apparel. (No I'm not Italian.)

Posted by: yanks77 at January 12, 2009 9:42 PM

Yanks77.......So true re: CG. Bravo!

Posted by: LoveBrooklyn at January 12, 2009 9:50 PM

its actually quite easy to move this type of house.

Posted by: dittoburg at January 13, 2009 8:32 AM

lol @ vegan interracial gay ville.... harsh but fair

Posted by: geekspice at January 13, 2009 11:10 AM