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March 13, 2009

Open House Picks

houseBrooklyn Heights
161 Hicks Street
Brown Harris Stevens
Sunday 2-3:30
$2,950,000
GMAP P*Shark

houseWindsor Terrace
536 17th Street
Halstead
Sunday 1-3
$1,495,000
GMAP P*Shark

houseWilliamsburg
130 South 1st Street
Aguayo & Huebener
Sunday 2:30-4:30
$1,285,000
GMAP P*Shark

houseProspect Lefferts Gardens
168 Midwood Street
Corcoran
Sunday 12-2
$1,250,000
GMAP P*Shark




Posted by Brownstoner at 1:04 PM | Comments (30)
Categories: Open Houses

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Comments

The Corcoran ad for Lefferts Garden shows a black realtor. Is that code?

Posted by: mopar at March 13, 2009 1:27 PM

Hicks Street is a nice house. But it's somewhat narrow (especially for the neighborhood) which is one reason why they needed to chop $550K from the original listing price six months ago. This is in a row of 3 houses built on two original lots. The backyard faces the Love Lane garage-condo project and the neighboring brownstone co-op uses their backyard as parking.

Posted by: NorthHeights at March 13, 2009 1:28 PM

I see that everyone is proceeding as normal, screw the economy naysayers!

Posted by: dittoburg at March 13, 2009 1:38 PM

I'll take two of each please!

Posted by: tybur6 at March 13, 2009 1:38 PM

hmmm
why does the Corcoran listing for Prospect Lefferts Gardens
say Prospect Heights
I will say that house is really nice!!!

I love the 17th street house - thoughts on the price? I think it's too high - maybe 200K chop

Posted by: gemini10 at March 13, 2009 1:41 PM

I think not mopar. Keith Mack has lived in Lefferts Manor for many years and used to be on the Lefferts Manor Association's board.

FWIW this house is very much like mine (although it's kitchen is much nicer). One of the things that sold me on my own house, which applies to this one as well, is that the original"free classic' open floor plan on the parlor floor makes the interior seem wider than it's 20 feet.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at March 13, 2009 1:44 PM

Mopar, what the heck are you talking about? In any event, the Lefferts Manor house is very nice, but the realtor included the wrong floor plan and the Corcoran listing says Prospect Heights. There is simply no excuse for that. After all the trouble they went to renovating this house, I would get a better realtor.

Aside from that, very nice house on a very good block.

Posted by: dt at March 13, 2009 1:45 PM

I think the 17th St. place is high...and only 1 full bath on the top floor, accessible only through the master BR? Seems like poor layout to me. I'm a huge fan of Windsor Terrace and think there are some great houses here, but this price seems to be reaching, IMO. Also, right near the expressway and pretty small. I like the house actually, just think it is overpriced.

Posted by: WTbound at March 13, 2009 1:48 PM

The PLG house is beautiful, in my opinion.

Hicks looks nice too, but not if there's no backyard and there are cars parked there instead.

I also think that with the concentration of Wall Street money in Brooklyn Heights, that it's not really somewhere I'd want to invest until this all shakes out. I guess that's why someone yesterday said that no houses have been bought yet in Brooklyn Heights in 2009.

Posted by: 11217 at March 13, 2009 1:48 PM

I have no way of knowing if the floor plan is for THIS particular house, but it IS typical of houses in this row. My own house, built a year earlier, by the same builder, is similar except that:

I don't use the rear parlor as a bedroom

My front bay only extends up for two floors, not three

Instead of a large front bedroom I have a separate front hall "nursery" with a connecting door to the main bedroom

I haven't modified the ground floor with such a nice large bathroom [Please don't show my better half this floor plan :-)].

Listing the house as being in Prospect Heights is not good, but I'd chalk that typo up to the "gramlins." Keith certainly knows better and, in fact, refers to the house as being in Lefferts Manor.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at March 13, 2009 1:59 PM

11217: I think NorthHeights was saying the bldg next door's backyard is parking not the back of the house for sale.
per realtors descript:"French doors lead from the kitchen to a lush, private landscaped garden with a mature flowering dogwood tree in season."

Posted by: Petebklyn at March 13, 2009 2:01 PM

Ah ok cool. Thanks Pete. I think it's a really lovely home and quite a bit less expensive than what I thought nice houses sold for in BH.

Posted by: 11217 at March 13, 2009 2:05 PM

Bob, there's another post today about words Corcoran is not allowed to use in ads. I was just kidding.

Posted by: mopar at March 13, 2009 2:08 PM

Bob, The current owners of this house have moved the kitchen up to the back parlor. That is why I say the floor plan is wrong.

Posted by: dt at March 13, 2009 2:08 PM

mopar.

No offense intended

dt,

I didn't know that--in barely know the owners and have never been inside.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at March 13, 2009 2:13 PM

Thanks Pete, you're correct. (My sentence was phrased poorly.)

I do think it's a very nice house, my backyard comments notwithstanding. But it's less expensive than other "nice houses" in BH because it's smaller. This is a 2600 sf house and the ones you saw going for $3.5M-$4.5M and up in the last couple of years were 25-foot wide, 4000 sf and up houses. This is still priced over $1000 psf, ever after the price drop.

The price is now realistic for what houses were selling for 6 months ago, but unfortunately now buyers are showing up demanding 10% off the listing price right off the bat. Which is probably what any appraiser is going to do in this market looking at 6-month old comps. Anyone looking to buy this at the current list price, even if they finance 80% (not a given today), is still going to need minimum $800K-$900K in cash downpayment.

Posted by: NorthHeights at March 13, 2009 2:22 PM

Does Corcoran still practice redlining?
or did that $500,000 fine from the DOS fix that?

Posted by: Xander Crews at March 13, 2009 2:32 PM

The 168 Midwood house in PLG was on the market by owner in spring of 2008 for only 100K more and she was unable to sell. This was discussed at length on this blog, it is a shame brownstoner didn't note this:


http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/05/house_of_the_da_499.php

Posted by: mkop at March 13, 2009 3:36 PM

The Midwood house was on the market in the spring for only a couple of weeks before the sellers pulled it. I don't think they were quite ready to move back then.

Posted by: dt at March 13, 2009 4:23 PM

I know every house in Williamsburg is now worth a million-plus dollars, but this seems to be a particularly small and humble example. Which isn't to say I don't like it -- I do -- just... (muffled sound of my head hitting desk).

Posted by: Heather at March 13, 2009 6:34 PM

I've heard from many brokers that they read this blog, but I begin to suspect some of them are participating in the conversation. The thread on the PLG house here and the one mkop posted from when the place was listed as HOD suggest there's something fishy. The house is fine, but not great and the price is far too high. This seller should expect to recoup her reno investment and another 100,000 seems fair, giving the state of the economy. That would mean pricing the house around 950,000 max.

Posted by: househunt at March 13, 2009 6:43 PM

The WT house is way overpriced. It appears that the owner bought at over a million in 2006 and then did a renovation. $1.5M for 2400 square feet. In this neck of the woods, it should be $1.2M tops.

Posted by: vinnie_barbarino at March 13, 2009 6:53 PM

Househunt, how would you know how much the PLG seller spent to renovate their house?

Posted by: dt at March 13, 2009 7:21 PM

...and BTW, what the heck is fishy about people liking a house? It's a nice house.

Posted by: dt at March 13, 2009 7:23 PM

househunt, the posters singing the praises of the PLG house live in PLG. Aha! Now it all makes sense. Always listen to neighborhood residents when they are talking abut the area--never listen to them when they are talking abut a particular house for sale or about market rates and prices.

Personally, I like the PLG house too--although I am disturbed by the fact that the owners evidently destroyed the rear parlor and ripped out a fireplace in order to put a kitchen on the parlor floor. I imagine the house is overpriced by about 250K, but that is about the current market, not the house or the area.

Posted by: shillstoner at March 13, 2009 7:54 PM

Sigh.......love the PLG and WT homes.I think I'm priced out of the Brooklyn RE market. I can't even afford to purchase my current Brooklyn home. I still love my boro, but does the boro love me anymore? Perhaps it's time to look at greener pastures out east and find a lovely little relic there.

Posted by: LoveBrooklyn at March 13, 2009 7:58 PM

PLG joint has a nice looking reno but the place is puny and it's outside the prime blocks. 850k max. i wouldn't pay more than 700.

Posted by: BrooklynLove at March 13, 2009 8:27 PM

The PLG house "outside the prime blocks"??

It's right in the center of Lefferts Manor.I'm afraid "BrooklynLove" might not know the neighborhood very well.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at March 13, 2009 8:35 PM

I am confused by the PLG listing. The floorplan and the photo clearly shows the kitchen on the garden level, not the parlor level as described in the narrative. Beautiful house - is the living room staged - the furniture is very different from that in the bedroom.

Posted by: Putnamdenizen at March 13, 2009 8:46 PM

Putnam, The realtor has the wrong floor plan. If I remember correctly, this is the seller's furniture.

BrooklynLove, the house has 2,700 or 2,900 square feet. It's not small.

Posted by: dt at March 13, 2009 9:46 PM

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