House of the Day: 213 Berkeley Place

This will be a real test of my theory that prime block park slope brownstones will hold up better than other properties. I think the sale price will start with a 2. It would not surprise me if the price is within 10% of ask.

Posted by: lechacal at April 1, 2009 1:21 PM

11217, yeah, great block, if you don't have what it takes to be on Berkeley b/w 6th and 7th. ;)

Between Mr. Wonton, Ace, the asian grocer with the great fresh cilantro, the runner's shop, the Mexican place, the awesome dry cleaner that always addresses me by "Mr [insert last name]" and 7th Ave wines and liquors I think that intersection is pretty damn awesome.

Posted by: lechacal at April 1, 2009 2:05 PM

cwb: Well I'm easy to spot. Bald guy in a suit buying tonic water at Ace, limes at the asian grocer and gin at 7th Ave wines and liquors.

Posted by: lechacal at April 1, 2009 2:18 PM

I don't know why everyone is so obsessed with the appearance of the kitchen. Have real estate brokers actually convinced you all that slapping up a bunch of new stainless steel appliances adds that much value? I generally avoid newly renovated kitchens becaue I know I will have to pay a large multiple of the actual cost. And I more heavily discount the price on any real estate listing that includes brand names of kitchen appliances. A kitchen is just a place to cook. I cook a lot (often times with fresh cilantro from the asian grocer, in fact) in a kitchen that most of you would pretend to be appalled by. And not once have I noticed that I'm not using a Subzero or Wolf or Fisher & Paykel or whatever. What I DO notice is that I don't have as much space as I want, I only have one bathroom and I live in a walk-up. Those things matter. But my lack of stainless steel appliances? I just don't care. This is an amazing property in an amazing location. This is obsession with the superficial appearance of the kitchen just sounds....well, cheap and classless, to be a bit blunt. It's like you're looking at a rolls royce and you're pretending to be appalled by the lack of shiny rims or something.

Posted by: lechacal at April 1, 2009 3:10 PM

cwb: Exactly. I fail to understand why people fall for properties with a bunch of new brand-name kitchen appliances and a huge price hike to go with them. Brokers love to write about that crap in their listings. Makes me gag.

I used to own a house in the suburbs. Really nice big brick house on a couple of acres of some leafy Connecticut suburb. The kitchen was pretty dated and there were a few totally superficial things wrong with the carpeting in a couple of places. I figured anyone who was going to buy a place like that would be able to see through stuff like that. I had a few open houses, and everyone complained about how crappy the fridge looked and how there were spots on the carpets on the basement stairs. So I went to the local appliance store and dropped about a thousand bucks or so (maybe less, can't remember exaclty) for the fridge. Free installation. Then I went to Loew's and dropped about fifteen bucks on a little 3 foot by 10 foot piece of carpet and replaced the carpeting on the stairs by myself. Result? No more complaints, offer, brief negotiation, and sold. And do you know what happened between the first open houses and when we did all of this? The blowup of the two Bear hedge funds in the summer of '07 and the first major collapse of the mortgage market.

Most people just aren't very smart.

Posted by: lechacal at April 1, 2009 4:00 PM

Exactly, mopar. It doesn't. It's a kitchen. It has all the right kitchen stuff in it and I bet it works just fine. People seem to get distracted by whether there are shiny objects involved and lose sight of the big picture (like the fact that this is a beautiful building with great space on a beautiful block).

Sorry if all of this seems ad hominem. I am feeling somewhat snarky today.

I am leaving early today. I think I might go cook a nice meal in my old-fashioned but totally functional kitchen. I'm guessing the smell of simmering tomato sauce and garlic will be much more important to me than the appearance of the stove I am cooking on.

To add to my snarkiness, have you ever noticed that people with the fanciest kitchens are often the worst cooks (or never really cook at home)?

Posted by: lechacal at April 1, 2009 5:20 PM

Thanks mopar. Dinner was great fun. I started out with some chicken breast (which Mrs. Jackal had defrosted for the kids but never got cooked). I had in my mind that I wanted something involving peanuts or peanut butter. I love cooking with peanut butter. So I chopped up some giner and some garlic and started sauteeing it in some olive oil, then threw in a bunch of dried chili peppers. While that was going I sliced up the chicken breast and added it to the pan. Then I took a jar of peanut butter that was almost empty (it had a couple tablespoons maybe in it) and added some soy sauce to the peanut butter and stirred (so it made kind of a soy sauce peanut butter mix). Then I took a bunch of broccoli and cut it into pieces. Once the chicken-chili-ginger-garlic mix had gone for a few minutes I added the peanut butter and soy sauce mix with a bit of water and the broccoli. I put a top on an let it all simmer for a while. Then I took the top off. The sauce was still pretty watery, so I added some corn starch (mixed in water) to thicken it up. Oh yeah, I forgot, I started the entire thing by cooking up some brown rice (this takes a while so you have to start it first).

So now I'm eating my peanut spicy chicken whatever on brown rice, which is fucking delicious by the way, and guess what - my kitchen has never been renovated. Now let me ask you. Do I really need to spend a hundred thousand dollars more for an apartment just because some jackass dropped a few grand for a couple of shiny new appliances?

Posted by: lechacal at April 1, 2009 8:54 PM