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April 30, 2009

House of the Day: 216 Maple Street

216-Maple-Street-Brooklyn-0409.jpg
This three-story limestone at 216 Maple Street at Rogers Avenue in Prospect Lefferts Gardens is, like many houses in the area, a real beauty. In addition to the impressive wood paneling, we're quite taken with the separate side entrance on the ground floor. The asking price of $985,000 isn't nuts but we suspect the market-clearing price will end up being more like $900,000. What do you think?
216 Maple Street [Brooklyn Bridge Realty] GMAP P*Shark





Posted by Brownstoner at 1:22 PM | Comments (30)
Categories: HOTD, Prospect Lefferts Gardens

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Walked thru this house this past Sunday. It has old school charm. It's been "lived in"...and fairly well kept. 2nd floor all carpeted. Needs a bit freshening up. Has two garages, very small outdoor area. Cool fact is the mechanicals are actually in a room "outside" the basement. Basement is quite usable but has an odd setup: sort of an office in the front and an owners guest apartment in the rear. It is interesting that the identical house is for sale at 218 Midwood Street (one block away) (see Corcoran) - however that house has been updated on the first floor to be very modern. But that basement is a disaster and needs to be gutted. Both pretty decent houses on a busy street.

Posted by: BrookBry at April 30, 2009 1:30 PM

This is a pretty awesome location. Good transportation, pretty blocks ... I don't think the restaurant/bar/shop selection is all that great, but that may not be of huge importance to people.

This is the part of PLG where the houses are required to be single-family, so you can't have a garden-floor rental, right?

Posted by: cwbuecheler at April 30, 2009 1:31 PM

sweet!!! corner lot, details, good condition, 2 car garage - so many items checked off my list. Not that familiar with the area so not going to chime in on price but guessing 915k?

Posted by: more4less at April 30, 2009 1:37 PM

Very pretty. Too bad about the small garden.

Posted by: mopar at April 30, 2009 1:38 PM

Not sure why this house should sell at 900K as Mr. B states???
I'm guessing the kitchen is really outdated and the bathrooms might be as well

Don't get me wrong, The facade is gorgeous and the interior has been very well kept. But I feel like if houses in Park Slope are selling for hundreds of thousands less why shouldn't a house in PLG - why is that area so immune?

Posted by: gemini10 at April 30, 2009 1:38 PM

Nice house, corner lot, garage, this place has a lot going for it. Location is quiet and pretty if a bit lacking in amenities. I would think that 900 would fly for this house.

Posted by: wasder at April 30, 2009 1:42 PM

shoot, my 915k is too high cause I'm usually always lower than Wasder but this time I'm 15k higher than him. Revise guess - 875k

Posted by: more4less at April 30, 2009 1:50 PM

The problem with the corner brownstones is the lack of the garden and the noise from Roger's avenue - although you get the benefit of a garage. This is the last building in the manor district, so you can't rent out the bottom apartment legally - I think the ground floor is originally a Dr.'s office (although not when it was built, like the row houses on Parkside). I would say 900K if someone falls in love with it and it sells in the next month or so, and 750K if it's still on the market in 4 months.

Its too bad about the 3ft of garden on the avenue side - it would be a much more impressive house if it were really 23' ft wide instead of 20.

Posted by: tippingpoint at April 30, 2009 1:52 PM

This house is under-priced at $985,000. A two story on Midwood just closed for slightly under 1mil. This house may need some freshening up, but it also has garages that could be rented out and useable, light filled garden level space that could be rented out as office space or lived in. It is on a great block and it has original detail.

Posted by: dt at April 30, 2009 1:54 PM

I love this place!

We got confused on our way to 316 Maple and stood outside for a few minutes saying "this? they're asking $500,000 for this? I feel lightheaded."

316 Maple is a few blocks away. I don't remember if $500,000 was the actual number but the place is a genuine fixer upper.

216 Maple is gorgeous.

Posted by: serpentor at April 30, 2009 1:57 PM

gemini: I may be remembering wrong, but at the peak of the market weren't three-story limestones in Lefferts Manor asking something like $1.2M? (Asking at least, dunno what they were getting.) If so, $900k or a little under would seem to be consistent with the general direction of the market. Though I would guess it'll be under $900k if a lot of updating is called for.

Posted by: basementalist at April 30, 2009 2:05 PM

Corner location is a mixed bag. Yes, it gives more windows and makes the bottom level into a real floor with windows. But the noise from Rogers is a major negative. Given the condition this should be at least 100K under the house that just sold for 995K, which was mint condition with a high-end kitchen and baths. So I'd say 895K.

Posted by: shillstoner at April 30, 2009 2:06 PM

Thanks Basementalist - just needed to know what the high price points were

Posted by: gemini10 at April 30, 2009 2:08 PM

M4L--didn't know I was a price barometer for you. That's funny.

Posted by: wasder at April 30, 2009 2:09 PM

Right CW--no rental apartment. At one time it might have been possible to rent out the doctor's office, but I think changes to rules governing houses zoned R2 may preclude that. Rogers Ave. is a commercial street, but it's considerably less noisy than Flatbush or Nostrand. There IS noise from the firehouse, on the E. side of Rogers between Maple and Midwood, but I think I get more noise on my block of Midwood--the usual fire truck route. The trucks usually sound their sirens before crossing Bedford, close to my house. That being said, our bedroom is in the front and we're seldom disturbed.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at April 30, 2009 2:12 PM

Bob Marvin -

Thanks for the confirmation. That's too bad. PLG would be much more appealing and plausible to people like my wife and I (once we're back in the market) -- people who only need two floors -- if we could rent out the bottom floor to help offset the mortgage.

Posted by: cwbuecheler at April 30, 2009 2:18 PM

CW,

I'd suggest looking at the N. side of Lincoln II as well as Sterling and Lefferts II and III--all in the PLG Historic District, but not in Lefferts Manor, with it's single-family restriction. There are also many nice blocks outside of the HD.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at April 30, 2009 2:28 PM

This house has the same drawback with the bottom floor in the corner house at 218 midwood. . what are you going to do with the space?
you're paying for wasted square footage that's all chopped up.
It would cost you to make it useful and you can't legally rent it out.
Also wouldn't want crappy carpeting on the entire top floor, but i guess that's not a deal breaker.
There are plenty of choices in this price range right now in PLG> . . . .so why not wait for even better deals?

Posted by: ontheparkway at April 30, 2009 2:32 PM

Plenty Lefferts Manor houses have medical office tenants on the garden floor. It's grandfathered in therefore legal in those houses. So check it out, don't assume you can't earn rental income on this house. You can also rent out the garages.

Posted by: traditionalmod at April 30, 2009 2:39 PM

They should have made the top floor laundry into an ensuite master bath. Oh well.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at April 30, 2009 2:54 PM

Could be true about the doc's office, but not as easy as an apartment. . .in any case, you'd still need to spend plenty on reno to get a doctor's office and i'm not sure any docs would be lining up to rent it.
It's amazing, but 99% of LM residents think the sing;e-family rule is great.
They don't realize it costs them bigtime when they try to sell since it keeps folks like CW out of the nabe.

Posted by: ontheparkway at April 30, 2009 2:54 PM

Kings Cty hospital and SUNY Downstate medical school is right near here. No shortage of doctors.

Posted by: traditionalmod at April 30, 2009 2:58 PM

not arguing with you, tradmod, just pointing out that it's not a turnkey situation

Posted by: ontheparkway at April 30, 2009 3:06 PM

I'm intrigued by the single family ruling and would do almost anything to own one of those beautiful homes in LM.

Posted by: LuvingModern at April 30, 2009 3:24 PM

That's a sweet looking home.

Were those harps I saw in the second picture?

Posted by: northsloperenter at April 30, 2009 3:28 PM

HOT.

Posted by: iz at April 30, 2009 3:46 PM

"ontheparkway" writes "It's amazing, but 99% of LM residents think the sing;e-family rule is great.
They don't realize it costs them bigtime when they try to sell since it keeps folks like CW out of the nabe".

I think most Lefferts Manor homeowners are well aware of what the single-family restriction "costs" us. We're also aware of the many benefits, which make our part of PLG unique among Brooklyn's brownstone neighborhoods.

Not that I especially want to keep CW out--on the contrary, which is why I suggested some PLG streets bordering the Manor where rental income is not a problem.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at April 30, 2009 3:52 PM

It's all good. I can totally understand why a no-tenants policy would be desirable for a neighborhood. Just that I don't see any point in the foreseeable future where a mortgage on $900k-ish will be doable for my wife and I alone, so it keeps me out of those areas.

Hopefully I'm wrong and our salaries will continue to increase through our thirties, and eventually we'll be able to live somewhere that nice. :)

Posted by: cwbuecheler at April 30, 2009 4:38 PM

This is a gorgeous house, right around the corner from me. But the location has two huge negatives: 1) Rogers Avenue is extremely noisy, including a lot of truck traffic, all day and all night, and 2) it is directly across the street from a busy firehouse. I think this house could go for 100-150K more if it weren't for the noise factor. That being said, if anyone buys it, would you please rent me one of the garages? :-)

Posted by: geekspice at April 30, 2009 6:09 PM

cw,

There REALLY are blocks in the PLG HD outside of LM that are every bit as nice. Sterling III is an excellent example. You could have a rental there.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at April 30, 2009 11:11 PM

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