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May 13, 2009

House of the Day: 129 Prospect Place

129-Prospect-Place-0509.jpg
The curse of the crappy kitchen! This otherwise-charming brownstone at 129 Prospect Place in Prospect Heights (which was an Open House Pick last September) really hurt its chances of achieving anywhere near its asking price (originally $2,650,000 and now $2,500,000) by cutting corners on its kitchens. The house does have the fact that it's five stories large going for it, but it's also a five-family which typically carries its own set of challenges for the average family buyer. Seems to us the price still has got a ways to go.
129 Prospect Place [Brooklyn Properties] GMAP P*Shark





Posted by Brownstoner at 1:12 PM | Comments (19)
Categories: HOTD, Prospect Heights

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Comments

I don't find the kitchens half-bad; the problem is there's five of 'em. Who is going to want to spend over $2MM on a five family?

Posted by: tinarina at May 13, 2009 1:21 PM

this is a tough one. the house is huge and the price/sf ($500) is actually pretty good for such a nice block in this area. but i agree that a 5-family is a big challenge.

it doesn't help that the ugliest kitchen is right on the parlor floor.

Posted by: z at May 13, 2009 1:34 PM

"really hurt its chances of achieving anywhere near its asking price"

$2.5 million is a stretch even if the house wasn't all chopped up...but I don't know, places like this are black holes for people with money. Someone will try to "save" it.

Posted by: infinitejester at May 13, 2009 1:46 PM

The price is completely delusional. Say I'm an investor and intend to rent all 5 apartments. The ad says the rental income is $9.000 per month. Why am I sinking $500,000 for a downpayment, only to have mortgage and expenses that would run $15,000 a month?
That doesn't work, so say I'm a foolish rich person with a savior complex and very deep pockets. Why would I buy this house, when I have the pick of any grand wreck I want in Cobble Hill or Park Slope for the same price or cheaper? If I wanted an expensive project, why would I pick this location and this house?

Posted by: Maly at May 13, 2009 2:17 PM

Flipper must have known no one would want this to use as a 5, so did cheapo kitchens and little wall-moving. Flipper didn't want to lose time/money changing the c/o or undertaking a real reno. Made the floors look nice and showed off the detail. Lord knows what's behind the walls. Assumption is anyone who wants this will take at least a duplex and, since they would reno anyway, would redo the kitchen where and how they want. Daunting. It is not priced to account for the work anyone would put into it, or as a rental. Flipper should have taken it co-op; would actually get something like asking if you combined the five sales. Beautiful house, but just the kind of job that gives me the willies.

Posted by: slopefarm at May 13, 2009 2:21 PM

I was just going to ask the question slopefarm raised. Why not co-op this and sell each of the floors? Floor through units in the area (including some identical ones in the buildings adjacent to this one) have been selling for $500-$650 k recently. Even if the prices have backed off this a little bit it would still fetch more than a single sale, no?

Posted by: prospectplacer at May 13, 2009 2:29 PM

It may be five floors, but it's the same square footage as the 8th Avenue house yesterday that was generally deemed overpriced. And that one didn't have the headache of reconfiguration and/or C of O converting that this will. (Right? Either you buy as an investment--see posts above--or you convert it, and as a five-family you're facing much higher taxes if I'm not mistaken.) I estimated $1.85M and am already regretting that as too generous.

Looks to have nice bones, though, I'll give it that.

Posted by: basementalist at May 13, 2009 3:22 PM

what you would be buying here is a tenement with NYC renters, who, depending on their age and general crankiness, can match Tiffany diamonds in being "forever".

Posted by: sam at May 13, 2009 3:32 PM


Yeah, $2600 x 5 per month just to make the mortgage payment... seems a bit tough.

Posted by: tybur6 at May 13, 2009 3:35 PM

Hey! There's no place on the scale for me to put my appraisal!

***Bid half off peak comps***

Posted by: Brownstones Half Off at May 13, 2009 4:08 PM

BHO--this is one where I agree with you. Half of this ask would still be a very high (arguably too high) price for this problematic property.

Posted by: wasder at May 13, 2009 4:15 PM

I vote this one the most overpriced house so far. BHO, you can take this one.

Posted by: Maly at May 13, 2009 4:17 PM

Funny, Sam.

Posted by: mopar at May 13, 2009 4:57 PM

Beautiful facade and great floors but pricing is beyond comprehensible....yeah delusional will be an accurate description here. BHO you may be up to something here but we will be more generous and say $1.55m given the great location and potential for those of us with a long view :)

Maly how much $$ and time do you think it will take to make this a 4 family i.e. dupluex plus 3 rentals.

Sam that was funny above but we think 5 family dwellings are not in the RS or RC category and these can be rented @ market rate.....just screen your tenants carefully and get a solidly worded contract :)) Ah the socialist republic of NY!!

Posted by: pierre de taille at May 13, 2009 5:38 PM

This is a magnificent short stretch of 5-storey houses (Check out the wrought iron cresting on several of the roof lines) but so close to Flatbush that noise will always be an issue. What to say about the price other than to agree with everyone else here that it's completely nuts! This will be lucky to sell for $1.5m.

Posted by: grand army at May 13, 2009 5:59 PM

Remember 210 Prospect Place? I think it sold for $2M, though it had more modern features and lower square footage.

This is a really beautiful building on a beautiful block that is also extremely convenient to transportation and amenities.

I'm not saying that it will sell for $2,650,000, but given that apartments with no backyard access sell for $500,000 on the block, $2M doesn't seem outrageous. It's not THAT close to Flatbush, if you're concerned about noise, and from the backyard (where all the bedrooms probably face) will bring mostly bird sounds.

This area is one of the few places that has not seen price drops. The pessimism of most posters here is overdone, in my humble opinion.

Posted by: phrooch at May 13, 2009 10:18 PM

The problem with 5+ family buildings is that they are deemed "commercial" when it comes to financing.

The general metric is roughly 9x's the rent roll is what you get in mortgage. At $9k a month that is $108k a year. Which means you'll get a mortgage of roughly $900k.

Then you have to come up with the other $1.6 in cash? Nuts.

Posted by: christopher at May 14, 2009 9:10 AM

I actually lived in this building as a renter in the last couple of years. (those were our blue walls and tan walls; not our shower curtain!)

It appeared to us that one buyer backed out since it was listed. Would not be surprised if it was due to problems with the building as we had major issues with boiler replacement while we rented (no heat for more than 2 months in the middle of winter).

Posted by: bdeis01 at May 14, 2009 9:50 AM

I'd buy this for half off peak comps and live there. It's a mega-big Italianate in a mega-convenient location. My only drawback would be parking. Is that garage by Chase fully booked?

***Bid half off peak comps***

Posted by: Brownstones Half Off at May 14, 2009 10:37 AM

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