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October 14, 2009

House of the Day: 58 6th Avenue Revisited

58-6th-Avenue-Brooklyn-0408.jpg
Here's a cautionary tale: Developer buys old house in neighborhood where people generally like old houses, strips house of character, renovates house in characterless nouveau traditional style, tries to sell for a lot of money, ends up changing brokers three times and cutting prices 23 times. This has been the experience of 58 6th Avenue, which we featured as a House of the Day back in April 2008 when it was at $1,695,000, down from the initial ask of $1,850,000. Since then, Corcoran's had the listing and now Weichert has recently been giving it death by a thousand price cuts. Desperation has surely set in, as last week's reduction brought the current asking price to $1,275,000. At some point, won't this work as a rental property?
58 6th Avenue [Weichert] GMAP P*Shark
House of the Day: 58 6th Avenue [Brownstoner]





Posted by Brownstoner at 1:16 PM | Comments (32)
Categories: HOTD, Park Slope

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Comments

Drabtastic!

How can there be a 'Duplex' apartment and a 'Triplex' Owner's Unit when there's only 4 stories? Are they including the cellar in that Duplex?

Posted by: brownjokester at October 14, 2009 1:23 PM

well, you'd save money turning into a rental since the interior already looks to be so.

Posted by: CG_ups at October 14, 2009 1:25 PM

I haven't seen this house, but it seems like 1.2 to 1.3 should get the job done. Nice location, decent looking house for one not needing the bells and whistles or historic details, and seemingly easy conversion to rentals or owner's unit with rentals.

Posted by: Nokilissa at October 14, 2009 1:27 PM

I agree Noki
am surprised this hasn't gone yet unless the seller is just a total dummy and didn't accept the 1.25 offer he/she probably got 6 months ago...
i can see this going for 1.2 as well

Posted by: gemini10 at October 14, 2009 1:37 PM

Brownjokester - they can split one floor into two sections. The renter gets the garden floor and half the first, owner gets the remaining part and the top 2 floors.

According to ACRIS it looks as if the same entity/person has held it since 2004 (just flipped it into another person's name) and mortgaged it to the hilt in 2007.

Posted by: WrathOfGates at October 14, 2009 1:43 PM

Ain't nothing "Federal Style" about this house. What does that mean? Poor thing was renovated to death.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at October 14, 2009 1:45 PM

this house has a beautiful view of the police station right across the street.

Posted by: z at October 14, 2009 1:49 PM

these are the kind of owner and house one should really low ball hard. think I'm going to check it out and see if they'll bite on a sub $1M offer

Posted by: more4less at October 14, 2009 1:50 PM

Why do people list with realtors who don't even have a website in this day and age?

Posted by: zinka at October 14, 2009 1:58 PM

Montrose,

"Federal style" is brokerese for "red bricks in front". You'd think they would at least save it for a brick house with shutters.

Posted by: slopefarm at October 14, 2009 2:09 PM

who knows what 'detail' was left before the renovation. But certainly sterile enough now to compete with any new condo. And certainly priced right. Maybe a possibility for those people looking to purchase with a partner.
With the bare look - you can decorate and add to suit your taste.
The problem is across from the police station, kinda littered block, cars parked any which way, noise...not the renovation... if was around corner would have sold already.

Posted by: Petebklyn at October 14, 2009 2:10 PM

That's a crappy block. This might work as a rental, but I can't imagine why anybody would buy a place at this precise location in order to liver there.

Posted by: Oleg at October 14, 2009 2:22 PM

Doubt there was much detail left in the building. The city issued numerous vacate orders and took ownership at some point due to unpaid taxes in the mid 80's. I'm sure preservation was not of utmost importance to the people living there at the time.

Posted by: WrathOfGates at October 14, 2009 2:26 PM

That's a crappy block. This might work as a rental, but I can't imagine why anybody would buy a place at this precise location in order to liver there.

Posted by: Oleg at October 14, 2009 2:22 PM


OUCH!!!!!! Not fit for owners but fit for renters!!!!

Discuss.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at October 14, 2009 2:30 PM

Agreed, nobody would want to spend that cash to live across from da Po-riza station.

Posted by: Tron1153 at October 14, 2009 2:32 PM

Horrors -- Mediterranean tile and arches do not belong in a brownstone entry hall. I don't care how lacking in original detail the place was when they bought it.

Posted by: mopar at October 14, 2009 2:33 PM

WoG is right about the mortgage - $1.495M in May 2007. That's on top of a pre-existing $350K mortgage (maybe that one's been paid off, but if so its satisfaction isn't recorded in ACRIS). Mortgage was assigned from MERS to HSBC in June, which strongly suggests that HSBC was/is getting ready to foreclose. In any event, this looks like a short sale.

Posted by: aishling at October 14, 2009 2:35 PM

"...won't this work as a rental property?"
Sure. I'd buy it at a 6 cap rate. If you could get 4500 a month for 2 units with renters paying their own heat/hw/elec/water (is that plausible?) and expenses aren't much more than the taxes then my offer is 900k cash.

It's the wrong side of Flatbush (sb tagged as propect heights not PS) - agree w/ other poster that it's not a great location for owner / user. Convenient to subway and a fine location for renters.

But won't this be worthless once AY is built?
(to revive an old riff from bstoner comments pages :-)

Posted by: Bklnite at October 14, 2009 2:38 PM

Yeah, the police station is not the friendliest looking building, but besides that it's also right around the corner from a fire station, and a very busy/loud playground.
I used to live right around the corner from here.
Also believe it's zoned for PS 20 all the way on the other side of Atlantic, which is kind of a hike across a super busy street w/ your little ones.
There is also 0 street parking in this area because of police/fire station. And lets not forget the whole AY thing.

Too many drawbacks, not enough of a charming house to make it worthwhile.

Posted by: ennuiater at October 14, 2009 2:38 PM

It reminds me of that other Home Depot showroom (174 Clinton?); pretty unattractive cheap reno, questionable location, and overpriced for an investor. Those are the unfortunate leftovers of the speculative boom.

Posted by: Maly at October 14, 2009 2:50 PM

Weichert. Speaks volumes.

***Bill Thompson For Mayor***

Posted by: Brownstones Half Off at October 14, 2009 2:52 PM

This is a great example of why not every listing can be used to gauge the market. The price drops here definitely reflect some softening for sure. Even more so though it reflects a terrible idea by someone with too much money or too little knowledge, more than likely a combo of both.

Posted by: AndYouWillKnowUsbyTheTrailofRenters at October 14, 2009 2:52 PM

"at this precise location in order to liver(sic) there."
Does that mean drink too much?

Posted by: Petebklyn at October 14, 2009 2:54 PM

I know that I would be drinking heavily if I bought this place.

Posted by: Oleg at October 14, 2009 3:01 PM

That's a crappy block. This might work as a rental, but I can't imagine why anybody would buy a place at this precise location in order to liver there.

Posted by: Oleg at October 14, 2009 2:22 PM

I know that I would be drinking heavily if I bought this place.

Posted by: Oleg at October 14, 2009 3:01 PM


At Freddy's, which is right on the next block. This block is not crappy in the least. Anyone who says that hasn't really walked around here. The only drawbacks are a chinese place on the end of the block and a family at the opposite end who are on their patio AT ALL HOURS.

Posted by: infinitejester at October 14, 2009 3:43 PM

Freddy's is cool - but you may have to drink elsewhere eventually.

Freddy's (485 Dean St. @ 6th Avenue) is scheduled to be demolished for the Atlantic Yards project.
http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/search?q=freddy%27s

Posted by: Bklnite at October 14, 2009 4:35 PM

Jester, what about the Chinese place? they're loud too?

Posted by: more4less at October 14, 2009 4:41 PM

It's a high traffic business, and kind of grimy-looking.

And yes, Freddy's rules.

Posted by: infinitejester at October 14, 2009 4:48 PM

I lived close to this block for many years, and I stand by my assessment of its crappiness. Even a bloc away is good, but this precise location, however, is crap.

Posted by: Oleg at October 14, 2009 6:20 PM

Hey, speaking of developers who can't unload their FAR, whatever happened to the Carroll Gardens Horror? Did it ever sell? Is it boarded up? Are our many Brownstoners who claim to be homeless squatting in it?

Posted by: mopar at October 14, 2009 6:48 PM

I lived on this block for five years(recently)It is LOUD. Between the cops, the firehouse, Flatbush Ave., and Freddy's(which I love, but sheesh, the smokers going outside would talk like they were at a concert), it was a bit much to take. I was driven out when prep work was being done for the arena, 7am was the start time on the nose. I could feel my building shaking. Miss the transportating, not the noise. Absolutely not worth the money they seek.

Posted by: chattycathy at October 14, 2009 7:58 PM

While this block is supposed to stay intact, the Atlantic Yards stadium will be at the next corner. Living a half block from any Ratner project and/or sport stadium makes this price still hard to swallow. Nevermind the charmless interiors.

Posted by: cedric at October 14, 2009 8:23 PM

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