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November 25, 2009

House of the Day: 481 4th Street Revisited

481 4th Street hit the market back in June with an asking price of $2,950,000. When it got the House of the Day treatment at the time, the pricing widget was not kind, producing an average price of $2,146,765. Giving it the 15 percent benefit of the doubt, this would have suggested that a buyer in the $2,400,000 would not be out of the question. The original asking price has been cut a couple of times, most recently to $2,650,000, so there's only about 10 percent separating it from the realistic widget range.
481 4th Street [Betancourt] GMAP P*Shark
House of the Day: 481 4th Street [Brownstoner]

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Comments

I never want another flowering magnolia tree in my yard. They lok beautiful for a week and a half and shed all sorts of crap all year long.

No floorplan or did I miss it????

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at November 25, 2009 1:29 PM

I was feeling annoyed and slightly contemptuous when I first saw this ugly flip job. Revisiting does not help. This is as ugly as that shiny horror show at 174 Clinton, and I do hope it suffers from the same fate, if only to encourage whomever beat this house with the ugly stick to get a new day job.
I'll take the beauty on the next block (540 4th street?) for $700,000 less, and do a gentle restoration.

Posted by: Maly at November 25, 2009 1:31 PM

did you purposefully pick out a house with parquet? :-/

*rob*

Posted by: Butterfly at November 25, 2009 1:33 PM

Maly, it has all the original architectural detail that seems to be in pristine condition, along with the floors.

WTF is your problem??? The furniture???

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at November 25, 2009 1:34 PM

would you like renovated 438 7th St? a 16 footer triplex over garden rental asking 1.95 that was abused here (too skinny, too expensive, market is collapsing...)?

oops already in contract.

Posted by: antidope at November 25, 2009 1:38 PM

Why are most of the rooms fully furnished, yet the kitchen appears to be devoid of appliances?

Posted by: DitmasSnark at November 25, 2009 1:38 PM

I hate the way it was hacked, missing walls, ugly kitchen, hi-gloss floors, sheetrock heaven, pine wood trims that should be painted have been stripped, etc.. I look at this place and 174 Clinton and think, when contractors go wild.

Posted by: Maly at November 25, 2009 1:39 PM

I think it looks very nice, with one big idiosyncratic caveat:

Question for you historic house experts out there:
Did these houses originally have the front door opening into the main room on the parlor floor? Or has an interior wall been taken out? Some seem to have hallways and some don't.
Either way I hate it and it creeps me out. Somehow makes the room seem much less comfortable when there is a door that opens onto the street in the corner.

Posted by: etson at November 25, 2009 1:43 PM

Price Slope.

***Bid half off peak comps***

Posted by: Brownstones Half Off at November 25, 2009 1:44 PM

"Why are most of the rooms fully furnished, yet the kitchen appears to be devoid of appliances?"

Life is but a stage!

Posted by: Expert Textpert at November 25, 2009 1:55 PM

Call me when there's a floor plan to discuss.
Next!

Posted by: Expert Textpert at November 25, 2009 1:57 PM

Nice house, across the street from a giant public school, but you can't have everything. The front door seems to open into a small vestibule. I think I see a bumpout in the photo. Houses with central lateral stairs did not have hallways but they usually had doors that would seal the parlor off from the stairs. That way one could heat the room and not have all the heat go up the staircase. WHen people blow out the doors and partitions and then complain that their heat escapes up to the top floor, they should realize that these houses were designed in a very green manner to be heated one room at a time.

Posted by: Minard Lafever at November 25, 2009 2:19 PM

Yes, it has a "windlock."

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at November 25, 2009 2:34 PM

Etson, you can see on the floors where the walls used to be. The inlaid framing of the rooms is visible. The front parlor used to be enclosed.

Posted by: Maly at November 25, 2009 2:42 PM

Comments here pretty much echo what was said about the place when it was HOTD almost six months ago. Betancourt should be ashamed--still no floorplan, and the rental is still listed as being a duplex. Is the flipper a Betancourt broker?

Posted by: tinarina at November 25, 2009 3:04 PM

Ha Tina, you made me curious.
Ownership: 481 4th street realty LLC
Principal of said LLC: (wait for it)... Tim Betancourt
All is illuminated.

Posted by: Maly at November 25, 2009 3:20 PM

By the way -- I've been working waaay too hard this week. I hope everyone has been coping OK without my brand of snark.

Posted by: tybur6 at November 25, 2009 3:43 PM

HA! The widget price just dropped $120,000 from last time!! Take that! Hiiiiiiyah!

Posted by: tybur6 at November 25, 2009 3:47 PM

Hilarious Maly! Thanks for the research!

Posted by: tinarina at November 25, 2009 7:14 PM

"Houses with central lateral stairs did not have hallways but they usually had doors that would seal the parlor off from the stairs. That way one could heat the room and not have all the heat go up the staircase. WHen people blow out the doors and partitions and then complain that their heat escapes up to the top floor, they should realize that these houses were designed in a very green manner to be heated one room at a time.

Posted by: Minard Lafever at November 25, 2009 2:19 PM"

Minard, again thanks for your knowledge of how brownstones are actually built. On a site called brownstoner.com, your detailed and historical descriptions get at the heart of the subject and are of great value.

Posted by: BklynSoFar at November 25, 2009 9:24 PM

"The original asking price has been cut a couple of times, most recently to $2,650,000, so there's only about 10 percent separating it from the realistic widget range."

you gotta love how these guys are trying to sell this house for a realtor
brownstoner has become a total marketting tool for brokers - its a shame

Posted by: drumskin at November 25, 2009 9:27 PM

Gross square feet: 2748
Sale price (year 2008): $1,865,000.00

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/ny-properties/rolling-sales/Brooklyn/4/4th-Street-4.html#ixzz0Xvf0XsAZ

Posted by: drumskin at November 25, 2009 9:33 PM

"brownstoner has become a total marketing tool for brokers - its a shame"

Untrue.

Posted by: Nomi at November 25, 2009 10:47 PM

The floor are really not exactly shiny.

And I'm also trying to find the exposed pine trim. But that I could be missing, I guess. Though, was pine used as trim in this era? Floors, of course, but trim?

Posted by: Nomi at November 26, 2009 11:57 AM

BTW, I AM a total marketing tool for brokers.

Posted by: Nomi at November 26, 2009 11:59 AM

Why untrue? Why would there be any reason to cover the same house twice, with no change in the details provided in listing, except to help out the broker and his/her firm? Especially when there's really nothing to discuss, as Expert Textpert says. If there's no floorplan then the listing shouldn't be HOTD. Ever. Period.

P.S. I'm assuming there's no floorplan because the layout is terrible. If that's a kitchen/DR for an owner's triplex in a $2.6mm house that's horrifying. It means the buyer will have to rip it all out, hire an architect and do it all over again. You never see kitchens all against one wall like that except in tiny studio rentals.

Posted by: traditionalmod at November 26, 2009 1:31 PM

This widget feature is quite curious.

But why don't we ever see widgets for the properties that Brownstoner promotes for pay?

For example, why isn't there a widget on Toren condo?

I'm reasonably certain the commentators on this site would love a chance to evaluate Toren Condo's prices. I'm sure there are enough distinct floorplans that this site could have a pricing widget for a different Toren condo unit every week for the next couple of months.

Let's have some pricing widgets for Toren condo!!!

Posted by: FrancineJackson at November 27, 2009 5:56 PM

Well, if the poster had said something like "I don't understand why Brownstoner is featuring this house again. It seems like he's just trying to help out the broker," that'd be one thing.

I object to the across-the-board accusation. "Brownstoner has become a total marketing tool for brokers." What about all the times Brownstoner has criticized a listing, either for price, renovation choices or inadequacy of the listing itself?

Posted by: Nomi at November 27, 2009 7:59 PM

"BTW, I AM a total marketing tool for brokers"

true

Posted by: drumskin at November 27, 2009 9:42 PM

« Co-op of the Day: 39 Remsen Street, #2A StreetLevel: Slope's Love=? Once Again Says It's Closing »

November 25, 2009

House of the Day: 481 4th Street Revisited

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