Deed Scam in Brooklyn?


We just bought a house in Windsor Terrace and received a letter today from NY Certified Deed Services, 754 4th Ave in Brooklyn which states that it can obtain a certified copy of our deed for ONLY $85. Now I believe we could get one ourselves from the the County clerk for a nominal fee. This company seems to have been practicing this scam throughout NY state and elsewhere. Anyone else had a run in with them and should we contact the authorities?

Categories: News/Commentary
By nk | 01/16/2009 10:30 AM | Comment

Bannister: To paint or not to paint.


We are renovating our new house and are painting the hallway to get rid of the school hall beige, but we can’t afford to strip the bannister just yet. Currently it’s a disgusting milk chocolate brown. Should we grit our teeth and deal or is there a better color to paint it for the time being?

Categories: Painting
By nk | 12/09/2008 2:22 PM | Comment

Constractor suggestions for a newbie??


We just had an offer accepted on a 2- family 1910 brick house in Windsor Terrace in pretty good shape. But we want to do some renovations before we move in:
1. Make the upstairs kitchen a bedroom by removing cabinets, appliances, capping the plumbing and putting up sheet rock; knocking out a portion of the ibeam wall downstairs to open up the area and transform it into a living room/dining room area; pull up rugs and sand/finish the floors underneath throughout the house. We were hoping to budget 20,000 for this (that’s a price cited by the realtor, however). Is that realistic or just dreaming? And who does the forum recommend (we have so far asked Nixon Flooring and Quality Renovation to come in for estimates)? Any help greatly appreciated. We’re really novices at all this!

By nk | 09/20/2008 1:04 PM | Comment