Forum Archive: Research

Looking at a few properties around the 79th precinct police station near Tompkins Park.. Spoke with some potential neighbors and got a good vibe, but speaking with the police was a different story… One officer said we’d be better off looking near the 81st precinct station along the J train.. We’re a family of 4 with two kids, age 4 and infant. Any input regarding the park, public pool and public housing in the area would be helpful. Thanks

Hi–As some of you may know I bought a house last summer that I absolutely adore after a year and half of searching. I still have the real estate bug and often look at houses for sale and houses that have recently sold to see how the numbers match up to what I paid for my house (just curious). Zillow is reporting a lot of homes as selling for about a 3rd or even a quarter of its “zestimate” (i.e. an $800,000 brownstoner going for $250K). There were so many that I started to wonder if I missed out on some brownstone fire sale. Then I thought maybe alot of people are refinancing these days b/c of the good rates and that b/c refinancings are publicly recorded, Zillow and similar websites may be interpreting that information as a “recent sell”. Is that a reasonable presumption?

On many but certainly not all vacant buildings there is a spray painted marker on the front. It is a square with an X inside. It is usually done in orange but I have seen it in red or green. Does anyone know exactly what this means and who sprays them on?
DOB, HPD or NYFD?

Does anyone happen to know if Clinton Avenue still has it’s annual Spring sale? I am looking to get rid of a lot of stuff and would love to be able to sell it at any street fair in the neighborhood. Any advice????

We have an 8-unit coop, with an underlying mortgage that is probably too low, on a building that definitely needs some help coming back to life. To address both issues we are planning to design a capital project we can bring to the bank when refinancing. This project will likely include the following: re-pointing the front of the building; properly repairing the brickwork around the windows in back (where a couple of units have water coming in through the top of their window frames); repainting and checking the welds on the fire escape so that we are sure it is safe and functioning properly; re-painting the interior hallways; re-carpeting the interior hallways; re-glazing (is that the right word?) the front steps, which are starting to crumble; and adding a video camera system pointing at the street and vestibule. We would like to get several estimates on each part of the project and would love to hear any advice anyone has on such an undertaking (either on the securing of the loan, managing the process, the order of tasks, etc.) We would also love to have some referrals for vendors. We thank you in advance for any thoughts on any of these issues.

How many of you are shoveling your roofs?

We are moving into a new house soon which has not been renovated in probably at least 50 years and which looks like it also hasn’t been cleaned in quite some time. We would like to get a cleaning service to do an “industrial” strength cleaning as well as get an exterminator in as a preventative measure. Any recs for cleaning services and exterminators? Also, any advice on weather the cleaning or extermination should go first? We assumed cleaning so that we don’t cause harm to the cleaners as they work and also to make the most of whatever extermination measures are used.

Hi, Can anyone recommend a the best/fasted way to get a passport renewed in Brooklyn. Leaving in 3 weeks. Thanks!

Good morning,
My husband and I are just starting to consider what we’ll do longterm. My ideal is an estate brownstone in PS, CH, CG or PH that we could fix up over time. Dh feels we can’t afford that and prefers a move to the burbs.

My question to you all: how do I begin to get enough information to compare the scenarios? I’ve been reading the forums and looking at listings, but for instance do I contact a mortgage broker to see what we can afford here? Speak with a broker, or does that lock us in to them? Go to an open house? And how to account for differences in taxes in/out of the city?

Y’all have tons of great info on here, but much of it is so detailed that I’m finding my head swimming. Any pointers on where to jump in to the process to start choosing a path? Thanks for any insight.