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February 13, 2008
Next move: house or additional floor?
My gf and I keep debating our next move and can't seem to agree.
Current situation: we live in a duplex apt (parlor + above) in a brownstone coop in the Heights. Quiet street, great location, big backyard (accessed from the parlor floor via stairs). The building has a garden apt with finished basement, and 2 floor-thru apartments above us. The apartment is nice and airy (building is 25ft wide) with high ceilings. Not a lot of original detail left in the apt aside from the original fireplaces.
We're thinking of moving up into a bigger place if prices dip here.
The people living above us indicated they are looking to move in the near future since the apt is getting too small with the kids.
Here's the dilemma: do we look to buy a whole house (prob can only afford 3 stories + basement, 20ft wide unless we really really dip here) in a different location (ie. park slope, but maybe not prime prime park slope) or do we buy the apt upstairs and extend our staircase another floor?
I think the latter will result in same cost but would leave us in the Heights in an apt we love, but we'd still be living in a coop. The house idea seems nice (no neighbors above or below us), but we'd give up the prime location.
What do you all think? Is a triplex in a coop something that would be sellable in the future?
Comments
Its a tough call and a very personal decision.
On a personal level, I would always go for the house. I would never want to live in a house with other people above me nor would i want to have my neigbors permission to do renovations and/or sell. (Nothing is ever perfect of course but I like having my own house.)
That said, you are already in that situation. If you don't mind living in that situation, it seems a lot "easier" to just add space to your current living arrangement.
Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at February 13, 2008 3:08 PM
Prime Heights will weather pricing dips better than Park Slope. How high will your maintenance be if you buy the apartment abouve yours? I considered something similar in my co-op in the slope but the maintenance would go totally out of whack.
Posted by: guest at February 13, 2008 3:22 PM
Your dilemma is the stuff of other peoples' fantasies. Hard to believe this is a real problem.
That said: How many units is your coop? If you bought more, is it now a 2 unit coop? If so, you own all the risk of a house and all the voting in the coop, but you get none of the real value of owning the whole house, and it's probably more expensive to maintain as a coop.
Why not think about a bigger bargain and a bigger upside on your investment, and buy a huger house in Fort Greene or Clinton Hill?
Posted by: guest at February 13, 2008 4:14 PM
4:14, reread the post for the answers to your questions.
If you buy the floor through above, you will have to take on their maintenance, but it sounds like you will also have the majority of the voting shares. What's the likelihood that the top floor/garden will ever sell to you?
Posted by: guest at February 13, 2008 4:54 PM
How about this - buy your neighbor's and then convert your co-op to a condo. Instant 10%+ upside.
Posted by: guest at February 13, 2008 5:07 PM
OP here: thanks for your comments so far.
Maintenance would jump to just over 2k for what would then be a 4BR apt.
We would indeed have majority of voting shares.
I do think it is likely the top floor could be selling in a couple of years, which makes this an attractive option to move up in space over time if we can afford it at that time. Garden is probably unlikely to move.
Posted by: bhabe at February 13, 2008 5:16 PM
Would the co-op let you do it?
do they have to vote you in, again?
do you get along with the downstairs neighbors?
Posted by: guest at February 13, 2008 7:00 PM
Would the co-op let you do it?
do they have to vote you in, again?
do you get along with the downstairs neighbors?
Posted by: guest at February 13, 2008 7:00 PM
I'm intrigued - you say you have the parlor floor but you have garden access - does this mean that the garden is exclusively yours? Anyway, I'd definitely buy your neighbor out and in a few years, buy out your top neighbor. At this point, your bottom neighbor would sell to you when and if they did and you would make a huge profit once you owned the whole place. I would seriously look into making the place a condo.
Posted by: guest at February 13, 2008 11:28 PM
I'd be tempted to talk to a good local real-estate broker to get feedback on the marketability of a 4BR triplex coop in the Heights. When we were looking last year, the cost of a nice 3BR in the Heights was not substantially different from a house in the Slope. If a 4BR is going to be the cost of a NICE house in the Slope, you're going to have a pretty small pool of buyers who would want an apartment with a shared (?) garden and the hassles of a coop board.
Also, do the economics of adding on make sense? We never thought seriously about combining in our building because the numbers didn't add up. We didn't think we'd make much of a profit; we took the estimated market value of a 3BR in our building, then subtracted the market value of our 2BR, the purchase price of an adjacent 1BR, and the renovation costs for the combination. If you do the reverse math (value of your place, purchase price of one floor-through, reno costs), where do the numbers end up?
Posted by: zeebee_in_bklyn at February 14, 2008 10:59 AM
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