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House of the Day: 476 1/2 State Street
When there’s a fraction in house’s address, chances are it’s gonna be a narrow house. That is indeed the case with 476 1/2 State Street, though in this case it’s nothing too drastic: The four-story brick townhouse is just under 17 feet wide, a perfectly manageable width. The house has some very nice original details throughout. The kitchen’s the only thing that leaves us a little limp. Although the house has only 2,300 square feet, $1,695,000 is not a lot of money for a house in this neck of the woods these days. We bet they’ll end up getting pretty close.
476 1/2 State Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
02/09/2012 1:28 PM
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House of the Day: 271 Jefferson Avenue
Flip-o-rama! This beautiful corner brownstone at 271 Jefferson Avenue traded for just $600,000 back in September and the new owners wasted no time in getting to work in a top-to-bottom renovation that they hope will bring an asking price of–brace yourself–$1,295,000. Sounds crazy, yes, but if they do a nice enough job, not out of the question. As a commenter points out in a Curbed post about the new listing two days ago, “It is going to be part of the Bedford Corners Historic district if LPC gets around to it one day.” The triple parlor is particularly impressive, with tons of original detail, including a pier mirror and beaucoup woodwork.
271 Jefferson Avenue [Douglas Elliman] GMAP P*Shark
02/08/2012 1:25 PM
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House of the Day: 833 President Street
The sellers of this new listing at 833 President Street in Park Slope are hoping to get $3,450,000 for their two-family brownstone. It’s a nice place to be sure but ultimately we think the configuration–which includes the placement of the small kitchen on the second floor–is going to make that difficult. (We say that sympathetically since we’ve backed ourselves into a similar set-up.) What do you think about that price?
833 President Street [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
02/07/2012 1:23 PM
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House of the Day: 389 8th Street
This one seems like a bit of a stretch. The brick townhouse at 389 8th Street just hit the market asking $2,450,000. For a four-story house in the location at this price, we’d expect something pretty impressive. And, although we don’t have many photos to go from, this place looks just middle of the road. We like the exposed beams in the kitchen of the owner’s duplex, but there’s no evidence of any original detail or anything else to make you say “wow!” The bathroom, though newly renovated, is nothing special and the backyard still has a chain link fence around it. Can’t quite figure out why they’re asking so much.
389 8th Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
02/06/2012 1:24 PM
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House of the Day: 280 Henry Street
When we saw this new listing at 280 Henry Street pop up with a $4,000,000 price tag, we were expecting to click through to something pretty special. So we were a little disappointed to see the finishes and configuration. Don’t get us wrong–a 25-foot-wide, five-story brownstone in Brooklyn Heights is nothing to sniff at and the place is in fine shape, but the six-family house simply lacks the old-world grandeur that one would hope to see here. Maybe the price even works given the number of rental apartments but someone’s dream house this is not.
280 Henry Street [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
02/02/2012 1:25 PM
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House of the Day: 16 Hunts Lane
This house at 16 Hunts Lane is so special from the outside–as is the mews it’s located on–that it’s a bit disappointing to see the interior finishes. The choices are all so bland and, frankly, middle-market. There’s nothing particularly offensive, mind you, but a carriage house of this historic significance and prime location (smack in the middle of Brooklyn Heights) deserved better in our opinion. (Baseboard heating? Factory floors?) Despite the house’s small size (700 square feet), the asking price of $995,000 would have been easily achievable with higher-end interiors. As is, we’re not so sure. Because of its uniqueness, it still might happen. If you’re interested, there’s already been some discussion of this place over on Curbed.
16 Hunts Lane [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
02/01/2012 1:29 PM
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House of the Day: 26 St. James Place
This brownstone listing at 26 St. James Place in Clinton Hill reminds us a bit of what our house looked like when we took possession back in 2004. Lots of nice details but desperately in need of TLC! This place is a legal six-family with two of the units still occupied, whereas ours was an SRO that was delivered vacant but without a Certificate of Non-Harrassment…
26 St. James Place [ERA Petkoff Realty] GMAP P*Shark
01/31/2012 1:21 PM
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House of the Day: 233 Garfield Place (Pretty in Pink)
233 Garfield Place was a House of the Day in 2009 when it hit the market with an asking price of $2,500,000. But it wasn’t on the market for long. A couple of weeks after we posted about the famously pink house becoming available, the Brooklyn Paper followed up with a story noting that the listing had been pulled and citing some deed-related shenanigans by a family member of the elderly owner. Well, hopefully all that’s been cleared up, because the bubble gum house is back! This time with a price tag of $2,395,000. It will definitely need a lot of work but there’s plenty of enticing raw material to work with: Mantels, parquet floors, beaucoup woodwork, etc. Think it’ll fetch its price?
233 Garfield Place [Brenton Realty] GMAP P*Shark
01/30/2012 1:25 PM
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House of the Day: 473 Sackett Street
The seller of this house at 473 Sackett Street in Carroll Gardens bought the three-story building back in 2005 for $875,000 and, if the photos in the new listing are representative, proceeded to do a very attractive head-to-toe renovation. The result is a light and modern-feeling house that still has some of the old-house vibes. Nice. We’ll see whether the market will bear the asking price of $1,695,000. Any predictions?
473 Sackett Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
01/26/2012 1:24 PM
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House of the Day: 489 Third Street
This house at 489 Third Street in Park Slope just hit the market with an asking price of $2,450,000. Although some of the furniture on the ground-floor level might not be helping the cause, the house as a whole appears to have plenty of original detail as well as an attractive general vibe. The 22-foot-wide property is currently configured with two floor-through apartments over an owner’s duplex. Location, two blocks from the park, is sweet. It’s hard to tell whether there may be enough work required, especially in the case of a reconfiguration to a one- or two-family, that the current price is too high. Time will tell.
489 Third Street [Warren Lewis] GMAP P*Shark
01/25/2012 1:25 PM
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House of the Day: 7 Columbia Place Revisited
This clapboard house at 7 Columbia Place in Brooklyn Heights hit the market back in August with a price tag of $2,995,000. Since then, the asking price has steadily ticked down in four increments to its current level of $2,595,000. We suspect that the fairly bland interiors are to blame. While perfectly nice, they lack the charm of an original look and the sexiness of something more starkly modern. The house is also only three stories. Love that exterior though.
7 Columbia Place [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
House of the Day: 7 Columbia Place [Brownstoner]
01/24/2012 1:26 PM
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House of the Day: 548 3rd Street
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from 548 3rd Street–almost seven years to be exact. The limestone row house was an Open House Pick back in April 2005 when it was asking $3,200,000. It ended up going for $2,800,000. It hit the market again last week for $3,995,000, a sizable mark-up to be sure but one at least partially substantiated by an extensive renovation. (Beautiful modern kitchen and bathroom, by the way!) Think someone will pay up for the reno?
548 3rd Street [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
01/23/2012 1:26 PM
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House of the Day: 451 8th Street
451 8th Street was on the market for a couple of weeks last spring before sitting out the summer season. The three-story brownstone came back on the market in September with the same asking price of $2,450,000. It’s not a great surprise that the 17-foot-wide, single-family house hasn’t been snatched up though: Despite being very attractive and well-located, it’s a lot of dough for a house this size, dontcha think?
451 8th Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
01/19/2012 1:28 PM
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House of the Day: 463 Carroll Street
This is one of the bigger price cuts we’ve seen in a while. The house at 463 Carroll Street in Gowanus started out in October 2010 asking $1,100,000. In December it was an Open House Pick and by April 2011 it had gone into contract. Unfortunately for the seller, the sale never closed though and the property went back on the market in October 2011 at $999,000. There was no action at that level, however, and last week the ask was lowered to $849,000. It’s pretty bland in the design department but at some point here it becomes an interesting fixer-upper for someone with a little vision and creativity up his sleeve.
463 Carroll Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
01/18/2012 1:24 PM
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House of the Day: 50 Prospect Park Southwest
This new listing at 50 Prospect Park Southwest is an unusual one. Located in Windsor Terrace, this 25-foot-wide property includes a rear house in addition to the one fronting on the park. That’s right, two houses. The listing plays this up, urging people to “Buy with your BFF’s.” The exterior of the front house has an unusual double cornice look going on and the interior is attractive but fairly modest in its detail. Asking price: $1,800,000, which is a lot for this side of the park but you are getting an extra house in the whole deal.
50 Prospect Park Southwest [Brooklyn Properties] GMAP P*Shark
01/16/2012 1:27 PM
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House of the Day: 53 Decatur Street
Given the lack of decent-sized photos on the StreetEasy listing and the total lack of photos on the broker website, the broker behind this new listing at 53 Decatur Street in Bed Stuy doesn’t deserve the publicity but luckily for him there’s enough original woodwork on display that we can’t help ourselves. That said, from what we can see when we squint our eyes, the renovation, while thorough, looks a little characterless. (Granite counters: Just say no!) Anyway, your guess is as good as ours as whether there’s enough original detail to make this place worth the $749,000 asking price. Probably worth a look though.
53 Decatur Street [Quality Home Sales] GMAP P*Shark
01/11/2012 1:25 PM
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House of the Day: 61 Sherman Street
For some reason it feels like it’s been ages since we’ve seen a house on one of the nicer townhouse blocks of Windsor Terrace hit the market. This new listing at 61 Sherman Street ends the dry spell, and in pretty nice way. While it definitely has some nice original detail, it doesn’t have as much as some other houses on this block that we’ve seen. The set-up is a little sub-optimal for most buyers as well. Right now it’s configured as two floor-through units plus an unfinished English basement. The exterior is very handsome, though, and this is a nice block so we’ll see how they do on that asking price of $1,189,000.
408 10th Street [Betancourt] GMAP P*Shark
01/10/2012 1:28 PM
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House of the Day: 408 10th Street
We’re not sure you’re going to “grow rich” by buying this house at 408 10th Street, as the listing suggests, but you’ll probably be very happy living in the attractive lower duplex while collecting rent from the three apartments on the upper two floors. What do you make of the asking price of $1,995,000?
408 10th Street [Halstead] GMAP P*Shark
01/09/2012 1:27 PM
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House of the Day: 104 Berkeley Place
Why, oh why, do some sellers continue to use brokers that can’t do the marketing basics, like take some decent photos and set up good online listing? Take the case of 104 Berkeley Place, a nice old brownstone in a prime part of Park Slope. For the $150,000 commission this guy stands to make, we get two crappy night-time interior photos on StreetEasy. That’s it. So is it worth the $2,500,000 asking price? No way to know, really, but buyers are going to go into the process with a negative bias about the three-family house. Boggles the mind.
104 Berkeley Place [Exit All Seasons Realty] GMAP P*Shark
01/05/2012 1:27 PM
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House of the Day: 30 Strong Place
30 Strong Place in Cobble Hill just hit the market with an asking price of $2,800,000. The single-family brownstone is a little on the narrow side (17 feet) but other than that is a lovely house in a great location. The garden-level kitchen is charming indeed, with a nice juxtaposition of old floorboards and modern built-ins. As for the parlor floor, we wish the original mantels were still in place, but otherwise there’s lots of original charm. How do you think this’ll fare?
30 Strong Place [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
01/04/2012 1:27 PM
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jennytabassum
Feb 06, 2012 | 12:32 PM