15 years? really? Yeesh.

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 20, 2009 10:44 AM in response to Huh? Benetton for Bed Stuy Stretch of Bedford Avenue

Isn't there a Benneton on 7th Avenue in Park Slope? Or did that close?

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 20, 2009 9:18 AM in response to Huh? Benetton for Bed Stuy Stretch of Bedford Avenue

Nice house on a nice block. Although it is not a wide house, it appears to be well laid out. Unless they need to sell post haste, this will go for at or over ask.

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 18, 2009 1:16 PM in response to House of the Day: 22 Sidney Place

This is not Gowanus -- the canal doesn't even begin until Douglass.

I'd agree that this is Boerum Hill -- but I have seen one or two real estate agents calling these townhouse blocks east of 3rd avenue Park Slope.

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 18, 2009 12:15 PM in response to Shooting In Boerum Hill

Someone correct me, bnut I think there are already requirements for landscaping in R6A and R6B zones, and presumably others as well. I have never understood waht this means -- no paving at all? So if someone bluestoned the front garden of their brownstone (like many have) and put planters out -- is that landscaped?

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 17, 2009 10:51 AM in response to City Planning Targeting Curb Cuts

DIBS -- Not sure if anything was ever torn down here. But there are often exposed sides with no windows on the houses that abut the corner lot. E.g., the next blocks over the top floors of the equivalent house are exposed to view (at Congress, Baltic, Warren etc.) with no side windows.

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 16, 2009 12:31 PM in response to Cobble Hill Neighbors Irked by Norah Jones' Windows

IIRC, she does not own the adjacent lot -- that empty space is the back yard of the corner house.

Side windows would be great, but it would be unusual in the neighborhood to have side windows on a non-corner house. There might be a couple of examples, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 16, 2009 11:39 AM in response to Cobble Hill Neighbors Irked by Norah Jones' Windows

I am not considering reporting anyone for a relatively modest overage on FAR probably due to an extension built who knows when.

This regards a house that is on the market. I thought it was unwise to assume that anything would be grandfathered automatically, especially without being able to point directly to any specific approval of the construction of the extension.

Unfortunately I could not find a direct answer on the NYC zoning website, so I thought some people here would know the actual regulations in question (or that there are no regulations directly on point, but what customarily results as a amatter of course).

(Also sorry for the delay in reviewing the comments, but I was tied up all weekend.)

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 16, 2009 9:31 AM in response to Remedies for violation of FAR

IMO I think it will be harder than you think to document that you spend more than 750 hours/year managing two rentals in your house. That's saying that you spend 15 hours a week with only two weeks off. I am sure there are months when that happens, but I think it will be hard to show that consistently through the year.

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 12, 2009 4:06 PM in response to Audit Hell

Probably, but it's not definite. The LL is bound by a warranty of habitability and of quiet enjoyment (or something to that effect), and I am sure there are cases out there that a sufficient degree of vermin infestation can excuse your performance of the lease (i.e., paying rent). OTOH, a mouse in the house (even if it is up in the middle of night) probably won't suffice to excuse you completely, even if the LL is ignoring you.

You could consider withholding rent (check the tenants' websites or better consult with a tenants' attorney re how to do this -- presumably in an interest bearing escrow account) until the LL cures the problem.

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 10, 2009 3:14 PM in response to Lease Termination Notice

M4L -- I don't claim to be an expert over in that area, but I have always assunmed it was Myrtle. See http://www.hdc.org/neighborhoodatriskwallabout.htm

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 6, 2009 4:17 PM in response to Open House Picks

I saw the Hoyt street place last year -- nice bare bones, not at all fancy, and I think either aprtment would probably need some work before an owner would want to move in. It's short lot, almost no interior detail, and it is is on a rather busy block. In addition to the cars backed up leaving downtown between about 4 pm and 6:30 pm, it also has the bar Kili across the street which stays open and active until 4 pm Thursday through Saturday). There's also this weird phenomenon of (I assume) wannabe late 20's hipsters skateboarding at all hours of the night on this block.

OTOH, it is in PS 261, which is not a bad elementary school and regularly draws students from other districts. Also, it's two doors down from Fast and Fresh, which makes pretty tasty tortas and burritos. My guess is that this price will find a buyer within a few weeks.

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 6, 2009 4:17 PM in response to Open House Picks

M4L -- Isn't that house north of Myrtle and thus technically "Wallabout"?

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 6, 2009 1:38 PM in response to Open House Picks

Is it just me or is it a little bold to raise the price on the Crown Street place?

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 6, 2009 1:33 PM in response to Open House Picks: Six Months Later

Why is this zoned for PS 38 over in Boerum Hill -- to put the "Dodgers" into the kids as they run across both Flatbush and Atlantic going to school?

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 5, 2009 1:37 PM in response to House of the Day: 119 Fort Greene Place

BHO -- My guess is they saw that the developers down the street are looking for the same price for larger houses, and decided to get in front of all the buying interest for over $3.5 million modern living. (Plus this has the benefit of being much closer to parking -- hah.)

Posted by: Boerumresident at November 2, 2009 12:02 PM in response to First Resale at 14 Townhouses

Median would be interesting, but probably more predictive would be something at 2/3 or 75% toward the high end of predictions. As I and others have pointed out, the seller only needs to find one buyer, not the average of many buyers.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 23, 2009 11:54 AM in response to 20 Clifton Place Sells, Kicks Widget's Ass

Prospect Park South is architecturally and planning-wise rather different from the rest of the Victorian Flatbush neighborhoods and is designated as such by LPC. Pretty much the whole area was laid out by Alvord along different planning ideals than other parts of Flatbush.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 22, 2009 3:05 PM in response to House of the Day: 177 Rugby Road

Also, is that a legitimate bathroom in the cellar?

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 21, 2009 1:51 PM in response to House of the Day: 544 Washington Avenue

Given that the narrower house on South Oxford (only _10 seconds_ to the Atlantic Mall) could bring in only $1.1M, there is very little reason to think this house (even with the cramped rental) should go above 900K.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 21, 2009 1:48 PM in response to House of the Day: 544 Washington Avenue

DIBS -- Are you planning on starting another crack epidemic? Otherwise I don't think a Mayor Thompson will be any of those (except maybe debt burdened -- Bloomie is already started with new bond offerings, and I imagine that may continue).

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 20, 2009 4:33 PM in response to House of the Day: 65 Prospect Park West, Reduced

Antidope, that's still less than 20% off the ask. Maybe the widget was abnormally too close to the ask?

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 16, 2009 2:13 PM in response to Open House Picks: Six Months Later

I think 1st street is/was also at Townsley and Gay: http://www.townsleyandg.com/showprop.php?pnum=120&showpic=0

MM -- What exactly about the reno choices was poor? From the photos, it looks blah and not really my bag, but not affirmatively cheap or poorly installed.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 16, 2009 1:26 PM in response to Open House Picks

Verizon DSL works fine for basic internet usage -- we did not notice any dramatic drop in speed when we left TW a few years ago.

If you are running some intensive bandwith hogging service, you might need something else.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 14, 2009 11:25 AM in response to High Speed Internet

Also done this morning.

I wish I had my survey from 2 years ago to compare.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 14, 2009 11:22 AM in response to Brownstoner Reader Survey

I am not sure why, having foregone the advice and services that one would receive by retaining your own RE agent who represents your interests (e.g., advice on pricing, staging, repairs, open houses schedules, etc), a FSBO seller would think of fronting the cost for buyers' brokers who are not providing any significant services to you (and have no obligation to do so).

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 9, 2009 12:12 PM in response to FSBO Ground Rules

Obviously I am not giving legal advice here, but I would think a seller can do almost anything with proper disclosure. A seller presumably could give back $100,000 at signing __as long as everything is being disclosed__ to any and all interested parties (but I think that would certainly mean reporting the sale price as 100K less and telling the bank that the buyer put down $100,000 less than they actually did).

Her's one article I found that talked about an FBI investigation into incentives out west: http://www.builderonline.com/marketing/dangerous-incentives.aspx

If you really have a concern, why not ask the lending officer if they want to know about a concession on common charges for the first year? If they think it is important, they will tell you.

There were also some articles re ethical issue a few years ago re developers delivering extra commissions or bonuses to real estate agents (especially for delivering buyers who bought at the ask). I would think all such extras to agents would be disclosed on the HUD1 at closing, but by then it's a little late for the buyer to wonder if em is being taken for a ride.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 8, 2009 5:26 PM in response to Is This Even Legal?

I think the question about legality is whether the purchase price being given to the bank overstates the "value" of the property. I think there have been some articles in the WSJ on whetehr certain "incentives" over the past 3 or 4 years trigger any problems for the bank loans.

There is a lso a subsumed issue regarding the value of the original basis for the property for calculating capital gains down the road.

Presumably the city agency would also be misled, but because a higher price is being reported they are not harmed in terms of calculation of transfer taxes or property taxes.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 8, 2009 2:17 PM in response to Is This Even Legal?

Spgrxxi -- Where do you get the information that the tenant is the former owner? That would not be rent controlled, but rather a life estate, which is a huge difference from a rent control situation.

Antidope -- you are correct that, if this is a true R/C apartment, an immediate family member who has been living there for at least 2 years (I think) with the R/C tenant can continue to live in the unit if the R/C tenant were to die.

What I am not sure about is whether the apartment remains subject to rent control, converts to rent stabilization, or what. Also, I am not sure what the restricitons on evictions for owner occupancy would be after such an event.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 8, 2009 2:11 PM in response to House of the Day: 130 Summit Street

Don't forget Maryland corn -- also extra sweet.

OTOH, what's so great about Carolinas' corn?

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 8, 2009 1:05 PM in response to Corn Porn in BoCoCa

As the house next door is asking $2 million even, there is no way this place will sell this year for over that amount (even with the side windows and presumably the option to build a curb cut on the Hoyt street side of the house into the rear garden.)

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 6, 2009 2:00 PM in response to House of the Day: 417 Sackett Street

Search the posts from a couple of weeks ago on TICs. CMU recommended (or has a recommendation) for a lawyer who had handled TICs before to em's satisfaction.

If you set up as LLC, then there's no need for a TIC (as the common rights and duties will be in the LLC agreement) but I don't know how that might impact the types of mortgages available.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 6, 2009 9:48 AM in response to Buying 3-Family w/ 2 Others

It's a beautiful block, and I don't think it gets any more auto traffic than Pacific or Dean. (Not saying that the traffic is light on those blocks, just that it's probably comparable.) There is a lot more auto traffic on Hoyt leading into Atlantic than the other side, but I think the traffic on Bond is pretty bad on both sides of Atlantic.

OTOH, $3.5M is big big stretch for this location. More than "just out of reach", I'd say. While I'd not disagre with the quote in the article that there is a $2M and over market for townhouses in Boerum Hill, there is a huge difference (both mathematically and psychologically) between $2.1 million and "$3.5 million to 4 million apiece."

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 5, 2009 12:42 PM in response to Optimism on State Street

Two comments -- This may be the first article of this welcome to the neighborhood ilk in at least 15 years to not mention the mohawk steelworker and skyscraper worker connection.

I am pretty sure that Patois opened up in early 1997 (maybe even in December 1996?), and Sur opened up in the autumn of 1997. I think a few more higher end restaurants on Smith opened between late 1998 and 2000, and then it has been a steady stream since then. I don't recall when Saul or Grocery opened.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 5, 2009 12:35 PM in response to Boerum Hill: In a Nutshell

It's probably that more people could afford a double duplex (as the other unit would command higher rents) but more people would prefer to live in a 3 over 1. The nice thing about a 3 over 1 is that the owner can still easily have access to the garden but also live in the sunnier upper floors, whereas with most double duplexes the owner has to choose garden versus higher floors (and also the idea of living underneath someone, which I think the majority of people do not like).

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 5, 2009 11:31 AM in response to Double Duplex vs 3-over-1

I'm with Minard on this. On top of it, although I don't walk by this house every day, but I almost never seeing people milling around in front of this stretch of houses like you might expect.

It's sufficiently far away from the exit and I think the presence of other venues on Court in which to gather -- like the B&N or maybe My Little Pizzeria -- probably keeps the crowds that do gather to meet up and see a movie from spilling onto the side street too much.

Can't comment on the noise factor.

OTOH, I have to imagine that the rear garden (north facing, too) really does not get very much sun, especially in winter.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 1, 2009 4:15 PM in response to House of the Day: 171 State Street

Didn't the house one or two down just chop their ask price to below $2.5M?

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 1, 2009 2:27 PM in response to House of the Day: 171 State Street

I have seen what DIBS is suggesting and is not that uncommon.

Another way parents can help is to write the mortgage for you. They can offer rates signifciantly lower than the banks. They still have to charge interest to avoid the loan being treated as a gift -- there are specific IRS rules on how much the interest needs to be to avoid gift analysis.

Also, I am pretty sure (but check with a lawyer or accountant) each parent can give a gift up to the maximum amouint each year without triggering filing of the return. And they can give that amount to both you and your better half, so the parents (if there are two still) in fact can give a couple a total of $48K each year wihtout triggering gift tax issues.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 1, 2009 2:26 PM in response to Downpayment as a Gift

Antidope,

If you are really taking this on, I have another analysis to suggest. In addition to median price, there might be some interesting events in what happens at certain points away from the median. As the market for each house is in certain ways a unique market, the sale price should almost always exceed the median or average price. The question of study is whether it always does so within a certain degree or deviation off that median or mean.

Wasder, I don't think it's human nature to be invested in underbidding, but rather that it only takes that one buyer to beat the crowd by 10% to make it look like everyone else underbid. Frankly, I don't think it will be possible for the widget to ever accurately predict the sale price until the vast majority of its users are able to use it not to estimate their own valuation of the house in question but rather to estimate the value that someone else will place on the property. Kind of tricky.

However, it will be possible to use the widget as generally establishing a confidence range as to what a signficant group of people might value the property. EVen if the mean or median is not a 100% accurate, this is still very useful. It can determine whether the ask is likely to be in the range of a large number of possible buyers (or a ta point at which rational people can negotiate toward or away from), or whether the buyer's ask is more dependent on finding an unusual buyer who will value the property in a manner different from the crowd.

Posted by: Boerumresident at October 1, 2009 11:52 AM in response to

Promenade -- I can't comment on "talk", but will note that they are both buyers of the Henry Steet place. I just thought it was fascinating that the seller of the penthouse (a) did not move very far away, and (b) did not really downsize or otherwise change their residential footprint other than to give up outdoor space for being 2 blocks closer ot the Promenade.

Posted by: Boerumresident at September 30, 2009 12:37 PM in response to Last Week's Biggest Sales

According to the forms filed with the city, 160 Henry Street sold for $4 million.

More interesting is that the seller of the 160 Henry penthouse was the buyer of the One Pierrepont apartment.

Posted by: Boerumresident at September 30, 2009 12:08 PM in response to Last Week's Biggest Sales

Also, if you do go the LLC route there is no need for the TIC, as the only owner of the fee is the LLC. From a cost perpective that is probably easier to accomplish than a TIC, but as noted you may not have access to traditional mortgages at FHA rates.

Instead of the LLC taking out a commerical mortgage, you could have each LLC member borrow individually, but again I would guess the rates will be higher.

Posted by: Boerumresident at September 29, 2009 1:52 PM in response to Tenancy in Common

Makes sense. I too knew a couple of people who bought houses in San Francisco (mostly in upper Castro and Noe Valley) as TICs and then converted to condos.

Good luck with the prospective sale.

Posted by: Boerumresident at September 29, 2009 8:55 AM in response to Tenancy in Common

CMU -- If you own the building, what's the rationale for selling into a TIC rather than dividing the property into condos? Is it just the legal costs associated with division and registering the condo?

Posted by: Boerumresident at September 28, 2009 5:39 PM in response to Tenancy in Common

Spgrxxi -- The maps indicate a rectangular lot. Do you think this house has an (unofficial perhaps) easement on the lot that faces Flatbush?

Posted by: Boerumresident at September 28, 2009 2:25 PM in response to House of the Day: 59 St. Marks Avenue

Acording to the maps, this lot is the one closest to the intersection, and if you look at Streetview that is the one wiht the Ivy.

Posted by: Boerumresident at September 28, 2009 2:22 PM in response to House of the Day: 59 St. Marks Avenue

I would not take private school as a given at any price range -- just because you have the money to buy a $3 million house doesn't mean you can get into the school you prefer. (Anyway, isn't PS 282 pretty good but not the lovey doveyr feel of 321?)

According to the tax map, the lot is 65' feet deep. The only way the garden is 43' deep as claimed is if the deck (or patio under the deck) is included.

I might consider trurning one of the small bedrooms upstairs into a second bathroom for the kids.

I think it's a pretty good price for the location and the layout -- assuming the physicial structure is in good shape. Does anyone have thoughts about the amount of ivy on the front of the building? It's dramatic looking but alos perhaps too intense in a kind of I am Legend sort of way.

Posted by: Boerumresident at September 28, 2009 2:13 PM in response to House of the Day: 59 St. Marks Avenue

I thought the sidewalk was a public easement across the property, not actually held in fee by the city.

Posted by: Boerumresident at September 25, 2009 1:25 PM in response to DOB Posts Letter of Intent to Revoke on St. Marks Ave

It was a very narrow house so taht's going to limit the pool of buyers. OTOH, a couple of posters really liked it, so it may be that they just sold as the market was moving against them.

Posted by: Boerumresident at September 25, 2009 12:55 PM in response to Open House Picks: Six Months Later

Nicely renovated, but I don't get out they installed the Central hearing/air without using at least one line of chimeys. Maybe they had an old dumbwaiter line and popped through to the roof.

OTOH, I don't get having such a grand bathroom next to the kitchen with no BR's on that floor. Although I guess it makes sense to have the semi-shower there -- almost like a beach house shower to rinse off after coming in from the garden.

I too much prefer the rear parlor kitchen approach (especially with a deck off the rear).

Posted by: Boerumresident at September 24, 2009 5:15 PM in response to House of the Day: 786 Putnam Avenue