Does anybody know anything about the history of Squibb Park? How long has it been closed? Why is it closed?

Posted by: Chrisintheheights at November 14, 2009 10:57 AM in response to Brooklyn Bridge Park Progress Report

I give these guys a lot of credit for putting the film together and doing it so well - whether you like the building or not, you feel the creativity and passion that is going into it. I wonder when video will become a more thoughtful part of the selling process. When you think about it, it's amazing that advertisers spend a million dollars selling a two dollar bar of soap but spend peanuts to sell twelve hundred square feet for a million five....

Posted by: Chrisintheheights at August 18, 2009 9:03 AM in response to Checking In at 37 Bridge Street

I think this site is pretty fantastic. I mean, I could do without some of the hysteria but generally I think it's people who really like Brooklyn and really like brownstones talking about what they like.

Real estate brokers are trying to sell and get the best price possible. So, okay. That's their job. Some of them are really helpful and some of them are really rude and the prices are what buyers will pay.

Posted by: Chrisintheheights at July 28, 2009 2:04 PM in response to RE Agents Hate Brownstoner

Looks like a lovely place, well cared for, no improvements to undo. I mean, $4 million is obviously a lot of money - but people in the Heights have paid two and a half times that...and even with this terrible economy you can spend that kind of money in Manhattan and not wind up with a whole house, a yard, and all the other civilized things. The Corcoran site doesn't show much of the kitchen(s) or the bathrooms, though...

Posted by: Chrisintheheights at June 10, 2009 1:50 PM in response to House of the Day: 10 Schermerhorn Street

They had been working on 67 Cranberry for quite a while - at least all through the summer. It appeared from walk-bys that it was completely gutted - does anybody know what caused the fire?

Interesting that it backs up almost directly to the neighborhood firehouse.

A lot of the townhouses in the neighborhood were cut up into smaller apartments dating back to the 20s on and a lot of the workmanship that went into that was slipshod...and now it's old and slipshod. And probably dangerous.

I moved into a townhouse in the Heights about ten years ago and found the electrical systems at least 50 years out of date - it cost a fortune to update. And because these houses were mostly built in the 1850s, the walls are not thick enough to accommodate much in the way of infrastructure.

Meanwhile, does anybody know the plans for the retail space at the corner of Hicks and Cranberry? They seem to be doing a very nice job.

Posted by: Chrisintheheights at February 3, 2009 1:55 PM in response to The Heights Is Burning

That corner has had a peculiar collection of storefronts over the years - before it was a wine bar it was a coffee shop, before that it was a Cuban restaurant, before that it was a place for kids, before that it was something else and before that it was the creepiest grocery store ever (or was it a flower shop that sold some groceries?) The wine bar seemed to be doing okay - then the scandal. The location seems jinxed...

Posted by: Chrisintheheights at January 3, 2009 9:30 AM in response to Streetlevel: New Chapter for Wine Bar at 50 Henry

I think it's great that you do this regularly.

Posted by: Chrisintheheights at August 22, 2008 8:49 PM in response to Bird Blog: Week 15

Well, knowledge is power, and it compromises what a broker has historically been able to do, especially in the pre-internet days. It makes you work harder, in ANY business, when the client is halfway there in the knowledge department and just need you to bring your expertise and work to earn your commission.

Like the travel brokers, who went the way of the dinosaurs once we had access to the same info they did, any real estate broker who can truly offer a useful service will stay in business. The ones who rely on us being ignorant fools are the ones who feel an arrow in their back at the mention of Brownstoner.

Posted by: jland at July 28, 2009 2:19 PM in response to RE Agents Hate Brownstoner

I completely understand there are terrible agents/brokers and I do not have a problem with people expressing their opinions about it, but I don't think that we should all be lumped together. If you've had a bad experience with a particular agent or office than say it, don't just blame all real estate agents.

Again, like I said, I do not hate brownstoner, I just dont' like how negative it can be about properties, prices and agents. I think there are a lot of positive things to be said about all those things and I wish that came through more on this blog. It wasn't always this negative and when it wasn't so negative Brownstoner used to carry a little more weight with agents/brokers and actually took in the constructive criticism.

Posted by: broker at July 28, 2009 2:28 PM in response to RE Agents Hate Brownstoner

long before brownstoner or curbed or street easy... i explored real estate in brooklyn. I started in 1996. i did it on foot attending dozens of open houses every weekend. i was overlapping looking at properties while buying and selling at different times. i have always based my information on my own research. i covered all of gentrified brownstone brooklyn from the heights to Ditmas Park and kensington even and of course williamsburg.

some times, i found myself to be more knowledgeable than the real estate agents, but really found many to be just fine and some really good. i don't totally understand all the negativity against brokers.

the comments on these sites for sure include some that are utterly wrong. just wrong. but because they are written, they somehow get passed along and become true even when the facts point otherwise. doesn't affect my actual experience of my property or neighborhood, but think that if I don't counter these misconceptions, then people doing a search down the road won't hear the truth.

I bought a brownstone in cobble hill in '97 and a house in Park Slope in 2000 right off of 5th avenue in central slope. Note, both purchases prior to the explosions of Smith Street and Fifth Avenues. Pretty good. So, when I invested in Wburg in 2006, I felt pretty confident, and still do.

When I started reading and posting on these sites, I thought that i was going to be a good guy and help folks out who didn't have my experience or research. hardly! so many people are simply posting to be difficult, negative or to find an outlet for their frustrations. read half these comments and want to direct people to a therapist.

Posted by: wine lover at July 28, 2009 3:27 PM in response to RE Agents Hate Brownstoner

A day will come when the internet gets profoundly regulated.

***Bid half off peak comps***

Posted by: Brownstones Half Off at July 28, 2009 3:33 PM in response to RE Agents Hate Brownstoner

I am a real estate agent and I love Brownstoner. It's an incredibly valuable source of information about many Brooklyn neighborhoods and I find it's generally very correct -- and that mistakes, once caught, are quickly rectified.

What I do not like (nor do most of my colleagues) is the mean-spirited, inaccurate, and just plain inflamatory nature of many of the comments. For that reason I tend not to read them.

Jon & Co, you do a great job. Thanks!

Posted by: babs at July 28, 2009 3:37 PM in response to RE Agents Hate Brownstoner

BHO - do you know something about China's plans fo the US that we don't?

Posted by: dittoburg at July 28, 2009 3:54 PM in response to RE Agents Hate Brownstoner

Why would real estate agents hate a site that gives their properties more exposure?
Everyone knows not to take what people write on these sites as the "final word"...so all it does it give more exposure to the listings.

Posted by: Streetwise123 at July 28, 2009 3:56 PM in response to RE Agents Hate Brownstoner

Realtors are salespeople. They are what they are. If you can't see through a sales pitch you shouldn't complain about getting had.

But I can see why realtors would hate B'stoner. Salespeople who are trying to push overpriced product hate informed customers. Salespeople with competitive product love informed customers. With the likes of B'stoner out there, how can realtors create a false sense of urgency and an expectation that prices will just keep going up?

Posted by: lechacal at July 28, 2009 4:02 PM in response to RE Agents Hate Brownstoner

"So, when I invested in Wburg in 2006, I felt pretty confident, and still do."

So THAT'S why everything you ever post on here is about how all of North Brooklyn is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

"When I started reading and posting on these sites, I thought that i was going to be a good guy and help folks out who didn't have my experience or research."

You don't help anyone out when you adopt a completely uncritical rah-rah cheerleading attitude toward your own neighborhood because you're afraid your investment might go south.

Posted by: sixyearsandcounting at July 28, 2009 7:47 PM in response to RE Agents Hate Brownstoner

"MORE SPECIFICALLY, there used to be a bar on the left with Real Estate Web site links, and I would scan them religiously every day for new listings. These were not just "corcoran" and "brown harris stevens"it was all the little local ones"

So true Iz, I miss that feature too.

Maybe that's why brownstoner is hated on? The free links have gone bye bye.

Posted by: jack slade at July 28, 2009 8:40 PM in response to RE Agents Hate Brownstoner