I can't believe this house hasn't been on the house tour. I actually like the paint colors in the livinhg and dining rooms. I've been looking for inspiration in that area. For info about the street, go to the hawthorne street blog. They seem to like it plenty!

Posted by: dt at October 28, 2009 5:45 PM in response to House of the Day: 136 Hawthorne Street

Rutland Road between Bedford and Flatbush, in Lefferts Manor, has one of these alleys.

Posted by: dt at October 27, 2009 7:57 PM in response to 97 St. Marks Avenue Update

Over the course of the last six months I've noticed that houses needing renovation aren't moving nearly as well as the turnkey ones, regardless of the price. Most certainly this house was underpriced, but given current market conditions I think they did pretty well with a house that needs some money put in.

Posted by: dt at September 17, 2009 5:53 PM in response to Brooklyn Sales: Under a Million

$920,000 is quite good for the PLG house. This house needs renovation.

Posted by: dt at September 17, 2009 1:53 PM in response to Brooklyn Sales: Under a Million

What's with all the hate, Shillstoner?

Posted by: dt at September 16, 2009 5:46 PM in response to House of the Day: 165 Fenimore Street

Shillstoner, Your comps are out of date. The last house that sold for $920 was unrenovated.

Posted by: dt at September 4, 2009 11:37 AM in response to House of the Day: 168 Midwood Street Revisited

BTW, This house was a wreck when the owners bought it. They put mucho dollars into fixing it up. Brownstoner, your comments about people wanting twice what they paid for houses need to be more informed about these issues. How would you like the same crap to come at you when you try to sell?

Posted by: dt at September 2, 2009 10:37 PM in response to House of the Day: 168 Midwood Street Revisited

This house would sell at 1,150,000. The owners have simply remained firm because they don't especially need to move. There has been alot of movement of houses in Lefferts Manor in the past few months. This house will sell over 1 mil. The two story houses are selling right not at around $975,000.

Posted by: dt at September 2, 2009 6:20 PM in response to House of the Day: 168 Midwood Street Revisited

Conch chowder is rare up north; having a raw bar etc... floats my boat; fish and chips yeah!!

Posted by: dt at August 18, 2009 8:47 PM in response to StreetLevel: New Lure in PLG

I can't wait to try this new menu.

Posted by: dt at August 18, 2009 4:19 PM in response to StreetLevel: New Lure in PLG

Go ahead and gloat, Bob. Several houses are in contract in Lefferts Manor. 128 Rutland did pretty well considering that the kitchen and bath both need updating.

Posted by: dt at August 16, 2009 12:23 PM in response to Open House Picks: Six Months Later

$1,050,000 is a good price for Rutland Road. That is not a large house. The seller was a little crazy with the original price tag.

Posted by: dt at August 7, 2009 12:43 PM in response to Open House Picks: Six Months Later

Maplewood guy, if you're going to call me out for posting about a low scoring elementary school from Maplewood you need to post about ALL the elementary schools in Maplewood, not just the couple of 7 out of 10s. You are only posting about the best ones, and they aren't even #1 schools. There are others that score as 4s that I didn't mention. If you're going to bring up Park Slope:

P.S. 321 William Penn School
Public · K-5
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Rates an 8 out of 10.

MS 51 rates a 9 out of 10.

Please help me understand what you are saying. If you are going to quote scores from John Jay, forget it... no one in the slope sends their kids there.

Why are we even talking about Park Slope? There are many neighborhoods and schools beyond Park Slope? Once kids get to the middle school level they start applying all over the city.

Posted by: dt at August 5, 2009 10:00 PM in response to House of the Day: 439 East 19th Street

Maplewood guy, Here is the greatschools rating for one of your towns elementary schools.
This is not #1, sorry.

Clinton Elementary School, located in Maplewood, New Jersey, serves grades K-5 in the South Orange-Maplewood School District. Based on its state test results, it has received a GreatSchools Rating of 4 out of 10.

Parents have reviewed this school and given it an average rating of 5 out of 5 stars.

Posted by: dt at August 5, 2009 8:52 PM in response to House of the Day: 439 East 19th Street

Greatschools rates Maplewood middle school a 5 out of 10 and the high school 6 out of 10.

Grade 11 students who scored as proficient:

Language Arts Literacy
86% (2008)
89% (2007)
87% (2006)
90% (2005)
The state average for Language Arts Literacy was 83% in 2008.

Math
80% (2008)
78% (2007)
82% (2006)
84% (2005)
The state average for Math was 75% in 2008.

This doesn't seem all that great to me.

Posted by: dt at August 5, 2009 8:48 PM in response to House of the Day: 439 East 19th Street

Maplewood guy, Can't say I agree with you about the schools in your town. We considered it, but were turned off by the low performing public schools.

Posted by: dt at August 5, 2009 6:26 PM in response to House of the Day: 439 East 19th Street

It's summer vacation time, silly posters!

Posted by: dt at August 2, 2009 8:20 PM in response to Open House Picks

Eww...

Posted by: dt at July 30, 2009 6:42 PM in response to BFF Of The Week: Mark

Are they painted?

Posted by: dt at July 29, 2009 5:42 PM in response to Doors, Doors, Doors!

I think it's because there are posters on this site that undervalue properties. A year or so ago I would have loved to have my house featured as a house of the day. Now I would beg Brownstoner NOT to feature it if I were selling. Posters on this site tear up houses for sport.

Posted by: dt at July 28, 2009 11:18 AM in response to RE Agents Hate Brownstoner

I hate our GE Profile slide in. The burners are placed too close together to fit several pans at the same time. The broiler drives me crazy, and not in a good way!!

Posted by: dt at July 13, 2009 9:25 PM in response to Range Suggestions

"Two SROs per floor" sounds like two studio apts per floor. Big difference. Will each have its own bathroom?

Posted by: dt at July 8, 2009 8:47 PM in response to 2 means of egress?

Lefferts Manor houses really are continuing to sell despite this economic downturn. This Rutland road house did quite well for itself.

Posted by: dt at July 7, 2009 2:32 PM in response to Last Week's Biggest Sales

Lefferts Manor houses really are continuing to sell despite this economic downturn. This Rutland road house did quite well for itself.

Posted by: dt at July 7, 2009 2:06 PM in response to Open House Picks

Chicken,
At the peak houses just like this were selling for 1.1 mil. This one should do fine given that almost all the other two story houses in the Manor are in contract. The Manor has a market all its own!

Posted by: dt at July 5, 2009 7:37 PM in response to House of the Day: 212 Midwood Street

So true about the high heals! I remember going to a roof party where one person wore high heals. The next rain storm revealed holes all over the roof. My friends apt. was soaked!

Posted by: dt at July 4, 2009 3:38 PM in response to Roof Party

Finally, This house has plaster tray ceilings. The is no missing moulding!!

Posted by: dt at June 24, 2009 4:35 PM in response to House of the Day: 212 Midwood Street

Brownstoner, You have an old picture of the house posted. The windows and door are black now.

Posted by: dt at June 24, 2009 4:34 PM in response to House of the Day: 212 Midwood Street

They did a lot more than sprucing up on this place. They spent months stripping and refinishing the woodwork. The place was done top to bottom. I saw it before they started the reno. I can't believe it's the same house! Two story houses are all going into contract pretty fast in this area (except the over priced on on Maple Street). I was shocked at how fast a two story on Rutland went into contract recently.

Posted by: dt at June 24, 2009 4:33 PM in response to House of the Day: 212 Midwood Street

No contract is binding until it is signed by both parties. The owner got a higher offer before they were locked in, so they went for it. Anyone else would do the same. Your need to draw everyone's attention to all the negatives of the house appears to be sour grapes.

Posted by: dt at June 12, 2009 11:32 AM in response to 1094 Park Place

The kitchen cabinets seem nice. I think it's the counters, lack of space and lack of appliances that give it a cheap look.

Posted by: dt at June 10, 2009 1:04 PM in response to Condos of the Day: 707 Carroll Street

My house gets a little seepage on the back wall when it rains hard. Some mold, too. I don't worry about it. We will eventually fix our gutter to get rid of the problem. Don't sweat it.

Posted by: dt at June 9, 2009 4:53 PM in response to Urgent Buyer Advice Needed

As a buyer, I've never been asked to pay a brokers fee-even when my broker is not the listing agent. The brokers split the fee, which is paid by the seller.

Posted by: dt at June 8, 2009 9:09 PM in response to buyers broker fee? who pays?

brandedmatt, you can take a pill for that. Paranoia is treatable.

Posted by: dt at June 8, 2009 11:32 AM in response to Open House Picks

I have no idea what the Maple Street house will sell for, but to say that it is not worth more than what was paid for it in 2005 excluding the cost of the reno is silly. Houses in the Manor continue to sell, despite the downturn. Both houses recently listed on Rutland Road are in contract. I guess one man's hell is another man's heaven!

Posted by: dt at June 7, 2009 1:11 PM in response to Open House Picks

Gee BrooklynGreene, what did the designer ever do to you?

Posted by: dt at June 5, 2009 10:43 PM in response to Open House Picks

Fingers crossed, The school situation in PLG is about to change. The nabe has always had great pre-schools, but not elementary and middle schools. Some of the people involved with the acclaimed Maple Street School are proposing a combined elementary and middle school for the nabe. They are about to present the proposal to the Department of Education. The school would open in 2010.

Posted by: dt at June 5, 2009 5:00 PM in response to Open House Picks

Ahhh.. I just figured out which house you're looking at. The two houses next to it are owned by the same family. The smart cookie matriarch of the family had the designation changed to two family for these houses before the city put in the single family restriction. She has owned her house for 50 years.

Posted by: dt at May 25, 2009 11:16 AM in response to 2 Family Conundrum

When I said "historic district" I meant Lefferts Manor, not PLG at large. Sorry.

Posted by: dt at May 22, 2009 3:42 PM in response to 2 Family Conundrum

sorry, I meant adjacent.

Posted by: dt at May 21, 2009 10:23 PM in response to 2 Family Conundrum

If it is one house that you would be sharing and that house is in the historic district, then you cannot change the deed to a two family. These houses have a single family restriction that dates back to when the Lefferts family allowed the land to be developed.

Your post says something about two adjecent houses, so I'm a little confused.

Posted by: dt at May 21, 2009 10:22 PM in response to 2 Family Conundrum

Ok, the PLG house needs a new kitchen, most likely new baths... maybe new plumbing... could need wiring. Price doesn't seem bad considering the renovation costs associated with all those things.

Posted by: dt at May 21, 2009 12:13 PM in response to Brooklyn Sales: Under a Million

Sorry, I really do know how to spell neighborhood. I just type too fast.

Posted by: dt at May 18, 2009 3:45 PM in response to House of the Day: 207 Fenimore Street

There is a wonderful pre-school in the neigborhood. It's called the Maple Street School. I recently learned that some people involved with the Maple Street school are opening a new charter school in the neigborhood. It will be an elementary through middle school, if I heard correctly. This is huge for the neighborhood.

As far as coffee is concerned, try K-Dog. Everyone in the area goes there for coffee. It is also a community meeting place.

Posted by: dt at May 18, 2009 3:39 PM in response to House of the Day: 207 Fenimore Street

These houses were fetching close to 4 mil at the height of the market. What do you base a 2 mil estimate on? Show me evidence that the market has declined by 50%.

Posted by: dt at May 12, 2009 4:07 PM in response to House of the Day: 178 8th Avenue

Good location. Can't see the inside, though.

Posted by: dt at May 12, 2009 11:45 AM in response to Price Cut at 355 Degraw Street

This really makes the case that all the slashing of prices that occurs here in the House and Apt of the day threads are really based on bitterness and not reality. Over and over again I see appraisals that are stupidly low. It's as if the commenters here try to pull the market in Brooklyn down for sport.

Posted by: dt at May 7, 2009 10:22 AM in response to Pam Liebman: Brooklyn Doing Better Than the Rest

This house is under-priced at $985,000. A two story on Midwood just closed for slightly under 1mil. This house may need some freshening up, but it also has garages that could be rented out and useable, light filled garden level space that could be rented out as office space or lived in. It is on a great block and it has original detail.

Posted by: dt at April 30, 2009 1:54 PM in response to House of the Day: 216 Maple Street

You don't need a broker. I sold an apartment without using a broker. The buyer simply negotiated directly with us. There were no misunderstandings, no drama of any sort. Both parties have remained on good terms more than a year after the closing. All you need is an attorney.

Posted by: dt at April 28, 2009 6:04 PM in response to FSBO / buyer's broker

Call me naive drbedstuy2, but I firmly believe that there will always be certain issues when buying an old brownstone. We are first time buyers going through the process right now and the inspection turned up problems with the facade and roof (both will need redoing/replacing in the next 5 years). We like the place and have decided to go through with the purchase. Maybe in 5 years we'll look back and scream (hope not!), but my point is there will always be problems that will need to be resolved. Maybe this is something you can address when you buy the apartment? It doesn't really sound like a deal breaker. Best of luck :)

Posted by: kissiffer4 at September 9, 2009 9:52 AM in response to Urgent Buyer Advice Needed