jland
Im not saying its of no concern. If you feel strongly about it, you should report them. I just think its not going to go anywhere. If the agent is suggesting that someone could add an "illegal bathroom" and they are telling them that its illegal then im pretty sure the agent will not be held responsible for what the buyer does.
And while I think its incredibly stupid for the agent to be doing that, I think that if you are going to purchase an apartment, no matter what an agent tells you, you have to do your own homework and read the offering plan. I have had agents tell me ridiculous things and never in a million years would I just take their word for it. *Especially* something like that.
From my perspective, if you *need* a 2 bathroom apartment then that particular one is not for you. But if you decide its worth the risk to your investment to purchase it and add the suggested "illegal bathroom" then you should also be willing to assume the responsibility and not just say "well the broker said I should do it".

Posted by: landry at August 9, 2009 10:38 PM in response to 660 Bergen: Shady!!

In the spirit of full disclosure, we were the first to close and move into the building. We both own/have owned properties in NYC and I have owned in a new development. Of course we are dealing with small annoying things that anyone who is the first into a building has to deal with, but I must say that it has been pretty darned smooth so far.
Every single issue we have had, we have called the developer and the thing has been taken care of within 24 hours.
I expected it to be a nightmare because we have heard all the stories about this developer and know people who bought in 35 Underhill. But so far so good.
We went into contract before the crash and our apt still appraised higher than what we paid for it.
Now, you can report the brokers all you want. If you buy the apartment and put an illegal bathroom in after they have told you its illegal, then that is the buyers fault. The agent will never be held responsible, they didnt put in the bathroom. The agents might be shady but the buyer would be the idiot. When they showed us that apt and told us that, we were like, we want 2 bathrooms and dont want to get involved in all that. so we bought an apartment with 2 legal bathrooms. Simple.

Secondly, the building has passed all the inspections so if an owner decides to break a building code, the owner of that particular unit is liable, NOT the whole building.

As for the agents, all agents are pretty shady and if an agent told you to break through the wall into the next apartment and take over a bedroom and you did it, well who is the dope?

Posted by: landry at August 9, 2009 8:05 PM in response to 660 Bergen: Shady!!

@ez well I hope you are wrong but not so I can be right :)
are you in The Washington? I have heard some super crazy stories about that bldg. Not all of them about the developer. some of them about the owners.
Good luck to you too.

Posted by: landry at March 7, 2009 7:26 PM in response to Checking In On 660 Bergen Street

@ez
If you are talking about Issac Fischman and the Washington as your example of shoddy work, this is a completely different story. That problem wasnt about poor quality per se. They screwed up the "livable square footage" for the bldg and has to try to compensate by removing some of the interior sq footage with a quick and horrible fix.We saw those apt before we saw these and we ran screaming from that mess.

In the spirit of full disclosure, my gf and I bought one of these apts and were waiting to close. When we went to see them for the first time we saw the workers hand staining all the fill-in pieces for around the cabinets. We did a LOT of homework before we even asked for the prospectus because of the new construction horror stories and this seemed like a good deal. Really nice appliances a big yard and great light and it was totally reasonably priced.
So I guess what I'm saying is, if you haven't gone to see them for yourself I would check them out before talking about the "shoddy work".

Posted by: landry at March 4, 2009 4:20 PM in response to Checking In On 660 Bergen Street

I'm a little late to the party too, however as the owner of a large dog who doesn't always take kindly to other dogs on the street I have to say, if this dog was out to actually *hurt* the other dog, the whole scenario would have been over in the blink of an eye and it wouldn't have ended well.
That being said, dog-directed aggression and people-directed aggression are COMPLETELY different. My dog is the image of family dog. She has never even gives a cross *look* to a person. *Any* person. But I am very careful with her on the street with other dogs. She has actually grabbed a smaller dog and pinned it to the ground. If she was vicious and wanted to hurt the dog, shes 160lbs, the dog would be hurt. She has some bad manners and i have been working patiently for years to soften her brattiness. I call it "brattiness" because shes never actually hurt another dog. But the owners freak out so I am super diligent.
And btw, she HAS gotten better. I still would never trust her off leash or in a dog run but shes much much better than when I rescued her.
So this mess about "all (insert bad dog of the year) should be put down" is absolute nonsense.
Mr. B sorry about the Brittany. I hope its ok.

Posted by: landry at December 30, 2008 4:31 PM in response to A Christmas Tale

yay! That one unit that's been sold is ours! We actually went into contract a few weeks ago. The place is way nicer than anything we've seen in new construction. While we were walking through we saw them hand staining/pickling all the wood for the kitchen cabinets piece by piece. The cabinets are 14" deep –which is, as we were told by a real estate agent friend of ours, larger than the latest norm of 12" which doesn't fit plates.
We got a huge outside garden (for the money) and a keyed elevator that opens into the apartment. They used really great materials in kitchens and bathrooms.
Yeah. The agent is cute about the ipod docks. He loves them! I want to have it converted to an RCA (its connected to the surround sound that's in the ceiling)
I swear I have nothing to do with the builder or the RE agent. Im just super excited because Ive rented in this neighborhood for years and thought it would now be far to expansive to buy here.

Posted by: landry at September 15, 2008 6:28 PM in response to 660 Bergen Hits the Market

we actually went to see this place last weekend and it *is* really a beautiful place. Its humongous and the layout moves around sort of like a classic 6. (Its NOT but..) the layout is really great and probably not far off what I would pay for something like that if I had the do re me. Its definitely a good large family apartment.
The owner told us about the issues with the construction in the 'attic' apts, which we also looked at that day.
I wouldn't buy in that building because of the "sketch factor" of the construction. It was too much work for me to even think about all the issues they were having, which they claimed to be fixing but who knows what didn't get fixed.

Posted by: landry at July 31, 2008 12:48 PM in response to Condo of the Day: Resale at The Washington

landry, I'm glad that it's working out for you and that you're satisfied, but I wholeheartedly disagree that it's of no concern that the agents are pushing illegal modifications as a selling point. Red flags are flying galore.

Posted by: jland at August 9, 2009 10:09 PM in response to 660 Bergen: Shady!!

jland
Im not saying its of no concern. If you feel strongly about it, you should report them. I just think its not going to go anywhere. If the agent is suggesting that someone could add an "illegal bathroom" and they are telling them that its illegal then im pretty sure the agent will not be held responsible for what the buyer does.
And while I think its incredibly stupid for the agent to be doing that, I think that if you are going to purchase an apartment, no matter what an agent tells you, you have to do your own homework and read the offering plan. I have had agents tell me ridiculous things and never in a million years would I just take their word for it. *Especially* something like that.
From my perspective, if you *need* a 2 bathroom apartment then that particular one is not for you. But if you decide its worth the risk to your investment to purchase it and add the suggested "illegal bathroom" then you should also be willing to assume the responsibility and not just say "well the broker said I should do it".

Posted by: landry at August 9, 2009 10:38 PM in response to 660 Bergen: Shady!!

Landry, surprised at your strong tone here. Clearly you understand that if the agent gets reported and ANYONE IN YOUR BUILDING TAKES THE ADVICE OF THE BROKER AND THE DEVELOPER, and builds an illegal bathroom the ENTIRE building is in trouble and could be shut down. Sounds like the developer and the broker are encouraging this, so yeah, the buyer is the dope, but surely you are not naive enough to really believe that this will not impact the entire building. That's what you get from buying with a shady developer. Good luck!Remember, it only takes one buyer...

Posted by: condoinbklyn at August 10, 2009 10:28 AM in response to 660 Bergen: Shady!!

Landry, Congratulations, but you probably are wise enough to not ignore all the concerns being raised. As 10:28 pointed out, you may not be causing the problem but I am pretty sure a resident on the 4th floor duplex will be putting up a bathroom illegally and that's when you get into trouble for none of your fault. (Keep in mind that, it will also cause depreciation of your unit because your unit will be seen as part of the condo that promotes illegal alterations...remember you are in a condo, not a single family home).
Just think about it, why would anyone buy those units for over 600K for only a 1 bed / 1 bath without being able to increase the value of their investment by making legal alterations? As you said, anyone smart will not purchase the 4th floor units for the listed price of a 2 bed (when it's only a 1 bed) but the fact of the matter is that there are 4th floor duplex listings in contract and most likely they were coaxed into the deal by the broker suggesting them ways to add an illegal bathroom.
If you read the prospectus thoroughly, I bet you will find the statement that even if any of the dwelling in the building adds illegal alteration, the complete condo building will be slapped with violation by DOB as per NYC law. (Just be prepared to save your a** or confront your rogue condo-mate if you hear some constructional disturbance vibrating through to your unit).
Things could go either way, but as jland puts it, red flags are flying galore and hopefully that illustrate the potential, but serious, pitfalls for prospective buyers. I can't believe that you actually went ahead with purchasing a unit at 660 despite getting a hint of the slimy reputation of the broker / developer when they suggested illegal alterations to you when you were being shown the duplex units. That's a red flag right there about the way they do business! I wouldn't be comfortable, but apparently you are!!

Posted by: JRT at August 10, 2009 4:51 PM in response to 660 Bergen: Shady!!

The biggest issue to me as far as the broker is that A & H aren't selling it for what it is. They're selling it as something else once you do what they suggest. They're selling the top units as potential two bedrooms when in fact they are not.

Posted by: jland at August 10, 2009 6:25 PM in response to 660 Bergen: Shady!!