House of the Day: 524 3rd Street
When Albert Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” he might well have been anticipating the drawn-out marketing campaign for 524 3rd Street. The limestone house hit the market in early 2008 with a price tag of $3,225,000. By the spring of 2009,…
When Albert Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” he might well have been anticipating the drawn-out marketing campaign for 524 3rd Street. The limestone house hit the market in early 2008 with a price tag of $3,225,000. By the spring of 2009, it was down to $3,000,000, but still no takers. By the spring of this year, it was down to $2,600,000. After disappearing for a few months, the listing popped up again just before Christmas with the same asking price and, unbelievably, the same depressing photos. If a house doesn’t sell for three years and the listing has dark, cluttered photos, spend a couple of hundred bucks for a new shoot. Especially if it’s actually a nice house like this one. Seems like Broker 101 to us.
524 3rd Street [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
HOTD 4/21/09: 524 3rd Street [Brownstoner]
HOTD 3/11/08: 524 3rd Street [Brownstoner]
How can these be the same photos when it’s a different brokerage? The first two times around it was listed with CBHK, which I believe is now defunct. The agents with BHS have both been there a long time, so it’s not like they came from CBHK with the photos. While the link to the CBHK listing no longer works, just on looking at the photos on this site from last time, I don’t think they are the same – of course, the rooms and furniture haven’t changed, but the camera angles and lighting look different to me. I think they did the best possible with what is, no doubt, a relatively dark and somberly-decorated house with photos taken in the depth of winter. And BHS does indeed pay for photos, floor plans, etc., all by professionals. My sense is that it’s the owners of the house who are unwilling to change the decor to make it show better, or to be flexible on the price, and I think people in BHS’s Park Slope office know them very well, and know better than to get involved, which is why it’s being marketed by people from Brooklyn Heights.
“Also, it doesn’t cost that much to have someone take decent pictures”
It should cost you at least $1000. Not more than $5000, but at least 1k.
Haven’t been in the market for houses, just apartments (so far), but it always seems to me that there are fewer houses, and that if you are in the market for one, you’d look at whatever is available. And I do think many house buyers aren’t as influenced by staging and photos as apartment buyers.
Why do I think that? Because I think, the young and already rich excepted, that most house buyers aren’t first time buyers. And I think that as a first time buyer, I was more influenced by how a place looked furnished and all, although I tried not to be. But after having bought once, I’ll never be so influenced by that stuff again – I can see what a place will look like empty, and what I can do with it. In fact, I’d think I was getting a deal on a place not staged great, because others might not see through it, and so the price wouldn’t be bid up as much as on a great-looking place.
Also, it doesn’t cost that much to have someone take decent pictures. And you don’t need a stager – just moving a bunch of stuff out and rearrange what’s left a bit does wonders. I always think the seller just doesn’t want to do that, or isn’t capable of doing it, and thus really isn’t interested in selling. If that’s the case, and the seller isn’t that motivated, I’m not sure the broker can make them do it.
fuplease, why do you think it’s underpriced?
Pros: Axel Hedman limestone, very good 3rd street location
Cons: 18-foot wide, short backyard, not upgraded for fancy pants prices, 2 kitchens in a 1-family house. In short, great bones, with issues.
If you look at neighbors’ sales: $2,850,000 in August 2008, $2,600,000 in June 2007, $1,325,000 in June 2003. We’re off the peak, so the current asking price is slightly aspirational if anything. We’ll know more when 545 3rd Street closes, but since it went in contract after a year on the market, last ask $2,575,000, it’s almost certainly a bit below that. It’s a bigger house, a legal 2-family and 21-foot wide.
sounds cheap to cobble hill and carroll gardens
Floorplan shows an 18′ x 12′ deck. Nothing beyond that???
The pictures aren’t THAT bad. The house looks great. It probably has no back yard (most don’t on this block). But unless there’s something really wrong, it’s underpriced. Must be more to this than meets the eye.
Looks like a nice place if you can see through the clutter.
Although often attributed to Einstein – and less frequently to Ben Franklin – we actually don’t know with any degree of certainty who came up with that idiom.