150 Bond Finally Sells—For a Loss
The sale of 150 Bond Street, which was a House of the Day a number of times, was recorded in public records yesterday. The price: $1,400,000. The property, which was pitched as a gutted blank slate that would allow its new owner to “build your dream house in Boerum Hill,” first hit the market asking…
The sale of 150 Bond Street, which was a House of the Day a number of times, was recorded in public records yesterday. The price: $1,400,000. The property, which was pitched as a gutted blank slate that would allow its new owner to “build your dream house in Boerum Hill,” first hit the market asking $2,495,000 in March ’08. The price was cut several times until it was asking $1,595,000 this summer. The seller purchased it for $1,725,000 in September ’07. This one seems like it was a victim of unrealistic pricing from the get-go and a down market in which fixer-uppers are a tough sell.
House of the Day: 150 Bond Street Revisited GMAP P*Shark
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Houses of the Day: A Couple of Price Cuts [Brownstoner]
House of the Day: 150 Bond Street [Brownstoner]
150 Bond Price History [StreetEasy]
Tybur6, well said and good job!
I’ll admit that I’m a dick, Dirty Hipster (slow reaction time today)… though I may not be getting that much pleasure out of this situation. I like to exaggerate.
HOWEVER — I have very little sympathy for folks that paid $1.7 million for something, proceeded to GUT the insides and planned on creating some sort of product that would produce profit at the end — let’s assume they weren’t going in as “flippers” (I buy that)… but they still expected a return on their investment.
This is what I find crazy. DIBS and the like wants to paint them as victims of sorts, but that’s the problem… They are the CAUSE of this insanity. By BUYING the house at that price AND then gutting it with the clear intent of, probably, doubling the value — well, that’s TOTALLY off the “rational thought grid”!!! Simple as that.
I am enjoying a small amount of Schadenfreude here, but really… truly… I hope this is a serious wake up call to everyone dropping millions on crap (or at least mediocrity) expecting to create millions of gold. The market seems like it’s *finally* starting to stop tolerating this stuff.
(My personal goal is for this wake up call to trickle down into the rental market… Little things like landlords maintaining levels of quality slightly above ‘crap hole’ and folks that buy houses realizing that their garden-level 1-bed rental is not worth $2800.)
Kens, you can’t borrow against eguity or open up a HELOC until after you actually own the house.
Kens, different strokes for different folks.
I would never contemplate a remodel without funds in cash in my account but I definitely err on the side of caution.
When the credit tap was flowing freely, I could certainly understand others putting the bill onto whatever credit cards they hadn’t maxed out before getting a refi.
Pierre…it seems the house came on the market in a gutted condition. that would indicate that something disasterous happened and they knew they could go no further. Asking a ridiculously high price doesn’t make them a “flipper.”
Flippers don’t buy houses, gut them and put them on the market in that condition.
Slope and Antidope, both good points. Guess all we can do is speculate what happened but my understanding is that most would borrow against equity to remodel before they start ripping the house apart.
right, that would be logical way to do it Kens. Besides having a real budget and estimates too.
We’re really not sure what happened here. If I remember the story I think there was some ‘marital’ problem or something that made not finish. I see a $1m mortgage on the property…so still would have had equity to borrow for reno. Many people have said if can marraige can survive a renovation process it’ll last. Maybe this one didn’t.
Antidope, come on, man. Please be fair to me and at least acknowledge some defeat. Please don’t be a sore loser. I would even be happy with just a “StevieB made a good point”
Kens, this is out of my league, but I think what happens is a flipper gets a lowball bid or has his own lowball notion of what it is going to take to get the job done, and secures as much financing as he can, but it only covers the lowball. Then runs into some unforeseen trouble, or perhaps just reality, and can’t secure more financing.