Renovations on a Clinton Hill Brownstone
We are renovating a Clinton Hill brownstone and we are putting it on the market soon. We want to keep it simple since we have heard most people want to design their own space. What kind of layout are buyers looking for? It is a legal 2 family, roughly about 2200 sq ft. It can…
We are renovating a Clinton Hill brownstone and we are putting it on the market soon. We want to keep it simple since we have heard most people want to design their own space.
What kind of layout are buyers looking for? It is a legal 2 family, roughly about 2200 sq ft. It can be converted into a double duplex or a triplex with a garden apartment.
We have gotten different opinions from the real estate brokers in the area, but are buyers really looking? Do people want their kitchen on the parlor floor or the lowel level? What kind of details in the kitchens and bathrooms are important?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I also vote for the triplex plus garden rental. More and more, the buyers of houses in Brooklyn will be families who want a lot of space, and maybe a little extra income to help pay the mortgage for a while but eventually they’ll want the whole house. Making it single-family or keep the garden apartment as a guest-apartment for in-laws, or for a grown child after he/she finishes college.
The bigger 3-families and 4-families will mostly only get bought by developers making condo conversions from now on, I really think. The smaller houses will appeal to families who don’t want to have to always have tenants.
Hello, my customer. I thought the triplex would resonate with most people. We will be putting up a renovation blog shortly. Look at for it!
Maybe you should hire an architect (even if only hourly) to give you some advice. Especially an architect who has experience with multi-family. That would be money well spent. converting it into anything other than what it legally is, may be time consuming for you and not worth the effort. I’d think it would be better to keep the “split” what it is and just work with an architect on a very clean and clear spatial layout.
I am your customer! My husband and I have been looking at houses for a while now and what we wanted (and I think you’ll find most people looking for townhome) is a triplex with a garden rental. Nice clean separation of space between the tenant and owner (assuming garden has it’s own entrance) and then if/when the owner wants to take over the whole space, they could keep the kitchen on the parlor and create a kind of family room space with an entertaining type kitchen downstairs. This was/is our dream. As for the single family comment above, I’ll only say that if you’re hoping to get what I imagine you are, much better to set it up as a two family — you can justify the higher price with the promise of supplemental income.
I don’t plan on owning my house forever. It’s currently set up for our needs, but I have no idea what the next owner will want. During our renovation, we kept this in mind, so when the next person comes in, they can move kitchens and baths around because the plumbing is very accessible. Whatever you do, just try to keep the next move in mind…kind of like a chess game. It sounds like it should be triplex with garden rental. You have the right idea putting in a deck w/garden access.
We are thinking of building a deck in a way in the occupant on the parlor level can have garden access.
It has four floors, plus an unfinished basement. I don’t have the dimensions of each floor as of yet.
It has two kitchens, one on the cellar level and another on the third floor. There are three bathrooms – one on the cellar, one on the parlor floor, and another on the third floor.
We are thinking of taking out the bathroom on the parlor floor and make it into a big kitchen. This room was originally a master bedroom with a stand up shower.
most folks are kind of down on the double-duplex layout for an owner-occupied setup, so i’d say go with the triplex and garden apartment (but is there a parlor-level access to the backyard?
My initial reaction is to make it a one-family–2200 sf is not that big. Do you have four floors? What are the dimensions of each floor? It’s hard to recommend a layout when the space isn’t totally clear.
Unless the house was huge, I don’t think you need a rental–an intact one-family is very desirable.