New Owner
My family and I have inherited a brownstone here in Brooklyn and haven’t the slightest clue as to what to do with the property. I don’t want to sell and would rather renovate. We have four apartments that are in bad shape along with a basement that has recently flooded. I’m looking for any type…
My family and I have inherited a brownstone here in Brooklyn and haven’t the slightest clue as to what to do with the property. I don’t want to sell and would rather renovate. We have four apartments that are in bad shape along with a basement that has recently flooded. I’m looking for any type of insight to help me persuade my family that this Brownstone is still a family treasure.
Vinca and agentofthesquid bring up really good points related to how you feel about the brownstone vs how your family feels, and how that would impact how much of an investment of time and money you would put in vs your family. Envision this scenario: renovations on the brownstone become very difficult and costly and your family doesn’t want to put in the money because they were against doing the renovations, so you have to make the investment but when it comes time to either reside in the house or sell it, the rest of the family still wants equal shares in the ownership of it, despite all you invested in the property. It is not uncommon for such disputes to leave a house unoccupied and rotting for years and years of legal wrangling. It’s very complicated.
You can hire an accountant and attorney and get the family’s agreement that you would own more shares of the house for paying for renovations. Or, you could buy the rest of your family out now, before doing any renovations or moving into it, so you are the brownstone’s sole owner.
Renovating is really stressful, and can test even a strong marriage. It’s important to know this going in. My husband and I have a particularly solid union, and we have had some screamers about the house. He was just a little more into having a house than I was, and this miniscule difference in interest got hugely and unfairly magnified by me whenever the going got really tough. This is true even though we are both builders by trade, even though we have a good skill set to handle a renovation well. It’s a lot of money, it’s your house, it’s an investment that you are making aesthetic choices about… it’s complicated terrain.
Ultimately this experience strengthened us, but it was hard while it was happening. If you are in a position where you are convincing family members, I would think about how your convincing will be remembered when the inspection reveals horrible surprises, the renovation costs $30K more than budgeted, the gas line breaks and frightens everyone, or the contractor turns into a real jerk.
The upsides are really significant: pride of ownership, feeling really deeply connected to the community you’re in and acting as a positive agent of change, a pretty substantial tax deduction if you have a mortgage, the joy of knowing that you gave the old house the love it deserves, architectural interest (they don’t make them anymore…) and so on. If the house has been in the family for a long time, it has seriously appreciate, and will probably continue to do so because the stock of brownstones in the city is finite.
Good luck with your decision, I wish you the best!
Before tackling the question of renovation, you need to thoroughly address the issues of family dynamics, loss and inheritance. If your family members/siblings are not in agreement, figure out whether you’re all able to reach agreement on a renovation/buyout/timeline approach that satisfies disparate (and probably conflicting) needs and maintains family unity. If that kind of agreement is possible, put the understanding in writing right from the start with the help and guidance of an attorney familiar with estate issues and family function/dysfunction. A good accountant also imperative. Only after you’ve cleared the air and committed to writing family/sibling wants and needs, deal with the questions of location, rental income potential, transitional goal/use, ultimate goal/use, ever-changing hierarchy of available resources (financial), available resources (renovation knowledge, skills), available resources (time), available resources (love, patience, tolerance, forgiveness).
You got good advice especially grand army, but everyone said good stuff. You really have to have a vision of the whole thing working and your being happy in the location and then that you have the resources to renovate: money, time, and emotional support/stamina. I am very happy with my place, but went through quite a time for 2 years while I did a total renovation, saving what details there were in the house (and adding a few back). I also had the joy of dealing with an inherited nightmare tenant. All was straightened out within 2 years, but it was hard.
I see by your profile you are a 27 yr old woman and live (rent) in East New York. Are you married? Children?
check with accountant about selling house right now v. selling it in a few years. You might save a lot on capital gain taxes in one of these two cases. Also if it is used as rental you can consider selling it here and buying something else “like property”. Again find good accountant and check the details.
If the building has 4 apartments it probuby was mostly the rental place and if you keep it you will become career landlord or will have to hire management company to deal with it.
If you consider to gut it and rebuild to your liking – read what people above said.
renovating is stressful. renovating with extended (and distant) family members is a disaster ready to happen. by “my family” are you talking about your siblings, etc? do you love them? would you be sad if you never spoke to them again? then forget it.
if by “my family” you’re talking about your spouse and kids, then it’s doable. location, location, location.
as a home owner who gut renovated 2 of my last homes, it takes a lot of work to make it happen. my homes were both 2 family and it took me a year on each to fix it up while living there. all my free time after work on, weekends….you get the picture. i did most of the work myself with help of a good friend, very little of it was subbed out. if you can’t do a lot of the work yourself, then i hope you have the finances to have it done by someone because it is expensive. but the joy of looking back at what you were able to accomplish is unmatched. in my opinion, unless you have experiance in renovations and then in dealing with tenants which is a whole other issue, sell it.
Evaluate the costs to properly renovate the property, and compare this to projected rental income. This could help determine if you want to take a renovation on, and also start to define a budget and scope of work.
Kyle Page, AIA, LEED AP
Sundial Studios Architecture & Design, PLLC