Buying in Bed Stuy/Real Estate Agent

I used realtor.com and found areas that I liked, near subway etc, prices, then check the nyc.gov sites for further property information.
The majority of stuff for sale will be found online, on sites such as realtor.com, zillow.com, trulia.com etc.

I echo everything that stuy_heights says. I think Bed-Stuy shopping is still a DYI process (but that has slowly been changing). If you want to find it, you have to go and look yourself. It just seemed to us when we were looking that Bed-Stuy was just not seen as a money maker for brokers – there was much more to be made elsewhere for them. So the big name RE firms did little in the area. It was my impression that they would take you on as a client, send you a few bones here and there, but really just wait for you to find something so that they could swoop in, do the deal, and collect the commission.

We were looking in the Stuy Heights area, as well, and was told by someone who had lived in the neighborhood not to go beyond Malcolm X to the east or above Putnam or Madison, I think. We were told that that area is still “in transition.”

When we were looking last year, there was really a lot of bad sh*t out there – seemed like they were almost all the dregs that had to be sold in the down real estate market. So, we pushed out beyond those geographical limits we were given by our friend and we’re really glad that we did. We found some some really nice neighborhoods, with great housing stock, near convenient trains and, best of all, great neighbors.

The way we did it was – each week, I made a list of houses – mostly from the sites that stuy_heights mentions. Then on the weekend (or in the evenings), we’d go around looking at these places, contacting the realtors representing them – and noting other houses for sale that we saw that were not online – along the way (and there were a lot of them). Of course, we would look for open houses, too.

In the end, we found our place in an area that stuy_heights mentioned – Ocean Hill – which is referred to as Stuyvesant East now in the landmarking process. It is a few blocks from the J (which brings me half a block from my work), not too bad a walking distance for us from the A & C, is catty-corner from a wonderful park (Saratoga Square Park), and is on a majority owner block. And, to sweeten the deal, the block looks like a movie set!

Anyhow, good luck with this. Dive in and start making it happen!

Except for HouseByWe, you have to search the listings yourself. Don’t overlook the local storefront listings — they have exclusives at good prices. There are three — one on Stuyvesant, one on Halsey, and I think the other one is on Decatur or Macon?? Forget. Also try Corley Realty. Good luck.

Hi,

Having almost completed the home-buying process in Bed-Stuy (just waiting to close), here are my few cents:

Do your own research, and don’t rely on any broker or real estate agency to find listings for you. We tried to engage a couple of different brokers as “buyer’s brokers” and found that they only occasionally provided listings, and that those listings always sort of missed the mark. We tried a local real estate agency, and they weren’t any better about keeping us in the loop on listings.

We found almost everything we looked at by searching the listings on Trulia.com (which I found to be the most comprehensive) and NYTimes.com ourselves. Some brokers who’s listings we checked out then put us on their email lists, and that gave us a variety of listings coming in (this is how we ended up finding the house we’re buying). We also kept tabs on smaller realtors’ websites who have listings in the neighborhood (whom you’ll learn about naturally once you start combing the Trulia listings yourself). You can also make regular drive bys of streets you like and look for for sale signs, and who has the listings; more often than not, the homes for sale in Bed Stuy are listed by less-known realtors, not by big agencies like Corcoran.

Most of the houses we’ve seen for sale in Bed Stuy are either dated and need updating, or have been newly gut-renovated by developers; since these developers buy the places for less than $350K in cash, even the renovated prices are reasonable (500K – 750K, depending on size and location). Move-in condition, modernized houses are very, very rare, and command much higher prices.

Definitely look in other areas of Bed-Stuy; walk around and hang out in the area near the Nostrand A, in Stuy Heights near the Utica A, and even back by the JMZ, on the south-east side of the neighborhood. We currently live in Stuy Heights proper, and were hell-bent on buying here, but ended up checking out a house in what’s apparently called Ocean Hill, over by Broadway near the Halsey JMZ, and found something great, on a really pretty block.

Most importantly, continue to do research and check comps yourself, so when you see something you want to bid on, you’ll have the numbers to back you up and to feel confident about your negotiating. In our experience, all brokers ultimately care about is getting a sale, and since most are dual agents these days, they are not the best people to rely on to help you to come up with an offer, because it is in their interest to get more money for the seller.

Good luck with your search!

I thought most people did their own research and contacted listing brokers on their own?