Where Do I Start / Help Needed

Hello everyone! First time poster here and I’m seeking guidance. I am thinking about purchasing a brownstone in clinton hill and do not even know where to begin. The property is 5 floors with 1 bedroom rental units on the garden, 1st and 4th floor with two studios on the 2nd and 3rd. In an ideal world, what I want to do is combine the garden and first into an owners duplex which would serve as my primary residence and then combine the studios on the 2nd and 3rd to make larger one bedrooms and rent them out along with 4th floor.

Now I recognize this is likely a major renovation and I don’t even know where to start. Who should I talk to first? An architect, an engineer, electrician? Basically before making an offer or going to contract, I’d like to know what’s feasible and what’s not and then hopefully get a sense for how long it’d take and ball park estimates. Given this would my first home purchase, I’m looking for any guidance the community can provide. Any thou ghts on what to do first, second, third, etc. would be most helpful and definitely appreciated!

Thanks a ton in advance.

jlannik

in General Discussion 3 years and 2 months ago

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cate | 3 years and 2 months ago

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OP, run from this building. The plan you describe is not feasible. Many newbies are taken in by the apparent “low” cost of buildings such as these and thinking they can renovate as you describe. The laws are intended to prevent what you describe. Buy it and keep it as is, or buy a house that already has the configuration and occupancy you seek. Do not attempt to turn a commercial rent stabilized (possibly even rent controlled) building into your personal townhouse. You will be tied up in costly litigation, building department red tape, costly tax increases, and all sorts of misery for decades to come.

primebrooklyn | 3 years and 2 months ago

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I had a friend combine units in the slope because the stabilized rents were very low and it wasn’t even worth renovating otherwise. He heard from a variety of people during the process that Albany was aware they had missed this loophole in their raft of 2019 rent stabilized laws and were going to try and close it ASAP. So I wouldn’t count on the ability to combine units and get higher rents to be around much longer. Even when you do combine and get a a higher base rent that tenants agree to, it’s still stabilized so that new rent better be the absolute BEST and highest you can imagine for a while.

resident2 | 3 years and 2 months ago

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There are many areas were many “investors” fudge things. Like combining two units, claiming a new high base rent but do not serve the base rent notice to the new innocent from out of town tenant. Technically you are supposed to serve the new tenant with notice & the opportunity to challenge the new base rent …
You have to weigh the costs, the time (quadruple what ever you are told to expect) and the open liability of what any new tenant may challenge …… it only takes one! For many years to come. It is painful.
And as for claiming occupancy of the whole house, on paper yes, in reality NO! Ask any Attorney who has achieved that recently, how long & how much money did it take? Odds are the number will be you cannot find even one.

jlannik | 3 years and 2 months ago

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Thanks, a couple of follow ups. The building is rent stabilized but being delivered vacant. I’ve spoken with a couple lawyers who deal with de-stabilization and both have said that if you combine units (i.e. combine the two studios to a larger one bed), you’re able to charge basically whatever you want and while it will be rent stabilized from there, if the initial rent is high enough you can somewhat protect against this which would be fine for the time being. Is this what people are hearing /experiencing? Long term, I’d likely move into the entire house myself as the family grows (which I understand is my right) at which point the rent stabilization issue goes away.

Separately, would combining two units trigger Alt-1? The few people I’ve spoken to have suggested that it’s Alt-2; or is the trigger here the C of O (i.e. going from 7 units to 4)

Lastly, I know this is likely an impossible question to answer but any idea on the magnitude of tax increases? Current taxes are about $6-7K, are we talking double? triple? more?

I’m beginning to realize what an undertaking th is will be ha. I’m tempted here by the all in cost here as the actual property will likely sell for <$1.0m and even for accounting for reno and time, I'm finding a hard time seeing anything in this market remotely comparable to what it could be when its done at a price comparable to the all-in cost here.

resident2 | 3 years and 2 months ago

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This is currently a 7 family building? In that case it is Rent Stabilized even if you get it delivered vacant, unless it has been de-stabilized in some way, in which case make sure it comes with the de-stabilization certificates from DHCR. Unless the DHCR registered rents are currently at least market value?
The only way to get it out of Stabilization is to completely gut rehab it so that no unit is recognizable as to lay out etc as it previously was. Once this is done at huge cost, your RE Taxes will be re-assessed at eye watering rates that certainly would not justify the costs of rehabbing it.
Under current rent laws this type of building is becoming a white elephant, that no intelligent person would touch. Landlords cannot increase rents based on the amount of capital improvement increases they need, landlords cannot move tenants to allow for getting work done. And yet the buildings are not fit for safe housing!
The only option is to rehab, take any Tax abatement’s that may be available (421a expiring, I believe J51 is gone) & sell the units, because if you rent the m, they are Rent Stabilized again. The buyers will not pay taxes for a few years & as the tax abatement expire 15, 20 years from now the owners will not be able to afford the taxes and sales value plummet, which is what some condo owners are discovering in buildings where their tax abatement are expiring from 200 years ago …. unless the City & State wake up that they need to work out a system for the long term.

jlannik | 3 years and 2 months ago

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Thanks so much for the quick response cate!

cate | 3 years and 2 months ago

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Hi and welcome. Yes, this is a major renovation requiring an Alt-1 permit, expeditors, architect, engineer and change of certificate of occupancy. This is likely to trigger expensive requirements for sprinklers, and an enormous increase in the tax bill. However, if you do not do a gut renovation, which you do not necessarily need, at least you can file under old code and not new code and keep many more of the existing features. Because there are so many units, this is a commercial property and you should have an expert double check to make sure it does not have any SRO units or other restrictions such as rent control and rent stabilization because if it does, you may not be able to make the changes you wish and the situation can present costly difficulties. My two cents, I would say it is better to find a townhouse that already has the occupancy and unit configuration you seek. Then you can do a more simple renovation such as just updating the wet rooms, and you may not even need a permit. However, to answer your question, I would start by consulting an architect first. I would think the type of renovation you describe would cost at least a million and take at least one year, maybe 1.5 or two. Good luck.