buying a brownstone

We just moved to NY (from Ca.) and are new to the brownstone market. What sort of things should we know and look out for??

smorales

in Other 13 years ago

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architensions | 13 years ago

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If you need an architect to take a look at the property im willing to visit them with you. I did it before and helped to pick the right space!

fractalogical | 13 years ago

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I’ve posted this many times, simply because I didn’t know of them when I initially set out to buy my house and was quickly educated by others, but there are a number of public websites that are essential for evaluating a potential house purchase, including DOB BIS, HPD, and ACRIS.

slopemope | 13 years ago

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typical street smart stuff – trust nothing anyone says.  especially brokers.  your lawyer is your friend.  knowing cost of fix ups and/or contractors who might give you some realistic estimates once you know what you want.  currently, move-in ready properties are fairly expensive.  those that need work are more reasonable, but the dob is harder to work with at this point (and few people want to do big work because they don’t know how long it will take).  in the past it was the wild wild west.  pretty much the only “deals” are for those with big cojones to under take a risky project.  otherwise, the market is kind of on fire at the moment.  many of the desirable hoods are at or above peak.

jparnass | 13 years ago

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The first thing is to decide which neighborhood you want to live in, which will in large part be determined by your budget, lifestyle, and proximity to decent schools.    Part of this decision will be to calculate whether you want to have the whole house to yourself (single family) or rent out one or more floors (two or three family) to generate income to help with the mortgage.  Each building comes with an actual (or implied) certificate of occupance that limits the number of “families” that can occupy the building.  It’s fairly straightforward to change a two or three family building into a single-family residence, but very complicated to go the other way.   The next step will be to decide whether you want to live in well-preserved old house with historic charm, or are more interested in a fixer-upper which can be custom renovated to fit a modern lifestyle.  The great thing about Brownstone Brooklyn is that you can have it either way or even the best of both.   Check Brownstoner on Thursdays for featured examples of people’s homes to get a sense of what’s possible.  Diana Lind’s book Brooklyn Modern is also a nice resource and has some great examples of contemporary renovations (including one of our own projects).  Good luck!

Augustiner | 13 years ago

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4\. 1/2/3 family?
5\. Area and budget?
6\. Fixer upper / Ready to move in?

bobjohn | 13 years ago

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1\. do you want to live in Brooklyn 2\. do you want to buy a house? 3\. do you want to own an old house?

concernedcitizen | 13 years ago

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Welcome you’ve come to the right place. There is great information here.