Ambitious Bed Stuy Flip 196 Hancock Closes $250,000 Above Ask
An 1880s Queen Anne on one of Bed Stuy’s best blocks attracted lots of media attention in March when a flipper bought it for $1,200,000 and then turned right back around and listed it for $1,850,000, “grotty kitchens and all,” as a Brownstoner commenter saw it. The house at 196 Hancock Street, originally an estate…
An 1880s Queen Anne on one of Bed Stuy’s best blocks attracted lots of media attention in March when a flipper bought it for $1,200,000 and then turned right back around and listed it for $1,850,000, “grotty kitchens and all,” as a Brownstoner commenter saw it. The house at 196 Hancock Street, originally an estate sale dripping with original detail but in need of work, closed at $2,100,000 all cash Friday, or $250,000 above ask, Halstead agent Ban Leow told us. He declined to say anything about the identity of the buyers and whether they plan to live in the house.
The location of the house played a big part in its final price, said Leow. “I think prices in Bed Stuy are going to soar over the summer,” he continued. “Not for all properties, but for trophy properties, depending on the size and location. The fact of the matter is Bed Stuy has never been expensive and now we are tagging a price worthy of the property.”
Brick Underground was the first to note that the house had spiked 54 percent, or $650,000, in price in only three days. In an article in The New York Daily News, investor-flipper Eric Mann justified the price increase by saying he paid tenants to leave, cleaned up and removed a partition wall.
The final sale price is edging close to the all-time record for a townhouse in Bed Stuy. So far, no sale has eclipsed the record holder, 254 Gates Avenue, a Parfitt Brothers-designed beauty, which sold for $2,200,000 back in January of 2013. But, crucially, that house was renovated and in perfect condition as well as dripping with details. The house at 196 Hancock is unrenovated but sold for only $100,000 less.
Would a renovated house sell for more, do you think? Given that top-of-the line townhouses sell for $4,000,000 in Park Slope and just under $2,000,000 in Crown Heights, what do you think the final sale price shows about the Brooklyn real estate market?
House of the Day: 196 Hancock Street [Brownstoner]
Sorry Majorhints,
Your Wrong!
I happen to know my neighborhood a bit better than you.
Also go onto the city’s website and look at the recent closing sales and property types, guarantee you’ll eat your words along with BKTF – I’m guessing your a troll blogger from his site or something… Don’t worry your secret is safe here…NOT!
Every building is a different animal, when a market goes up 60%+ in a 3 year period the $700k homes (of similar stature as above) are long gone now. Sure you can buy a lesser home closer to bushwick for under a million, but then its apples to oranges. Show me one similar to this that is going for under a million right now pleeeeeasse! Oh wait you cant. Do your homework Samma!
I’m glad that you asked, this is a sample headline “Closings of Note: Numbers Don’t Lie”
Which is a part of a lengthy narrative that has been peddled by this site. They typically only show the large deals that have taken place, which gives a false sense of what the market actually looks like. Meanwhile there have been reasonable priced homes that are equally as beautiful in historic detail selling alongside the record breakers. If read the blog, BKTF is not simply spitting out unbiased fact. There is a clear buy now or look here’s the evidence you’ve been priced out which is not the actual case. Granted because of this type of narrative it has helped push the market to where it is at. Positive for sellers, which I can’t be mad. But highly risky in creating a class war within many of these newly noticed neighborhoods.
Also the above property is a perfect example of this. Sold for under million not very long ago…read the curbed article.
Sorry buddy, but BKTF and people like that have their own financially driven agenda with the scare tactics they have been using to drive this market up. You really should do your homework before you speak on these things. FYI there are still properties under 700k in B-Stuy Not everything is above a million as BKTF would like you to think.
BKTF knows waaaaaay more about real estate in Brooklyn than you do, garanteed.
People who truly desire to be successful and achieve that goal typically make everything happen by their own grit and determination. A hand up is just another derivation of a hand out. This mentality is being bred into more and more people in America this day and growing like a cancer.
don’t mind heather, she mad jelly
“People who buy two million dollar houses in cash are bad neighbors. They have high expectations…” What!? In a conversation where a lot of people have made unsubstantiated and wacky statements, this might be the strangest. The person who bought the house might be a good neighbor and might be a bad one. Why attack him or her on a website without knowing?