Banging Your Head Against A (Newish) Brick Wall
You’d think that after a year and a half of no takers the owners of this corner property in the 1990’s Ratner townhouse development along Fulton Avenue in Fort Greene would wake up and smell the coffee. Yes, it has parking and, yes, it has a large (albeit very un-private yard), but people looking to…
You’d think that after a year and a half of no takers the owners of this corner property in the 1990’s Ratner townhouse development along Fulton Avenue in Fort Greene would wake up and smell the coffee. Yes, it has parking and, yes, it has a large (albeit very un-private yard), but people looking to spend $1.5 million for a house don’t want a low-ceilinged, charmless place like this. Sorry. The market has clearly spoken on this one. Guess the owner doesn’t really care about selling.
730 Fulton Street [Craigslist] GMAP
Another Follow-Up on 730 Fulton Street [Brownstoner]
Fulton Newbie Asking Too Much [Brownstoner]
Open House Picks: Pressure Drop [Brownstoner]
Decent Townhouse Reproductions? [Brownstoner]
“Yuck. who would want their landlord showering in their apartment?”
My landlord looks like Sharkira. I would pounce on that opportunity in a New York minute!
It is interesting because it all makes sense, i.e. the pricing the inability to sell. A serious buyer could waste valuable time working with this kind of seller. If you have the nerve for it, you might be able to get a deal. I would say that you would need a very good lawyer at the least. I was involved with a number of kooky sellers during my house hunt and finally after some annoying theatrics managed to buy my building.
The market has gone up since the 2005 original posting, but it is still not worth the $1.5M price tag. If what is written about the unlawful modifications is correct, I wouldn’t touch it for more than $1M.
yuck. who would want their landlord showering in their apartment.
“He is living in the basement which is partially finished but no bathroom and renting to foreign exchange students who pay more in rents and let him shower in their apt. His wet laundry is hanging in the boiler room in order to dry.”
Can you say “house-poor”?
Whoops…mant to say that none of the mods were filed with the DOB (above)
I looked at this house and bid on it. The owner actually made some pretty good modifications. And despite the fact that there is no orignal brownstone details, the rents the two upstairs units actually resulted in a pretty good debt service coverage ratio. The parking spot and the enourmous yard were a huge plus as well.
Then I had my contractor/engineer take a look at it. All the modifications done to the building (support beam in the basement reraouted to accomodate stairs, hallways changed upstairs which would not pass fire code, the list goes on) basically led me to walk away from the property unless the owner was willing to make some reduction in price. He wasn’t. Oh btw, the owner is a nut. He is living in the basement which is partially finished but no bathroom and renting to foreign exchange students who pay more in rents and let him shower in their apt. His wet laundry is hanging in the boiler room in order to dry. I’d stay away.
You know, I like these houses. I think that their scale and design are nice for the neighborhood and I suspect that the little community they comprise is tight knit just because of the coordinated flower planting in the spring. The whole group of them is awash in beautiful flowers in the spring and summer, complete with tub arrangements on the sidewalk.
But in my opinion, the seller here needs help marketing the place. First, it should not be priced as a brownstone, which is what the owner was trying to do initially. It is probably priced about right now, but unfortunately due to the incorrect pricing initially now appears to be a distressed, stale listing. The photographs also do not highlight the property and for heavens sake, you must get rid of the clutter outside of the property. I am not a broker or a sales person, but times like this you can see the value of being guided through the pricing, staging, selling process. This was bungled… too bad for the owner.
Is this the same unit with a huge amount of clutter/trash in the yard?