Award-Winning Heights House Sells
[nggallery id=”54151″ template=galleryview] Shortly after 28 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights hit the market in November ’09, it was a House of the Day and listed for $4,200,000. The property ended up selling for $3,000,000 in a transaction recorded in city records earlier this week. Back when it was first listed, The Eagle ran a…
[nggallery id=”54151″ template=galleryview]
Shortly after 28 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights hit the market in November ’09, it was a House of the Day and listed for $4,200,000. The property ended up selling for $3,000,000 in a transaction recorded in city records earlier this week. Back when it was first listed, The Eagle ran a profile of its owner and his renovation of the four-story property, which resulted in the Brooklyn Heights Association’s 2006 Award for Architectural Excellence. (The old listing photos above show some of the interior.) The seller had this to say about the house’s condition pre-renovation: “‘Sometime after 1940, someone removed the front stairway, added asbestos shingles, created a side entry and added a two-car garage. In their mind they probably thought they were modernizing it, but it looked horrible.'” The seller reduced the size of the garage, extended the back of the house, and used the top two floors as a two-bedroom rental. Also of interest on this one is its history on the market: According to StreetEasy, it saw a bunch of price cuts through June of last year; was de-listed in August; and re-emerged with a $3,250,000 price tag last September.
House of the Day: 28 Middagh Street [Brownstoner]
Award-Winning Heights Home on Market for $4.2M [Eagle]
I think that this house could have very well been identical to the grey house next door but at some point say 100 to 60 years ago, it was jacked up an extra story, possibly to add a garage. At that time the stoop on the side was added. What do people think of that theory?
Because there is no research on any of these houses in Brooklyn Heights, it is hard to tell for sure.
snark, that doesn’t even make sense.
> the facade- it looks cobbled together from several different eras.
Agreed. It looks like an “exquisite corpse.”
The widget was heavily influenced by neighborhood rivalry. Brooklyn Heights listings were generally under valued (its a geriartric community with nowhere to buy a decent meal yadda yadda) Clinton Hill listings were pumped up (great hip Ethiopian/Indonesioan take-out three blocks away yadda yadda) so I didn’t think it was that useful.
OK, final observation and then I’ll shut up: this HOTD is a perfect example of the value of the widget tool for the smart broker/owner. From the timing, it seems that Mr. B either thought the widget would compromise the Marketplace success, or was convinced by dumb brokers that it hurt their business.
If I were a broker, I would love to have this tool to be able to reflect on the quality of my listing. Although it tended to underestimate the selling price for what sold, it gave a valuable insight (coupled with the comments) as to the strength or weakness of a listing: within 15%, all good, 25 to 30% below, you’re in trouble, 15 to 25% below list, maybe you need to change the pics, add a floorplan, change the description to better explain the value, or maybe you need a rapid cut before the listing goes stale.
removing the widget wasn’t just removing a toy from the commenters (although it was that too); it hurt smart brokers.
I agree with Bxgirl that the facade proportions are a bit off. But the house has been remodeled so many times that it’s hard to know how to restore it, or to what point in time.
It is difficult to see in the picture but there is a stoop that rises up the side of the building to the side door. This is a very old-timey feature. A front stoop would have to elbow back along the front of the building eliminating the possibility of a garage. If the stoop went straight out it would end in the middle of the street. The architect/owner made some choices here, and all in all he did a really good job. The house sold too low.
FWIW, I agree with Minard, the price was lower than it should have been. The owner made a mistake with the pricing and missed the crucial spring selling season. If they’d started last year around $3.4M, they would have sold fast and close to ask.
But a stoop wouldn’t necessarily mean removing the garage- from the picture it looks like you could have both. I simply don’t like the facade- it looks cobbled together from several different eras.
The house had a stoop once upon a time but when the Heights was declared a historic district, the garage was already in and the stoop was gone.
In an historic district one can always restore a lost stoop -all it takes is money. But no amount of time or money can get you a new garage like this.
The grandfathered garage is very, very valuable.