Brownstone Breakfast: Price Cut on Hancock

I think Atlantic Yards, the Downtown Development Plan, the BAM Cultural District, the Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Williamsburg Waterfront Development Plan, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard rezoning will all have a very positive impact on Brownstone Brooklyn. IMHO, the biggest beneficiaries will be the “less established” brownstone nabes on the periphery (greater upside potential), in particular Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights North and PLG. In ten years, you’ll be thanking God that you got into any of these nabes while they were still affordable for middle income families. If Manhattan continues to turn into another Tokoyo, prime townhouse living in intact brownstone communities in Brooklyn will be in very high demand.

Sorry–I was Anon. 8:29–forgot to sign in.

Thanks for all of the good vibes about Crown Heights North. By the way, a good half of the nabe from about Park Pl on north walks up to Fulton and gets the A train, more often than not. It’s faster than the 3 and if you are going to the west side of Manhattan, much more convenient. It is good to have the choice.

Regarding foreclosures, my house was a forclosure. I bought it from the RE investor who bought it on the courthouse steps. He had driven by, but had never seen the inside before buying. He did almost nothing before selling it to me. Most of his houses were foreclosures. Like anything else, you pays your money, you takes your chances. Most of his houses had the usual problems – plumbing, electrical, general TLC. None were structurally unsound. Some needed more work than others, most had tenants, some were empty. I think if you are going this route, as a newbie you need to partner or mentor with someone who has a few of these under their belt. They can tell the good ones from the disasters with a practiced eye. They can look at the violations or records and figure out where there may have been a new roof needed, or put on, new boiler, etc. Many of these houses have just been used hard and had everything sucked out of them, and just need new everything, some are gems that the owners have had forever and they have had a run of bad financial luck. (I hate those.) If you get a foreclosure for not a lot of money, on a decent block, and you put the same TLC that most here have put into, or are putting into, their homes, you can come out a winner.

While Newburgh, NY has some great historic building and the waterfront is recently cleaned up and ye’ olde and quaint, we took a wrong turn getting to that area for a recent trip up there and were like, whoa, we better U turn out of this neighborhood right now. Newburgh has some rather rough areas.