HOTD: A Little "Rock Lobster" at 202 Clermont
“Down, down, down…” The latest $150,000 price cut at 202 Clermont brings the total reduction over the last six months to a whopping $500,000. The house started at $2.2 million last Summer, was dropped to $2 million in October, was cut again to $1.85 million in December and now is listed $1.699 million. We went…
“Down, down, down…” The latest $150,000 price cut at 202 Clermont brings the total reduction over the last six months to a whopping $500,000. The house started at $2.2 million last Summer, was dropped to $2 million in October, was cut again to $1.85 million in December and now is listed $1.699 million. We went back to try to figure out why this thing wasn’t selling and, lo and behold, realized that this is the same house whose overly glossy makeover we criticized last week. At that point, we hadn’t put 2 and 2 together to realize that this was listed at Brooklyn Properties as well as Douglas Elliman. No need to rehash our aesthetic criticisms here but the reductions certainly do suggest that the market in this area craves authenticity.
WEB# 723400 [Prudential Douglas Elliman] GMAP
hey, brownstoner’s clock is wrong.
I am the poster from 10:16 and I was mostly directing my comments to the poster from 9:40 who made the website for private jets analogy. I have now become the poster from 10:40.
I’m the poster from 9:29. I like a modernized brownstone as well and I applaud design bravery. It’s your home – make it work for you. If you like tons of ornate victorian detail, then by all means, scrub and restore those babies until your palms bleed. When I said F’d with, I think I meant more Mishandled and Exploited. My snobbery is targeted at flippers and agents whom I feel are the ones trying to create cookie cutter neighborhoods. If that’s what I wanted, I wouldn’t live in Brooklyn. Something tells me 202 Clermont had PLENTY of “architectural merit” before the seller was through with it.
I come to this site and I love brownstones and own one but I also love modernism and poeple who are brave enough and creative enough to reuse there homes in ways that fit their modern lives, who do more than “renovovate by numbers” to create tired reproductions of the past. There are brownstones out there that deserve to be preserved, or in the words of another poster, should not be F’d with. But the great majority of brownstones do not have the architectural merit for the zealous brownstone snobery one finds on this site. Sometimes I love this site and sometimes not so much and sometimes the people of this site renew my faith in humanity and sometimes I am truly urked by the people on this site. What in fact makes this site so great is the diversity of people who participate in the forums. So, to the person who wrote the last post if you are looking for a perfect cookie cutter website to go with your cookie cutter brownstone in your cookie cutter neighborhood, I think you should look else where. There probably is a website out there for people like you.
we’re glad to see a broker revealing himself and engaging in debate–we wish it happened more often–but it does seem to be a strange choice to start in by insulting readers, many of whom happen to be potential clients. It was certainly possible to get his point across without rubbing everyone the wrong way. In fact, his point would have carried more weight had it not been accompanied by the vitriol.
Somewhere out there, there is probably a website for people who really love private jets. The people on the site either:
a) love private jets and own one
b) love private jets and don’t own one.
Do you think there are also people on it who:
c) love to hate people that can afford to own and love private jets?
d) sell private jets but hate the people they sell them to?
I would guess probably not because it’s a colossal waste of time and bad for business.
If you come to this site spurred by jealousy and not an appreciation for brownstones, that makes you a sociopath and in Brian’s case, slightly dumb.
While I very much appreciate Brian revealing his identity and love of healthy debate and poor grammar, I still have this to say: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Sure some of the people on this site have money. That’s because it takes money to buy and maintain a brownstone. I wish to god almighty that brownstones were available to all, rich and poor. They are beautiful in their history, details and imperfections, and they are expensive as hell. This is an informal club of people who are obsessed with these buildings and don’t like to see them F’d with!
Brian, if you want respect for your chosen career, you are lurking around the wrong website. Agents have bad reputations for a reason. I don’t think I have to explain why to you. You seem like a smart guy.
I love that Brian apologized for his grammar. He has people figured out here!
Just a couple of points I want to make…
On the previous post about this house, more than one person mentioned installing reclaimed wide plank floors. I did this in one room in one house and it was expensive! If you can afford to do this for an entire brownstone, you must have lots of dough. Secondly, it’s not always the agent asking too much. The seller often gets greedy and wants to ask over market. Not a hater. Own a brownstone and know the real estate and restoration biz because I dabble in it.
Seriously, it is really tiring hearing people on this site scream about how they are not rich, starting with brownstoner himself. With the amount of money in New York the meaning of the word gets blurred but in my book if you can afford to buy and renovate a 5 story brownstone in Clinton Hill and you have two kids, who I would bet are going to be going to private school, you are doing pretty damn well Brownstoner.