HOTD: A Screaming Good Buy in Clinton Hill
After all the heat that is given to Corcoran for overpricing, it’s refreshing to see a listing that we think will sell within days because it is so attractively priced. Unless there’s some undisclosed catch (like an SRO tenant camped out on the Parlor floor), this 4-story, 2-family limestone on Willoughby between Clinton and Waverly…
After all the heat that is given to Corcoran for overpricing, it’s refreshing to see a listing that we think will sell within days because it is so attractively priced. Unless there’s some undisclosed catch (like an SRO tenant camped out on the Parlor floor), this 4-story, 2-family limestone on Willoughby between Clinton and Waverly looks like a screaming buy to us at $1,325,000. Although there are some finish details we don’t love (like the kitchen), the house appears to be in excellent shape with a surfeit of original woodwork and flooring. The garden is also unusually nice for the neighborhood. Frankly, we’re surprised the price tag on this isn’t higher. Maybe broker Rodolfo Lucchese is heeding Barbara Corcoran’s recently revealed advice to underprice a property in order to generate a huge wave of interest and thus a bidding war. If that’s the case, mission accomplished. As we said, we bet this place will be gone by the weekend.
Addendum: It has been brought to our attention that this property is only 17-feet wide, which does moderate our initial enthusiasm somewhat. Still looks like a very nice place though.
116 Willoughby [Corcoran]
This house (I’m told) went for way over the asking. It may have, but I had a bid in on it but withdrew when the Cororan brokers began playing their cards a liitle to close to their chests. I met the seller and he seemed like a very reasonable guy. He was building a house in Jersey and I think would have been happy to get the asking (which I offered) and get on with his life. I think the brokers drove the price up.
I’m sure there are smaller & uglier brownstones in places like the east village with noisy bars on the block going for a lot more. So from _that_ perspective, it’s a good deal.
Have a nice day.
Chris Rock does OWN a brownstone(not a mansion) around the block, doubt he lives there though. 116 Willoughby is right behind one of the many historic mansions in Clinton Hill, the Caroline Ladd Mansion, one of the Pratt Mansions. I would love to live in a beautiful, but narrow brownstone next to many historic mansions, but I can’t afford it, yet there are many people that can and will.
Chris Rock lives in a mansion in New Jersey with a pool, good school system, etc… which I’m sure he paid about this for!
Chris Rock! Chris Rock! Around the corner! I am so buying that house!
This is quite a nice block, having been inside a couple of the other houses here. Yes, the coops are across the street nad not as charming as the street, but you have the beautiful brownstones of Clinton Ave & of St Joseph’s College. Doesn’t Chris Rock supposedly live around the corner from this property in one of the Clinton Ave mansions?
If you read the comments and the revision on the post, we did not initially realize it was 17 feet wide. Mea Culpa. When we learned that, we revised our opinion and replaced the word “Screaming” with “good”. Even given the narrowness, we think this will sell quickly. But, hey, we never hold ourselves up as any kind of oracle. Given the blog format, we’re operating on the fly. As far as pumping up our own house, we actually would prefer steady long term growth in values to what’s been going on in CH over the past 2 years. In addition, it’s not as if we try to hide the fact that we own a house. Everyone’s aware of this potential conflict of interest and we’re sure views our Clinton Hill-related posts with a healthy level of skepticism.
There are things I like about Brownstoner. Making comments about pricing (which I believe sound more like a broker with a vested financial interest) is not one of them. I think it makes people (like me) skeptical, either because you are consciously or subconsciously trying to pump up the value of your Clinton Hill investment, or because you are ignorant. How anyone could try to represent that a 17.5 foot wide(approx. 16″ on the interior) brownstone, on a 71″ foot deep lot, next to the large project-looking apt. buildings (even if they are coops) is a “screaming good buy” is unbelievable.
To the insider,
I suppose you must rationalize your pricing tactics in the same way that a buyer who has just dropped over a million dollars in the frenzy of a bidding war better convince themselves that they are happy and did the right thing putting down their life savings. But it would be fun to require all realtors go to a 5th anniversary closing reunion with the people who bought with a 5 year ARM so that they could see how happy the buyers are when they can no longer afford their mortgage payments and can’t sell because the property value has dropped 20%, which would mean that they would loose their life savings. That you have successfully marketed a ridiculously expensive house to someone, does not make the price “right.”