HOTD: Mid-Sloper with F.A.R. Out The Wazoo
We’re curious to know what people think about this brick for-sale-by-owner (though this owner has a real estate license) on 15th Street between 4th and 5th Avenues. There was open house last weekend (and another one coming up) so hopefully some of you have been inside. At the $1.4 million asking price, this 1880 Federal…
We’re curious to know what people think about this brick for-sale-by-owner (though this owner has a real estate license) on 15th Street between 4th and 5th Avenues. There was open house last weekend (and another one coming up) so hopefully some of you have been inside. At the $1.4 million asking price, this 1880 Federal home comes in at around $400 a foot. Cheap for Upper Slope, not for Lower Slope (and this is somewhere in the middle, right?). Either way, it looks to us like there might be a development play here: It’s a wide lot (25′ x 100′) and the FAR is 2.43 which implies there a total of more than 6,000 square feet allowed as-of-right. The existing structure is only 3,600 square feet. If you back out even $100 a square foot for the remaining buildable, this starts to look pretty attractive, no?
188 15th Street [House on 15th Street.com]
What kind of full time job is that where you can afford to take the time to post stories on Brownstoner all day long, plus it pays enough to buy a 5 story brownstone and do a high end gut renovation??? We should all have such cushy full time jobs.
Thanks, JK. Not making any $ yet, but it would be a dream to quit the full time job and go brownstoner 24/7!
Exposed Brick on an exterior wall is damn cold. Most houses are attatched and exposed brick touches another house so you have no heat issues. The brick conducts the cold on an exterior wall. That cold transfers to the inside of the house. If you had plumbing inside an exterior wall the pipes would freeze. It happens all the time. That means an exterior wall with exposed brick is damn cold in the winter.
I’ve been following this site since the blogspot days when it was basically just BigBubba and ElectricGreek from the Craigslist forum commenting. But I think I can say: now that it seems to be the norm to have the sellers themselves comment on almost any house you post about, I think you’ve made it.
You may not be making a fortune off this site (god bless you if you are), but it looks like you’re on to something, and it looks like you have a serious following. Congratulations. It’ll be interesting to see where you take it from here.
-jk
It will be interesting to see what happens with that part of the South Slope. A number of condos are going in, and houses are turning for higher-and-higher prices. At the same time, 5th Avenue south of 9th Street is still dominated by dollar stores and the like, although hipper bars — Commonwealth, Buttermilk — and a great coffee house — Cafe Regular — are beginning to invade. Every month a couple more old stores are losing their leases. The question is what will replace them. What the area really needs are a couple of decent restaurants.
The lot is wider, but I’m not sure how you attractively add five feet on to the side, even if you were so inclined. But I’m not an architect. If you’re not adding on, house sounds overpriced to me. At $1.4M, I’d expect a Slope house of this size to be better located — more to the east or the north or both. As it is, this is the in the very corner of what can be called Park Slope, and a none too attractive block as I recall.
you cant compare 404 Vanderbilt, one block outsiode the FG historic district with 15th b/w 4 & 5, which is far more marginal; AND plenty of posts questioned 1.9M for 404 Vanderbilt — which has far better transportation, shopping and a whole floor more actually built
As far as FAR goes, this is a bigger than normal lot (25′ wide) and a smaller house than most, so there’s more buildable FAR left over…
Isn’t FAR of 2.43 pretty standard? So almost all
homes are potentially able to add-on.
Considering there are few houses in that price range on the market probably is good price
(if you’re daring enough to think that current values will hold).
Do a search on Corcoran – for $1.2 to 1.6m – with at least 2 units in PkSlope, BoerumHill, ProspectHts, CarrollGardens,
Cobble Hill. Almost nothing.