HOTD: One Heck of a Paint Job in Caton Park!
When 53 Marlborough Road hit the market last summer for $575,000, there was consensus on the site that it looked pretty cheap despite the huge amount of work the place needed. The market agreed and the house changed hands in September for $635,000. The owner then did a couple of months of work and refinanced,…
When 53 Marlborough Road hit the market last summer for $575,000, there was consensus on the site that it looked pretty cheap despite the huge amount of work the place needed. The market agreed and the house changed hands in September for $635,000. The owner then did a couple of months of work and refinanced, pulling out $740,000. Now it’s back on the market for $850,000. We don’t have the “before” pictures of the interior handy, but we doubt the owner had enough time to do more than basic cosmetic improvements, a theory that’s supported by the fact that the current listing still trumpets the fact that the house needs TLC. Decide for yourself: There’s an open house on Sunday from 1 to 3. Update: We got our hands on some photos of what the house looked like before the current owner’s renovation. Check them out on the jump.
53 Marlborough Road [Mary Kay Gallagher] GMAP P*Shark
House of the Day: Caton Park Fixer-Upper [Brownstoner]
Having seen and bid on the house before its latest makeover, I have to say I am quite disappointed in the work done and am astounded at the gall of the asking price, which I was told is quite firm.
While some of the structural damage may have been corrected (front corner at porch, rear porch roof), most of the work done was purely cosmetic. The patching of damaged wood floors was crude at best, complemented by a hideous new coat of varnish, and an undiscriminating paint sprayer was used to coat virtually the entire interior in a gleaming coat of white paint, covering lightbulbs, bathroom tiles, door hardware, slow moving pets, etc. You get the picture.
Rust and water damage is starting to bleed through, so what looks like an attempt to mask many ills will be temporary at best.
This house that still has potential needs almost as work as it did 5 months ago, but now has another coat of paint nobody will want and a porch of marginal quality (see balusters falling away from top rail and crude wood patch).
I sighed as I walked away, thinking “what a waste”. $215K increase in price. For what? A redone porch, some new clapboard, a few dumpsters of debris lighter, some patching of walls, and another layer of varnish and paint to remove for the next owner.
Did anyone make it to the open house yesterday? Love to year a first hand account.
I saw this house before the flip. You would have to be the biggest f#cking idiot to buy this. It had HUGE structural problems, and it really wasn’t clear whether you wouldn’t be better off just tearing it down. Obviously, the owner just hid all the structural problems and is now trying to find one fool.
To the dude who always looks for every single possible opportunity to bash PLG people as bashers, hello, look how people responded here to the insults towards their neighborhood! It’s ridiculous to claim ONLY ONE PLACE does that. Nobody likes to hear snooty, “I’m too good to live in your neighborhood” comments. And nobody is wrong to react strongly to that. Try to be more understanding of basic human behavior. If that’s possible, from your perch up on high.
The flipper who did it was used to buying houses when you could get them for $200K then flip them for $500K with minimal work. He tried to step it up with the Ditmas house, with respect to the exterior, and the loft and basement spaces… but there’s a huge taste issue with respect to kitchen/baths, further compromised by the fact that he’d never purchased anything other than the cheapest home depot cabinets on offer (I believe he also did the FSBO reno that originally went for $900, for which the current owners are now asking $1.5 – featured here recently).
He went a step up from the bottom of the barrel home depot look, but didn’t seem to understand the taste level of people buying the price range that he was trying to attract… Greed, ignorance… a bit of both… I don’t know. Lesson here: if you’re trying to do a high end flip, you have to spend money to make money, and you should get a decorator in, too.
I bet the MKG house in Ditmas Park proper that was on the house tour last year – new everything, preserved everything… will sell for it’s $1.9k price tag. It’s perfect.
yeah, that guy with the ditmas house is going to end up losing money because anyone with buying at that price is going rip out everything he did. They are going to be looking at the same gut job done twice.
And yes, the Ditmas house would have sold, because I was prepared to make an offer, but couldn’t bear living with the cheap finishes for that price.
To the first poster –
There’s a mix of people buying out here… But if you’re a flipper don’t do what “seems” like a high end reno overall, then put in cheap cabinets and appliances. Get a designer to help up and fork up the extra dough for quality. The big Victorian on Ditmas and I believe Argyle has been sitting there a year, and the asking price has dropped by almost $500K. If the finishes were designer and not depot, that house would have sold, I bet, despite the lack of interior detail (fire gutted the place). It’s bright, spacious and the exterior is attractively shingled. But no one wants to pay that kind of money for such cheap, plug-ugly baths and kitchen.
“why would anyone voluntarily live b/w caton and church?”
umm, how about close proximity to prospect park!
dumbass