House of the Day: 15 Lefferts Place
Hey, this whole FSBO thing seems to be catching on! We were sent the link to the site for 15 Lefferts Place, a lovely four-story brownstone just East of Grand Avenue. The house, which is configured as a owner’s triplex over a rental simplex, appears to have a decent amount of detail. There are some…
Hey, this whole FSBO thing seems to be catching on! We were sent the link to the site for 15 Lefferts Place, a lovely four-story brownstone just East of Grand Avenue. The house, which is configured as a owner’s triplex over a rental simplex, appears to have a decent amount of detail. There are some more modern elements, including the kitchen, which appears to be very nice, and some new doors that are trying to look old but not cutting it (a little pet peeve of ours). The rental apartment has some charming original floorboards and the skylight at the top of the stairwell is one of those beautiful oval babies. The front parlor, with pier mirror and floor-to-ceiling wood windows looks like a winner. The price–$1.495 million–is exactly what we would have expected and we bet they’ll come pretty darn close to getting it.
Brownstone FSBO [15 Lefferts Place] GMAP P*Shark
Brenda, Thanks for checking back. Agree we’ve somewhat exhausted the subject. But, just as I’ve shared with you, my info, I appreciate that you’ve shared some of yours with me.
I can certainly understand the expense of taking care of a bstone. This is not entirely the fault of your yuppy neighbors, though the housing boom has definately made it more difficult to find decent contractors, and when they’ve got plenty of big fancy renos to do, they hardly care much about smaller repairs. And there are certain big projects that come around every 10-20 years, like repointing or rebrownstoning that could bankrupt just about anyone.
Don’t you have any rental income or do you inhabit the entire building yourself? Or, let me guess: You’re one of those LL’s who never raised your rents to market levels because you feel for the poor artists you’re renting to or something along those lines.
Somehow your income (personal and/or rental) has not kept pace with NYC’s inflation. A lot of people are in that boat whether they own a bstone or not. And I wonder someday, if that will be us too when the kids have moved away and it’s me and wife unhabiting too much house, too difficult and expensive to keep maintained.
That’s why a lot of people downsize as they age. The physical and financial demands are huge. A house, and it could be any house really, can suck the life out of you in maintenance.
Anyhow, I still think you are very fortunate, though I understand your situation better. Next time one of the PS long-timers on my block complains about money, even though they are clearly house rich, I’ll be a bit more understanding.
As for the young, creative, diverse, etc. being locked out of owning a bstone in Park Slope, that hardly seems a crisis to me. NYC is a town of renters (roughly 2/3rds of the population rents) and the fraction of the population actually owning an entire bldg must be incredibly small. Granted PS is not cheap, but I know plenty of writers, editors, creatives, academics, etc. you name it, still living and breathing in Park Slope. Clearly there are more MOTU’s (Masters of the Universes), but, gee, doesn’t that actually add a bit more diversity to Granola Slope (tongue in cheek).
Seriously though, my PS neighbors are a pretty interesting and diverse mix, and there are plenty of 20-somethings, typically renters, but in NYC that’s always been the norm. Maybe economically it’s not as diverse as it was when you moved here, but that was bound to change, and like it or not, you were an integral part of the wave of change you now find yourself engulfed by. Don’t you recognize the irony of that?
I have to admit that this nostalgia so many people have for the “diverse” Park Slope puzzles me. I was here 20 years ago too (as a renter) and it hardly seemed much less diverse than it does today. Yes, no doubt, it was different, more bohemian, more sandals, more whatever, but that was all bound to evolve as any NYC neighborhood evolves over time, just like our culture evolves. If you want to relive old Slope, you might consider selling your bldg for a small fortune and relocating at considerably less cost to say Crown Hts or Sunset Park, and in a much more “diverse” community.
Thanks for the clarification Brenda. It had sounded to me like you were taking pot shots at your so called “rich” (i.e. high income) friends, which would have been ironic, or better yet, somewhat hypocritical, given your own inheiritance-funded homeownership status, and the attending net worth likely associated with it at today’s prices. You are “rich”, as defined by most people, whether you think you are or not.
At least, that’s how I took the comments about “chardonnay” and “designer kitchens”. Maybe I took that a bit personally. Is being able to afford a designer kitchen really a crime?
I too feel for people of modest means trying to get into this housing market. But, they will get their turn if the really want it. There will be compromises and there will be pain. I’m sure a lot of your friends and family thought you were nuts to buy a house in a slum like PS way back when. Likewise, young (and not so young) people are taking the same kinds of risks if they want to own.
Getting baclk to you Jake, I’d just like to point out that a serious drop in housing prices is not going to put people out of their homes so long as they don’t loose their jobs. You’re like a broken record with this doomsday thing. In fact, if housing prices plummeted, all other things remaining the same, then all the people Brenda feels sorry for would be able to afford to buy homes in great nabes and then maybe you could make a profit again too.
Anon-Sloper,
I’m not surprised the markets have risen so much that fast profits are hard to come by, but I am a bit surprised that it’s risen so high, so fast, that it’s difficult to make any profit at all.
I’m talking about turning an uninhabitable wreck into a beautiful home, not just cosmetic changes.
There are similarities between buying a home for personal use and buying as an investment. Most people buying these expsensive brownstones are doing so in large part because they believe prices will keep appreciating — not just because they want big historic homes to live in.
Aside from certain tax savings, many of which you mentioned, what’s the difference? Whether you hold a property for years or just months, everyone hopes to make money when they sell.
And most young families paying these astronomical Brooklyn prices have a lot more to lose than a small investor like me if the market collapses. They potentially lose their house. I just lose out on one particular investment.
I didn’t sense any bitterness in Brenda’s post, just honesty.
both of our apartments are below market rate (by about $300), and both happen to be rented to working artists. no constant turn over = happiness. it’s a win/win situation in my book…
Brenda,
You sound kind of bitter and I’m not sure why. If you bought your house for $155K 20 years ago in NYC, then you must be sitting on quite a massive gain. You are better off than a lot of people, maybe even most people. For most NYer’s you’re the one who’s rich (grass, greener, other side, always). And “lucky” to boot. Give me assets and networth over income any day! And your income rich friends are the very reason you are rich. If it wasn’t for their ability to spend so much money on housing, your home wouldn’t be worth nearly as much now would it. I’ll bet you have far more equity in your home than they do, so who’s actually richer?
Most people need extraordinary incomes just to dream of getting what you’ve already got and had for a long time. The beauty of your situation is that you don’t need to become a hedge-funder. You’re there already. And as for retirement, this is a problem about 99.5% of the pop is totally unprepared for. At least you do have a way to fund it, even if it means selling your home someday. Question: Will you or your spouse be getting a pension? This is something the Wall Streeters don’t even know how to spell.
So, I don’t quite understand where you’re coming from.
Also Jake, I’m surprised that you’re surprised the market finally caught up with you. Huge leaps in value are not normal. Normally, you shouldn’t be able to just pick up a townhouse, throw on some cosmetics, and turn a profit. And normally, as a flipper, you should be laying awake a night wondering which way the market will go over the next 12-18 months.
The days of money found in the streets are probably gone. In all liklihood, you’ll have to get used to a more balanced market where you are competing with buyers who have different priorities than turning an immediate profit. That doesn’t mean that these properties are over-valued, it simply means that they don’t fit your criteria for quick profit.
Jake,
If you are in r.e. as a professional developer/speculator, then I don’t blame you one bit for having those jittery sentiments. You should be concerned about what the market will do tomorrow. But, that is an entirely different consideration than the logic behind the purchase of a primary residence for permanent use. On a development property, your return is based on a very short-term exit. For a primary residence, the equation is totally different. Too bad people seem to get these issues mixed up all the time.
Anon-Sloper,
I’m not selling for the same reason lots of people aren’t selling. Somewhere in the back of my mind is the faint hope that real estate prices will continue to rise like hell and I’ll make even more money.
I also own property that is incredibly hard to come by, so selling would be especially painfull. I’d rather invest in real estate somewhere else, like Southern California, so when the shocker hits NYC, I’ll at least have a valuable home somewhere else — though of course the market there could tank too.
Also, I’m not suggesting you sell your house. I don’t think you should for the same reasons I’m not selling mine.
But personally, I refuse to pay the current crazy prices. A partner and I bought a townhouse shell about a year ago that we’ve almost finished gutt renovating. We’re going to sell it when it’s finished and likely do pretty well since the market has skyrocketed in the last year.
But, recently we’ve been looking at a lot of properties in all five boroughs and can’t find anything that remotely provides the upside that our current townhouse clearly had.
Sure, if you really want a townhouse to live in and plan to stay for the long haul, it might not be so bad over paying if you can afford it — but that’s a personal choice I’m not willing to make.