front inside
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


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  1. Correction: The yellow Victorian is actually 70 Lefferts Place, not 73. It was originally listed at $2.45M (building size 35 x 75 on 65 x 120 lot).

    http://www.lanixter.com/detail.asp?Id=596

    If it sold, then it was probably purchased by a developer looking to build condos and possibly expand onto the two adjacent lots as well. Though the building is 6,500 sq. ft, it’s sill 16,000 sq ft under FAR. 96 Lefferts which sit on the other side of the vacant lot is occupied by a 4,000 sq ft Victorian house that is in horrible condition (building size 35 x 35 on 59 x 123 lot) but it’s 13,500 sq ft under FAR.

    Developers have been drooling over these lots and I’m afraid that without some kind of landmark protection these Victorian homes are doomed. CHP, I’m with you (hopeful) but I don’t have that much faith in developers, especially when so much money can be made from the unused FAR.

  2. really? i mean who doesn’t kick themselves for not buying when their parents could have co-signed when they were in their twenties instead of renting a crappy apt. somewhere in brooklyn because it was cheaper than manhattan- well some of those people did buy, they weren’t rich then and many aren’t rich now because they put their profits into yet better places etc… everyone would have done it if everyone had been told what was going to happen… come on- the difference is that some people went on a feeling and it paid off- unfortunately i didn’t buy but it doesn’t make me question the character of those who did.

  3. Brenda is a generous person, it seems, willing to thine the best of others. The question “who are these people?” has an obvious answer. We know who “these people” are. Rich people. That’s it. If you can put down $250K (and have, what, a $1.1 million mortgage??), then you’re a rich person. The less generous question is whether you want rich people to invade your charming block….

  4. so anon 3:40 when you’re ready to sell those houses you’d expect to get what you paid for them eight years ago right? sounds like you can’t understand brooklyn and why people like living here which isn’t an uncommon thing- just not sure why you are so surprised at a lot of space anywhere in NYC being valuable to someone even though they are not caught up in only being able to live in the west village. the west village changed so i guess brooklyn isn’t allowed to because that would just be crazy. i really don’t understand your point…

  5. Brenda–

    I think you assume that all people are buying these houses based strictly on their current income, and what they are able to save from that.

    In my case (and I know many others in the same boat) I made a fair amount of money when I sold my apartment in Manhattan. Then, like a lot of folks we also made some money in the stock market in the late 90s that we saved. So we ended up with a much bigger downpayment than we ever would have thought possible. Combine a good downpayment with rental income, and we were able to afford a pretty good house. And we don’t make a huge amount of money.

    That said, there are buckets of people (especially those with kids) who make a lot of money in Manhattan, and see a million-dollar fixer-upper as a great alternative to a smaller Manhattan co-op or condo. And chances are they’re selling their current apartment at a good profit, just like I did…so the numbers start to work.

  6. Anon 2:44,

    You asked if I own a house. Yes, I do. In fact, I own several in the Village. I bought them all about eight years ago when prices made sense.

    Prices don’t make sense anywhere in NYC.

    The greater fool seems to be the only explanation for real estate prices these days.

  7. Hi Brenda, I know it does seem outlandish. I’m one of those people. Basically, we made a bundle on the sale of an apartment and plowed a lot back into a fixer upper in Clinton Hill. Most of the people I know who have done this in brownstone Bkln are professionals (lawyers, bankers, others in finance) whose total gross income is in the area of mid 200s and up at least. A lot of the down payment is from selling previous places during the boom of the last 10 years.

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