House of the Day: 42 Sherman Revisited
We’ve featured this place a couple of times on Open House Picks since it hit the market in the middlle of the summer at $1.35 million and frankly we’re a little surprised that it hasn’t sold yet. Not that it’s a steal at its current price of $1.3 million, but it’s got lovely details and…
We’ve featured this place a couple of times on Open House Picks since it hit the market in the middlle of the summer at $1.35 million and frankly we’re a little surprised that it hasn’t sold yet. Not that it’s a steal at its current price of $1.3 million, but it’s got lovely details and sits on our favorite block in Windsor Terrace. Is it the fact that it’s only three stories high? Or maybe a sign of tougher times for FSBOs in this market? What do you attribute its failure to sell to?
Homepage [42Sherman.com] GMAP P*Shark
Open House Picks 8/4/2006 [Brownstoner]
Open House Picks 10/6/2006 [Brownstoner]
I don’t think you overpaid at all for your place on Windsor. I don’t consider it an okay house, it’s a really nice house. I just think that the market doesn’t value renovations properly at all in the equation of done, not done, totally done houses because the cost of renovations has skyrocketed. The hassle of renovations never wavers of course though and should be factored in too.
This “stay till they die” BS about Windsor Terrace is really annoyings. Hundred of homes have been sold in WT in the last several years and most of the previous occupants weren’t dead.
Attention brokers and owners looking to boost the hood: STOP WITH THE BS!
Congrats on your new home. You sound like a welcome addition to the nabe. All purchases seem like too much at first. Wait for a few years and your home will feel like a great deal.
Anon 6:18 – I too doubt you overinvested. You are exactly what makes Windsor Terrace a great place to live. People who actually care about their families and homes and don’t see their home as strictly an immediate financial asset.
Hey Anon 6:18–I doubt you overinvested in Windsor Terrace. You bought a nice house on a very nice block–even with the school, because it’s a very good school and it doesn’t have a hang-out rep after school hours. You are on a park block, a swift walk to the subway, with amazing neighbors. WT may not be for everyone, but it may be one of the nicest places in Brooklyn to raise a family. That’s why people move here and stay til they die–it is Home.
there are to many variables, and sometimes compromises, in purchasing a home to make value statements purely on such numbers.
when i purchased the above mentioned windsor place property with my family in the summer it suited our needs quite well, and is a very beautiful, happy, yet not perfect home. are any of them? certainly none we looked at over a year and a half period. some of them priced much much higher. anything else that remotely suited our needs was beyond our means completely.
For example, the weekend we found this property there were maybe 3 other homes we were remotely interested in, or capable of purchasing. the closest option was in carroll gardens, much smaller, and priced at 1.75m.
the above poster is correct in stating that this home was not completely renovated and we will be spending more money in this regard (the lame island serves well in the basement laundry). The all up cost will probably mean (by the numbers) that we have over-invested in windsor terrace.
However, we needed to move, we now have a home, we are now not looking for a home and enjoying our lives, we love the neighborhood, we love the park, and we will be staying here for the forseeable future.
I’m not sure we will make any money back when we sell, we may lose, but we’ll talk about that 15, 20, 30 years from now.
It’s interesting to think about how renovations should be valued pre-and post. The house on Windsor was pretty, but not totally renovated. For instance the kitchen was basic, and cute, but with minimal and cheap cabinets and counters, a lame tiny island, but did have a professional range. The garden was sweet though. The details were wonderfully restored and retained. But this was for the lower 2 floors. On the top floor there was no renovation at all. It was a floorthru with details, but not shining and beautiful by any means. Also they had never really done much with the lights, and the baths in the lower duplex were not my taste, but had been redone. So if it were totally wonderfully fixed up could it have gone for a higher price? I wonder? And if so then if it went for let’s say, $1.75m, then the asking price of $1.3m (which you could probably get lower anyway) would still seem high because to do that kind of an amazing renovation you are talking probably $450k minimum. Sorry. I know this will bum everybody out to hear that. But everybody’s quoting renovations of a min. $150k per floor to really do it beautifully — not talking about the basics that the agents refer to as a, “done” house. So I think the truly amazing done houses are undervalued, and the fixer uppers and the okay houses are overvalued.
I place an offer on this prop when it first listed months ago at 1.15 and they said they had better..I’d take it now for 1.05.
it needs a complete gut..kitchens and baths weren’t usable, facade and doors/windows need work, cellar and english need work, MEP need total replacement.
IMO, when buying a home that needs a gut, the equation shouldn’t be super condition price – reno = current price….minimum 30% of a reno should also be taken taken off the price to account for sweat equity, and loss of home while reno is underway. typically a developer wants to double his reno cost for profit.
A house sold recently with Warren Lewis on Windsor Pl right across from the school, same layout and not a limestone, that was completely renovated and sold a month ago for 1.565 so this house doesn’t seem to be over priced.