House of the Day: Greene Avenue Goodness
We’re digging this 4-story Bed Stuy brownstone and suspect that it will be snatched up quickly. The house appears to have all its original details in quite good shape, from the gorgeous parquet wood floors to the dark-stained molding and wood paneling. The parlor floor ceilings also look to be extremely high. We have no…
We’re digging this 4-story Bed Stuy brownstone and suspect that it will be snatched up quickly. The house appears to have all its original details in quite good shape, from the gorgeous parquet wood floors to the dark-stained molding and wood paneling. The parlor floor ceilings also look to be extremely high. We have no idea what the rest of the block is like though, but at $699,000 (or about $200 a foot) this is sounding like a pretty good deal to us. Has anyone been inside yet?
770 Greene Avenue [Corcoran] GMAP
I hope that everyone who’s posting stuff like “shame on you brownstoner” feels really stupid…p.s. how is this blog a “predatory vehicle?”…
As the owner of this house, let me address some of the comments here. I know predators, scandal and deceit make for great speculation and thrive in Brooklyn’s real estate market, but I’m sorry to report that there are none of those here.
The house is merely a very nice and architecturally interesting building from the 1890’s with no leins or “life estates”, offered at market price — slightly below, if anything. Having been a long time reader of brownstoner.com, I was pleasantly surprised to see our house appear on the site after it was listed with Corcoran; I’ll address the resulting comments one by one.
First, “Steve” apparently inquired about the house and was told that there is a sixteen year old tenant in the house with a “life estate”. This is as absurd as it sounds. If Steve was in fact told this, that is disturbing news indeed and I’d like to get to the bottom of it. To set the record straight: we have a couple in one apartment. They are great tenants interested in staying on in the house, but they have generously been flexible to moving on fair notice. The house can be either “delivered vacant” (a nice way of saying that tenants are asked to move) or, preferably, they can stay on with a new owner. Ideally, we hope to accomodate both buyer as well as tenant, but we understand that a buyer needs to have a measure of control of the terms. But I’m sorry to say that there are no rent controls, “life estates”, or secret Nigerian 411 holds on the house. As anyone who’s bought a house knows, hidding anything like that would prove a waste of everyone’s time as it would all show up during the searches at closing. If there is any more uncertainty on this misinformation, feel free to contact our broker who can answer your questions.
Second: as for pricing, the debate about whether it’s too high or too low probably means it’s reasonable, much to blkbuttrflie’s surprise. It’s consistent with, and perhaps slightly below, what other buildings in the area have been selling for. It’s priced to sell. Negotiating price is part of any real estate transaction. There’s no catch. We’ve tried to price it fairly. I know that’s unusual.
Third: while it’s fair to say it’s a two fare zone, I enjoy the 10-15 minute walk to the train.
I think that there is some confusion regarding this house. I also spoke to the broker and there is no life estate and no 16 year old..Someone has confused this with another property…
Thank’s Barbara! I wonder how many new employees that have had to commission to do damage control on the web. Selling properties with life estates, that is really a new industry low.
I contacted Corcoran about the listing as well. One apartment is occupied, but the house offered as delivered vacant, with no such “life estate”.
Jeezus that is a really deceitful listing. Who is the broker responsible? Why do they try to hide this like nobody will find out? That is really bad PR.
WOW that’s certainly something good to know. well… there we have it, its so sad that as soon as we saw a reasonably priced Corcoran listing we KNEW there was a catch and of course there was. thanks Steve!
Brownstoner, shame on you. This site has become nothing more than a predatory vehicle to promote overpriced Brooklyn real estate. I don’t mind the listings, but your neutrality is feigned. You have an obligation to your readers to do some due diligence before you proudly display your “buy it now” house of the day.
That’s life estate; it means that the person living in the rental unit has an almost unlimited property interest in the unit during that individual’s lifetime. The interest is freely divisible, so that person A with the life estate can sell their interest in the rental to someone else, although successive interests would continue to be measured by person A’s life. I’m told here that the person with the life estate is sixteen years old. This is probably the most dishonest bit of adverting I’ve seen.