House of the Day: 138 Prospect Place
With an asking price of $1,200,000, this brownstone at 138 Prospect Place may look cheap but there’s definitely a catch: It’s an SRO. (That’s Single Room Occupancy, for you beginners out there.) According to the listing, it’s divided up into one apartment and seven individual rooms. The listing also says that the seller is motivated,…
With an asking price of $1,200,000, this brownstone at 138 Prospect Place may look cheap but there’s definitely a catch: It’s an SRO. (That’s Single Room Occupancy, for you beginners out there.) According to the listing, it’s divided up into one apartment and seven individual rooms. The listing also says that the seller is motivated, and we have a hunch why. It looks like the property entered foreclosure last month over a mere $18,000 lien. Given that five of the vacant rooms are occupied, you couldn’t pay us enough money to get involved with this place, but maybe someone with a strong stomach for bureaucratic headaches and no reservations about forcing tenants out on the street could make a go of this.
138 Prospect Place [ERA Real Estate] GMAP P*Shark
Just relisted, now $700K, asking for all cash offers only and offering the property “as is.”
The new listing says 7 out of 8 units are now vacant.
A good buyer for this would be someone like Carmela Soprano a well-organized can-do type with an extensive network of people who can “influence” other to vacate in a hurry -feet first or otherwise.
Sad but true.
odd sized lot, 20X76
While Minard’s advice should not be taken lightly, it is worth noting some have acquired their current home by buying an SRO, moving out tenants, and renovating the building themselves.
Like, for instance, the blogmaster.
The problem with this sort of think is that while a novice may mistake this for private property, the regulations governing SROs in NYC are such that it can actually be thought of as state property operated at private expense.
The owner of this building would have very limited ownership rights although he/she would need to shoulder the full burden of ownership obligations. It is a “Moscow on the Hudson” nightmare; best avoided like the Bubonic Plague.
Who ever came up with the concept of rent control for small, low-income accomodations?
SRO housing is great for singles who move to a new city, or need a temporary place to live for a while, and who don’t mind a lower standard of living. Rent control effectively forced it out of business.
Not to mention the extra special idiocy reserved for the city council which makes it incredibly expensive and painful to convert one of these buildings to a higher and better use, and, in the process, ensures that the existing tenants will get only the barest minimum of services.
“With an asking price of $1,200,000, this brownstone at 138 Prospect Place may look cheap”
no….
Excellent pictures illustrating that house has front doors and at staircase. Good to know.
OK, perhaps I was a bit harsh.