House of the Day: 285 Park Place

I always wondered why everyone else was such a better speller than I am.

And I will hold firm on the fretwork — I don’t think generally they are all that intricate or attractive. It’s worst of all when it is about the only piece of detail left after an otherwise bland reno job.

If it wasn’t ugly, I agree that the extra work to care for it would be worth it. But it is, so I see no reason to keep it. If I ever own a place with fretwork, I will be sure to offer the piece here before junking it.

I agree with dude. A $1,280M mortgage at 5.5% is $7,300; add taxes ($333) and insurance & you’re at $7,800. Heat and maintenance are the real hidden expense for this place; dude is correct to ballpark at $9,000, assuming there are no serious problems to deal with.

The listing says the triplex is rented at $4,500; it’s not clear if that’s market or not, but it is the current rent roll. Even if you rent the garden for $2,500 and succeed in raising rent on the triplex to $6,000, you’re still in bad shape: 300k in and just breaking even, praying that nothing goes wrong. It’s just not a compelling purchase as a commercial property.

This is really priced for someone in the market for a home with a little rental income to offset ownership costs. Buy it, rent the garden apt, and you’re out-of-pocket $6,500 a month before deductions.

I have it in google chrome, maybe it’s just chrome that does it. Anyway, I wouldn’t call it ugly. If I had no reason to remove it, I’d happily let it stay. Even in some terrible gut renovations, (I recall one a few weeks back) the fretwork sometimes survives.

But such is the Brooklyn of the nouveau rich… if you can’t be bothered to do dusting, I suppose live in a newer building.. which you should dust anyway.

And thanks Amzi. I’m too much of a stickler for intricate interior details (hence why it pains me to live in such a new drafty bland, ugly, and uninspiring building in architecturally stunning Clinton Hill, I’m looking for new places soon)

The Pratt faculty townhouses apparently are being renovated for grad students next semester, I might consider them. Hopefully some of their original interior charms remain.

Really? I don’t have any red underlining on my text box. Is there some feature to use (I usually view this in IE7)?

The reason to knock the fretwork out is because it’s ugly — it was ugly in 1899 and it’s ugly now. Plus it’s just going to catch extra dust and cobwebs.

Just because it’s original doesn’t mean that it should stay. (Of course, if I bought the place and decided it was too difficult to replace it with something more attractive, no doubt I too would rally to defending all original details.)

If this darn box had a spell checker, it would look fine. (And there’s no hill in my name, much like the neighborhood).