House of the Day: 358 Washington Avenue
We wish we had the money and the time to take on a renovation project because this brownstone at 358 Washington Avenue, at the corner of Lafayette, is just calling out to be restored. The 3,500-square-foot house has tons of beautiful architectural details to work with. In addition, because it’s a corner house, it has…
We wish we had the money and the time to take on a renovation project because this brownstone at 358 Washington Avenue, at the corner of Lafayette, is just calling out to be restored. The 3,500-square-foot house has tons of beautiful architectural details to work with. In addition, because it’s a corner house, it has windows along the entire eastern exposure. Wow. And given the location, the asking price of $1,150,000 doesn’t sound crazy, though it’s obviously completely dependent on how much dough you think you’ll have to sink into bringing this place back to life. UPDATE: This just in from a broker in the know…”This guy showed it first on Friday and is taking best and final today at 5pm. Totally bonkers…Will go for over ask.”
358 Washington Avenue [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
Very interesting all of this. AND, interesting the speed with which the house is selling. Good. I’m glad. There is a lot of demand in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill and not much for sale.
The nice thing about the location of this house is that it is not too far off the beaten track and you can walk home from the LIRR or many subway stations and stay on main thoroughfares. That’s important to me. I really wouldn’t want to have to meander through all sorts of side streets go get home after dark. As it is, I usually take a cab if it’s late and I’m alone but the husband unit takes the train.
Friends of ours recreated a stoop in the early 1980s (which is getting to be a long time ago). With the new door, gate, ironwork (which luckily could be simple wrought iron matching another house on the block), and of course, the stoop itself, I think they kept the costs between $10-20 thousand!
I would assume Landmarks will allow the current railing along the sidewalk to stay in place. In the end, I have a feeling the buyers will not focus no a new stoop. They’ll be more concerned about structural issues. No one mentioned that these end-houses’ outer walls often need a lot of work which adds to the cost of renovating them compared to a house sandwiched between two others. The joists in the basement may be rotted where they rest in the outer foundation well and the interior brick lining the three exterior facades may need to be redone. I hate to paint the devil on the wall, but this is sometimes the case with end-houses.
And windows! That’ll be expensive. I counted about 30 windows (someone mentioned 40–I’m not sure how they came up with that number). Agreed, these can be expensive in a landmark district (welcome to the club).
I would suggest the eventual buyer(s), if they’re going to live there and are concerned with being “historic”, might want to find a good window restorer for certain windows and see which ones do not really need full replacement. It’s not a cheap alternative but might cost a bit less than new repro windows. Plus, there’s a satisfaction that you have windows that go back to the house’s origins that have been restored and work well.
Sadly, from the above photo, it looks like the current windows are replacements that did away with the slight arch at the top. Indeed, new arched windows will be quite expensive…I hope they can do the right thing by the neighborhood!!!
And welcome to the new owners! It is very exciting!!!
Do you really think it’s the broker making this directive that best and final be in today???Of course it’s not. That’s the sellers decision. i suspect the broker wants it open longer.
You sound like a broker, Putnamsleaze. No wonder you wouldn’t sell your house with Corcoran…that’s the competition, huh?
I think that it would only be fair to the owner to give all interested buyers a chance to see the house– I’m not talking about leaving it on the market for 2 months– just maybe two open houses – Or ONE, well publicized & NOT on a holiday weekend. Of course, 1.35M is a great price for a seller if the fair asking is 1.15M, but what about if the house is actually worth 1.5 — Then rushing isn’t helping the seller at all. Maybe the broker has a bid for 1.5M, but maybe not. The house two houses down just went into contract and it was asking 2.1M, plus it needed work. Granted it wasn’t the same style or condition, but it also wasn’t a corner house nor did it have 4 floors or a true rental.
A house is worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it, and if you don’t let in 90% of buyers because they aren’t allowed in (if broker is too busy, or too rushed) or if they are away for a school holiday with their kids, then how can the broker fairly represent that she or he is getting the seller the highest possible price. IT all smells to me. I’d never sell my house with Corcoran, personally.
Oh mtr what’s your house number? (not to be weird or anything) but I’d love to see what a new period-styled stoop looks like!
Bought a stoopless brownstone in Park Slope a few years back, facade was in poor condition as well, it cost $145,000 all in for a new facade with LPC approved windows and ironwork along with a new stoop where we all sit in warmer weather and watch the world walk by. Granted the work was finished four years ago but I find it hard to believe that renovation costs have sky rocketed so drastically. I think that whoever buys it, assuming they don’t go crazy on their renovation spending, could easily get their money back in two years. There’s a simple reason this house is selling so fast, the inventory for big houses in good neighborhoods, even for reclamation projects, seems close to non-existent right now.
pierre, standing on the flr looking up, can one tell difference between plaster vs styrofoam molding? is styrofoam on it’s own bad looks-wise?
DCB like you we’ve done a ton of research and the pricing is always more than most people think. Renovating in New York is very expensive but it comes with the territory…these old homes need tons of work. We are currently doing plaster molding work and the fees are so painful we considered doing styrofoam molding!
yeh, this is a real fun place.. excited to see how it turns out.. i live right down the street, bought a brownstone and am in the process of fixing it up. The more it sells for the better..