House of the Day: 238 Lafayette Avenue
$1,050,000 isn’t a lot of dough for a house in central Clinton Hill, but 238 Lafayette Avenue is in rougher shape than your average house in the area. The four-story house is chopped up into three apartments and has plenty of value-destroying touches like 1970’s-era kitchens, dropped ceilings and non-period wood paneling. Then again, there…
$1,050,000 isn’t a lot of dough for a house in central Clinton Hill, but 238 Lafayette Avenue is in rougher shape than your average house in the area. The four-story house is chopped up into three apartments and has plenty of value-destroying touches like 1970’s-era kitchens, dropped ceilings and non-period wood paneling. Then again, there are some original elements still in place, including fireplaces and some crown moldings in the entryway. The big question is how much it’ll cost the new owner to bring this place back up to snuff. Thoughts on that?
238 Lafayette Avenue [Project 17] GMAP P*Shark
Sorry to be late to the party, but in NY that’s not true. The owner owns the house and the bank has a security interest in the house to secure payment of the mortgage. They don’t have any property rights in the house. You are thinking of California and other deed of trust states, where the lender owns the property in trust for the mortgagor. (Actually it is a little more complciated, as I think usually a technical third party is designated as trustee, but you get the point.)
quote:
well technically till the mortgage is paid off, you own the mortgage note and the bank owns the house
exactly. that is what is called a looloo landlord. they dont own shit! the banks own their asses and you HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE TENANTS WHO LIVED THERE FOR YEARS!!!!
*rob*
quote:
All the charm of Jersey in Clinton Hill.
what? sorry, but way more class in jersey than clinton hill, that’s fer sure.
*rob*
well technically till the mortgage is paid off, you own the mortgage note and the bank owns the house
By mopar on April 19, 2011 3:25 PM
This place is priced low because there is a renter in place. Assume rent control.
Not necessarily. But most likely that tenant feels like he/she owns the place, which is Minard’s comment. THAT really IS an issue. Unless you have no feelings, you have to deal with a real person and most likely this person/s are not particularly glad to see you. And it is compounded if they are elderly and not easily able to move. You really do need to understand this component.
I have to disagree with Mopar about the price. It ISN’T cheap. This place is a mess and needs a major renovation and that will cost.
Agreed, ML. If there is a renter in place, forget about it. You’d spend all your money, and then it’s not even yours.
If there is a renter in place, then you will be living in HER HOUSE.
Not worth it at half the price.
This looks like it might be a total gut renovation–which is fine…
But, a word to the wise:
Those outside walls on end-buildings can be a lot of work to deal with when you’re renovating. Friends of ours had to have the entire outside wall facing the side street redone from the inside.
The house was in good shape and had been renovated in the 80s so had newer electrical, heating and plumbing.
But it turned out to be a complete gut renovation which they had not counted on. They knew the outer wall facing the side street needed some repointing but they later discovered when that work got underway that the underlying layer of brick (the one the plaster sits on inside the house) needed even more than just repointing.
The entire wall going up from the cellar level had to be redone brick-by-brick from the inside which meant all surfaces, crown mouldings, etc. had to be completely stripped away and recreated later which was very costly.
I love the idea of having a garage you enter from the side street but I would hate to run into a degraded 4-story wall that needed to be rebuilt from scratch.
Any potential buyer had best get a full inspection to get a better idea of what the full costs might be to renovate…or just make sure the house remains standing over the next couple of decades.
If the house is structurally in good shape, yes, I agree, demolition guys can pull down the dropped ceiling and paneling pretty quickly. The art is in removing everthing without damaging existing details, woodwork and plaster walls (if those walls can be otherwise kept as is).
Wood paneling and drop ceilings are easy to pull out, and you can ask to see what’s underneath if you’re putting an offer in; a lot of times they were put in place not to hide problems, but to save on heating bills and because lower ceilings and wood paneling were the pinaccle of popular in the 70’s (much like all that stainless steel is now – brace yourselves for people 30 years from now sneering at your granite countertops and stainless steel appliances!)
There isn’t any yard behind this house, right? My dry-cleaners is on that block of Waverly, and I’m pretty sure the first building backs up against this house’s lot. Plus the building is only 35 long. I think you could do better for the amount of work that needs to be done & lack of a yard – like the gut reno selling on Cambridge Place listed at 899K – bigger house, better lot, and less traffic.