House of the Day: 491 1st Street
While the listing is woefully lacking in interior photos, we’d be willing to bet that there are some pretty nice old bones inside 491 1st Street. (The listing cites “pocket doors, shutters, stained glass, front & back bay windows, parquet floors and woodwork.”) The four-story brownstone is lovely from the outside and happens to sit…
While the listing is woefully lacking in interior photos, we’d be willing to bet that there are some pretty nice old bones inside 491 1st Street. (The listing cites “pocket doors, shutters, stained glass, front & back bay windows, parquet floors and woodwork.”) The four-story brownstone is lovely from the outside and happens to sit in the middle of a row of equally charming houses. The house is a slightly smaller scale (18 feet wide, small top floor) than many of the houses that grab headlines in this part of town. Luckily, then, it’s also priced lower at an even $2,000,000. The big question, then, is what the renovation will run? If you can do it for $300,000 or $400,000, then this is probably a decent deal. If you’re talking $700,000 or $800,000, then this is a tougher sell.
491 1st Street [Townsley & Gay] GMAP P*Shark
Photo by Kate Leonova for PropertyShark
The fourth floor of these houses was meant for servants and children. The ceiling height is low, about 7 feet, except in the front, near the windows, where it drops to about 5 feet. The eyebrow windows provide light and ventilation. They were not meant for looking out. You don’t want your servants ogling the people walking on the street. For the children, the windows were eye-level.
Hey, these houses were built for families that were nothing like modern families, that’s why they are cool antiques. You want efficiency and convenience? don’t buy a Brooklyn brownstone. I have lived in five of them. they are wonderful, i love them, but there were days when all I wanted was a ranch house with a driveway.
Prop shark says this is a three story.
How high are the ceilings on the top floor? They look like they’re about 6 feet high at the most!
$400,000, $1 million…who cares what the reno is going to cost. In this market, “bring your architect” properties aren’t going to move as fast. Maybe move-in houses are still going like hotcakes, but any house where even the broker is embarrased to show the pics is going to require better marketing and lower pricing. Good luck getting this one appraised at ask.
Couple of questions:
Is the building delivered vacant? Does Townsley and Gay co-broke?
why no interior photos?
if this was going to move so fast, it would have already moved. has been on the market for about a month already. nothing moving that is overpriced now…
i agree with 2:53 – choppity chop chop…
I would guess that a full-bore renovation, including new roof, lined flues, central HVAC, energy efficient furnace, new electric service and wiring, straightening out the stairs, three new bathrooms and a new kitchen plus rear yard re-do,new sidewalk, and repainting windows and cornice and ironwork, would cost about half a million.
Cute on the outside, but if it really has so many intact details, why are there absolutely no interior pics? I understand what it’s “ready for renovation” means, but I still think that if all the details are there, there should be photos of them.
just looked again at the NYT pics, and it looks much nicer than the pics above. It’s still missing a real 4th floor, though. I’ll bump it up to 1.8, dep. on inside condition.
We just did a top to bottom renovation on a similar size house this past year. It was in the mid 400’s.
And the kitchen and baths are quite high end. We are more than pleased.
Not sure who you people are who say it’s a million bucks to renovate a home. That is absurd and I don’t really think anyone believes it.