House of the Day: 213 Berkeley Place
This four-story brownstone at 213 Berkeley Place in Park Slope is a beauty, no doubt about it. The period vibe on the parlor floor also works nicely, we think, and doesn’t come off as too over-the-top. The backyard is simple but attractive. There’s also a garden-level rental to take the edge off the mortgage you…
This four-story brownstone at 213 Berkeley Place in Park Slope is a beauty, no doubt about it. The period vibe on the parlor floor also works nicely, we think, and doesn’t come off as too over-the-top. The backyard is simple but attractive. There’s also a garden-level rental to take the edge off the mortgage you will likely need given the asking price of $2,475,000. We’ll be surprised if they get full price in this market, but suspect that within 10 percent of it is not out of the question. You?
213 Berkeley Place [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
“Also, if you can afford the house, you can certainly afford to eat out every night for the few weeks while the kitchen is being re-done.”
Funny you say that Denton, because there’s a couple I know on this block who eat out EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. Period. They have a rotation of PS restaurants which they frequent every single day of every single week. Nice, huh…?
Never seen their kitchen though.
Hey L., I’d like to think I disagree that I am a bad cook altho I have a nice new kitchen 🙂 We’ll have to have a ‘stoner cook-off one day.
But I too don’t get some of the comments. The kitchen is fairly new, based on the shape of the faucet. I mean, hell, a new kitchen is practically a rounding error on a house this price. Also, if you can afford the house, you can certainly afford to eat out every night for the few weeks while the kitchen is being re-done. And of course being so small, the kitchen reno will be both cheap and fast. The size in fact would be my big complaint, not the finish.
But I’m surprised no one’s complained about the laundry on the 4th floor. That’s a walk. And we should take out some of those tiny BRs upstairs and increase the bigger ones.
Have a nice dinner!
Exactly, mopar. It doesn’t. It’s a kitchen. It has all the right kitchen stuff in it and I bet it works just fine. People seem to get distracted by whether there are shiny objects involved and lose sight of the big picture (like the fact that this is a beautiful building with great space on a beautiful block).
Sorry if all of this seems ad hominem. I am feeling somewhat snarky today.
I am leaving early today. I think I might go cook a nice meal in my old-fashioned but totally functional kitchen. I’m guessing the smell of simmering tomato sauce and garlic will be much more important to me than the appearance of the stove I am cooking on.
To add to my snarkiness, have you ever noticed that people with the fanciest kitchens are often the worst cooks (or never really cook at home)?
I like the kitchen, and I bet the cabs are pretty decent quality…my feeling on kitchens, having moved into our current place knowing the kitchen needed a gut reno (and paying less than comps b/c of it) is that a recent mid-range reno is the minimum that most buyers want.
For foodies, a spectacular, tasteful reno will bring a premium. and for bargain hunters, a crappy old kitchen is like catnip, because a gut kitchen reno sucks to have to live through…
Don’t know if a kitchen reno will bring 3X cost. it’s pretty hard to spend under 20k in New York on one.
…and I also agree that if a prime park block brownstone in move-in condition sells for under 2 mil, you can probably call it a market trough…
You guys are nitpicking. Why does this kitchen need renovation?
As I mentioned above, there IS a discount on this house for it not being in pristine condition. As I said…a house two doors down sold last year for 2.4 million and was a GUT JOB!
An immaculate home on this block sold for 3.4 million at the height of the market.
I’d say the current price reflects not only the less than perfect kitchen (for some of you) but also the significant economic impact of the last year.
Think of the gut two doors down…they paid 2.4…and by the looks of things have spent 100’s of thousands of dollars over the last few months restoring the place…THEY are paying top dollar for a house just like this one…anyone who gets this at 2.2 or below is getting quite a hefty discount from peak.
Dealing with a bathroom renovation now (which has turned my husband, dog and me into basement dwellers for the present due to the inevitable dust throughout much of the house) and I can understand why an unrenovated kitchen would be a turn off to buyers. On the other hand my tastes are very specific and I imagine that my tune will change once the renovation is completed, with the fixtures and finishes that we picked out ourselves.
I see very few kitchens on this website or even in my rare perusals of design magazines that I wouldn’t want to change in some respects. And changing anything in a kitchen usually isn’t worth it unless you are redoing the whole thing. This house generaaly looks good, and the kitchen appears functional at least, so it is a project to take on once the buyer is settled in and has saved some money for this purpose (and come up with their design concept). Or do it before renting out the apartment, so that kitchen is available for use. It’s much better than having a whole house to renovate.
Having to renovate a kitchen is a big downside, in my view. Love kitchens, hate renovations, hate to pay for them on top of a price this high.