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
There is nothing wrong with this house that isn’t merely cosmetic (such as the paint color) and couldn’t be fixed in a day.
For instance, the kitchen cabinets are not ones I would have chosen myself, but they are very expensive and work nicely with the house. The new owner could put in counters and a new floor to their liking. These are minor upgrades that don’t take long and don’t cost much.
But most people lack the visual imagination to see how a space could easily be altered.
Prime house in a prime location so yes, this could be a major test of the market. Hard to tell much about the kitchen from the pics. Could be better or worse than it looks. If money were no object, I’d reconfigure the rental with a much smaller central kitchen and add a bedroom in the old kitchen space to create a 2-bed. I’d also move the kitchen into the dining room for a kitchen-cum-family room arrangement (“heart of the house” and all) and make the old kitchen an efficient dining room with a banquette.
I love the fake class outrage of the people defending the kitchen. It’s hilarious that people aren’t allowed to have personal opinions without some kind of class content being read into it. it’s also extremely amusing how the Kitchen Defense Squad feels the need to back up their ad hominem attacks with fabrications. For the record: No one has complained about the lack of stainless steel appliances, nor has anyone complained that the kitchen is not “trendy.” How about sticking to what people have actually said, rather than what you think they might have said if they were stereotypes rather than people?
of course I havent been in the house and only looking at same kitchen pic as the other but maybe I don’t have some big screen computer with super resolution.
But to me, although the kitchen may not be the trendiest taste, it looks very new, the cabinets may be cherry and looking at the # of cabinet space I don’t think was cheap.
Maybe darker countertops would have been more dramatic but still looks new. Can’t really tell what is material.
Layout is great….sink, stove refridge triangle, All very close and easy. Dishwasher also.
I think many of the folks that have such a problem with it only look at magazines and don’t really use kitchen except to warm something or to show off.
But those stainless steel, etc look is the look that will be ‘dated’ in a few years because is too too too common.
Great layout, great block, area, etc.
Unless the owners don’t care or are in real hurry – they’d be fools to sell for much less than asking.
I don’t like their color choices – but only neophytes look at that.
Lechacal, I love your story and have one just like it. My dad was selling a place in Palo Alto during the 1989 downturn. It was in perfect condition. It sat on the market a year with no offers. So on the advice of a real estate agent, he replaced the existing high-quality carpet and paint job with new, ultra-cheap but blinding white ones. Got several bids and the place sold in three days. Ridiculous!
TownhouseLady, I think that you’re definitely on to something. A lot of people don’t want to have to deal with major upgrades. I was actually pretty willing to keep looking until we found a townhouse in move-in condition when I bought for my family because I know they didn’t want to deal with the hassle of not having access to kitchen/baths etc for a few months. Or having workers coming in and out. For some people, that is a big problem, that certainly doesn’t make them stupid, as lechecal seems to think.
Lech – I think the point many posters(or at least myself) is trying to make, is that if I am spending upwards into the millions to 2 million the kitchen BETTER be upgraded and fabulous so that when I show my friends and family my house, I am not entertaining out of my cringe worthy outdated, no space having kitchen making humbled apologies of how awful it is.
I’m a cook and I love to entertain so a kitchen especially a reallly nice one draws me in as a buyer, but I could care less about crown moldings and old parlour doors and whatnot.
Clearly a case of “to each their own” – but I wouldn’t say I am classless b/c I expect the kitchen to be brand new when I am spending all that money.
I think the point of the comments about the kitchen is the seller shouldn’t expect to get top dollar for a house that doesn’t have a renovated kitchen. I find amusing the way lechacal fabricated complaints about lack of stainless steel. I don’t see a single comment about that.
My opinion is that the kitchen looks cheap and dated – the floor tile, the wall tile, the cabinets, and the countertops. A cheap, dated kitchen is not going to help the seller get 2.4MM for this house in this market.
I agree that some (not all)kitchen renos are horrific and leave you wishing the owner had not bothered, but that doesn’t erase the fact this this kitchen is damn ugly, esp in a house that has otherwise very visually appealing interiors. And after you’ve lived through a few kitchen renos, the appeal of imposing your own particularly exquisite taste wears off a bit.
Brownstoner:
I have family who’ve lived on this block for decades. They’ll leave it only feet first.
They’ve been in Park Slope so long (generations, in fact) that their definition of the neighborhood is Grand Army Plaza to Third Street, Prospect Park West to Seventh Avenue.
Anything beyond that — to them — is “risky.”
It’s interesting to hear how the neighborhood’s epicenter has shifted over the years.
Fifth Avenue, to my grandparents, was South Brooklyn — and beyond their imagination.
Two-and-a-half million for this house?
It’s still a lot cheaper than the triplex penthouse in my Manhattan building, which I’d consider a “comp.” (It has three terraces and a big green house.)
But pay millions for anything now?
Not unless the buyer’s going to be like my relatives and sit and sit and sit.
Nostalgic on Park Avenue