House of the Day: 177 MacDonough Street
The ubiquity of the word “luxury” in recent years is probably responsible for a great many renovation mistakes. Instead of doing tasteful, understated renovations of kitchens and bathrooms, many homeowners felt that they needed to go all glossy, which, unless you really spend a lot of money and nail it, tends to backfire in our…
The ubiquity of the word “luxury” in recent years is probably responsible for a great many renovation mistakes. Instead of doing tasteful, understated renovations of kitchens and bathrooms, many homeowners felt that they needed to go all glossy, which, unless you really spend a lot of money and nail it, tends to backfire in our opinion. Such is the case with this house at 177 MacDonough Street in Bed Stuy. The 18-foot-wide brownstone’s got nice bones and architectural details, for sure, but the kitchen and bathroom shown in the listing photos just don’t work (for us, at least). We could be mistaken, but we suspect that most potential buyers of a house like this would much rather pay $100,000 less and skip things like the “2 ultra luxury Master baths, one with a custom double shower and one with imported porcelain tile and built-in Jacuzzi.” Are we wrong? Regardless of our master thesis, we don’t think this place has a chance of fetching (or appraising at) its asking price of $899,000; after all, it sold for $680,000 in 2005.
177 MacDonough Street [Century 21] GMAP P*Shark
The icing on the cake is:
“Current owner willing to stay on and rent the duplex for $2000 per month”
Hey, I’ll buy it, relist for a flip and say that i’m willing to stay and rent for $6000. Voila, an extra $800k in value! Minus one year lease of $6k at i’m still clearing $700k flip profit. Yeah baby, i should get into real estate. Duh.
I’d say those could very well be Home Depot specials. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The Po does sell some higher quality stuff.
I didn’t see this house, but judging from the photos I was kind of thinking what Looking for a Brownstone validated. The green room bothers me. It looks unfinished. No radiator covers and the stripped molding doesn’t match the surrounding painted stuff.
I’m usually the first one to defend sellers, but this looks too flippy to me.
“Benson, get a grip. Just because you like tacky stuff doesn’t mean we’re being superior. We just have different taste levels.”
I’ve never used this expression before but I’m ROTFLMFAO.
Regardless of whether it is exactly to one’s taste, it’s not gaudy or dated, and what people don’t like can probably be changed easily. The kitchen is nice in a very straightforward 2005 sort of way (if not best in show that year), and the one bathroom photo actually looks fine IMO. The living spaces pictured look tastefully done (although there’s a big caveat after reading the report from lookingforabrownstone above with whom I agree on the aspirational issue), and new chandeliers are not that much if it’s really offending you.
The real hindrance to this listing is that it is simply “fine” but also not a grand house, and it’s really hard to make a ho hum 18 foot wide (on an otherwise excellent block) into a stellar property worth almost $900K in this economy.
I say $785,000 or more and I think the buyer is getting an excellent deal.
I should have prefaced that by saying that I don’t think this was a bad reno. It may not be exactly what I’d have done but I could certainly live with this.
“We are clearly superior to these folks”
Benson, get a grip. Just because you like tacky stuff doesn’t mean we’re being superior. We just have different taste levels.
Bridges;
Excellent distinction. Spot on.
if you do the street view – you can see the 4th floor built above the cornice. Probably is not very high ceiling up there tho.