House of the Day: 86 Douglass Street
This two-family brownstone at 86 Douglass Street in Cobble Hill is currently a rental. And it shows. There’s not original architectural detail in sight and the backyard clearly hasn’t had the love of an owner in some time. The bigger questions, though, are (a) what the parlor floor looks like, since it doesn’t appear to…
This two-family brownstone at 86 Douglass Street in Cobble Hill is currently a rental. And it shows. There’s not original architectural detail in sight and the backyard clearly hasn’t had the love of an owner in some time. The bigger questions, though, are (a) what the parlor floor looks like, since it doesn’t appear to have been featured in any of the photos, and (b) what would it cost to combine and upgrade the two existing apartments into a single-family house. Without a little more info, it’s hard to know what to make of the $1,275,000 asking price.
86 Douglass Street [Heights Berkeley] GMAP P*Shark
162 Douglass was on market for 62 days…at $1.825 listing price…still in contract not closed yet. nice and bigger than this but DIRECTLY facing projects.
and people in the projects paying 200 bux a month are laughing at the fools who buy this and have to pay 9000 dollars a month.
*rob*
“1 house directly facing those ‘massive’ housing project was listed for somewhere around $1.8m and is in contract.”
In contract for how much and for how long?
***Bid half off peak comps***
“to hit the property for being so close to the projects would wipe out half the homes in the borough!”
Then how come the topic of “projects” doesn’t show up in far more than half the HOTD’s? It’s always an issue when you go to sell.
***Bid half off peak comps***
Speaking as someone who’s had a lot written about whether we live in Cobble Hill or not, I feel qualified to say that this house is not in Cobble Hill. I think Brownstoner misinterpreted the RE listing where it says that “two family located steps from trendy Smith Street in Cobble Hill.”.
That being said in lieu of a floor plan or better photos I think the price is a bit of a stretch. Three floors of 20 x 34 = 680 sq ft which includes hallway & staircase are not particularly big. If you assume the the staircase & associated hallway take up 180 sq ft (say 6 x 30) then you’re left with 1500 sq ft spread out over three floors. How do you configure that as a decent sized one family? That’s basically two decent sized and one small room per floor.
Not that we’re looking but I’d pass on this one even at a million.
The current tenant in the 3 bedroom garden/parlor duplex rental pays over $4K and has a lease through NEXT AUGUST. Block is not bad – don’t think that anything on the block will sell for less than $1M. The bricktastic 78 Douglass across the street compares favorably to this place – although 78’s price tag is out of line.
back in early ’08, 112 butler st went for 1.975 mio. (side note to all those who rely on asking prices: pls note this sold at 17% off original ask. it was on the market in 2007 during the “bubble”.)
http://bstoner.wpengine.com/brownstoner/archives/2007/05/house_of_the_da_317.php
even closer to the projects. of course it was a very modern ground-up new home. even if you lop off 20%, that leaves plenty of room for a full renovation.
i think the issue in this market is that a construction loan would make getting a decent jumbo look like a cakewalk. and folks with liquidity are not jumping into real estate projects, but rather hunting for the distressed owners who just finished one.
this may not be exactly prime CH/CG/Heights, but to hit the property for being so close to the projects would wipe out half the homes in the borough!
of course would be a good by under $900K and so would that house on Clinton street. But this isn’t going to sell for under $1m. And there have been plenty of houses for well over $1m on this block on on all the others nearby. And 1 house directly facing those ‘massive’ housing project was listed for somewhere around $1.8m and is in contract.
The house is great, really fine, the question is the location. It is certainly not located in what I think of as Cobble Hill. It is half a block from the massive public housing projects. Of course it also near upscale(ish) Smith Street.
The location is not a million-plus location. However the house has such great potential that it would be a good buy under 900,000.