House of the Day: 233 Garfield Place
We absolutely love this house at 233 Garfield Place that just hit the market. In fact, we’d rather buy a place like this that has all of its architectural details in place but is a little rough around the edges than a similar place that’s been too fancied up. Assuming the former was priced at…
We absolutely love this house at 233 Garfield Place that just hit the market. In fact, we’d rather buy a place like this that has all of its architectural details in place but is a little rough around the edges than a similar place that’s been too fancied up. Assuming the former was priced at a sufficient discount to the former, of course. And that’s the question here: This three-family place is beautiful but it’s been in the same family for 60 years and so may not appeal to people who need brand new kitchens and bathrooms. Given all that, is the asking price of $2,500,000 realistic?
233 Garfield Place [Heights Berkeley] GMAP P*Shark
..also, in re-reading the write-up I don’t see the magic phrase: “delivered vacant”. If there are elderly tenants in there, they’re as stuck to the house as the pink paint.
I know I know… people that buy houses like this have a couple million dollars burning a hole in their pockets….
But, at 20% down — it’s an $11,000 per month mortgage! That’s just plain crazy. Or about $130,000 per year just for your monthly payment… not including taxes or maintenance or fuel.
Yowzers!!! Who has this sort of money and can I have just a little?
I just checked: there are some brownstones in good condition in prime park slope asking 1.6mil. So I don’t think this can fetch more than 1.4mil right now.
However the owner and ad seems somewhat peculiar and it smells a “death with thousand chops” case. So it might be much less. Ignore.
I think the issue was that the house had been painted pink for as long as anyone remembers but then, a few years back, the owner re-painted a far more shocking shade of pink and the neighbors went berzerk. He swore that it was the original color his wife had picked out in 1963 or whenever and that the old paint had “faded” over time. He could have been right, who knows? anyway the Landmaks Commission wisely decided to give him a pass. Removing the pinkness will cost around $20,000 -not including the cost of re-pointing and masonry repair afterwards. A lovely house for someone with deep pockets because it will need a lot of work. I don’t think it is possible for it to break through two million in this market.
Would LPC really allow a repaint, pink or not???
CM… The HORROR!! 🙂
tyburg — I honestly don’t know if it must be pink or if they are free to paint any color. I do know they repainted about four years ago and the pink was really amazing. And I am sure DIBS is right that LPC would not object to a return to brownstone. But it is such a fun local landmark, I’m rooting for it to stay pink, even though I have to put up with a Henry Mancini earworm every time I pass it.
Right DIBS… that’s the problem. It has to be boring, or stick with the pink. The landmark folks don’t have any humor in them, do they?
Landmarks didn’t go that soft. The house has an outstanding violation for installing non-complying aluminum windows in 2002.
http://archive.citylaw.org/lpc/permit/2006/026641.pdf