House of the Day: 540 Bergen Street
540 Bergen Street (pdf flyer) has some redeeming features—nice location, pretty facade, some original details—but it’s also been chopped up into three units and suffers from a bad case of crappy listing photography. All of which may explain why the price was just reduced after only a month on the market from $1,550,000 to $1,475,000….
540 Bergen Street (pdf flyer) has some redeeming features—nice location, pretty facade, some original details—but it’s also been chopped up into three units and suffers from a bad case of crappy listing photography. All of which may explain why the price was just reduced after only a month on the market from $1,550,000 to $1,475,000. We don’t think it’ll be quite enough to get a deal done though. What about you?
540 Bergen Street [Mark-Roth] GMAP P*Shark
Cgar, you get the listing for the 4bedroom condo/duplex on Boerum place with backyard and garage. Exactly what I would like eventually – with fewer bedrooms and a $1m less.
Matt14,
I hear you.
The building seems like it might make for nice apartments, but is not set up to be a nice house. If I were to buy this place and live in one unit, I think I might feel more like a landlord and super rather than a homeowner.
But maybe I’ll take a look at it at the open house Sunday.
My broker sent me this listing, and I’m going to see it. I think it has great potential. I would do as Pete suggests. An owner’s apartment, either a duplex or triplex, and 1 rental rather than 2.
I’m not so sure this was ‘chopped up’ but may have always been 3 units.
I would think owner could use lower floor and use as duplex.
Somehow I don’t think a fixed up place /movein condition/is
going to sell cheap you some of you. Yes a different buyer than family looking for lots of space and private home – but there exist different buyers with different needs.
LincolnSlope….you’d better consult an accountant. For a person with a real job, this needs to be accounted for on a Schedule E and if he makes more than $150,000 there is NO deductibility of accounting losses.
Tybur6, thanks so much for very clean and clear thoughts on this. I agree. I think ultimately it is a business decision. The one benefit is that as your principal goes down and you make business loss and mortgage deductions (assuming you have a large enough salary) this starts to make a bit more sense. Locationwise, my thought is that this is going to get better not worse. I worry, however, that the glut of rental apartments going into the market on 4th Ave and downtown brooklyn may bring down the rental that one can get on these units. Do you agree? Or do you guys think that the location makes it unique and separate from those buildings? Assuming the rent stays flat, my estimation not looking at the place is that $1.250 might even be an ok venture assuming a 5.5% morgage and assuming the individual buying it makes over $200k to get a max tax deduction. Finally, one can segregate the two units from the duplex using an LLC and then claim losses for the revenue v. expenses on those two units.
Also, how does this compare against the $1.5mm house that is on Sterling and has been on the market since the Reagan administration (or at least it seems).
First post
Long time reader
I’ve been through this house. The owners live on the third floor right now and they did a really nice job with the renovations. I’m not an expert, but I don’t think you would have to put much money in this house at all. All new plumbing and roof and very clean all around.
We didn’t like it because it didn’t feel like a home. It would be great to buy and just rent out all three units, but to pay this much and use as a residence I would like more than just one floor.
As a follow-up, I’d say $1 million or *maybe* $1.1 million makes sense. Anything more than that, you’ll be running a major deficit for a long time… that just gets worse if you have to put any money into the building (roof, windows, plumbing problem).
I know you guys don’t like me bringing this up — but a 3-family building is more of a business than it is your house that “happens to have a rental unit.”
20% down, 6% mortgage, and $200/mo taxes. The average per unit income would have to be around $2400 each — JUST to cover your nut. Never mind utilities, fuel, maintenance, etc.
They state that 2 units are renting for $2100.
Please explain how this is a good investment? Or is it an attractive situation to spend basically $5000+ on your 2-bedroom apartment and subsidize your tenants?
I don’t get it.