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481 4th Street hit the market back in June with an asking price of $2,950,000. When it got the House of the Day treatment at the time, the pricing widget was not kind, producing an average price of $2,146,765. Giving it the 15 percent benefit of the doubt, this would have suggested that a buyer in the $2,400,000 would not be out of the question. The original asking price has been cut a couple of times, most recently to $2,650,000, so there’s only about 10 percent separating it from the realistic widget range.
481 4th Street [Betancourt] GMAP P*Shark
House of the Day: 481 4th Street [Brownstoner]



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  1. To answer various posters, Betancourt is a partnership and one of its (unpleasant)partners did this obscenely ugly renovation of which I wrote earlier. Before the flip,it was owned by a police officer from Queens. When his wife died, the lovely man sold the house. He had not ever lived in it to my knowledge, but had rented all floors, many to tenants who stayed years.

    Furniture was brought in to attempt to improve the look of the house for sale after months without furniture couldn’t move the place. They tried EVERYTHING to find a buyer, but in this market…………

    In any case, let’s hope the new owners are more loving and caring than the people who did the flip job. As for magnolias, they’re delightful “borrowed scenery,” but no fun to clean up after the petals fall. That said, it’s one of the truly charming things at 481, in my view.

    Nuff for one night. I know this home almost as well as my own. But I’m sure glad I have my original detail (and yes, they knocked down most of the walls on the parlor floor — ridiculous. The originals, though, are truly fabulous — covered with Betty Crocker-style decorations that can never be replicated and with gorgeous mahogany grillwork on both the north and east sides.

  2. Well, there’s an update. I live adjacent to this property. In my humble opinion, the developer (who spent 1.3 brutal years sawing metal to install AC units and the like and caused pounds of dust in my home, through the floors with not a scintilla of concern) destroyed the home he renovated. There are 5 brownstones in a row of which mine and 473 4th (also on the market) are the only ones with full intact original detail. The renovation job places a premium on tiny bathrooms and disorienting German-like accoutrements, but they are not graceful or becoming a home on this lovely block. And he was not a graceful presence, either — for months, the garden was stacked higher than the garden floor with masonry, debris and animals. I have never in my life seen such a selfish developer; does this sort of work make a man happy? I am trying to discern what the house sold for. Most recently, it was on the market for $2.695 million, and I imagine it sold for a few hundred thousand dollars less than that. The price was lowered at least two times during the nearly 2 years it has taken to sell (I care because my home is next door). Meanwhile, tenants have moved in to the 2-story rental unit on the garden and basement floors. I guess those of us who love brownstones can only hope that this sale motivates the sale of 473. Its owner is the most delightful woman, and she has cared for her beautiful home for more than a quarter-century with TLC and has retained every inch of its charm. My home is lovely, too, and one day it will be for sale — to the right owner, who will care for it with love and who will respect its 1895 heritage and place in Park Slope.

  3. Well, if the poster had said something like “I don’t understand why Brownstoner is featuring this house again. It seems like he’s just trying to help out the broker,” that’d be one thing.

    I object to the across-the-board accusation. “Brownstoner has become a total marketing tool for brokers.” What about all the times Brownstoner has criticized a listing, either for price, renovation choices or inadequacy of the listing itself?

  4. This widget feature is quite curious.

    But why don’t we ever see widgets for the properties that Brownstoner promotes for pay?

    For example, why isn’t there a widget on Toren condo?

    I’m reasonably certain the commentators on this site would love a chance to evaluate Toren Condo’s prices. I’m sure there are enough distinct floorplans that this site could have a pricing widget for a different Toren condo unit every week for the next couple of months.

    Let’s have some pricing widgets for Toren condo!!!

  5. Why untrue? Why would there be any reason to cover the same house twice, with no change in the details provided in listing, except to help out the broker and his/her firm? Especially when there’s really nothing to discuss, as Expert Textpert says. If there’s no floorplan then the listing shouldn’t be HOTD. Ever. Period.

    P.S. I’m assuming there’s no floorplan because the layout is terrible. If that’s a kitchen/DR for an owner’s triplex in a $2.6mm house that’s horrifying. It means the buyer will have to rip it all out, hire an architect and do it all over again. You never see kitchens all against one wall like that except in tiny studio rentals.

  6. The floor are really not exactly shiny.

    And I’m also trying to find the exposed pine trim. But that I could be missing, I guess. Though, was pine used as trim in this era? Floors, of course, but trim?

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