House of the Day: 900 Lafayette Avenue
We’re starting to see a lot of flipped Bed Stuy row houses come on the market. This one strikes us as the best of the lot: It looks clean, well laid out, and has some nice touches, such as the counters and pendant lights in the kitchen. Still, we do wonder about this new developer…
We’re starting to see a lot of flipped Bed Stuy row houses come on the market. This one strikes us as the best of the lot: It looks clean, well laid out, and has some nice touches, such as the counters and pendant lights in the kitchen. Still, we do wonder about this new developer trend of mixing exposed brick cutouts with plaster on the same wall. We’re not fans of baseboard heating in a historic row house either. Do you think they will get their ask of $949,000?
900 Lafayette Avenue [Crown Investments] GMAP P*Shark
I disagree with the bashing of these houses. I agree that some of the nicest high end brownstones in bk are historic houses with full capture of original detail and these make sense for the high end. However I am a mid price range buyer and I would not be willing to shell out extra cash for this detailing because it doesn’t matter that much to me. Furthermore, I think these places look good! If you all saw a condo that looked like this you’d probably agree it was a nice condo. Some people don’t mind new looking condo interiors, but hate boards and common charges and want to own there house outright, so look for a house. Here you get a house with more curb appeal than a condo, a nice new interior, and you own it out right. You can do some upgrades when you move in, but don’t have to quit your day job and become a full time renovation contractor. You can rent it out right away, move in right away…. I moved from a condo to a house (as you may have guessed) and even minor upgrades overwhelm me and take forever. This will sell quickly at or near ask, it’s not that expensive per square foot with today’s rates. There is a minor risk the flipper might be concealing issues,but those I’ve spoken to have made out ok.
bk333 … I totally agree with you! to be honest not everyone wants “Original Detail” this house is beautiful!
The thing is, it will sell. Maybe not for 950, but probably for 800. I’ve seen much better flips, but they’re all very similar. An interesting thing to do would be to figure out who are the main players in this and which ones are better than others in terms of quality. I sometimes wonder, when they blow out the entire main floor like this… are they doing it in a way that it won’t fall down later? Has anyone bought one of these and had issues? Not had issues?
To Crown’s defense ( and no, I do not work for them.) They are one of the more reputable developers around, in terms of the quality of renovation material, treatment of brokers, and their overall way of doing business. Justin is a stand up guy.
I’m assuming the house was in dire condition before the renovations, as Crown usually try to save as much detail as possible. The plaster/brick thing is not their finest moment (works more in E. Flatbush/Queens,) I would admit but with a decent offer, the price is not an impossible asking. It’s just that type of market.
If you are asking nearly a million smackers for a place, how about including a floorplan on the listing? The phrase “luxury renovated” is a joke, right?
And please STOP exposing the brick. It looks horrible.
Heather, you are assuming that there was anything to keep. As a broker – I’ve walked into houses with no roofs, not lived in for decades or used as crack/flop houses, and you would never know just walking by.
This developer usually keeps details and works around them. He probably had to start with a clean slate on this one.
Being both of those things, I agree with you, except I think that a renovation job like this actually erases value. Had the flipper kept the original layout and the radiators, there’d be no question about getting the ask.
yep.
I love that the try to add some ‘design’ elements, in this case the brick/drywall cutouts.