Open House Pick, Singular
We found ourselves scrounging around the web feeling underwhelmed by the open house selection for this weekend until we checked in with Mary Kay Gallagher, queen of Victorian Flatbush. She’s got a real beauty on the block this weekend in Prospect Park South for $1.395 million. The 5,000-square-foot center hall house is in beautiful shape…
We found ourselves scrounging around the web feeling underwhelmed by the open house selection for this weekend until we checked in with Mary Kay Gallagher, queen of Victorian Flatbush. She’s got a real beauty on the block this weekend in Prospect Park South for $1.395 million. The 5,000-square-foot center hall house is in beautiful shape and chock full of historic details, including stained glass windows, oak parquet floors, and Palladian windows. We have to admit to not being experts on the immediate neighborhood, but we think this place looks tempting, especially when lined up side-by-side with a similarly priced townhouse in Park Slope. The open house is from 1-3pm on Sunday, but you have to call 718 282 3141 to get the address. On another note, if you notice any other compelling open houses on the slate, feel free to post them in Comments.
Prospect Park South [Mary Kay Gallagher]
The market is being set in every other neighborhood with each passing month, so it’s not surprising that the same holds true in Prospect Park South. It seems like there is some additional room for escalation in this area. Caveat emptor does seem to be in order, particularly because stand alone houses seem to take a beating more rapidly than the brownstones for which this site was created.
If in pristine condition, perhaps $1.4 for one of the larger houses would be understandable due to the unique characteristics of the neighborhood – but the buyer would be setting the market in the neighborhood.
Kids, yard, big rooms, fresh air, distinct and beautiful neighborhood, trees, spring in bloom, diversity, driveway, gardening, proximity to Prospect Park, quiet.
The negatives and risks certainly exist, but I do not understand how the prices in Prospect Park South are approaching those in Park Slope except in the instance (and maybe it’s true that the Rugby and Marlborough houses need more than half a million dollars of work) that a sucker plunks down 1.4 million on a house that should sell for 900,000. If either of these houses were in pristene condition, without need of repair, is the 1.4 asking price legitimate?
Just remember Charlie – you can not go by surface appearances on these old houses. It is cheap and easy to hide problems with cosmetic touches. By all means, look into it, but don’t be naive. Make sure you know what you are getting into before you set the price and sign on the dotted line. I would never sign a contract on one of these old beauties without having an architect, building inspector and contractor inspect it(and not ones recommended by the broker or the seller but true third party experts)and getting an estimate of the costs of fixing it (which you need to add 1/3 to in my experience – they always find something else when they start ripping off roofs and exposing beams).
Also, make sure the contract is subject to a property inspection and a financing contingency and that the seller is required to provide you with the standard property disclosure document. Although many of these items are often waived with respect to a contract on a condo or coop in Manhattan – this is not a condo or coop in Manhattan. With a condo or coop, the building, and not the unit owner, is responsible for insurance on the major structural items and fixing them if something goes wrong and any good lawyer will read the condo or coop board minutes and the building financials before letting you buy, which will clearly set forth any problems the building has been having and the work that has been done on the building and unit. Here, you are on your own and the bank, based on its inspector’s report or the insurance agent’s report, may condition your mortgage on escrowing for future repairs, etc… (which, if you have already signed the contract, will not get you out of going through with the purchase at the full purchase price unless you add safeguards in the contract).
Also – on the neighborhood getting more services as people with more cash move in, it is a possibility, but not yet a reality. These prices, given the work that needs to be done, are those of a neighborhood that already has numerous services, not one with “potential” for services in the future.
Anon, you gave me a good laugh. Thanks for the vindication.
“Needs a little work”… LOL.
Worst case for a roof on a brownstone is about $10K. Here you’re talking $80K to $100K, which is believable – I mean look at that roof line!
Money pit!!! The things brokers will say.
Big bubba,
you are closer to the point on 210 Rugby than you think. There were two offers over asking and both backed out. It seems the roof was put on incorrectly and has been leaking for 5 years with the owners only cosmetically fixing the problem. The estimate for the roof was in the 80k to 100k not to mention the porch and natural gas boiler which also needs replacement in the 20-25k range. And we’re not even into the updating of the kitchen or some of the bathrooms. Don’t let the tin ceiling and inside grill overlook the major work that has to be done…ever seen the money pit?
Tell me Charlie, where are the bids on 210 Rugby? Are there bids at/over the asking price.
IMO, anything over $1MM in the area is over-priced unless it is in absolute mint condition. Whenever a broker say “needs some work” it usually translates into “needs a lot more work than is visible to the naked eye”.
These houses are gorgeous. But, they require a lot of very expensive upkeep – much more than a brownstone – and they frequently do not have potential for rental income (at least not legal income). They are money pits, which is why many long-time residents need to sell them.
IMO, these prices are not justifiable.
I think the comments immediately below are correct, to a degree. But… there are certain houses in the neighborhood that are priced appropriately and offer an extraordinary value. The House at 210 Rugby (priced the same as this one on Marlborough) is amazing (see it on the Corcoran site) and is steps from the Q train. It needs some work but has amenities (central air, a tin-ceiling garage, a coal burning oven in the kitchen, 9 bedrooms) that are hard to beat. The services in the neighborhood will grow to accommodate the changing patterns and influx of money.
Exactly. I was thinking of trading in my large 2fam Park Slope brownstone, which we completely renovated, for a big house in Victorian Flatbush. But, only if I could take some cash out in the process, or sharply reduce my housing costs. At this rate, for what they are asking for those houses, they are now at parity with Park Slope – but in a nabe that is hardly equivalent in services, amenities, restaurants, etc. I could probably sell my brownstone for around $2.1MM, but by the time I’d finish renovating that house, I’d have paid around $2.0MM anyhow – plus I would no longer have rental income. In what bizarre twist is Prospect Park South now actually MORE EXPENSIVE than Park Slope.
Even at $800K-$900K, I would be only mildly interested, but still not enough – not for a house that needs that much work. Still, they might get somebody with a decent checkbook, who simply does not understand the time, effort and money required. I know it all too well – my brownstone was in similar condition when I bought it. My renovation budget nearly doubled as we realized what it would really take – nobody in the process, not the contractors, brokers, other home owners, etc was able to give us an accurate picture of the real costs. Construction costs nowdays, particularly in NYC have sky-rocketed. Somebody who renovated 10-15 years ago has no idea that reno costs have doubled, even tripled.
So, I know better than to let the surface charm fool me – I know from painful experience.