Open House Picks
South Slope 237 14th Street Warren Lewis: Sunday 12-2 Townsley & Gay: Sunday 2:30-4:30 $1,995,000 GMAP P*Shark Fort Greene 396 Vanderbilt Avenue Aguayo & Huebener Archive! Sunday 2:30-4:30 $1,850,000 GMAP P*Shark Ditmas Park 325 East 17th Street Brooklyn Properties Archive! Sunday 12-1:30 $1,325,000 GMAP P*Shark Bedford Stuyvesant 191 Halsey Street Corcoran Sunday 2-3:30 $950,000 GMAP…
South Slope
237 14th Street
Warren Lewis: Sunday 12-2
Townsley & Gay: Sunday 2:30-4:30
$1,995,000
GMAP P*Shark
Fort Greene
396 Vanderbilt Avenue
Aguayo & Huebener Archive!
Sunday 2:30-4:30
$1,850,000
GMAP P*Shark
Ditmas Park
325 East 17th Street
Brooklyn Properties Archive!
Sunday 12-1:30
$1,325,000
GMAP P*Shark
Bedford Stuyvesant
191 Halsey Street
Corcoran
Sunday 2-3:30
$950,000
GMAP P*Shark
I have seen 2 Charrette houses and talked to their owners and, overall, from what I’ve seen, I think they do a great (NOT shoddy) job. Good people with good taste, and a real investment in the nabe.
The price on the 14th Street house is absolutely freakin insane. Anyone who pays that needs a psych evaluation and represents all the things that are wrong with brooklyn now. If a buyer has that much extra money to dump, i’m sure they could find something so much better in that price range. just ridiculous.
I’m going to defend the kitchen on the garden level too. If you’ve ever been to a dinner party in a house with this arrangement, the open layout kitchen/dining room/family room on the garden level is very social and guest friendly. And family friendly too when people have children. The low ceilings are cozy. Garden levels don’t bother me at all in that regard. But I also love having at least one separate formal parlor like this house has upstairs, that doesn’t have the sight and smell of kitchens sticking into them. I’m not merely defending my own layout as many do here: We don’t have a garden level kitchen. I just truly think this is an ideal layout. If we ever bought a bigger house with one more floor it’s what I’d like.
As for that price in South Slope, many of us question it because of the unattractive blocks on which there will likely be lots of condos built eventually. But people still pay big money for houses there. This will sell.
Interesting comments about Charrette Properties. I’ll defend the choice of kitchen on the garden floor because it gives you a full formal living room/library on the parlor. I’ve never liked the less formal and more modern combined living/dining/kitchen space, but then I’m a traditionalist.
Only problem with the carriage house as a guest suite or even an office is that the floorplan is showing no plumbing out there, not even a sink. Wonder how much it costs to run plumbing – this entails digging up the yard to tap into the main house’s water and sewer lines, correct?
Actually, I’ve heard Charrette looks nice on surface, but can be shoddy beneath – some comments from this list. Can anyone elucidate? Is that true? (OK, I know finding truth on an anonymous blog is hard, but I am curious for more information from people who have bought/rented in Charrette properties…) As for 13th St, the market has noticeably been worsening in the last few months, more price cuts, tougher credit, etc. Not saying pricing are tanking, but they are eroding, esp in non-prime areas, and this block certainly qualifies. So, I don’t think a close under 1.8 is out of the question – wouldn’t be surprised is this closed closer to 1.7 but who knows, this market is weird as some properties sit and sit and get lots of price cuts and others have been doing OK (though the news does seem to be getting worse every day and historically NYC tends to lag rest of country with real estate) – though it does seem the clear consensus that no way will they get near ask…
Given that 13th St. house renovated by the same people went for about $1.76, I’m predicting the lowest 14th St. house would go for is $1.75 but probably will get more like $1.8. ALthough the block may be worse, it is BIGGER and someone will love that carriage house! No one will pay $2 mil but they’re not expecting that–they obviously expect somewhere in the $1.8 range given what they got on 13th St. (all cash, as I heard it). Also, the sale price in 2004 is irrelevant–Charrette Properties does beautiful work, greatly increasing the value of old houses!
The Bed-Stuy house is in a very nice part of the nabe, but it’s right across the street from a middle school, and it’s a 2-way bus street.
Re: 14th Street outbuilding and Mrs. Limestone’s point about the outbuilding, an important flip side is that the outbuilding eats into your garden space, and is a whole other building to maintain. Truly, I (and imagine others) would have preferred that they had put kitchen on parlor level and then I would have preserved garden level as my “guest suite” or work area, what have you. I still think that this property is a very tough sell at that price given the location – who, really, is that buyer for it? What artist/dancer type (who presumably would want to use that studio) has 2 mil to drop on a crummy block with iffy school? And what person who can easily pay that money wants to live on that crummy block? And given the price is was purchased at relatively recently, 1.7 would be a great price for those sellers!
Brooklyn Properties describes the East 17th house as “mint condition.” I can only assume they’re referring to the interior, which isn’t pictured. The exterior is hardly what I would describe as mint. Siding, brick porch enclosure, etc… A perfect example of “remuddling,” and exactly what landmarking is trying to prevent!