Open House Picks
Park Slope 365 6th Street Betancourt Sunday 1-3pm $1,675,000 GMAP Park Slope 397 6th Avenue Brown Harris Stevens Sunday 12-2pm $1,495,000 GMAP Bedford Stuyvesant 184 Lefferts Place Corcoran Sunday 12-2pm $995,000 GMAP Bedford Stuyvesant 357 Decatur Street Corcoran Sunday 12-2pm $775,000 GMAP
Park Slope
365 6th Street
Betancourt
Sunday 1-3pm
$1,675,000
GMAP
Park Slope
397 6th Avenue
Brown Harris Stevens
Sunday 12-2pm
$1,495,000
GMAP
Bedford Stuyvesant
184 Lefferts Place
Corcoran
Sunday 12-2pm
$995,000
GMAP
Bedford Stuyvesant
357 Decatur Street
Corcoran
Sunday 12-2pm
$775,000
GMAP
to the owner of the decatur property — akraft… some of the viewers have commented on the price of the property, could you tell is why its priced at 775? I’m not trying to be disrespectful but I’d sincerely like to know since its not in stuyvesant heights and you admitted that there was an eyesore on the block. also, albeit a beautiful house inside, its only a two family. thanks so much.
I live on the block of the 357 Decatur house. The block is nice and quiet with good neighbors. If anyone is interested in the house and wants to know about the neighborhood you can email me.
Hey- Property shark lists the owner of the 6th Ave house as Tupper Thomas (see the Friday Link-o-rama for Prospect parks biggest booster)
It also says it is a 2 family house. That, along with the description and picture of the yard with the deck stairs from the parlor level, make me think the studio is on the up and up. It is probably an occupiable space with windows on the rear yard. I believe that 50% above grade is all that is required. I also don’t think Libby Ryan would be listing an illegal studio.
Personally I always choose North or Center Park Slope over other brownstone areas.
6th Ave house:
If you look at the garden photo of the 6th ave house you can see that the basement level is almost completely above ground. It is a full flight of steps from parlor level to garden.
In the front of the house the basement seems like a cellar. In the back of the house it is an English basement with full size windows.
It is possible that it is a legal apartment. As long as certain requirements are met it is possible to have an apartment in a basement.
Advantage of being on an Avenue:
If the house is in the center of an avenue block the views from the back window are usually uninterrupted for almost 700ft. You don’t look into someone else’s windows directly.
On 6th avenue being an illegal rental: I bid on one of these properties before and looked into the consequences. I’m sure the building people just fine you or whatever, but the litigation risk in case of a fire in the apt, etc is unimaginable. And because your mechanics are on the same floor its probably the place where problems happen in proximity to your renter. You the owner take all the risks, not the renter, at least financially. Not worth it to lose my life savings in litigation over an illegal rental. Each to his own though.
I’m with Anon 3:10:
If I had to go it over, I would either buy a mint place or do a gut renovation while not living there. We bought a partially renovated place and did a bunch of work. But so many more things need to be done. And it’s so hard to do while living there, especially with kids, and while working too hard. Prior to buying we avoided the “mint” places. Next time, we might look specifically for them. And if it cost us a little more, so be it — the extra monthly amounts on the mortgage would be more than worth it to compensate for the stress.
On the 6th Ave vs 6th St price comparison: point taken on the square footage — but at 6th Ave, you also have a studio rental (which I believe propshark does not include in its sq ft count). Even if it’s small (and, yes, I’m sure illegal)
what’s a studio fetch in that location? $1000 a month? No less than $800 I’m sure, right? So you’d need to factor the income in.
Of course you lose storage space, and you could probably create a rental in the 6th Street house too, but that’d cost.
By the way, per NYT recent sales and Propshark, 363 6th Street sold for $1.295M a few months ago. No idea of the quality but I believe it’s same size/style.
But hey, I own nearby, so I have every theoretical interest in these sellers’ success. Just seems a reach to me.
I think the linusvanpelt-inspired debate about reno is a good question: Is it better to get hosed & buy a place in mint condition or to cut the cost & do a renovation yourself?
Bstoner is a testimony to the glory of the reno– but we made the opposite choice and are *so* glad we did. My man & I are just not up to it. We have jobs & lives that make it difficult for us just to keep the damn place clean, much less fuss over the moldings.
It happend that way for us kind of by chance, because we were outbid on the fixer-upper we aimed for & then the mint-condition place came through– but I don’t think we’d thought it through in the right way before we bought, and I have a feeling that a lot of other people are as self-deluding as we were when we thought we’d want to spend our saturdays scrounging salvage.
The studio apartment in the one on 6th ave probably isn’t legal (majority of it is below grade) and there’s no cellar below for storage.