Open House Picks
Park Slope 609 6th Street Heights Berkeley Sunday 2:30-4:30pm $2,598,000 GMAP Fort Greene 206 Vanderbilt Avenue Aguayo & Huebener Saturday 1-3pm $1,800,000 GMAP Park Slope 355A 14th Street Townsley & Gay Sunday 12-2pm $1,650,000 GMAP Bedford Stuyvesant 425 Franklin Avenue Corcoran Sunday 12-2pm $925,000 GMAP Prospect Lefferts Gardens 19 Chester Court Aguayo & Huebener Sunday…
Park Slope
609 6th Street
Heights Berkeley
Sunday 2:30-4:30pm
$2,598,000
GMAP
Fort Greene
206 Vanderbilt Avenue
Aguayo & Huebener
Saturday 1-3pm
$1,800,000
GMAP
Park Slope
355A 14th Street
Townsley & Gay
Sunday 12-2pm
$1,650,000
GMAP
Bedford Stuyvesant
425 Franklin Avenue
Corcoran
Sunday 12-2pm
$925,000
GMAP
Prospect Lefferts Gardens
19 Chester Court
Aguayo & Huebener
Sunday 1-3:30pm
$749,000
GMAP
There is an mls for brooklyn.
http://www.brooklynmls.com/bay/passwd.html
according to brownstoner I do : (
Amanda:
There are certain areas like Gowanus Heights (I like that name)/Greenwood Heights/the SouthSouthSouth Slope/or whatever it is called that seem to have a particularly large number of houses listed with small, no-web presence brokers. If you are interested in areas like that (often places where houses are at 800K rather than 2.3M), there is a lot to be said for just driving/walking around looking for signs. It will also help you learn the particular streets. Of course, we ended up buying through Corcoran anyway, so you could just sit back and cruise the internet like so many others.
Thanks for the tips, folks. I quite agree that not everyone is online and the newspaper often reflects that. This is truely a byzantine process.
Is there a resource that tells the exact price of a place that sold, (on nyc.gov, perhaps?) I find realtors will never give specifics.
When you cold call small shops (especially ones that do not co-broke), should one be concerned that they do not have representation within that firm?
I would add:
(8) Cold-call every small local RE agency that you’ve never heard of in the phone book. There are still teeny shops that don’t advertise in the NYT or craig’s and are technologically stuck in the mid-20th century, but still get listings because someone knows someone, they’re somebody’s cousin, the owner just walked to the nearest agent down the street, etc. That’s how I found my house.
I thought you live in Bed Stuy Clintonhillbilly…. lol 😉
Mission Impossible: The Brooklyn House Hunt
Without a multiple listings service, finding a property in Brooklyn is a trial by fire, a rite of passage, a odyssey in the classical sense–and a full-time job. So much about finding a home is LEGWORK. Reading brownstoner is helpful, but nothing beats seeing for yourself. House hunting can be heart-breaking and frustrating, but ultimately it pays off…then you start renovating.
We looked for over a year, and ended up buying a house in Clinton Hill through Corcoran. From our experience, I would say that you should:
1) figure out exactly what you’re looking for and how much you can spend, then be open to the possibilites. There are lots of surprises in this game, you may end up in a different neighborhood, a different borough, a different kind of house than you imagined; and you will definitely be paying more that you thought you ever would.
2) Constantly monitor realty websites that sell properties in your area (brownstoner seems to have all the links).
3) Go to every open house you possibly can so you can have a basis for comparison.
4) Befriend brokers at large and small companies and follow up with them weekly. That way you might get in on previews or price reductions before they go on the web.
5) Scour craigslist daily just to get a sense of what’s out there. There is tons of crap on CL, but occasionally you come up with something worth looking at.
6) Drive around the area where you want to live, you may see signs for proprties being sold through comapnies that don’t have a good web presence. We noticed that a lot with Century 21.
7) Get pre-approved for a mortgage and have a home inspector and lawyer standing by. You’ll have to move fast to get what you want.
Happy Hunting!
Hi Amanda,
As far as other sites, can’t help you there. It’s a tiring process, but it pays to just see as many places as possible in the neighborhoods you are interested in, that way you know if the place you wish to bid on is worth it.
If you have questions, I think this site is a great place to post them. Most people who have bought in the areas discussed in this site in the last few years, and those who’ve lived there for a long time, have a lot of knowlege about what’s going on in the neighborhoods and the history of a place etc. If you don’t live in the neighborhood you are interested in, I suggest spending a lot of time there, day and night, to get a feel for the place, and talk to the neighbors to see what they like about the area or any issues they have.
I’m sure you know all of this, so please don’t take it the wrong way. Blogs/emails are bad for communicating sometimes and can offend unintentionally. Last thing I would say if you are new to the process is, while going with your gut feelings is an integral part of the process, try to be dispassionate in your analysis too. It is hard to be dispassionate about where you are going to live and invest a lot of money, but it is also emotionally draining when you lose out on places you’d like to buy, or you can’t find a place in your price range…
I think an earlier name for the area south of Park Slope(which ends at 15th St) was Gowanus Heights. Some now call it Greenwood Heights/Terrace or South South Slope. I think Gowanus Heights is more befitting.
The architecture clearly differs from Park Slope. The houses are moslty smaller frame houses.