Open House Picks

Mopar,

How bout an estimate for all that?

Nomi, apparently people only like to post from work. On the weekends, they have better things to do.

I saw both Bed Stuy open houses today. The three-family on Decatur St. appears to be very well maintained and has all the original details, such as moldings, trim, and parquet. The trim is painted. It appears to be an original three family — the three apartments are identical and do not have fireplaces, if they ever did. All the apartments have four rooms — kitchen in extension, dining room with windows next, little bedroom in center, living room in front – and the top floor has an additional small room over the entrance.

The bathrooms appear to date from the 1930s and are in very good condition. The kitchens are newer but attractive. I didn’t see the mechanicals. According to the agent, they were updated in 2005.

One lease expires in June, and the other two don’t have leases. They are all paying high market rates rents. The tenants I met seemed to really care for the place. If I were buying, I would explore renewing their leases.

It looks like all the place needs is a little handyman work on the first floor kitchen (some missing tile, bit of missing counter top) and maybe polish up the parquet a bit. Even the backyard looked nice, with grass but no weeds. It’s pretty unusual to find a place in move-in condition with original details. Then again, it’s an original three-family and not a fancy townhouse with burled walnut wainscotting stretching to infinity.

They’re asking $649,000. That might be a bit on the high side, but I don’t know.

The Hancock house is a pretty one-family being used as a two, and very roomy, but worn out. It probably needs about $200,000 worth of work to restore it with an architect without moving any walls or changing the location of fixtures. Some of the nice features include a gorgeous original encaustic tile floor in the entry and stained glass skylights in the top-floor bathroom and hall. Other than that, I don’t think the layout had been altered at all, and all the usual moldings, trim, and other details were all present, but painted over. The only thing missing was fireplace mantles and/or pier mirrors but those are very easily restored. I thought the first-floor kitchen was in very good original condition and hardly needs anything except to take up the linoleum and refinish the wood floors, which will look great with the tile apron around the stove and sink.

One thing it had that I’ve never seen before in any house was a 19th century laundry sink in a first-floor closet off the kitchen. The china basin rested on metal legs with a worked design that was painted over.

On the negative side, it needs almost everything. You could be kind of bizarre if you wanted and just deal with the leaking roof and the one shot tub and live in the rest, but it would be kind of crazy. The roof needs to be replaced, the back of the house has leak issues (hard to tell how serious), the oil boiler is mid-century, and probably all of the plumbing and electrical should be redone. On top of that, one bathroom was probably serviceable but not attractive and should be redone, the top-floor bathroom had a shot tile-in tub, which really means gutting and redoing the whole room, and the mid-century rental kitchen on the top floor may as well be completely done over as well. For one, the not-especially attractive farmhouse sink was a goner. Two, the linoleum walls and floors need to be replaced (the panelling or plaster under would need re-doing). You could put in an Ikea kitchen for $5,000 to $10,000 for an Ikea kitchen, it could look very nice. There’s room for a dishwasher, maybe even a ventless washer/dryer.

The walls were not peeling, which is good, but they were lumpy, and most of the trim seemed pretty gobbed with paint. The tile ceiling on the parlor floor didn’t look great (asbestos?). Really, almost the whole thing needs skim coating. The parquet on the top floor also looked to be in appalling condition, with deep gouges throughout, but me being me, I’d probably just refinish with gobs of semi-gloss and hope for the best.

The beam at least had some sturdy looking columns. Who knows if there’s termite damage in the back where the wet is.

So, like most houses, despite the low price, really more expensive in the long run than buying a house in move-in condition.

The block was cute, with more variation in the houses than most. The house faces some Fedders houses, and there are two or three large apartment buildings on the block.

I would love to see a historical comparison of prices to cities like London, Paris, and other world capitals. It would nt be easy because each country has its own housing pressures, but I’m sure there’s away to settle the data into a meaningful form.

quote:
Oh sorry I didn’t get the joke. Also, just have to say for the record, that your stereotypes of Bed Stuy are inaccurate. Plenty of people living here would probably be offended or appalled by them.

i pretty much only make fun of white midwesterners. true moonfaces.. dont take it personally

*rob*