Open House Picks
Cobble Hill 368 Clinton Street Douglas Elliman Sunday 2-4:30pm $3,200,000 GMAP P*Shark Park Slope 771A Union Street Gail Morin Sat 2:30-4:30 Sun 3:30-5pm $1,890,000 GMAP P*Shark Windsor Terrace 106 Vanderbilt Street Nancy McKiernan Sunday 2-4pm $750,000 GMAP P*Shark Lefferts Gardens 274 Lefferts Avenue Corcoran Saturday 12-1:30pm $615,000 GMAP P*Shark Kensington 723 Ditmas Avenue Aguayo &…
Cobble Hill
368 Clinton Street
Douglas Elliman
Sunday 2-4:30pm
$3,200,000
GMAP P*Shark
Park Slope
771A Union Street
Gail Morin
Sat 2:30-4:30 Sun 3:30-5pm
$1,890,000
GMAP P*Shark
Windsor Terrace
106 Vanderbilt Street
Nancy McKiernan
Sunday 2-4pm
$750,000
GMAP P*Shark
Lefferts Gardens
274 Lefferts Avenue
Corcoran
Saturday 12-1:30pm
$615,000
GMAP P*Shark
Kensington
723 Ditmas Avenue
Aguayo & Huebener
Sunday 1-3pm
$599,000
GMAP P*Shark
3 family on Union St for 1.89M in the Slope…someone had said it was the ugliest duplex they saw…I disagree….I went to see this after a friend called me and I thought it was the best renovated house in that location for the money. I am going back to see it again…but I think the seller has a couple of offers already. The rental income is high and the house needs no renovation…that’s a hard thing to find…
Caeo
I am in total agreement with the last two posters. We renovated partially before moving in and are still renovating. AAAaaaaahhhhh. Renovate fully while living somewhere else or don’t renovate at all!
Expert – you are right, and wish we’d taken that approach when we bought in Ditmas Park. We will have to rent an apartment once we finally get around to finishing the reno – kitchen, dining room, deck, and two bathrooms. No more slow going. We are going to rent the apartment for several months and do everything. Then never again!
RENOVATE SLOWLY?
YOU FOLKS ARE NUTS!
THE ONLY WAY TO PROPERLY RENOVATE A HOUSE IT TO GO BALLS TO THE WALL BEFORE YOU MOVE IN.
THERE’S NO OTHER WAY, UNLESS YOU CONSIDER MINOR WORK RENOVATION.
Will,
Actually, yes, 17th Street does qualify as a house under $1M. It doesn’t need a gut reno before you can move in. You could update it gradually, just as — in your scenario — you could move into Vanderbilt, and someday, someday, add the 800 extra sf the FAR allows. (For how much, and how soon, exactly, if your imagined buyer is stretched to the hilt?)
As to Windsor, touche. So it’s only one and a half times as big, and much better located.
But you’re right that comps are all about what your money will buy elsewhere. And you’re right that somebody who can only swing $150K down and $600K mortgage (or $75k/$675K, whatever) may not have the option of paying $300K more and making up the difference with a renter. But it’s easier than you seem to think. (A bank will credit you for 75% of expected rental income in granting the mortgage.)
You’re narrowing the available buyers for this place ever further, then, and the size of the available buyer pool is much of what determines price. Here, you’re basically saying this place is right for someone who:
– can afford about $750K of house without a renter
– does not want to be a landlord (or he/she could easily get more space on the south side of the expressway)
– does not want a co-op, even a larger one in park Slope with a small shared garden (http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&listingid=856637)
– and yet does not mind having only 1000 square feet of living space
– does not want to move to Bay Ridge, PLG, Greenwood Heights, the suburbs, etc., etc.
– wants, despite his/her limited finances, to buy a home in absolutely move-in condition
Now that buyer may well exist. But I still think that, given the options available, he or she would be overpaying at $750K.
Linus, 959K on a house that the broker says “needs updating” is hardly a house under 1M, is it? No closing date for that place. And the house on Windsor Place–it’s only twice as big if you count the english basement in it and not in the other. (It’s got three bedrooms, one of them very small–not much bigger than the Vanderbilt.) And those others you listed, judging from the available snaps, definitely need some cosmetics to get them to the look of the Vanderbilt house. Again, what you need to consider in comps is what buyers consider–what can I get for my price range?–not sf without regard to total price. Not everyone is handy and everyone buys at the top of their price range, so you can’t take sweat equity and an extra 300K, even with a renter, for granted. Probably a better comp system would be to think of what 750K can buy you in various neighborhoods–a small 2-bedroom in the Slope? A nice 1-bedroom in GAP? A dollhouse in the outer reaches of WT? Those are the things that go through people’s heads in buying real estate.
The anon was me, sorry.
Will, Here’s a house on 17th Street. Needs cosmetic updating (I know someone who’s seen it), but that could be done gradually and, I suspect, cheaper than a theoretical addition to the vanderbilt house. Even if you sunk $100K into it off the bat, you’d still be even or ahead on your monthly payments vis a vis Vanderbilt, with the option of taking over the whole house down the road (when you received the windfall that would finance your Vanderbilt extension). Let us know when you close on the place.
http://orrandrlty.com/houses.html
As for single-familes in WT going for the high 900s, here’s one:
http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&listingid=855655
The thing is, though, it’s more than twice as big, and on Windsor Place.
The Times website also has a house at 127 Vanderbilt, asking more ($850K) but half again as big on a larger lot, with a psf about $150 less. There’s also a listing for a 2-family on East 4th for $759K through Frederick Palmer, though to be fair I haven’t seen photos.
Where I will agree with you (having house-hunted these very blocks myself) is that there are a lot fewer options at this price point; when you don’t have a lot of money, patience and shoe leather are your best assets.
Regarding Kensington house: Just drove by. The exterior looks nicer in the picture than it does in person. I agree that the interior pictures look ok, and the price is certainly right, but it’s pretty small looking and the block is sort of just fair. Weak compared to what one would find 3 blocks east in Ditmas Park West, but certainly priced accordingly.