Open House Wrap-Up
Did anyone check out any of the Open House Picks this weekend? How about any other interesting places? We’d love to hear from those who can comment. Open House Picks [Brownstoner]
Did anyone check out any of the Open House Picks this weekend? How about any other interesting places? We’d love to hear from those who can comment.
Open House Picks [Brownstoner]
Actually, it’s completely finished. Seriously, before all of this gets really out of hand… Ditmas Park/Victorian Flatbush isn’t the deal it used to be, but you still get real bang for your buck here. If we had the amenities you would find in Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Clinton Hill, whatever, you’d be looking at much higher asking prices. And because our shopping strips are small, even as they improve, they will never be as diverse as those you find elsewhere in upscale parts of Brooklyn. All I’m saying (trying to be tongue and cheek and possibly failing) is that there is A LOT going for this neighborhood. Schools are good. We have tons of space. Garages. Back yards. Park Slope in ten to fifteen minutes (we decided on a last minute dinner at brookly fish camp on Saturday, and where there in a heartbeat – the wait for a table was another story). Those of us at the northern ends of the nabe are in walking distance of the park and Parade Grounds (useful for those of us with older kids). Brooklyn College has great amenities. I live close to one of the subway stations, and I am in Union Square in 22 minutes, door to door. If I had unlimited cash, and could afford a large, finished house in a more bustling section of Brooklyn (as well as Private schools, a private parking garage and a country house), maybe I wouldn’t be living here…. But I can’t. And I certainly am not going to suburbia. People who are in the market for a family home should take Victorian Flatbush very seriously. Like I said, it has a lot more to offer than restaurant choices and snappy boutiques (although we do have a few of those now, too….:)
I went to the open house on 1186 Dean, which was the House of the Day on March 28. The realtor/owner was only showing the owner’s duplex, not the whole house, which was disappointing, as I was eager to see the bathroom that was so prominently featured on the Corcoran site. That bathroom was on the third floor. The owner said that he would show the whole house to serious buyers, he didn’t want to bother the tenants, he said.
Anyway, the duplex was interesting. The garden/ground floor has all of the bedrooms, and the parlour floor has the formal living room and kitchen, as well as a bathroom. I wasn’t too thrilled with the ground floor. The master bedroom has a whirlpool tub and shower wall right in the bedroom, with no wall between, and although it was well done, it wasn’t my taste. It did have a lovely windowed exit to the garden in that room. The rest of the floor was taken up by an interior bedroom, which was quite dark, a great bathroom which used the built in from the original butler’s pantry quite well, and a front bedroom/casual living room. It wouldn’t be too difficult to make it work for me.
The parlour floor had the largest marble fireplace I’ve ever seen in a brownstone, and great parquet floors in a really wonderful ornate pattern. But the kitchen was worth the price of the house. What a beauty! There is a photo showing the coffered ceiling and rounded bay windows on the Corcoran site. It doesn’t do the room justice. The center island is great, as are all of the cabinetry, and the original detail in the room is just magnificent. Those windows!!!!!
I don’t pretend to be up to snuff on square footage, FAR, and all that, but if someone is going by aesthetics, lots of room, etc, they would be quite interested. It’s got 5 stories, and even if you took the third floor and had an owner’s triplex, you’d still have 2 good sized rentals.
I want it.
Passive investment expenses (ie. mortgage interest for rental portion of house) can only offset passive investment income (ie. rent). This means you cannot deduct any additional investment losses from ordinary income like you can with capital losses. Any additional interest would not be deductible.
If you are paying more proportionally in interest than you are receiving in rent, you might want change the amoritization rate by prepaying some principal. This might be a little more tax efficient over the (now shorter) life of the mortgage.
I can’t quite figure out how the rental income/interest interacts withthe AMT.
Well it sounds like you have the perfect life then! While the rest of us pathetic sods are spending our lost Sundays looking for overpriced homes, you can be down in your large, semi-finished basement finding a cure for cancer.
The PPS house to me was also way too close to CIA and needed too much work.
We actually really liked the house and block of the one in Midwood/Ditmas Park (I know we’ve discussed the actual neighborhood names on this board before – including the generic Victorian Flatbush title.) It’s a lovely home and very well maintained – needing very little work, except for an updated kitchen to the existing 80’s version. The dark you refer to may be your impression of the original oak woodwork throughout – to me it was a plus to have that original wood untouched!
Loved how Green this (Victorian Flatbush) area is now – and that these homes all have lawns and backyards. And the huge plus – a garage and driveway. Ready parking for me and my guests! For that amenity I’ll drive to the butcher!
I don’t know… Since I can garage my car (alternate side of the stree parking? What’s that) and zip over to overcrowded Park Slope or anywhere else I please any time I like, or else just stay put and make use of the ever improving amenities on Cortelyou Road (been to Belle and Maxie’s yet?)seems like I’ve got the best of both worlds. Not to mention 7 bedrooms under 1.2 million and no need for those pesky rentars since it doesn’t cost $2 million and I can therefore actually afford it. Oh yeah… Did I mention schools you can actually send your kids to without wincing? As far as lots of money goes… yes, some is even in the bank, and not every cent in my home.
Yes, clearly it’s arrived…Pity the services in the neighborhood haven’t kept pace. All those people in all those nice homes with lots of $$ and nowhere to spend it.
Prices in Ditmas are much higher than three years ago. I didn’t like the location of the PPS house – way too close to CIA. But the price reflects this. It would be at least $200K more if it was further in.
People who are new to shopping in the nabe always say, Oh, way to overpriced for the area. Sorry if you were expecting a better deal, but you should’ve made the move three years ago. Or even 5 or 7 (when you could get a house for $350K, and I’m not kidding. Ditmas has arrived since then, like it or not.
18th Street house in Ditmas (uh, Midwood?…) Park is lovely if a little dark and to our mind, quite overpriced for the location. People seemed to really love the Corcoran listing at 160 Stratford in PPS. Very bright, open layout but again, probably a tad overpriced considering one would probably want to put at least some work into it. I’m curious if anyone saw the Corcoran listing at 190 Clermont? Too much ground to cover in two hours on a Sunday!