142 BergenWe sure can pick ’em! We just heard from a reader about how the open house at 142 Bergen (last Wednesday’s House of the Day) yesterday went horribly wrong:

How’s this for an open house? We’re looking around the place–needs work, cosmetic and otherwise. We go into the kid’s room. I notice a huge crack in the ceiling and point it out to one of the brokers and she says it’s only minor thing, insisting the place is in good shape. So we proceed to the upper floor when we hear a loud crash! The ceiling caved in! It was ridiculously embarrassing and damn hazardous. We were with our 8 month old and had just been in the kid’s room–could have caved in on us. Scary. Scary still was the debris fell directly onto the kid’s beds. Covered the room in dust, debris, and who knows what else and left a gaping hole in the ceiling. This was a jammed packed open house and you can only imagine the impact this had on the buying frenzy…no pun intended. People were stunned at first then sort of giggling – everyone quickly recalculating their offer. Needless to say everyone got the hell out of there. The brokers were hilariously embarrassed. At the point $1.5 seems rather unlikely.
142 Bergen Street [Douglas Elliman]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. For a newspaper article, could anyone who attended the open house at 142 Bergen a few weeks ago, at which a plaster ceiling collapsed, please contact me as soon as possible at jfgill@nytimes.com? I’d also be interested in talking to anyone who visited the place after the open house.

    Thanks very much. I look forward to talking!

  2. WOW!

    That happened less than a block from where I used to live, 108 Dean St.

    Technically, though, I guess I’m not that surprised — on one of the other sides of my block (in the overgrown backyard gardens), the entire back wall of the block had peeled away…

    I was paying $1000/mo for rent. And there was a reason for that. Ever see Joe’s Apartment?