What's Selling in a Softening Market
With the market evidently softening, especially at the high end, the Times looks back at houses that sold and those that didn’t in recent months. One pricey place in Brooklyn that has failed to move, despite the attempts of numerous brokers, is the Tara house in Prospect Park South. First listed at $4 million last…

With the market evidently softening, especially at the high end, the Times looks back at houses that sold and those that didn’t in recent months. One pricey place in Brooklyn that has failed to move, despite the attempts of numerous brokers, is the Tara house in Prospect Park South. First listed at $4 million last year, the asking price is illogically now $4.2 million. Go figure. In contrast, the big success story in Brooklyn was the lovely Brooklyn Heights prewar 2-bedroom that we featured here in early September. Unanimously praised in the Comments section, the apartment attracted over 300 people to its two open houses. In this case a strategy of moderate underpricing and pitch-perfect styling combined for a home run–the sellers had a signed contract above the $699,000 asking price within ten days.
Still on the Market [NY Times]
Brooklyn Heights 2 BR Co-op [Brownstoner]
oops where not were
The apartment was great in a great nabe. Is anyone really surprised? I think that it wasn’t priced low but just right were it should be.
Brownstoner, you forgot one reason behind the bkln heights co-op’s quick sale – the owners were very smart about marketing as well. Not only did they manage to get their apt. featured in the Times and on Brownstoner, but they also had some well-made flyers (I remember being impressed by the font!) posted in local playgrounds. They put way more thought into their sale than you’d get from the average broker.
I wonder how much above asking they got for the Heights apt. They marketed the place well; I saw it everywhere. I went to the open house — it was incredibly crowded, it was a great place, and it was a fanstastic location. I sense it went WAY above asking. Good for them. They convinced me that pricing low is the way to go.
The Tara house simply isn’t worth $4.2 or even $4 million. If the nicest, newly renovated, historically preserved, spacious homes in the neigborhood (and I haven’t seen any come on the market that really fit this bill)is worth, say theoretically, $2 million, the Tara house, if it were in top notch condition, might push $3 million. It was intended as one of the “jewels in the crown” of Prospect Park and is much larger than most other homes in PPS. Having said that, and having been in the house, I can tell you that it probably needs a minimum of $1 million invested in it structurally speaking. The roof is practically falling off, needs new paint, and god only knows what the systems are like… It appears that money’s been spent on a lot of quick interior fixes, most of which are not too my taste and some of which are poorly done. I can’t even begin to tell you about the spray on pebble dashed look paint that has been applied an otherwise magnificent marble fireplace with a carved frieze of roman soldiers… True the house still has lots of incredible detail, but on the house tour this year, when I finally got a peek inside, I got the feeling that a lot of the “restoration” over the years was poorly done, either because the owners didn’t want to spend the money on these things, or they didn’t have the knowledge needed to do it themselves. There are quite a few luxuries in this house, jacuzzis, whatnot… but to me, there’s a lot that needs to be done to make this house what it deserves to be. And it will never become that when the owners (who are trying to more than double their profit) price the house so shockingly out of sync with the Victorian Flatbush market. This house, in it’s current condition, could get $2 million, I”m betting, maybe a bit more. And the owner would have to be very committed and have very deep pockets.
There is a fabulously maintained home across the street on Albermarle, towards Buckingham. Almost as large, with fabulous copper gutters, greenhouses, a collonaded Greek revival portico. TOTALLY MINT. If I had the cash, I’d pay $3 for it in a heartbeat.