4-Family in "Slope Heights": 33 St. Marks Avenue

Listed with Fillmore since May '10, today's pick is a nice-looking 4-family brick building just off of Flatbush, nestled right between Park Slope and Prospect Heights, 33 St. Marks Avenue. Oddly enough, the listing on Zillow has more pictures than the Fillmore listing itself. Both listings claim, "Lets Go Mls!", which might make sense if there really were a such thing in place, being utilized on a regular basis in this area. Not sure what that call to arms is referring to here.

We LOVE this area. Believe in its rents, transportation, and amenities. The jury's still out on what effect the stadium will have long-term, but this house is about as close as one can be to the stadium without (hopefully) dealing with the inevitable construction and traffic back-up from the stadium. Who knows?

The listing says its rents are below market and that it needs some TLC. However, this place has lots going for it if the apartments are in even half-way decent condition. At 20' x 65', there's a nice, juicy 1,300sqft floorplate to work with, which makes us believe in the 3BR lay out on the top floors that one of the various listings (one discloses the address, one doesn't, for example) refers too. There's even a nice wooden deck above the brick-paved little yard in the back - plus!

With the FHA 4-family loan limit at $1.4M, this $1.6M list price is close to some very interesting territory for an owner-occupied purchase. There's a Lis Pendens filed in June '09 and it looks like the current owners bailed the previous owner out later in September '09. Looks like they may have a nice flip on their hands.

Pro's: location, size, deck & yard, rental income potential

Con's: price may be a little frothy, how much "TLC" are we talking?

Ideally: This place compares favorably to pretty much any 4-family we've seen, especially for this location and size of floorplate. If there's any flexibility in price, this could be a great pick-up!