Park Slope "Four Family": 392 10th Street

Our first entry in Park Slope is not the easiest listing to find, or the easiest building to tackle. I found this one on Google Maps real estate function, which takes you to a listing on HotPads.com that lists this building as 4-family for $1.599M. Only our friends at Massey Knakal, one of the more professional companies in the biz (specializing more in commercial property) had the listing for 392 10th Street at the more reasonable price of $1.15M, but the reason why becomes apparent. It's an SRO.

Not gonna belabor the point now, but an SRO is not a 4-family. The Massey Knakal listing has the integrity to tell it like it is. Heck, they even provide the rent roll for the units in the building - ya gotta love 'em!

Look up the Wikipedia definition of SRO to educate yourself a bit on the matter, if you don't know already. But basically there's no using this place as a 4-family without a bunch of renovations, paperwork, attorney's fees, work permits, and many months. And before that can even happen you've got to get a Certificate of Non-Harrassment signed by all previous registered tenants. Or something to that effect. It's a mess. The listing says all the paperwork is in place. However, our best lawyers on the case say it can take some 6 months and $50K alone to do the conversion. And that's without any of the renovation costs (and imagine the carrying costs in the meantime). Lord knows how the bank will treat this place when you're trying to close, in terms of downpayment needed, loan limits, etc. Needless to say, it's a beast.



But everything has a price... and to position yourself in this prime an area of Park Slope, just off bustling 5th Avenue and around the corner from the F/M/R trains down on 4th Avenue. It's got tons of potential. Anybody seen the inside? Ballpark on what the conversion/renovation might cost??

Pro's: location, location, location

Con's: less than 17' wide, SRO, conversion/renovation costs

Ideally: if nothing else, ya gotta figure a buyer wants to dip the purchase price below $1M in order to avoid the 1% "mansion tax", but wouldn't be surprised to see someone with some real cash make this into the 4-family cash cow or single-family home of their dreams