2's a Family, 3's Not a Crowd: 414 Park Place

414 Park Place is an 18' wide limestone building on one of the nicer blocks in Prospect Heights. It's a very pretty renovation, it's got a deep yard as the house sits on a 131' lot. It's close to Prospect Park, the delights of Vanderbilt Avenue, and the Eastern Parkway trains. A little exposed brick and decorative fireplaces don't hurt. Although, one of the kitchens is a bit dated and blends too much into the living space for this price. We especially love the 3 skylights on the top floor.

The professional pictures were just put up the other day, but check out this impressionist, worse-than-a-camera phone pic they started with:



Which looks more like Van Gogh's "Garden Behind a House" than the work of someone prepared to make as much as $84K in commission:




Ya gotta love Brooklyn real estate! The rub here is the "Legal 3 family used as a 2 family" situation. If the bank actually lets you close with this house as a 3-Family, there's a range between the FHA loan limit and the list price to make some moves. If not, why on earth wouldn't you be spending this same money on the far superior 54 St. Felix Street that Prudential also has listed? From the looks of the small, hard to read layout on the website for 414 Park Place, there are only 2 kitchens, which indicates the bank won't let you close with more than 2 units, since we're told current use is how these are treated.

Pro's: curb appeal, handsome block, location, deep lot, yard, a few nice details

Con's: price, 2/3-Family status, not the best 2nd kitchen for this price

Ideally: The bank lets you close with this a 3-Family, but that's doubtful. If you've got the dough for this as 2-Family, go to 54 St. Felix Street and get yourself a better, cooler house.