Monday, June 4, 2012

Next Shoe to Drop (Pt. II): 44 Rutland Road


If you the missed the House Tour yesterday in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, don't miss the next-best buy in the neighborhood. 44 Rutland Road is a single family barrel-front brick & brownstone building on a great block in Lefferts Manor for $1.4M.  If you want to live on a great block just off the park, and you don't want to spend $2M-$3M to do it, this is your chance.  Despite signs posted on these blocks that are zoned for "one family only", with two entrances, it's easy to use this 1-Fam as a 2.


The interior has the original wood details like parquet floors and pocket doors galore that people gush about - perhaps almost to a fault.






The shiny, waxy finish on the floors might be one of the first things to go, which isn't hard at all to remedy.  Stained-glass windows, a huge master bath with a skylight on the top floor, a finished basement, an updated (if generic) kitchen, puts the finishing touches on this 4,000 sqft historic house on a 100' lot.  Greenify the backyard affordably, and you're really cookin'!  Use the money you don't waste on the next-best houses that are $500K more than this to fine-tune all the features of this home for your purposes.  The kitchen is "meh" in our book, but at these prices, who's counting?


After you see what wants $1.8M over here, and the next-best place at this pricepoint in Windsor Terrace, you'll know why we're so bullish on 44 Rutland Road.  When you're bar-b-q'ing in the backyard of your museum-like home with modern upgrades, and your buddies go, "Now, how'd you snatch this thing up for under a millie and a half again?"

You'll go, "BK to the Fullest!"

Pro's: original details, great block, close to the park, totally turnkey, pricepoint, easy to use as a 2-Family

Con's: not everyone's hip to this neighborhood yet, museum-like interior may be too gaudy, updates and details not everyone's taste, single-fam status

Ideally: simply one of the best houses left at this pricepoint Brooklyn-wide

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