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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Another HomeCanvasr.com First Hits the Market: 1136 Bergen Street




As seen on HomeCanvasr.com over a month before it hit Zillow, 1136 Bergen Street is a 4-story limestone in Crown Heights listed at a very competitive $1.45M for the neighborhood.  This 3-Family has basically everything going for it that made us leap at 1134 Bergen Street without hesitation.  The details in 1136 aren't as stunning or intact as they are in 1134, but 1136 does have more renovations & updates to it than 1134 did at the time.  And given the fact that 3-story 2-Family buildings in Crown Heights further east than this are fetching $1.7M cash these days, any turnkey 4-story - but especially 1136 - looks like a steal anywhere under $1.5M.







Now, while these renovations may not quite be your style, and probably aren't the way you would've done them, they're still a ton of time, money, and hassle you don't have to spend on day 1.






We wouldn't go quite as far as to say that there's all "new plumbing, new electric, new mechanicals..." and it's certainly pesky that the boiler that is new is oil rather than gas.  However, a boiler in a house this size is not a huge expense to change over, and basically pays for itself in the first year.  But that boiler's emblematic of what's going on with this building overall.  Absentee owner, slowly-but-surely handyman renovation that's been going on for over a year, new additions but not always the best choices made.  And in exchange for the bootleggedness of it all, you can get it at a relative value for this market.  The asking price of $1.45M is totally reasonable, offers have come in higher, and we wouldn't be surprised to see a savvy buyer make it easy for the owner at a price lower than $1.5M, even if there'll be someone after the fact wishing they'd gotten it for more than $1.5M.  Besides, we wouldn't sell 1134 Bergen for a penny less than $1.85M.





And the much grimier 1070 Bergen Street has offers over $1.5M.  The floor that needs the most help on 1136 Bergen Street is the top floor.  We went through the same thing last year with 1134.  But with the help of our main-man Steve, we put in a brand new kitchen and mostly new bathroom for under $10K in under a month...







So "here's a tissue, stop ya blood-clot crying", because the glass is much more than half full for dozens of buyers on a property like 1136 Bergen Street at this price, despite all the Goldilocks gripes you could potentially launch at it.  For the right buyer, this is a great set-up.  A duplex with an extra-deep south facing yard and two rentals on top.  Mortgage-able, turnkey, and ready for modest to serious upgrades whenever the time & budget is right.  But 9 of out 10 people we spoke to this time last year weren't feeling the nicer 1134 at a quarter-million less than this, so why would it suddenly dawn on y'all now?


Pro's:  sick curb appeal limestone, extra-deep 127' lot, new updates, pricepoint, delivered with at least 3 floors vacant potential, some original details, over $8,000/month in rental income potential

Con's:  18' wide (not 20'), new boiler (not gas), missing lots of original details, wood has been painted over in many places, not everyone's taste on the upgrades, work yet to be done

Ideally:   this is a slam dunk for right buyer who knows what they're looking at


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