This Just In: Bed-Stuy Exists

Since so many folks act like nothing actually happens until it happens in the NYTimes, it's nice to learn this week that Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights now officially exist.  Maybe it's easier for everyone to get their heads around this way.  But some of it still leaves us scratching our heads...

"Until recently, most of the townhouse buyers have been investors, said William Hobbs, a broker-owner of Evans & Nye, which is based in Stuyvesant Heights, one of the neighborhood’s historic districts. The investors have been renovating and flipping the townhouses, or creating apartments and renting them, brokers said. But some townhouses are now exceeding the $2 million mark, which is more than most investors want to spend, Mr. Hobbs said."

If "most of the townhouse buyers have been investors", who were they "renovating and flipping the townhouses" to?  Presumably end-user buyers no?  And if "exceeding the $2 million mark... is more than most investors want to spend" then how come 2 of Bed-Stuy's only $2M+ sales were to investors?

So don't fret if you still don't quite understand Bed-Stuy.  When even the experts and the articles can't quite help but mischaracterize it, well who are you supposed to believe?  They accurately point out, "As recently as two years ago, townhouses were available for $700,000, but now most average about $1.4 million to $1.5 million, Mr. Munsey said."  But that still doesn't stop people with a million dollars cash calling us up every week and telling us they're ready for their first foray into a Bed-Stuy fixer-upper for a million dollars and not a penny more in a prime location.  Heck, some people still think this is the price for Clinton Hill.

"Is Bed-Stuy a bubble?" they keep asking us.  When houses that were $1.6M-$2.4M in Park Slope 2 years ago are worth $2.8M-$4M now, is it okay if Bed-Stuy houses double or triple in value too?  Sure, interest rates are low, but that's a total red herring.  Nobody's actually buying a house because rates are 4.25% instead of 6%.  The fact is that loans are still hard to get.  Regardless of how low rates are, banks still wanna see all up in your guts and aren't handing money out like they were during the real bubble.  So, no, it's not a lending bubble either.  Another major difference between today's perceived bubble and the real bubble of 2006-2008, the rents are there to support these prices.

"Bedford-Stuyvesant also has a vibrant rental market, with many townhouses broken up into apartments, brokers said."  Ok, right again, like any neighborhood in NYC with townhouses.  Today we're taking a look at a sublet that's a bellwether of the rentals in the area, on Hancock between Bedford and Nostrand.  A nice, digestible west Bed-Stuy location even newbies can get their heads around...

Pier mirrors, high ceilings, original parquet floors all on this parlor floor of a Bed-Stuy brownstone 2 bedroom / 2 bath with one room subletting for $1,200/month.  Sure, the pics are also a little dark & dingy, and they didn't quite take time to stage the place or anything.  But in this market, you don't really have to.  Folks running away from the $1,500-$1,800/BR rentals in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Prospect Heights don't oblige.

A pic of the kitchen and bath would be nice, but again, probably not necessary in this market.

Likening Bed-Stuy to Harlem - as the Times piece does - is a handy reference point.  Afterall, similarities abound.  The same guys who did Central Park did Prospect Park.  The same people who stand on "the good side" of Central Park and refuse to go any further are shocked at the pricing on the "bad side" of Central Park, and guess what?  Same goes for Prospect Park.  Think of Park Slope and Prospect Heights as the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, then think of Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy, and Lefferts as Harlem... and maybe then you'll start to understand.  When a few millionaires start crossing that line in the sand just a mile or two in any given direction, in this city there's a floodgate of other millionaires waiting to follow.

Again, don't fret if you don't understand Bed-Stuy.  Even the experts don't.  Top Brooklyn brokers who effortlessly sell $10M+ packages of rental buildings in Bed-Stuy with dozens of units, brokers who have sold over half a billion in real estate in their careers still ask us, "Are these rents real?"  Yup, that's right.  You can sell hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate and still not even know what you're selling.  The reason these brokers don't know if these rents are real is because they've never had to rent a 2BR apartment in Brooklyn themselves, or watched their own price per bedroom (one of the most important metrics in all of NYC real estate) creep up from $600 to $1,600 in some neighborhoods.  10 years ago, our friend to was too slow on the trigger and missed a $750/BR sublet on St. Marks Ave & Carlton Ave in prime Prospect Heights.  The next best they settled for was on Grand Avenue towards Crown Heights for the same price, and they hated it at the time.  Now that same apartment goes for $1,200/BR, and neighbors are getting $1,500-$1,600/BR on AirBnB... in basically Crown Heights, people!

Over 100 years ago when these neighborhoods were built for ballers, before the automobile and before the train ran underground, Stuyvesant Heights wasn't too far.  But now with cars and taxis and ubers and Citibikes and hipster fixies and express A trains, people will still tell you "Nostrand is too far" or "Utica is too far".  Funny how that works.


Pro's:  totally legit Bed-Stuy sublet, "My loss, is your gain", tall ceilings, original detail, separate baths for each tenant, flexible lease lengths available, pet friendly

Con's:  not the tidiest listing, not the pricepoint novices are expecting, kitchen and bath are dated, sublets aren't for everyone

Ideally:  another serviceable rental is another tell-tale sign of the times.  We'd probably bite if we hadn't copped the limestone already.

HomeCanvasr.com Exclusive: Vacant West Bed-Stuy Fixer-Upper Under $1.5M

New to our new listings website HomeCanvasr.com, it's a fixer-upper in Bed-Stuy that you won't (yet) find on your StreetEasy, Zillow, Trulia, NYTimes or MLS.  This 4-story 20' wide fixer-upper is delivered vacant and available for $1.3M.  Located on the 100-block of Macon, it's around the corner from where a similar property at 435 Putnam Avenue just sold for $1.3M cash in a flash.  Marketing can make a big difference in these neighborhoods, as we've seen.  This Macon pre-market property was passed on by Platinum Members because the seller's expectation increased from $1.2M to $1.3M as the possibility of delivering totally vacant materialized.  But we think it's still an interesting play around $1.3M given what else is going on all around it in this market.  Over 20 homes have sold for over $1.3M in the past 6 months within half a mile of this house.  When we toured the property, the interior was nothing special, but certainly better than the darn-near shell that 201 Macdonough Street is.

Solid 2-Family used as a 4-Family that's live-able, but could obviously use some upgrades to optimize.  Trust us, by the time it looks the way you want it to look, it won't cost what you want it to cost.

When a broker brings us a nifty little gem like this and Platinum Members pass on it, but we know there are dozens of folks who'd love to hear about it on or off-market... well, that's what HomeCanvasr.com is for.


Pro's:  curb appeal, delivered vacant, totally live-able, rental income potential, pre-market listing, close to Fulton Street, isn't being bid up by the masses or the cash buyers (yet)

Con's:  needs work, not much original detail left, takes a little deep digging to uncover, don't try this on the your usual listing site, full details for HomeCanvasr Premium Members only

Ideally:  looks like a great deal for buyer and seller could mean this thing never even hits the open market

Closings of Note: Big Boy Closings

A few big boy closings throughout Brooklyn to catch up on this week, including Bed-Stuy's 96 Quincy Street which becomes the first 3-story house in the neighborhood to list for just under $2M and fetch $2.25M.  This house joins 22 Arlington and 196 Hancock Street at the top of townhome pricing in all of Bed-Stuy.

Are the bidding wars over $2M that far east surprising you?  You should see the bidding wars in more prime Brooklyn neighborhoods these days.  252 Carlton Avenue cleaned up nice in pics, needed work, had a packed open house and dozens of offers, including multiple cash offers over asking price.  Listed for $2.595M, closed for $3.2M.  But this Fort Greene gem isn't the only place where $3M homes are happening in Brooklyn.  In fact every major brownstone Brooklyn neighborhood besides Lefferts, Crown Heights, and Bed-Stuy have had at lease one house go for over $3M in the past few weeks.

We were surprised when we heard rumors that Brooklyn Heights' 25 Pierrepont Street was having trouble fetching anywhere close to its asking price of $3.4M.  But then it just closed for $3.6M - so, there's that.  6,000+ square foot corner 9-Family building with mostly free market tenants.  The cap rate is lower than 4, but the asset is pretty darn prime.

Speaking of corner properties in Brooklyn Heights over asking price, the 25' wide 15 Willow Street came out for $4.25M and closed for $4.81M last month.

Speaking of 25' wide in Brooklyn Heights, 19 Monroe Place listed for over $7M and closed for $6.825M.

25' wide just down the street at 44 Monroe Place goes for $5.75M to buyers from the Upper East Side.

And don't forget Brooklyn Heights' over-sized 33 Garden Place for $3.75M!

Asking as much as $4.35M back in 2010, Park Slope's 8 Polhemus Place finally dropped to an asking price of $3.5M and closed for $3.65M.  The high-end single family market is no joke.  We've got our eyes on 2 stunning pre-market houses in Prospect Heights and another in Park Slope in this price range.

Carroll Gardens' 539 Clinton Street will not wow you with curb appeal, but the inside is way sleek.  This 3-story single-family listed for $2.9M and sold for $3.06M.  New construction getting the job done, even down by the BQE.  Just like the new construction at 289 Union Street getting just about $4M.

Even 18-footers can get over $3M and over asking price in Carroll Gardens.  170 Carroll Street listed for $3.3M and sold for $3.75M.

A buyer from Billyburg takes down Fort Greene's 179 Dekalb Avenue for $3.75M.  Asking price was $3.5M.  It is not a game right now on the high-end in Brooklyn.

This carriage house in Clinton Hill at 187 Vanderbilt Avenue, albeit north, goes for $2.92M, just under asking price.

No wonder we told the people chasing fixer-uppers on Lincoln around $2M off-market that the sky's the limit on the that block.  Look who's getting over $4M now!  105 Lincoln Place in Park Slope goes for $4.375M.

A three-story in Park Slope for over $3M?  That's 407 2nd Street which closed for $3.125M to buyers from the Upper West Side.

Brooklyn Heights' 36 Schermerhorn Street went for $3.175M to buyers from the West Village.

And don't forget Brooklyn Heights' 104 Willow Street which sold just under asking price, but still over $10M last month, to buyers from around the corner.  No wonder homeowners in Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill are already hitting us up on HomeCanvasr.com with leads on homes available pre-market from $3M-$10M.  If we had a home in this neighborhood, we'd wanna test the market with it too.

With Brooklyn Heights sales like those, no wonder some buyers from Brooklyn Heights are fleeing to the comfortable, relative-value confines of Park Slope, where 393 Union Street sold for $2.6M.

Fort Greene's 190 Washington Park got $3.45M without even hitting the open market.

Boerum Hill's 244 Bergen Street will remind you of the shocking-at-the-time $4M sale for Jenna Lyons' house in Park Slope.  So it's no wonder it closes for $4.1M in this market.

Even heading towards Crown Heights, Prospect Heights' barrel-front gem at 393 Sterling Place closes for $3.325M to buyers from around the corner.

Even the most generic houses on the edge of Crown Heights and Prospect Heights command over $1.5M these days.  We scoffed at the asking price on 848 Bergen Street at $1.8M, when it had closed a few months earlier for a million.  But the listing broker told us it was the only turnkey multi-family in its class near Prospect Heights, and closed it for $1.6M last month.  Buyers from a ballin' part of Bergen County, New Jersey took it down.  We looked to Fort Greene's 460 Carlton as an even better valued version of this.

Billed as a potential development site, this house at 272 Hawthorne Street in Lefferts Garden closed for $1.1M last month after asking $1.45M with Corcoran.

Back in Park Slope, this huge corner 8-Family at 343 6th Avenue goes for just over $5M.  Not bad for "an off market transaction in which only two buyers were called."

Another 3-story in Park Slope for over $3M?  34 Park Place goes for $3.15M.

Boy, it seems like just yesterday that jokers were trying to tell us the King Kong Clinton Hill 8-Family at 234 St. James Place wasn't worth $1.3M-$1.5M.  Now its neighbor 205 St. James Place closes for $3.95M at the end of May.

Off-Market Platinum Member Closing Yesterday: 446A Classon Avenue

Yesterday, Platinum Members closed on an off-market 2-Family house on the Clinton Hill / Bed-Stuy border across the street from where similar homes have gone over $2M.  With renovated 15'-16' wide 2-Families as far as Bed-Stuy selling for over $2.2M cash, getting one of these under $2M is actually a good look in this market.  Owner's triplex over garden rental?  Yes, please!

Don't forget the backyard...

 

We toured another house pre-market just like this in Clinton Hill this week that's sure to fetch this price or higher.

Pro's:  curb appeal, stylish & turnkey renovation, triplex over garden rental, interior staircase makes the most of the 15' width, great off-market buy, no bidding war or big commissions to big brokers

Con's:  narrow, gone already, not available on the open market, not everyone's ready for Classon

Ideally:  another quintessential 2-Family on the Clinton Hill side for a relative value

Introducing Our New Website: HomeCanvasr.com

It's been 4 years now since we've been trying to crack the nut that is the inefficient real estate market in Brooklyn.  And now we're introducing a new approach to real estate buying and selling that is unlike anything currently available in brownstone Brooklyn.  Our new website HomeCanvasr.com launches today and is an all-purpose real estate platform that allows buyers to claim their search criteria and match up directly with listing agents and homeowners for properties on or off the open market.  The site allows homeowners to claim their property and automatically see how many buyers are looking for homes in their neighborhood and price range.  It allows listing brokers to post properties they have exclusives on, properties they have leads on, or properties that may never hit the open market place - allowing them to tap into real time buyers as well.

So far this year we've consulted on 15 deals that are sold or in contract, and more than half of those were pre-market or off-market listings.  That means these deals never hit StreetEasy, NYTimes, Zillow, Trulia, or any other traditional real estate website.  Many of these deals had no brokers involved at all, and the buyer and seller could pass the savings of six-figure commissions on to themselves.  Some sellers were just "sell-curious", with a price in mind, but didn't want to commit to a listing.  On one amazing house in Prospect Heights, we met with one buyer, brought them to that one house, and there was a fully executed contract just a few weeks later.  Why does Corcoran have to make $150K+ by jamming themselves in the middle of that transaction?  The house is in contract around $3M and could've easily sold for more, but not necessarily net the seller that much more money.  There's nothing wrong with Corcoran; they're a huge component of the retail market place.  But it is not an "one size fits all" situation.

Another deal we consulted on in Prospect Heights for $3.25M was never going to hit the market for reasons personal to the seller.  But Platinum Members had their chance at it, and eventually we consulted the buyers who closed on that property for ~$250K less than the on-market property next door.

Another deal we consulted on in Clinton Hill that's closing tomorrow is owned by a Corcoran broker who could've had 200 people at his house at the click of a button, but his wife didn't want 200 strangers in their house just to fetch market price.  We brought in two Platinum Member buyers, each of whom bid nice prices on the property, and one got that house while another one got a different pre-market opportunity in Clinton Hill.  People are constantly intercepting deals before they even hit the marketplace.  Curbed is currently touting a listing available on HomeCanvasr.com that we've been scoping for months that is just now finishing its renovation, but has offers that may ensure it never even hits the open market.  Talk about beating the open house!

We needed to find a way to channel this activity to a platform that's scale-able and crowdsource-able, that allows participation from buyers, sellers, and brokers on their own.  The decision to buy or sell a house doesn't happen overnight, but if you find the right buyer or seller, it certainly can be expedited.  Many houses are "available" for months before they actually hit the open market.  HomeCanvasr.com allows for that.  Heck, even our own house is for sale on the HomeCanvasr.  We know it's worth a lot more than we paid for it, and we know every broker in town who could sell it, but we don't wanna commit to a listing at this point.  However, if a buyer wants to come along and pay our price, we're game!  Just like it was for us, HomeCanvasr.com should become the first stop for all sellers looking to tap into real-time buyer data and pricing for their home, with or without a broker's commission.

Basically, in an effort to launch a campaign to create a true multiple listing service (MLS) in Brooklyn over the past few years, we found out many reasons why that's not happening anytime soon and whose interests that doesn't align with.  Along the way, many people also voiced to us that a comprehensive listing service isn't even what they want.  People enjoy our "curated" approach on BK to the Fullest to analyzing and comparing listings.  And at the same time, everyone wants that secret 'ish, as Brick Underground was so quick to quote us on.

Certainly in the beginning, the main thrust of HomeCanvasr.com will be the pre-market and off-market "secret listings".  Buyers specifically want listings that aren't on the open market because of their real or perceived discount off of market price.  Buyers who wouldn't pay $3.2M for a huge corner 8-Family building in Bed-Stuy (because it was on the market), bid $4M sight-unseen on a huge corner 8-Family building in Bed-Stuy (currently featured on HomeCanvasr.com) because it's NOT on the open market.  Yeah, that's right, people wanted to pay $800K MORE because it's NOT on the market.  Different strokes for different folks.

And, in turn, many sellers want to sell their house on their terms without paying a broker tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands to bring the same batch of buyers that are already looking for the same set of houses.

A few alarming facts remain about the Brooklyn real estate market (a $19 Billion sales industry last year), and the NYC real estate market at large (a $38 Billion dollar sales industry last year)....

- no matter how much money you have, no one person, brokerage firm, or website can tell you everything that's available for sale.  Think about the implications of that.  People with $4M cash in the bank run around like scavenger tenants looking for a studio apartment.  To save her life, Barbara Corcoran couldn't tell you how many brownstones are for sale in Park Slope. (Granted, she also sold the firm years ago...)  As we pointed out 4 years ago, that's as if Kayak and other travel sites didn't sell airfares out of JFK or La Guardia.


- no matter how much money you have, little if any brokers will take you to a listing they don't know they can get paid on.  That's why even the richest buyers complain to us that even the best brokers just send them their company's listings and rarely do anything for the buyers that the buyers couldn't do themselves.  Brokers know about tons of off-market listings that they aren't guaranteed to make a hefty fee on, therefore they rarely if ever take clients there.  That means your own broker may know about the perfect house for you, but won't take you there because they're not guaranteed 6%.  That's why people come to us for consulting services because we take buyers to every possible listing (and consistently make less doing $3M deals than what brokers would make on a rental in that same building).  We figured there has to be a way to scale this activity, because our bandwidth is only so wide.

HomeCanvasr.com is in its early stages, and we expect multiple iterations of functionality and expansion.  But for now we already have dozens of listings not available anywhere else on any website, from sellers and brokers you would have to eat, sleep, drink real estate to even have a chance of hearing about.  And even then you may still miss these listings.


For buyers:  it is absolutely free to sign up with your search criteria on HomeCanvasr.com, and we are currently charging a subscription fee to get full access to the secret listings that haven't yet or will never hit the open market for various reasons

For sellers:  it is absolutely free to sign up and claim your house, upload pictures, and automatically see how many qualified buyers are searching for homes just like yours

For brokers:  it is absolutely free to post listings and only verified buyers can see the secret ones

As we've been saying for years, someone bigger than us, smarter than us, more connected and more experienced than us should've cracked the code on this long ago.  Yet Brooklyn real estate's inefficient market still needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, for many nuanced reasons not apparent to everyone from novice would-be buyers to even top brokers who have sold $500M+ in real estate in the past few years.

The proposed ways of monetizing the HomeCanvasr.com site have gotten pushback from even the highest up heads of the biggest real estate sites.  That's until we tell them we have an off-market listing in the neighborhood they've been looking for, and they practically sign away their first-born child to hear us tell them one address.  In this market, the right address can be worth $200,000 (or much more!) of upside.  That's why people paid us $2,000 for private consulting to even hear about these leads and listings.  Is HomeCanvasr.com's $200 membership fee and $50/month really too much to ask for an increased chance at finding and landing the home of your dreams?

Duplex Clinton Hill Condo at Bed-Stuy prices: 355A Grand Avenue

If you want an upper duplex Clinton Hill condo at Bed-Stuy prices, with private roof access and parking, look no further than 355A Grand Avenue.  On Platinum Member radar for a few months, this new construction condo is 1,200/sqft of 2BR/1.5 bath goodness on a quaint block in lots of people's next-favorite neighborhood behind Fort Greene.  We sublet one of these garden duplexes in 2008 during the crash and fell in love with the neighborhood.  It's not everyday that you can cop two floors of a place a block away from Mr. Brownstoner himself for less than $850K.  With an open house and an asking price of $815K, we think this is a great look for dozens of buyers out there, especially those eager to dodge the Corcoran bidding wars.  The interior isn't exceptionally shiny & new, but it doesn't have the problems of 100 year old houses, and affordable cosmetic upgrades are fun to do.
 

People paying this price or higher in even newer condos on only one floor still spent time and money updating their 2008 new construction.  So of course early 1990's construction could use some touch up.  But the place is totally pleasant and live-able as-is too.  And who else is giving you central air, a gated parking spot, laundry in the unit, and common charges under $325K/month?  We were in a pre-market house across the street yesterday that's worth $2M+ even if it's only 15' wide, and neighbors are fetching over $3M when they play it right.  So this is a great pricepoint to jump into this block at. 


With an open house this Sunday from 1pm - 2:30pm, it's easy to see for yourself.


Pro's:  pricepoint, duplex layout, newish construction, gated parking space, laundry in unit, roof access, totally live-able, pretty prime Clinton Hill at Bed-Stuy price per square foot prices

Con's:  not the most amazing curb appeal, could use upgrades to optimize, you probably missed the land round of these in the $700K's

Ideally:  a great deal for buyer and seller can't be far away