Clinton Hill SRO: 187 St. James Place

We jumped at this nice-looking brick building on a quaint little block in Clinton Hill with a modest list price of $879K. However, when you look closer, 187 St. James Place is an SRO. Which our lawyer says is 6 months and $50K to convert to a multi-family, nevermind the renovation. Our contractor's saying that making more than strictly cosmetic changes can be more than $50K+/floor. It's looking a little raggidy inside...



A bigger, better canvas to bury that kinda money into might be 109 Lefferts Ave. At this price, in this area, you're probably better off putting a little more down on a finished place. In other areas, even 473 Union still stands tall compared to this place.

Pro's: curb appeal, nice block, price point

Con's: SRO status, needs total renovation, only ~2000sqft?

Ideally: you'd have to have plenty of time and some deep pockets to make it worth it at this price.

Finally Found Ya: 310 Lafayette Avenue

We've honestly been asking this agent for months to tell us where this place is. We saw the listing, the exterior picture, and now interior pictures; but for some reason the addresses of all the great Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Bed-Stuy listings this agent has were revealed to us, except this one. So we took matters into our own hands and tried a little trick we stumbled on. On some listings, if you right-click and save the picture, the default file name the picture will look to save as will contain the address of the property. Guess agents who can't be bothered to tell you the address of a place also can't be bothered to change the file name when they save the picture. Either way, check out what we uncovered!!

310 Lafayette Avenue is a 3-Family brick building 4 doors away from our beloved Choice Market.



Can you smell that yummy bacon, egg & cheese cooking? The price might be a tad high considering the neighborhood's pricing and the noisy block it's on. But then we see a bit of nice, bright interior with wood floors and original fireplace...



And it starts to compare favorably to the corner property up the way, the gut reno 238 Lafayette.

According to Zillow, the property was purchased in 2006 for just $309K. Not sure if this owner did the renovations or took out more equity.

Pro's: location, curb appeal, original details, wood floors, high ceilings,

Con's: pricing, not that much square footage, Lafayette is a busy avenue with a bus route going down it & G-train underneath

Ideally: there's a play to make in the $1.05-$1.1M range!

A Slice of Queens in Prospect Heights: 698 Dean Street

A paved, gated front yard with a drive-way? Welcome to Queens.... errr... Prospect Heights, that is. On a quiet, little block between Vanderbilt and Underhill, comes 698 Dean Street. Only a 2-Family and less than 40' deep, with a nice-but-dated interior, we're not sure about the pricing. Even though it's within the FHA loan range for 2-Families, the layout is odd with a basement studio and a "4BR" on top. Check the layout. With $900K-ish getting a decent amount of brick or brownstone house just off the beaten path, we're not sure one has to compromise so much over here unless the price comes down significantly. It looks like the owner's cost basis is really low, and only a little bit of equity has been taken out. So maybe there's room to move if the play works for someone.

Pro's: proximity to Vanderbilt Avenue, down the hill from Prospect Park, at least it's not a million

Con's: curb appeal, dated interior and finishes, more house could be gotten for same price

Ideally: check out if 468 Carlton's worth its price or 473 Union.

By the Park, With a Store: 188 Underhill Avenue

We don't usually cover commercial properties, but this one's too juicy to resist. 188 Underhill is a new listing by these jokers at Myspacenyc who don't appear to have any real sales listings on their website (including this one) and only specialize in a ton of rentals. Any building that has a store is considered "mixed-use" and needs a commercial loan, which nowadays requires 30-35% down. But that's about the only downside over here. Very few properties in this area go for $1M or less. The closest might be 108 Underhill, which is much further down the hill, small, and oddly-shaped. Here on 188 Underhill, instead, we've got a huge building that's 19' x 57' making for an ample floorplate. There's a store on the ground floor with a large backyard to work with, in addition to two 3BR rentals that look like they're in decent shape:



This interior is nothing special; clean white walls and handsome wood floors. That does the trick. The pictures aren't as informative as they could be, but at least they're there. We LOVE using this large floorplate for 3BR rentals. That's the ideal lay-out for this kind of space in terms of rental value. We imagine $800/BR would be the lowest one could expect to fetch over here. Who wouldn't want to be situated on a quiet block right by the library, the museum, the park, Grand Army Plaza and the trains there?



The property is very comparable to 692 Washington, another mixed-use place that is slighty smaller, not as well-situated, and a little less expensive.

The retail space offers interesting options, but nobody's done anything with it yet. Property Shark has a listing by the same myspacenyc group that's been up for 245+ days to rent that space for $3,500/month. Probably a little too steep for this area, but who knows what they're paying over there on Vanderbilt? This block might not be too far away from a similar renaissance.

Pro's: size, location, 3BR rentals, price, proximity to Prospect Park

Con's: needs a hefty downpayment, commercial space can be tricky

Ideally: we don't see how this doesn't fetch this price or higher, to a buyer with that commercial loan kind of downpayment. Very few places in this price range have the potential to gross $9K-ish/month and offer this proximity to the park

Gone But Not Forgotten: 590 Pacific Street

How these 4-Family buildings in great neighborhoods at great prices keep slipping through our hands is beyond me... oh wait, now I remember! There's no comprehensive way to search for them. 590 Pacific Street is a great buy for someone that just closed on 11/18/10 for $1.33M and was recorded last week. Not sure how we missed this listing that originally came out on 7/14/10 for $1.4M, right about the time the blog started. The whole thing is very reminiscent of a few other great 4-Family places we missed like 440 Henry Street, 77 4th Place, and 49 Douglass Street. Depending on their original list price, some closed above asking, some closed below, but right in that $1.4-$1.5M range. We're suprised this didn't fetch that much, but perhaps lots of renovation was needed. Or there we Certificate of Occupancy issues with this being classified on Property Shark still as a "Five to Six Families". But the condition couldn't have been that bad with a reported rent roll of $120K/year.

We don't know too much about the listing agency Carolynn Di Fiore & Associates or what their website or other listings are, but we'd love for her to hit us up with the next one. The good news is that maybe some of these other pricy 4-Family's in the $1.6-$1.9M range will get religion and go for $1.5M-ish to buyers like us.

Pro's: 3,800 sqft, price, proximity to trains and amenities, "high ceilings in every apartment"

Con's: fully occupied, a little close to the Atlantic Yards situation, we didn't find it

Ideally: there'll be a way to see these great listings the second they hit the market, until then, it's an inexact science, but there will always be BK To The Fullest!

Scrappy Doo or Scrappy Don't?: 468 Carlton Avenue

Another Hanna-Barbera reference today! Today's pick is two doors down from a fave of ours, 472 Carlton. 468 Carlton is in the same row of houses over here in this quiet, kinda grimey pocket of Fort Greene just off Atlantic Avenue. This house doesn't have the same renovations we see two houses down (namely the finished basement with 2 extra bedrooms), which would explain the price differential. We like to think of it as Scrappy Doo - the smaller, wimpier version of its bigger Uncle Scooby, packing much more bark than bite.



...at least as far as the listings go. Built in 1996, you can't expect the condition to be that unpresentable, but we sure would love to see. It's very unlike Corcoran to not have any interior photos of a property after listing this long. They don't have to do the full all-out staging treatment & over-do it, but the exterior photo off of Property Shark was the best they could do? We expect a little more. Although, 472 Carlton took about two months to get interior photos posted, so maybe that's the case here. Just listed on 10/26/10 at $995K, 468 Carlton just price dropped $20K to $975K. Likewise, its neighbor just dropped $25K to $1.075M. There have been open houses in both properties almost every weekend the past few months. The price drop on 468 is an update, mind you, that's hit Streeteasy so far but not Zillow.

Given the $300K-ish price point all the owners in this row of houses got in at, there's a lot of built up equity, along with rentals that have come up significantly. We were surprised to see 468 Carlton in Lis Pendens, filed 9/28/2010. Property Shark has the "Document Type" listed as "Partition Of Property". Anybody know what this is all about?

It's worth checking this place out at one of the upcoming open houses. Definitely stack it up to 472 Carlton. There's nice potential for an owner's duplex with a yard and rentals carrying the better share of all costs. On a different block, these places sell in a heartbeart. Corocoran should know, they sold one of our favorite places 175 Greene Avenue, which closed just last fall for $1.192M.

Pro's: cheaper than 472 Carlton, new construction, good layout with real 2BR rentals, general location

Con's: housing projects across the street, doesn't have the renovations of 472 Carlton, Atlantic construction project around the corner, might never fetch the same price points as a true brownstone

Ideally: there's a chance it's a better overall value than 472, and the pro's outweigh the con's for someone.

"Available" 2-Fam' in the Slope: 27 Lincoln Place

On a nifty little pocket of streets just inside Park Slope, off 5th Avenue, across the street from Park Slope Playground, on a block with a row of brownstones and some nice, big limestones across the street comes a funky little 2-Family, 27 Lincoln Place.

According to Property Shark, it closed on 8/5/10 for $700K. Yet we see the place listed as an "Estate Sale" with Awaye Realty, with its "Status" listed as "Available". We honestly can't tell if the listing is moot because it just sold, or if someone bought it for $700K and immediately relisted it for $1.2M. The most like case is the first one. But with so much tomfoolery in BK real estate, you never can tell.

At a narrow less-than-17' wide, with no pictures of the interior, it's hard to know what you're getting into over here. Googlemaps streetview shows a serene front-porch scene:



The listing calls it "Builders Delight!" and surely lots of work would be needed here. The curb appeal situation is tough with the fakey flinstone rocks on the front. Truly a Yabba-dabba-don't.



Compare to some of the preposterously-priced, yet-nice 2-Family's out there like 476 Degraw or 61A South Elliot, but as renovations go in Park Slope in recent weeks, nothing compares to the incomparable, in-contract 691 Sackett.

Pro's: location, close to trains, legit Park Slope, 4 stories, over 3,000+ sqft

Con's: curb appeal, condition, 17' wide, 2-Family status, expensive for a renovation.

Ideally: That recent sale was the one for this listing, and another 691 Sackett comes along.