Keep the Woodwork Coming: 931 St. Marks Avenue

If you need a break from so-so Park Slope listings around $2M (and lord knows we do!), why not take a peak at the variety of great exteriors and interiors that under $1M gets you just a little further east?

931 St. Marks Avenue is a huge 20' x 50', 2-Family limestone in Crown Heights with some out-of-control original interior woodwork:



You never saw so much wood around a sink before:



This is reminiscent of our all-time top-viewed post for 287 Dekalb Avenue, which also had some great original period details. As in that house, you also get some fresh, clean spaces too...



They'd be asking $899K for one floor of this place elsewhere. Instead, here, you get the backyard, the drive way, the owner's triplex, a garden apartment, the great limestone exterior, all located on a peaceful (don't mind the high school across the street) cul-de-sac right next to the "Brooklyn Children's Museum". It's nice to know that almost a million dollars can still cop a legit mansion, even though a mediocre condo is bound to sell today for this same price. Every time a Park Slope condo sells, a Crown Heights mansion gets its wings (and becomes a way more attractive buy).



Pro's: curb appeal, straight-up mansion status, original details, wood burning fireplaces throughout,

Con's: across the street from a high school, are you ready for deep Crown Heights?

Ideally: compare to a few similar plays we have in mind to get the absolute best buy.

Bed-Stuy Bubbling: 407 Stuyvesant Avenue

Seeing our last pick get swooped up so fast was a sign of the price resurgence in Bed-Stuy. In lockstep with the wave of prices picking up all over Brooklyn, Brown Harris Stevens comes out with another spiffy place on Stuyvesant Avenue at $925K in Bed-Stuy.





407 Stuyvesant Avenue is a 3-Family in Stuyvesant Heights - which is worth specifying, but we won't separate from Bed-Stuy for these purposes. Or should we? When Barbara Corcoran gets in the game at $1.46M for a limestone 5-Family right at the time of the crash in 2008, people pay attention.

Now we can't wax as philosophical on the architecture & history of this area as others, but take a stroll around and you'll see it's nice & classy. The only thing holding it back now is a killer commercial avenue, and people will flock to this housing stock. This home is about as close to the train as you can hope for over here too. The original interior here on 407 Stuyvesant Avenue is reminiscent of 338 Clinton Avenue, which we're told has multiple offers at its asking price of $2M. We managed to dig up some pictures for 338 Clinton Ave...



Not sure what price 407 Stuyvesant will land at, but this is a great look at a buy in the area and not likely to last that long.

Pro's: original details, in the middle of stately blocks, close to the train, under $1M 3-Family works on so many levels

Con's: very residential area that has some ways to go yet to maximize its commercial space, might need some updates, may not be the best buy under a million as these go

Ideally: definitely worth a look. Which do you think we see first, Park Slope buyers popping up in Stuy Heights or Stuy Heights prices popping up in Park Slope?

Bed-Stuy's Back: 324 Stuyvesant Avenue

After a little lull during the post-crash dip in real estate prices from Fall 2008 to Fall 2010, Bed-Stuy is officially back. With everything decent from Carroll Gardens to Park Slope bubbling up to $2M, and $1.5M becoming the new range even in Clinton Hill, the push east is inevitable. And we're getting swept along by the wave. Block after block of good housing stock for 1/2 or 1/3 of the price seen just a couple of miles west. 324 Stuyvesant Avenue didn't last long at $625K with so-so photography of a few interior details...



... and only one full room shot:



Where else can you find 3,400+ sqft of bay windows, stone front, 3-Family goodness for barely the cost of a nice 2BR condo? The next door neighbor 322 Stuyvesant Avenue just sold for $490K on 10/21/11! With the pace of pricing in established areas, the push east could be rapid, especially within the FHA loan limits.

Pro's: curb appeal, lovely block, original details, price point

Con's: multiple offers in already, needs renovation, are you ready for deep Bed-Stuy?

Ideally: luckily there are some great buys left on this very same avenue...

Larger Than Life: 572 Pacific Street

The Park Slope premium is officially larger than life. You didn't hear it here first, but you've definitely heard it here many times. 250 Garfield Place went in contract before we could even cover it. And, to hear Brownstoner tell it, Anne Hathaway even looked at the place. One reader sent us that Brownstoner link, while yet another tells us of the documentary "My Brooklyn" showing next week in Tribeca. A film that "documents how an obsession with upscale environments driven by the Wall Street bubble is threatening the very economic, racial and ethnic diversity and neighborhood character that have historically drawn many generations to Brooklyn" sounds poignant at times like these. Despite the macro-economics of the country, FHA loan limits coming down, European debt crises rattling all sorts of markets, the tip-top Brooklyn housing market is as hot as ever. Be appalled, if you will, but we can't really be surprised. People aren't spending that kind of money in these neighborhoods for the chance to see Anne Hathaway walking around in her yoga gear. These neighborhoods are becoming West Village and Upper West Side alternatives. Have you tried pricing townhouses in one of THOSE neighborhoods recently?

572 Pacific Street will wow you... with its high price, bare floor plan, and expansive view of the Modell's parking lot across the street:



And don't let the respirator mask during the demolition on the Google Streetview fool ya:



They did a full renovation with central air & heat, all new fixtures & finishes. When you go after a 4-Family in Park Slope for $2.295M, however, you might think you'd get more than for your money. This dry renovation may - frighteningly - just be where prices are these days. We can't say it's worth this much, but we honestly can't blame them for trying either. For sure, the renovation is thorough and added all kinds of features. You'll never have a problem renting out these fancy 2BR units. But is this the location where someone ultimately wants to land, just to get these top-notch features? 572 Pacific sits kind of in between what 33 St. Marks did and what 35 St. Marks would like to do. It's not for us, but we can't wait to see what this frothy market does with it.

Pro's: spanking new renovation, close to transit, sliced into a 4-Family rental income machine, 2BR rentals

Con's: not residential-feeling block, across the street from Modell's parking lot, too close to the stadium?, pricing, over-renovated?

Ideally: contact us for the 3-5 places we'd buy all day before this one.

Carroll Gardens Mixed-Use: 299 Smith Street

Mixed-use buildings sort of confuse us at this point. Especially in areas like BoCoCa where we've seen how small the cap rates can be on a building such as the one that houses Sweet Melissa's. Sometimes mixed-use can be a sweet spot, and sometimes it's hard for us to figure out who's after these places. Investors don't usually find the cash flow they're looking for, and homeowners don't want to deal with commercial space or live right on a bustling avenue, or get a place with no backyard access. Perhaps in the booming BoCoCa where everything half-way decent wants to be $1.75M-$2M these days, getting 2 apartments plus a store for $1.6M is attractive.

299 Smith Street is in a prime location in Carroll Gardens, near the F/G trains, Carroll Park, all kinds of amenities, and a coveted hit & miss (misses probably determined by staggering commercial rents) retail corridor. If you wish you snatched up the building at 179 Smith Street where Camp is, listed for $1.5M, that sold for $1.425M all cash - you might get another chance here. Looks like the owner's had the thing since 1979 with almost no cost basis or equity pulled out of it. The only snafu we can foresee is the suspiciously-recent Lis Pendens from 10/17/2011 for "Partition Of Property". Somebody sure had some fun with photo shop sepia effects after taking the only 2 interior shots provided:





Do not adjust your television sets. This is the real color of the pics posted to sell this thing for $1.6M. 20' x 44' on a 60' lot with some dated interior? Check the rents, get clarity on the Lis Pendens, and expect some price flexibility if the owner's reasonable. If you can even sniff this, and you have a renovation budget, you'll be kicking yourself for not picking up 489 6th Avenue in time for slightly more. 258 Dekalb Avenue at its latest price drop looks like a more compelling buy in our book.

Pro's: prime location, rental income potential, income of the building is top priority for underwriting, price flexibility

Con's: commercial loan needed, where's the upside?, maybe head over to 258 Dekalb

Ideally: perfectly poised listing. Nothing grabs us about it, but if this is the kind of thing you're looking for, this is a great look at it.

Park Slope Imposter: 220 Garfield Place

Imagine you were minding your own business with $2M+ burning a whole in your pocket for a nice brownstone in a prime part of Park Slope. You'd think if you were on the website for one of the Slope brokers like Garfield Realty (whose tag line boasts, "Service is Everything") you could get a realistic sense of what they have to offer. Afterall, the Corcoran broker you went to only showed you Corcoran listings, and the same thing happened at a few other places. So you started just seeking places out yourself. You don't care who has the dang listing, you simply want the best house for your money. So you click on Garfield's website and you see this 3,200+ sqft meaty chunk of "Renaissance Revival Brownstone" on a great block between 7th & 8th Avenues. Tell me more, right? Wrong.

220 Garfield Place is a 2-Family which has bobbed & weaved with different brokers at this $2.15M price tage since 2009, and actually just sold for its asking price on 11/9/2011. But don't expect the "Service is Everything" broker to tell you that. Afterall, why would you think some place called "Garfield Realty" would have their finger on the pulse of real estate on "Garfield Place"? After collecting upwards of $100,000 in commission, how hard would it be to put "SOLD" somewhere on your listing, at least out of a courtesy to your next potential $2M+ buyers? (Granted, it looks like an open listing, and it's unclear to us if Garfield collected any commission.)

Much like our last pick north of $2M, this long-listed property finally got swooped up by the rising market. The difference with this place on Garfield is they were in a prime enough area to sit at their price and wait for the market to meet them, without having to come down in price to meet the market halfway. While Garfield Realty couldn't be bothered to show any interior pics - and, from the looks of it, neither could Aguayo & Huebener or Brooklyn Properties when they had their shot at the listing - Brown Harris Stevens was able to muster a few grimey shots back in 2009.



At least Aguayo & Huebener had the decency to put "IN CONTRACT!" in big red letters on their version of the listing:



And Prudential was happy to tell us their $2.6M listing for 250 Garfield Place had a signed contract too. Compare these prices to the $3.75M asking price for the immaculate renovation of 178 Garfield Place that a member of the BK To The Fullest team did.

As soon as we work out the details of how to display it, we should be putting an imposter list together on a seperate page within the blog. It's long overdue.

Pro's: curb appeal, top notch location, double duplex

Con's: sold and nobody told us, so-so interior, another sign of a frothy market

Ideally: still kind of surprising to see this sale at this price with the best two $1.8M's in Park Slope still dangling out there.

Price Drop in Contract: 122 Carroll Street

In Carroll Gardens - and BoCoCa in general - things you might think are expensive actually move pretty quickly. 364 Union Street didn't last long at $2.5M before it was in contract with multiple back-up offers. 116 1st Place, listed at $1.9M, has a contract out with a back-up offer already. This place on Warren Street didn't last long at $2.1M. Today we look at 122 Carroll Street, which came out at $2.699M on 10/6/11. After a big price drop 3 weeks later, down to $2.35M, this 4-Family used as a 1-Family quickly went into contract. While there are no pics of the interior anywhere on this latest listing, you can get a peak inside back when it was listed for $3.5M, and it fetching even $2M seemed absurd this time last year to the Brownstoner editor. What a difference a year makes!





At this level of decadence, we'd be a little surprised to see the building retained as a 4-Family, though using it as 1-Family seems a little over the top too. But those are decisions we leave to others. Popping a huge skylight in there was a nice touch:



All & all, not a suprising turn of events for something so shiny in such a coveted area. Being around the corner from Lucali's doesn't hurt matters. This is the kind of sub-$2.5M quality that should make the over-priced, horribly photographed 486 Warren Street a little ashamed of itself.

Pro's: great renovation with all kinds of original and modern features, hefty price capitulation, 4-Family status leaves options, neighborhood,

Con's: curb appeal, lots out there for this price, renovation may not be your taste, used as a 1-Family

Ideally: as prices rise, the previously over-priced suddenly becomes the best of breed, especially if its price is coming down.