Crown Heights Open House: 521 Crown Street

With an open house this Sunday from 4:30 to 5:30pm, 521 Crown Street is another Crown Heights condo alternative that's worth a look with its asking price of $825K.  Elliot Nicks, who brought us 1148 Sterling Place in Crown Heights at an affordable pricepoint, is at it again!  The exterior of this house may say "Queens", but there's not a lot of places to find a 20' x 65' brick home on a 127' lot with original details.  Have you seen some of the south Crown Heights comps recently?  We see this as a great condo alternative play, just like this other Crown Heights gem.

Lots of upgrades to be done, some appear underway already, plus lots of nice details to play with if you choose to keep 'em...

No look at the backyard, if there is much of one, but - for all those who find this "too far east" - is that a garage too??

And where else are you getting rooms this large for under $850K?

Pro's:  pricepoint, floorplate, deep lot, garage, open house, original details

Con's:  you'll want to do at least upgrade the kitchen, "deep Crown Heights", not the picturesque brownstone you had in mind, quirky shape, what's up with the yard?

Ideally:  an open house this weekend makes it easy to check out if you think it's worth a look

Closings of Note: Pent-Up Activity

Some called it "a gem", others called it "lipstick on a pig".  No matter what you call it, 213 Prospect Place withstood a barrage of cash offers with its $2.15M listing price and closed last week for $2.365M cash.  Welcome to Prospect Heights, people, where this sort of pricing for 4 fixable stories and an extra-deep yard is still a steal compared to Park Slope, BoCoCa, or a crumby condo anywhere in Manhattan.

Speaking of Prospect Heights, when we heard this prime mixed-use property at 607A Vanderbilt Avenue dropped from its asking price of $1.25M to entertaining numbers well below $1M, we put the bat signal out for Platinum Members.  While some were fretting, others were cashing in.  The building sold for $850K in October.  One of the best values on this entire stretch since the post-crash rebound.

They said it wouldn't last, and it didn't.  Hurricane Sandy couldn't even stop the Park Slope spot at 14 Prospect Place from listing for $2.5M with Corcoran and closing for $2.9M cash in a flash.

Only 13' wide on a side street by the projects in Boerum Hill with almost no yard??  How about a contract in less than 1 month and full asking price of $1.595M for 161 Hoyt Street.  Makes a nearby wounded listing look like a steal.  Were you expecting a house in Boerum Hill for less?  Well, then try the small vacant lot at 85 Wyckoff Street that just sold for $1.3M.

With all that neighboring activity, it's no wonder the broker/owner of the Boerum Hill 4-story at 94 Bergen Street held out for their price for so long.  They eventually fetched just over $1.8M last month.

Unicorn Hunters rejoice at the sight of sub-$1.5M in Park Slope.  Then you tell 'em it's actually in south Gowanus, only 36' deep, & nothing special on the inside - and they're a tad less excited.  But those are the breaks.  The 3-Family at 173 12th Street closed for $1.42M last month.

Or perhaps you'd prefer a 16' x 30' vinyl-siding on 17th Street in what they liberally still like to call "Park Slope" whenever they can.  410 17th Street sold for over $1.4M last month.

Why's it hard to find something for $1.5M in Park Slope again?  Oh yeah, because big prime pieces like this 880 Carroll Street just sold for $3.4M last month.  Makes this nearby house look like a steal.

Over on 8th Avenue, this other Park Slope beauty listed for $2.8M after the crash and fetched $2.4M in a wounded market.  So it's no surprise to see 178 8th Avenue get $3M last month in this market.

Same goes for yet another Park Slope beauty at 92 Garfield Place, listing for $2.65M and getting full ask right away.

And why are townhouses so expensive in Brooklyn Heights, you ask?  Wonder why multi-millionaires are picking up places for $5M and putting another $1M into them on a regular basis?  Well, when a condo there like 54 Hicks Street sells for $3.4M last month, maybe you get a sense of the market you're dealing with.

We've been beating people over the head about this prime, historic Crown Heights block for over a year, but some people just don't listen.  "Haters wanna hate, lovers wanna love..."  Then a savvy local broker got himself a great place 1174 Dean Street for $1.133M last month.  They'll look back on this block 2-3 years from now and wonder why anyone ever let it get undervalued.

Marketing Does It Again: 361 Bergen Street

We've asked the question before, if a multi-million dollar building falls in the forest and no one knows it's for sale, does it make a sound?  In our last piece, we covered a building that wants more than double what a basically-identical neighbor just sold for.  And the only real difference between the two is how well the listings were marketed.  Today we take a look at a building that was on Platinum Member radar before Halstead got their hands on it and marketed it properly.  And this isn't Mill Basin we're talking about here, people.  This is Park Slope!  361 Bergen Street was a "for sale by owner" also listed openly with a much smaller, lesser-known local broker for more money than this Halstead listing.  Though, the broker told us the sellers were motivated and open to any & all offers.  Well, it didn't take long before lurkers at Halstead figured they could snatch an exclusive and make some money off this bad-boy.  Brokers don't like to work without an exclusive because there's no guarantee they'll get paid.  It's also why they don't like to work with buyers, for all those folks with gobs of cash still wondering why it's hard to find anyone professional in the industry to hold their hand through the Wild West that is Brooklyn real estate.

We understand why on the sell side people don't want to pay big brokers as much as 6% to list their property, when most of these things sell themselves.  But you can't bury your listing in the forest and expect anyone to come across it either.  So what does the seller get for a six-figure commission besides 5 okay photos and 2 sentences?  Well, they get the place sold.  94% of $1.75M+ is still more than 100% of 0, last time we checked.

When you're in Park Slope proper, even if you're close to the stadium and between 4th & 5th Avenues, you've got people's attention.  Throw in four-stories of brownstone with a cute cornice, wide plank floors, original mantles, deliver it vacant... and it's a wrap!  People are bidding more than this for shells over here.  So it's no surprise to see it go quickly once this listing was brought out from the rock it was living under.  Speaking of which, there are some pretty nice rocks in the backyard:

Even if you wanted to greenify this space, you're sitting on at least $5K-$10K in bluestone right there someone would gladly pay you for use in their landmarked sidewalk.  Amazing what a little photography and marketing can do to bring out the millionaires.  We've said it before, and we'll say it again until it isn't true:  there is no true multiple listing service for brownstone Brooklyn.  (Even the beloved NYTimes concurs!!)  Whether you have $50K or $50M, there is no one place where everything that's for sale resides - as baffling as that is.  Barbara Corcoran herself couldn't tell you how many brownstones are for sale in Park Slope to save her life.  One of the many reasons is because - at any given moment - there are handfuls of quiet sales going on right under everyone's noses.  We were in a $10M+ building today that's up for a quiet sale.  "We in the building, but still keep it basement."

 
Those sellers could fetch over $12M if they came to the open market, but they've got their own concerns.  And the top brokers in Brooklyn won't work on it because even six-figures in commission isn't worth their time unless it's basically guaranteed.  Who knows why sellers do what they do?  But we can certainly tell you why brokers do what they do!

Pro's:  curb appeal, Park Slope, original details, yard, 4-stories, under $2M, motivated seller, delivered vacant

Con's:  in contract already, people will whine about 4th Avenue & the stadium & the pending reno

Ideally:  get to these gems before the big brokers do, and you can really do some damage

The Markup of Marketing: 131A Cambridge Place

Just over 6 months ago, we asked if there was value left in prime Clinton Hill when an undermarketed house at 135 Cambridge Place was available for well under $1.5M.  A savvy reader picked this bad-boy up for the extremely discounted price of $890K just two months ago.  Well, if you didn't like a 15' wide house in estate condition at those prices, then you really don't wanna know what their almost-identical neighbor wants now.

131A Cambridge Place is an "estate condition" 2-Family used as a 1, asking just under $2M.  Never mind that the neighbor just sold well under a million, the Minsk man is out for every dollar that shiny pictures and thorough marketing can get.  No stranger to the markup of marketing, he dangled the nearby gem at 338 Clinton Avenue for $2.6M immediately after it closed just under $2M.  Now, armed with fancy pictures of just the staircase, mantles, and backyard, we wonder if $2M is really the pay-to-play price on this block now for a 15-footer in estate condition.

There's an off-market fixer-upper around the corner that Platinum Members are scoping for this price, but it's a way larger piece.  There are a handful of easy to find places we'd rather get you into as a fixer-upper at these levels.  This is simply not it.  The misty, over-exposed pics of the backyard sure help, but as they say in Spanish, "Aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona se queda."

Not that they're not at least pitching their product with all the pomp & circumstance one could muster.  There is the "stunning Dutch-style gable topped by a classical shell pediment projecting above the slate mansard roof" - if you go for that kind of thing.  All in all, the buyer of 135 Cambridge must be patting himself on the back.  And this makes 368 Grand Avenue look like a frikkin' steal.


Pro's:  it is an 1890's townhouse on a nice block with original details and a yard, marketed clearly

Con's:  pricepoint, fixer-upper in estate condition, 15' wide, 135 Cambridge was the move

Ideally:  run, don't walk, to better fixer-uppers at this pricepoint.

"The Lion Sleeps 'Cause It Can": 331 State Street

Buyers e-mail us all the time asking, "I look at Streeteasy everyday, how am I not seeing all the listings?"  Well, that's because Streeteasy is just one (albeit, incredibly useful) piece of the fractured Brooklyn real estate puzzle.  So imagine our surprise when Streeteasy told us that one of Brooklyn's top brokers has an account with them that he never, ever uses.  "I thought people just used Streeteasy for research," the broker told us, "I didn't think buyers went there looking for property for sale."  If you're keeping score at home, that's:

(1) crowds of millionaire buyers who don't know there's anything BUT Streeteasy, and

(2) a top broker (who's sold over a quarter-billion in real estate) that doesn't know that buyers even USE Streeteasy.

Only in Brooklyn, people!  The broker even bragged to us today, "I've never had a problem selling a property."  However, "never having a problem" and "getting top dollar" are two different things.  Which isn't to say he doesn't get top dollar for 90% of his properties, but certain townhomes we think would be better served on Streeteasy (along with the rest of the marketing campaign), because that's one of the major channels where end-users search for these things.  102 Pierrepont Street in prime Brooklyn Heights is a great example.  You're not going to get top dollar for something unless you put it in the place where the top bidders are looking.  And we think this 331 State Street is worth a look for people who don't even know that Massey Knakal exists, or don't go to their site often enough to catch wind of buys like these in time.

331 State Street is a healthy 19' x 49' brownstone in a quiet section of Boerum Hill just north of Atlantic Avenue, sandwiched between downtown Brooklyn and quintessential Boerum Hill.  The building is chopped into 8-units currently, successfully being rented for short term stays.  Listing broker Stephen Palmese almost never bothers with interior pics, even when six-figure commissions are at stake, which is part of why lurkers seek to flip his under-marketed properties like 338 Clinton Avenue, which the Minsk-Man quickly re-listed for $2.6M after doing nothing more than taking shiny pictures and listing it in more typical venues for these properties like the NYTimes and (drum roll...) Streeteasy.

When a 420 sqft 2/1 in 331 State Street can command as much as $3,990/month as a furnished short-term rental, you've really got yourself some cashflow.  It's a rate they're obligated to take pics to achieve...

That's right, folks.  For a $3,900/month rental, you get pictures.  For a $2.5M purchase, you get no pictures.  It's a phenomenon we've seen again and again.

We even put our own fam' up in this place when they came to visit a couple years ago.  The location is so prime, the block is so quaint & quiet, and the nightly rates are way preferable to a hotel.  It wouldn't be bad to step into this owner's shoes and keep their business model going.  It has the potential to gross over $300K a year at these rents, but you've got a hands-on management situation to engage then too.  Although, we think at these levels, an end user may pick it up and make it their own.  Something we had an honest debate with the listing broker about today.  Palmese, who's single-handedly accounted for 8% of deals in Brooklyn in the first half of this year (along with his hard-working team), may have his finger on the pulse of certain submarkets, but there's a whole other 92% of Brooklyn out there too.  We think Streeteasy is one of the many places he should put this property (afterall, it's free!), but also with co-ops on State Street asking $2M and gut jobs on State Street that wanted $3.3M (now $2.9M), an end-user could try to take down 331 State Street over $2M.  That's if it doesn't get taken down closer to $3M first!

Pro's:  location, size, turnkey investment, not on every last buyer's radar, step into owner's shoes

Con's:  already has a ton of attention and showings scheduled, chopped into small units means a hefty job for an end-user

Ideally:  very little surprises us in Brooklyn anymore, so this one could go either way.

Closings of Note: Pick Your Poison

As we always tell would-be buyers, you've gotta compromise on some combination of price, size, condition, and location.  Nice house in a nice neighborhood is expensive.  Case in point, 170 Washington Park joins the fawncy 4-Family comps in Fort Greene after listing for $2.495M and closing for $2.275M.  Don't be surprised to see a healthy renovation coming soon either.

For a fawncy 2-Family in Boerum Hill, don't be surprised to see 441 Pacific Street get a contract in under 4 weeks on the market and close for its asking price of $2.4M the very next month.

Also in Boerum Hill, don't be surprised to see a fawncy 2-Family at 179 Bergen Street get ITS asking price in less than a month too.  What was that price again?  Oh yeah, $2.95M.

Maybe you're more of a Park Slope type when you're spending $2M+.  Well, step into 505 4th Street, that we're told "is a home for a family that requires more than the readily available 'so-so.' This is that special 'just-so.' "  But it took $2.55M to do it.

Just under 17' wide in Prospect Heights, this sleek reno at 297 Prospect Place that Brownstoner called "thoroughly modern" got its asking price of $1.8M.

"Meh" in a nice neighborhood goes cheaper, but not without encumbrances.  An SRO between Nevins and 3rd Avenue?  272 Dean Street closed for $1.25M last month.

We called the 3-story 303 Vanderbilt Avenue in Clinton Hill a winner at its asking price of $1.6M.  Even its sales price of $1.71M last month is a modest premium on top of that.  An extra $110K financed at prevailing rates fixed for 30 years is less than $500/month.  We're pretty confident that buyers at these price points can handle that, so can we please stop the Chicken Little routines about a price swing around $100K?

Nice in a "meh" neighborhood has its own discount too.  And even "meh" in a "meh" neighborhood isn't a steal in this market.  If you wanna get in South Slope around a million, it's a vinyl siding fixer-upper like 360 14th Street for $1.05M.


We called value on the mystery meat listing for 249 Hoyt Street, which even with a dinky listing around the corner from the projects couldn't stop this little thing from getting $1.15M on its $1.3M ask price.

Even a barely-marketed 2-Family fixer-upper in Crown Heights like 567 St. Marks Avenue commands $850K.  Perhaps another little reality check for the "I want a turnkey townhouse for $700K and I won't go past Bedford" crowd?  And that's BEFORE you factor in the fact that Corcoran could've gotten another $100-$200K for this bad-boy if they'd gotten their hands on it.

If you don't wanna spend over $700K and you don't wanna go past Bedford, then you don't wanna see that the dinky new construction at 1941 Pacific Street just got $698K.

Crown Heights Jewel in Contract: 583 Lincoln Place

A killer brick townhouse in Crown Heights that's not on Streeteasy, NYTimes, Zillow, or (until recently) Trulia?  That's right!  The same weekend that the masses were busy bemoaning, fretting, and 2nd-guessing Corcoran's re-listing of 10 St. Charles Place for $999K, Platinum Members got the early lead on this corner gem at 583 Lincoln Place.  Marketing is a powerful thing.

The owner of 10 St. Charles Place wanted some $850K once upon a time, but local brokers couldn't bring it to him.  Corcoran swooped in like Superman and packed an open house this spring with a list price of $920K.  The high bids quickly ran up towards $999K.  Then the accepted offer fell through, as has been known to happen in this industry, and the owner ostensibly wanted the $999K figure again.  Novices thought this was some kind of trickeration.  It wasn't.  It's his house, and he'll ask more if he wants to.... You would too if it happened to you.

Meanwhile, Platinum Members were sizing up a quick flip that wanted almost $1.4M renovated.  However, knowing how these sellers operate, we figured it might make even more sense un-renovated for the buyer to put their own finishing touches on it.  Location-wise, many have finally gotten the notice that it's okay to be around the corner from Franklin Avenue, with amazing train access, housing stock, and an ever-growing commercial corridor of shops and restaurants.  Wanna take a guess at how much the condos that finally broke ground at the corner of Franklin and Eastern Parkway will be asking??

The white exterior on 583 Lincoln Place was cute, but due to come down...

Now they've exposed the brick, demo'd what was a gut anyways, and got it poised for its renovation...

The modest 18' x 42' floorplate is bolstered by a healthy extension and multiple roof decks.  And being situated right on the corner affords windows for days...

The peanut gallery take on this place will easily be, "Hey, someone else just bought it for $405K this July," which reminds us of Chris Rock's take on past partners.  But that's just sour grapes.  This prime location is only getting more prime by the day, so a savvy buyer knows what to do when they see it.


Pro's:  location, corner, curb appeal, great canvas, multiple roof decks with some skyline views, all kinds of windows for unobstructed exposures on 3 sides, options abound

Con's:  in contract already, under the radar, lots of renovation to do, little-to-no yard

Ideally:  a killer corner canvas ready to be optimized