Closings of Note: The 4 Horsemen

With real estate headlines that include 86% price leaps in one year for townhomes in "emerging" Brooklyn neighborhoods, putting the "median sale price" at $1.85M, you can only imagine that the Chicken Littles are certain this is the next sign of the apocalypse.  Readers of such pieces continue to list their first wave explanations for how this pricing could be possible.  That's right, while we still get e-mails just this week from folks looking to purchase a house no further than 9th Street and east of 3rd Avenue in "Park Slope/Gowanus" for $1.5M with financing, the median sale price of homes in less-coveted areas from Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Lefferts, and Bushwick (let's call them the 4 horseman!) is supposedly $1.85M.  But instead of averages and medians in reports from Corcoran, or individual buyers pulling a number out of thin air for their favorite neighborhood, let's take a walk through some of these areas and see what the case-by-case numbers are really like...

Whoa!  No wonder it's hard to find a house north of 9th Street that's under $1.5M, even the jokers at this local brokerage managed to get $2.5M for this tiny house on 16th Street.  Asking $2.195M, this renovated 2-Fam at 346 16th Street had a cute yard, central A/C, and a Home Expo interior.  Just 3 stories, not 4, but close to the park.  A buyer from the Upper East Side zoomed by the asking price and closed last month for $2.5M.

The coveted stretch of South Elliot in Fort Greene is precisely one block long, so it's no wonder houses there are hard to come by.  This estate sale at 23 South Elliott closed last month to a buyer from the West Village for $2.2M.  It takes a lot of cash to pull it off, and a lot of cash to finish the renovation, but this is a relative steal for the area.

But Clinton Hill can play over $2M too!  The peanut gallery reluctantly acknowledged that 22 Lefferts Place was a "relative value" at its asking price of $1.9M, and some expected it to go for more.  Alas, Manhattan buyers closed on it in August for $2.125M.

But Prospect Lefferts Garden can play over $2M too!  94 Midwood Street, a "mere" single family, stunning, with a lot of yard, driveway and garages!  Closed for $2.25M last month.

Speaking of Manhattan buyers, Park Slope's 145 Berkeley Place sells to some last month for $3.45M.  Corcoran.com says they have 5 more just like this, and Platinum Members are scoping out a handful of homes just like this pre-market in this pricepoint on these blocks in Park Slope and Prospect Heights that you won't find on Corcoran.com.

Over in Crown Heights, Platinum Members got the early lead back in May on this neat little 2-Family at 858 Lincoln Place from a local broker.  A buyer from Prospect Heights closed on it last month for $1.2M.  A great purchase compared to what the big brokers are getting on this very block.  And a far cry from a "median sale price of $1.85M".

Case in point, 814 Lincoln Place listed for $1.35M this summer and a buyer from Manhattan closed last month for $1.5M.  It wasn't long ago that more finished 4-stories in this row like 852 Park Place were going for $1.5M.  At the broker's open for 814, Platinum Members complained to us about the extremely short yard and said, "The house is great, 'but'....  There's always a 'but'..."  Even the NYTimes knows about "buts":

Trust that we here at BKTTF are no strangers to "buts".  Maybe a $1.5M sale like this on east of Nostrand in Crown Heights is why that $1.5M "Park Slope/Gowanus" search is so elusive.  Or why people can rarely this kind of pricing on Franklin Avenue.

Also in Crown Heights, 681 Franklin Avenue is a mixed-use building that sold for $1.4M last month.  Now this 3BR/1 bath rental wants $3,800/month.

$1.5M in "Park Slope/Gowanus"??  Try over $1.5M in Lefferts!  181 Fenimore Street is a cute 3-story barrel front that listed for $1.495M and closed for $1.545M last month to buyers from the East Village.  And these folks are no dummies either; we're talking Harvard Business School, y'all!  You think those are the fools rushing into some real estate bubble?  Or are they just buying the dopest house in Brooklyn that their budget and search could yield?  It's funny when renters in Brooklyn Heights think they can't go past 9th Street in Park Slope, but folks from Manhattan are cool with Lefferts.  Oh, when will you myopic upper class ever learn?  They call us telling them the truth a "schtick" - we call it "the truth".

$1.5M in "Park Slope/Gowanus"??  Try the Clinton Hill/Bed-Stuy border!  419A Classon Avenue listed for $1.5M and closed last month for $1.45M.  Super generic, and not what most people have in mind.  But then again, it is a better pricepoint than neighbors who spent $1.85M-$2M+ for narrower finished houses.

$1.5M in  "Park Slope/Gowanus"??  Try $1.5M mortgage on a $1.875M purchase in Lefferts, made by buyers coming from Park Slope!  This 3-story single-family at 190 Maple Street closed last month.  Sure cleans up nice, but that's a big number, and no rental income.  This is where Corcoran must be pulling their "median" sale price of $1.85M for these areas, no?

Or, for more of a deal, slide further towards Flatbush to 1 Parkside Court where a fixer-upper closed for right around a million.  On Platinum Member radar for over a year, the aggressive flippers got to it before we could, cleaned it out, brought it to the retail market, and made a pretty penny for their risk and effort.

$1.5M in "Park Slope/Gowanus"??  Try Ditmas, where Manhattan buyers took down 229 Stratford Road last month.  Platinum Members renting in Brooklyn with high-brow businesses in Manhattan asked us just yesterday if buyers from Manhattan are really part of the Brooklyn real estate story.  The sales don't lie.

Speaking of Mahattan buyers... listed for $2.95M, closed for $3.5M last month, 305 Cumberland Street is a frame house with the sickest, most stylish renovation.  Views ripped from the headlines of an interior design magazine, this is how you ball out in Brooklyn.  It didn't quite sell for what Jenna's house sold for a few years ago, but this is the stuff Brooklyn real estate porn is made of... especially for a frame house.  And while the price will shock most, there are $5M apartments in Manhattan jealous of these interiors.  But don't despair.  Fort Greene isn't the only place where stunning renovations get a 3-handle on them.  We can't wait to show you this month who's bringing that number east of Classon Avenue with style.

Who's selling you a house in Park Slope/Gowanus for $1.5M when Bed-Stuy gets $1.85M?  290 Jefferson Avenue closed in August for full asking price to buyers from the Upper West Side.  Noticing a pattern, anyone?

Platinum Members in Contract on Prime Crown Heights Gem: 711 Sterling Place

Don't try this on your StreetEasy, y'all!!  But Platinum Members just fully executed contract on one of Crown Heights' juiciest buy & hold gems.  This spot is just steps from what many have hailed as God's gift to brownstone Brooklyn gentrification, Franklin Avenue.  You know, the location that has everything the conk-ya-over-the-head-obvious renters, buyers, and frequenters of the neighborhood can get their heads around.  From Barboncino, to Chavela's, to Franklin Park, to the new Starbucks, to the wine shop, to Bob & Betty's, to the cheese monger spot, to Roscoe's, to Mayfield, to Centi Anni, to Berg'n, to the Crabby Shack, to multiple Indian and Carribean food spots, independent coffee shops, yoga studios, 2/3/4/5/S trains, yoga studios, and what-have-you.... all on Franklin Avenue.  There's even a new "Sweets & Treats" spot on this very corner for yours truly, "Snacks Jackson"

Yes, 711 Sterling Place is a huge 20' x 70' building with 3BR apartments that was asking well over $2M and is now in contract well under $2M.  Cry-baby "investors" sitting back at home always need you to pencil the math for them as if they've never multiplied 3 numbers together before, so let's oblige.  20 feet wide x 70 feet deep x 4 stories stories equals.... (drum roll, please)  5,600 square feet. 

"Wait, you're buying a building at almost $300 a square foot on the same street where condos 2 blocks west are selling for $900/sqft??"   That's right!  Read 'em & weep.

 "Wait, but that's only 5,600 square feet GROSS, you'll have loss factor for hallways, etc, so you won't NET that many feet," the investors will say.  Yeah?  No, sh*t, Sherlock.  Even then, you're still looking at over 1,000 sqft net on each floor!  But they don't hear us though.  And we can't wait to show you another pre-market comp of what the rental market right around the corner is capable of on another Platinum Member pick-up that's putting the finishing touches on as we speak.  The genius of a play like 711 is that you don't have to be an all-out cash machine to acquire it, it will cash flow on day 1 even with attractive financing, and the condo conversion can come when the market is even more ripe than it is now.  No, this is not an all-out steal, but it is definitely a DEAL, especially with comps in worse locations and in worse condition going for the same price, such as 1319 Bedford Avenue for $1.7M cash or 72 Herkimer Street in contract for $1.8M cash.  To get 711 Sterling Place with financing is an amazing pick-up, and an upper-cut of reality to the steady stream of Johnny-Come-Lately's that reach out to us asking for Franklin Avenue for a million.  Even the plots of dirt on Franklin Avenue sell for over a million now.  So you know we're loving 7-11.

"So, are you gonna put a roof deck on it and duplex the garden apartment with the basement?"  Uh, duh!  Doesn't everyone??  This is "development", not rocket science, people!  711 Sterling Place, also named "Stella" on the facade above the entry, has a decent curb appeal with its half-bow curve to the front and white-on-gray look to it.  The cute red Vespa out front in these pics is just added flare...

"But what if the rents don't keep going up and up and up forever??  This market has to cool off at some point, doesn't it?!?"  Sure, it does, Chicken Little.  But this isn't speculation.  This place is bank at today's rents, and even yesterday's rents, but we're happy to take a look if you think you have any shred of data that says this market is slowing down, stopping, or retracing.  When people are paying $2,200+ for studios on the same street AND right around the corner, and others are paying $1,600+/BR on the same street, does a building that makes bank at $1,200/BR sound attractive to you?? 

We've got no pics of the inside of 711 for now, unfortch', but rest assured we wouldn't be touching this deal if it weren't worth its weight.  Platinum Members are usually even more chicken than we are, so when we get the call to team up with them, our answer is usually, "We'll do any deal the bank will let us do."  And to that end, we bring you Stella!

Pro's:  size, curb appeal, location, condition, 3BR's on the floorplate, delivered vacant, totally free-market apts, killer rental income & condo potential, happened below asking price, happened almost off-market, didn't take all-cash to do it, the size of an 8-Fam with the flexibility of a FM 4-Fam

Con's:  no pics of the interior, cry-baby so-called investors always find something to hate on even when it's obvi the hands-down best of breed deal in town

Ideally:  whether you call it $900K a floor on sell out or $3,600 minimum a floor on rental, we call it a golden pick-up that didn't take all-cash in a prime-time location.

Topics: Reminder

'All buyers with Alzheimer's, line up please...'  We've got it if you need it, a reminder.  Before any one data point in NYC real estate blows your mind, let's remember what city we're dealing with here in Brooklyn in the first place.  This week we're reminded how baller this city really is, as NYC tops the Forbes list with over 50 billionaires.  It's not like this is anything new.  And don't forget this city's got 7,000+ folks with $30M+ net worth.  "Men lie, women lie, numbers don't..."  So do we still get to pretend like historic townhomes in Bed-Stuy setting records above $2M are a surprise?  NYTimes says Manhattan luxury condos are "dialing it down" with fewer $10M+ condos hitting the market.  And you're still surprised that Fort Greene townhomes are $3M+ now instead of $2M+?

Well, one Fort Greene resident who claims to be hip to the market certainly is surprised.  They texted us out of the blue yesterday looking for a move-in ready town home in Fort Greene with a rental for ~$2M.  That type of deal hasn't happened consistently on the market for over a year, and just this week Platinum Members were excited to have an accepted offer on an off-market fixer-upper in Fort Greene for over 25% more than that.  The would-be buyer complained to us, "Yes, developers and corporations are not making it easy for families that want to stay in the neighborhood."  Which is a great sound bite that gets the empathetic & populist juices flowing, but when you work as a 'Global Business Development Manager' for a $69 Billion multi-national corporation, and you are among the upper 1% of wealth in the richest country in the world... pleas for what is and isn't "easy for families" might fall on deaf ears.

You can't play cut-throat, 'big bank take little bank' capitalism by day and then come home looking for sympathy and special treatment "for families" by night; as poet, activist, and all-around bad-ass Grace Paley pointed out in her poem, "The Hard-Hearted Rich"...

As we all know, there are certainly many families that the economic realities in places like Fort Greene are much harder on than the plight of the upper 1%.  We've documented what $2M gets you in & around town, and it is oh-so-rarely a move-in ready house in Fort Greene with 20% downpayment.  And if one such property were to hit the open market, it could easily be bid up higher than $3M by dozens of buyers.  Just ask the owners (or the dozen plus losing bidders) on 252 Carlton Avenue.  It's cute to say you're trying to make it easy on families when what you're really trying to do is buy someone else's $3M asset for just $2M.  Who wins there?  And it's cute to pay lip service to romanticized notions of "staying in the neighborhood", but when you buy someone else's house from them, it necessarily creates someone who now doesn't get to stay in the neighborhood anymore.  So, as they say, it is what it is.  And as we've said before, if you don't like the prices at the $12 cocktail bar, then kindly exit the $12 cocktail bar.  But let's not forget what a rarefied place the $12 cocktail bar is in the first place.  We're living in a city with "the only mayonnaise store on the PLANET!!!"...

We're living in a city where just a few blocks up from that very mayonnaise store, parents with 8-figure bank accounts are buying starter apartments for their kids for over half a millie all cash.  We're living in a city where real estate brokers who have sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate still miraculously don't know what 2BR apartments rent or sell for.  We're living in a city where computer programmers with 6-figure salaries get 7-figure bonuses from their hedge-funds and buy fixer-upper houses for well over $1M cash.  We're living in a city where some hedge-funds won't even take a meeting with you about managing your money unless you're bringing $25M+ worth of assets under management over to them.  We're living in a city where clowns routinely pay more for bottle service in one night at a club than most American families earn in a month or two.  We're living in a city where celebs with $2M+ cash ask us to help them knock the price of their home inspection down a few hundred dollars on a $3M off-market purchase.  We're living in a city where millionaire movie producers and their big brokers beg us for an off-market showing for weeks, then cancel the showing at the last-minute claiming their "work dictates their schedule."  As we told them, indeed, work dictates the schedule of you and the other 7 billion of us here on mother Earth.  Sometimes these people need a reminder.  Whether they are the hard-hearted rich, the broke-ass rich, the 'think I must be the only person in town who's' rich, or whatever variety of rich in which they may appear.

When Starbucks comes to one of the busiest intersections in Crown Heights, it reaffirms some provincial "there goes the neighborhood" sense that Crown Heights isn't just a neighborhood, it's a movement.  But it's not a movement, it's just another dang coffee shop next to another coffee shop.  There's a Starbucks on a picturesque stretch of Bay Ridge (which looks like the West Village compared to Franklin Avenue) and you don't see anybody losing their minds over that.  It's just a $5 coffee, in case you needed a reminder.  Lines of people at Ample Hills (across from the mayonnaise store) would have you thinking that they invented the ice cream.  Berg'n in Crown Heights is great & all, but some people have complained to us that it's just a stylized square box that serves beer and has 4 food places already frequented in truck form, not some "food incubator" that fell from the creative heavens.  But others saw us eating Mighty Quinn's wings there and said, "I want to move to this neighborhood just for the wings."  Brooklynites are simultaneously so starved for certain amenities that even the simplest pleasures (available in suburban locales nationwide) are treated like God's gift to artisanal inventiveness, and yet so myopic they think they can curate everything down to what precise block is suitable for them and decide what price they and only they should be expected to pay for it.  Another case of NYC having its head in its own sand.

Yes, Brooklyn exceptionalism runs rampant in this town.  People "priced out" of the Upper West Side sell their $4M condo and flee to the relatively friendlier confines of Fort Greene.  If they want a house in Fort Greene and can afford to pay more than $2M, then those houses will cost more than $2M.  And they've got families too, in case you needed a reminder.  What most people pay for rent on one place in Fort Greene is the mortgage on handfuls of homes combined where we come from, in case you needed a reminder.  So it's all relative.  People pay more for homes in Bed-Stuy than other people think they're worth, while the latter complain about "the schools!"  Those buyers have kids and care about their schools too, in case you needed a reminder.  And the same way buyers want to get as much as they can, so do sellers, and so do brokers, and so do "investors".  So just remember you're not the only one who likes good food, good schools, light & air, safety, access to transportation, parks, etc. who finds yourself navigating a treacherous urban & economic jungle here in New York.  It's hard out here, even for the millionaires.

Clinton Hill Loft with Private Roof Deck: 105 Lexington Avenue, #4G

New to HomeCanvasr.com, it's a huge stylish duplex loft condo in Clinton Hill asking $1.45M.  105 Lexington Avenue, #4G, originally billed as a 3-bedroom upon conversion, functions nicely as a true 2BR, with office/den, with 2 full bathrooms.  Weighing in at some 1,600 square feet, with a small private balcony off the living room, and glass doors out onto the huge 600 square foot private roof deck, this is Clinton Hill's answer to a Williamsburg loft or Prospect Heights' Newswalk building.  The pictures alone had us at "Hello"...

This ain't staging, people.  This is the real apartment.  For those "off the rack" buyers, the owners say they'll even throw some of the furniture in for the right price, because they're relocating.  One buyer even told us the furniture looks better in person than in the photos, which is pretty hard to do with pics as fancy as these...

Each bedroom is on its own floor, and another set of stairs lead from the 2nd floor to the roof deck, giving the apartment not only a duplex, but a triplex feel to it.  Light comes in from north and eastern exposures on this corner unit and fills the ~16' high ceilings.  The owners cut a nifty frosty-glass window into the upper bed room to let even more light & air in.  The bedrooms are both well-sized.

The building at 105 Lexington Avenue has 2 common roof decks, but the owners of this unit say they never use those, and prefer to opt for their own private roof deck...

Where they catch pretty epic views throughout the day...

Modern kitchen and baths updated during the conversion...

The building has an elevator, a bike storage room just inside the entrance, a private storage unit, and a gym.  The building is pet-friendly, has relatively low common charges of $625/month, is tax abated until 2025 at just under $100/month.  This is the happiest medium between boudgie living and relative-affordability as huge Brooklyn lofts go.  Newswalk condos go for over $1.75M on a regular basis, have maintenance of $1,500+/month, and no private roof deck.  Here you get all the amenities without the costs of a doorman, etc.  Asking under $950/sqft, 105 Lexington Avenue, #4G is flagship condo living that makes $1,200/sqft Williamsburg boxes jealous.  For Brooklyn balling on a budget... you've come to the right place.  500 apartments sold in Manhattan last year for $1.5M or more, and few of them could hold a candle to this for even twice the price.


Pro's:  enormous sunny duplex condo with 2 private outdoor spaces, super stylish, under $950/sqft, low fees & tax abatement, no big brokers' commission on the case for now, true 2BR/2 bath, upcoming open house

Con's:  certainly not in everyone's budget, some people call this "Bed-Stuy", no rental income, the days of townhomes over here for this price are long-gone

Ideally:  flagship loft condo product that's a great fit for dozens of buyers in this market

As Seen on HomeCanvasr First: 99 Kane Street

Just like dozens of other Brooklyn properties, this great house at 99 Kane Street was on HomeCanvasr.com first before it was listed on the open market and before it appeared anywhere else.  Sometimes properties sell for their price quietly in the dark, and sometimes they have to hit the open market to get top dollar.  A recent listing in Prospect Heights had over 50 buyer groups at the first open house, but only received 5 offers.  When less than one out of ten people you show a house to even put in a bid, no wonder sellers don't wanna bother with one-off showings to a select handful of nobody's.  Big brokers tell them, "Let's stick all the nobody's in one room and find out who's really a somebody!"  And, often times, they're not wrong.  We showed 99 Kane Street to a few buyers who swore they had to be near BoCoCa's beloved PS 29, which is literally 2 blocks around the corner.  One of the buyers said it was "too much house", which is something you don't hear everyday.  This "Columbia St. Waterfront District" house is being filed under BoCoCa for our purposes, 'cause it really acts a Cobble Hill alternative just a few streets away.  Even though it's across the BQE overpass, there's almost no BQE noise on the block.  The house is indeed huge.  It's 5-stories, with the top floor setback so you can't see if from the street level.

It's got an open house this weekend for you to see for yourselves, but we were impressed since the minute we walked in.  22' wide?  You don't see that everyday.  5-stories, also rare.  Sliding glass door out to a finished roof deck with harbor views??  Oh yeah!!

Or, instead of our iPhone, let the realtor's overexposed photo do the talking...

Why sit on the dock of the bay when you can watch the ships roll in from the comforts of your own private balcony??  This house is totally renovated with new floors, new kitchen and baths, exposed brick, decorative mantle, new zoned central AC and killer heating system which is itself a work of art...

Huge loft ceilings on the top floor with skylights.  A great garden rental, with shared access to the nice yard...

The asking price of $3.2M is downright competitive in this neighborhood.  We got inside another off-market piece a few blocks away with offers over $7M on it.  This house is much more than half of what that house is.  Many will hate on its relatively "generic" interior...

...but someone else will buy it, send their kids to the dopest school, get tons of money from a rental, play baby-West Village on Court and Smith Streets, baby-UES on Henry and Montague, frequent delicious & nearby Pok Pok at the end of the block, and laugh all the way to the bank.


Pro's:  huge & unique finished 2-Family at a reasonable price for the neighborhood, great garden rental, owner's quad-plex, totally complete renovation with all the technical bells & whistles, central AC, sick harbor views, 22' wide

Con's:  renovation doesn't feature the flowery style that makes folks melt, $3M is a lot of money - don't get us wrong, not as secret as it was before, across the highway overpass from true BoCoCa

Ideally:  this property is a winner and it doesn't always take a huge broker to let 'em know that.  Another demonstration of the HomeCanvasr concept in action!

Clinton Hill's Biggest Townhouse Sold: 503 Clinton Avenue

On Platinum Member radar for months, and available on HomeCanvasr.com since June 13th, Clinton Hill's biggest townhouse has now sold.  503 Clinton Avenue is a monster 25' x 90' building.  A legal 4-Family that's the size of an 8-Family, which is one of the niftiest configurations you could ask for.  Just aching for a condo conversion.  With four floor-thru rentals, each over 2,000 sqft, each 4BR's & 2 baths, already grossing over $1,000/BR as-is, this building had a ton of flexibility to go in any direction.  Month-to-month tenants and could be delivered vacant.  Owner's garden unit already set up as a duplex with the basement.  Small but serviceable backyard.  And did we mention it's 25' wide?

If you're keeping score at home, that's a gross square footage of 9,000 without the basement.  Even at the full asking price of $4M, that's under $500/sqft in a neighborhood where condos can go over $1,000/sqft.  But the numbers still "didn't pencil" for many investors.  Platinum Members bid $3.25M, $3.5M, and a shocking $3.75M... but the owner was holding out for their number.  That number was $4M.  And when the owner took it to their broker to list it, the broker themselves bought it.  The closing price of $3.9M last month, since it was direct to the broker themselves, implies a price much higher than $4M.  Since most of the big brokers wouldn't lift a finger on a deal like this for less than 3%, that's six figures that puts this thing well over $4M.  But a broker isn't always needed on deals like these.

So-call "investors" wanna have their cake & eat it to.  Everyone doubts the price on something until someone else buys it for that same price or more.  But by then it's already too late. 


Pro's:  huge flagship opportunity, Clinton Hill's largest townhouse, no rent stabilization, huge floorplate, subway steps away, flexibility with tenants, owner's unit already duplexed, totally turnkey, less than $500/sqft, took out some amazing financing on this one, condo time?

Con's:  big number, gone already, doubted & low-balled by many, not a huge backyard

Ideally:  it doesn't get much bigger than this.  Just when we thought $3.75M was a great offer, $3.9M won the day.  Doubt Brooklyn at your own risk.