Listings: Bed-Stuy 2-Family with Open House - 590 Monroe Street

New to the Listings section of the blog, it's 590 Monroe Street back on the market asking $851K with an open house this Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  This 3-story Bed-Stuy 2-Family is delivered vacant with original details in decent condition, and calls for some TLC...

Not unlike another small Bed-Stuy 2-Family nearby at 753 Jefferson Avenue, this is what a live-able 3-story 2-Family commands in Bed-Stuy these days.  Jefferson went for less, but that was also last year and all cash.  Check out how much 419 Halsey Street wants nowadays too.  590 Monroe's got the details in better shape than that house for sure...

From the floors to the shutters to the clawfoot tub, this is what handy buyers can work with from day 1.  $851K is a do-able price for dozens of buyers in this market.  Another 2BR condo just closed in Crown Heights at 475 Sterling Place (this time #2A) for that same price last month.  Once upon a time you could be picky about going this "far" east into Bed-Stuy, but there's a silver lining.  The A train at Utica is legit, the J is nearby also, and what house in Bed-Stuy isn't near Saraghina and Peaches these days, right?  The broker's estimating rental income potential of $4,400/month.  That's less than your mortgage with 20%-25% down.  Heck, duplexes in Clinton Hill go for 40% more than that, people!  But please don't call us "bullish".  With an open house on Saturday and Sunday this weekend, it's easy to come check it out for yourself.


Pro's:  original details, delivered vacant, priced under $900K, open houses make it easy to see, the A/C and J trains are in striking distance

Con's:  not exactly close to either train, work to be done, just under 2,300 sqft

Ideally:  an owner's duplex with a yard and rental income still beats a condo with fees for the same price

Crown Heights Pre-Market Peek: 885 Sterling Place

On Platinum Member radar this summer on its way to foreclosure auction, 885 Sterling Place is a bombed-out 4-story brownstone just off of Nostrand on a great little block.  We took a look today and it's certainly a project...

Much of it is boarded up, some of the windows are missing completely, exposing the parlor floor to the elements.  There are damaged floors where you can see straight through to the downstairs or upstairs floors.  It's beyond a gut.

Although there are a few original details, we don't think you're keeping anything...

The yard is deep, though, on a 127' lot...

We're told there are pre-market offers in already.  The proposed asking price makes 852 Park Place around the corner look like a steal.  Desperately seeking that million dollar brownstone?  It may take much more than that to win this house.  We're told a certificate of non-harrassment's on the way.  Shows the kind of upside in it for those willing to take risks at the foreclosure auctions.  Another prime house in an even better neighborhood is coming up for auction this week.  With the bids on 885 Sterling Place so far, it's hard to imagine that closing the turnkey 894 Sterling Place across the street was as hard as it was for under $800K last year.  But it wouldn't be the first time that bricks and stairs sold for over a million dollars cash in Crown Heights.


Pro's:  just off Nostrand, totally vacant, nice block, deep lot

Con's:  needs a ton of work, hard to finance, probably not what you had in mind in Crown Heights for a million

Ideally:  can't wait to see if someone takes on this task

Closings of Note: Crown Heights Continues to Secure Its Crown

It's so adorable when would-be buyers tell us they're too good for Crown Heights.  Then a 3-story estate sale like 680 Park Place hits the market for $1M with very mixed reviews, lasts barely a month, and closes for $1.36M to buyers coming from Park Slope.  So much for that bit about being too good for Crown Heights.  As Chris Brown points out, "I don't see how you can hate from outside the club.  You can't even get in."

Also in Crown Heights, 1092 Dean Street was an undermarketed play on a great block.  In decent condition, original details, arched-brick construction, but with lots of work to be done.  We saw it vacant months ago in the spring asking something over a million.  They landed at $960K.  But, hang on, 'cause the fun doesn't stop there on Dean Street...

Also barely marketed, 1076 Dean Street, another full sized rowhouse chopped into 8 units, sells for - wait for it.... $1.5M two days before Christmas.  But if you don't like the stretch of Dean near the homeless shelter, head a few blocks further east and the Italianate architecture flips into even more interesting styles...

1257 Dean Street is on everyone's favorite Crown Heights block.  It closed for $300K at the end of 2012, but sells for a cool $1.4M in December of 2013.

Also in Crown Heights, 811 Classon Avenue sells for an astonishing number.  Sure, it's 25' x 67' and likely vacant.  But on 3 stories and only a little extra buildable footage, this thing closed for $2.4M at the end of 2013.  Makes $3.4M for a bigger off-market property in a better location we're in next week seem not even that foolish.  An 8-Family across the street from here is finishing up a great renovation, extension, and extra-story conversion to a 10-Family, making the most of the neighb's potential here.

Over in Bushwick, a 6-unit building at 26 Irving Avenue comes out for $820K.  While the closing price of $995K may make you say, "$175K over asking price!" it's still under $200/sqft, y'all.

Finding a turnkey 4-Family in Bed-Stuy around a million isn't easy anymore, especially just off of Nostrand Avenue.  Corcoran dropped 255 Madison Street on ya for $995K a few times this year and it closed for a modest $1.028M.  Not a bad buy at all.  And who says Corcoran listings aren't ever worth bothering with?  (The faux-savvy, that's who.)  But buyers from a Fort Greene condo took it down.  Even at barely 18' wide, this about as nice an end-user buy & hold as you can find for this price west of Marcy Avenue. 

What makes us say that?  Well, even the frame house around the corner at 360 Gates Avenue (although renovated) listed just under $1.5M and closed for $1.425M.  All Corcoran listings aren't created equal, y'all.

Indeed, not far away, another Corcoran listing shows the blending of Clinton Hill and Bed-Stuy prices.  They are, afterall, next door to each other.  173 Gates Avenue didn't impress everyone, but it still pulled down a relatively monster number, full asking price of $1.895M.  Almost 23' wide, you certainly don't see that everyday.  We've heard everyone griping about how this is simply 2 blocks too close to Bed-Stuy to be as Clinton Hill as they'd hoped.  And who would be so trigger-happy as to push this lofty number this far east?  Why, none other than a buyer from Fort Greene who's probably seen this move a few times before.  Can we now kiss the $1.5M Clinton Hill house good-bye?  Almost makes 187 Gates Avenue's latest off-market number sound not that unreasonable anymore.  Makes a Platinum Member contract a few blocks west sound like an even better deal than before too.

Are we just being "bullish" or is the $1.5M four-story brownstone in Clinton Hill actually a thing of the past?  Well, don't take our word for it.  121 St. James Place listed for $2.15M, lasted barely a month on the market, and just closed for $2.545M last month.  For all the unicorn hunters, we wonder how it feels to be off by over a million dollars.  (Don't worry, it even happens to the New York Times.)  Remember the good ol' days (the end of 2011) when jokers were shocked to see this house's neighbor at 112 St. James Place go for over $1.3M in a flash?  Now a 3-story off-market fixer-upper over here is getting bids over $1.5M on a short sale flip.  That's Clinton Hill for ya.

Below asking price in Stuyvesant Heights for a well-priced listing?  Platinum Members got the word when Bed-Stuy's 415 Stuyvesant Avenue wasn't selling for its asking price of $1.2M and was getting flexible.  A great little house at a price per square foot that you could've called pricey until recently.  Comparable houses have still sold for much more than this.  It closed for $1.07M to a buyer from Clinton Hill.  Seeing a pattern to the migration east yet?

Listings: Pre-Market Crown Heights Renovated 2-Family - 852 Park Place

New to the Listings section of the blog, it's a 4-story renovated brownstone in Crown Heights on a killer block, just off of Nostrand Avenue.  Platinum Members first checked out 852 Park Place in the spring at a much lower price before the renovation, but now that the market's ticked-up and the renovation rings true, they're asking $1.595M.  We sure wouldn't be surprised to see them get it.  The house is a healthy 18' x 45' on an extra-deep 127' lot.  It's got a beautiful brownstone exterior in great shape.  The renovation upgraded kitchens & baths, includes lots of new floors & windows, kept many original details, and set it up as a triplex over a garden unit.  It's probably a little further along now than when we last saw it. Even if it's not necessarily your style, it's at the very least a way-decent job...

You may remember this house from a recent Brownstoner rental of the day, but when we saw it mid-renovation a few weeks ago and heard how much the owner wanted, we said, "Sell it."  So before it hits your Streeteasy and other sites, take a gander...

The garden unit is pretty solid too...

We already hear them splitting hairs about the 18' vs 20' width, but it's fine by us in a house like this...

And the extra-deep lot certainly helps, which also adds buildable square footage to the building, if/when the neighb's prices justify the cost of an extension.

Forced-air heat has its drawbacks, but also makes it easy for A/C.  We can already hear them griping about the asking price and the owner's cost basis too.  That's sour grapes at this point.  As we put it best last month regarding another Crown Heights gem, "In terms of valuation, maybe you missed 1261 Dean Street closing around the corner in the exact same condition for $1.7M off-market.  Or maybe you missed 1277 Bergen Street even further east going in contract for $1.5M.  Or maybe you missed 100 New York Avenue around the corner going in contract for a reported $1.6M.  1234 Dean's bids are close to $2M for a single-family!!  When deep Bed-Stuy has a handful of houses hitting $1.7M-$1.8M, is it okay for Crown Heights (at the geographical equivalent of west Bed-Stuy, only on the other side of Atlantic Avenue) to start poking above $1.5M too? "  Don't forget 1062 Dean Street, and a ton of other recent closings in this corridor that we'll cover soon.  Last year's pricing below $1.5M in Crown Heights like 834 Lincoln Place around the corner, is just that: last year.  (It was also all-cash and above asking price, btws!)

Did a smaller, jankier house across the street at 857 Park Place not just fetch its $1.2M in a flash?  852 Park Place wins that beauty contest any day of the week.  All on a stunning block with all kinds of varieties of period architectural styles.  Don't forget the handy 3 train around the corner.  By the time Nostrand looks like Franklin Avenue, they'll be wondering why Crown Heights' high-end prices lagged momentarily behind Stuyvesant Heights' almost-monthly record-breakers.  This house soars over $2M anywhere west of here, and don't even get us started on how much this would cost anywhere in Manhattan!  Wanna take a guess at how many APARTMENTS sold in Manhattan last year for $1.595M or more?  165 condos and 188 co-ops, to be exact.  Most of them well over $1,000/sqft.  So if you're still hating on entire renovated houses on great blocks under $500/sqft in up & coming parts of Brooklyn near true train lines, have fun with that.


Pro's:  curb appeal, totally renovated, great condo alternative, deep lot, great block, 3 train nearby, Nostrand's trajectory is up, triplex with rental income is a value proposition for dozens of people in this town

Con's:  renovation may not be your taste or level of quality, initial sticker shock for many, Nostrand isn't nearly as picturesque yet as it will be, gripe about owner's cost basis if you must 

Ideally:  if you're calling this a bubble and waiting for it to burst, don't hold your breath. 

The Million Dollar Condo Hits Clinton Hill: 338 Clinton Avenue, #3

Why, oh, why is it so hard to find that turnkey, 4 story, 20' wide 3-Family in prime Clinton Hill for $1.5M with 20% down anymore?  You know, the one with the rental income that pays for itself??  (Is what they e-mail us every week...)  Well, the answer is simple.  First of all, banks want 25% down now.  Second of all, we live in one of the richest cities in the world.  Now that fixer-uppers in Park Slope, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, and all of BoCoCa are consistently over $2M, the $1.5M pricing has no where left to go but Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Gowanus, and Lefferts Garden.  And poor Clinton Hill is caught in the cross-fire of the gentrification march east.  So even if such a house did list in Clinton Hill for $1.5M in today's market, dozens of people with much more than 25% down would bid it up higher.

So while condos in Fort Greene have begun coasting higher than $1M on a regular basis, it would only be fitting that condos in Clinton Hill start doing the same thing.  As the New York Times reports, "Fort Greene occupies less than one square mile."  Most people can't even tell you exactly where Fort Greene ends and Clinton Hill begins.  And folks who treat them like such different neighborhoods haven't been living in Brooklyn for more than 5 minutes.  So when a floor-thru condo at 338 Clinton Avenue, #3 listed for $1.05M, was it any surprise that buyers from Scarsdale said, "Cha-ching!" and took it down for $1.069M in November of 2013?

The ol' condo conversion blueprint played out here on the 5-story brownstone at 338 Clinton Avenue:  max out the original details and update the kitchen and bath, eh?

The technique has basically moved all 5 apartments out the door for $1M a piece, with just a few weeks or even just days on the market.  Apartment #2 had its own charms...

Apartment #5 got the roof deck...

 The garden apartment got, well, the garden...

You know, the usual division of goodies in these places.  And to think, we were talking about the entire house at 338 Clinton Avenue as "sticker shock" with no interior pictures for $2M back in 2011.  Back then you could afford to be lil' snarky with an under-marketed piece when there were a few deals still lurking that weren't completely bombed-out.  This house was gorgeous all along, but very few took the chance to find out.  We tolja' when they sold it a little below asking price and relisted for $2.6M for the whole place too.  Now they're moving for a million per floor, and it's probably still going to go misunderstood.

What's funny is, handfuls of townhouse buyers on their Rip Van Winkle still wouldn't do this deal today for the $1.9M-ish that it sold for in 2011.  Condo buyers of today may be shocked that these go for a million now.  And developers would still scoff at the upside in this deal if they had it to do all over again.  Condo converters have complained to us about deals that net "only" $700K-$800K, as if that isn't enough to even roll out of bed in the morning for.  Brooklyn's real estate market can't please all the people all the time.

Makes us shake our heads at condo converters still doubting the potential of huge 5-story townhomes and 8-Family buildings in prime Prospect Heights looking to move off-market as we speak.  If Brooklyn's "best of breed" still isn't good enough for you, just what are you holding out for?


Pro's:  restored and renovated 2BR condo, original details and modern upgrades, marketed well, killer curb appeal and great location

Con's:  gone already, barely lasted, may cause sticker shock again, yet it still went over asking price

Ideally:  when the million dollar condo is effortless in prime locations, and as $900/sqft spreads east, you can tell us when & where you think it'll stop.  All signs point to a townhouse anywhere near a million, if you can still find one.

Listings: Crown Heights 3BR Rental - 1037 Carroll Street, #2

New to the Listings section of the blog, it's a 3BR rental in Crown Heights for $3,300/month.  1037 Carroll Street, #2 is worth a look for the 3BR rental crowd in our book.  Now many of you may balk at $1,000+/BR heading this far east, but when's the last time you were out in the field looking for a nice rental??  The exterior of the house may look a little Queens to you, but what it lacks in brownstone exterior, it more than makes up for in size and amenities.  We're talking about the 2nd floor of a 20' x 62' house on an extra-extra deep 152' lot.  You even get your own front deck!

With parquet floors in great shape, "FREE shared laundry in the basement", a dishwasher in the modern-enough kitchen...

This makes a great 3BR starter pad or long-term stay for all kinds of folks who wanna be on the quiet side of Crown Heights, but still in striking distance of the park, the hub of Crown Heights, and all the "better" neighborhoods of Brooklyn.  The bath is spacious and clean...

The building is unattached on one side, allowing for side windows and lots of light.  If the french doors don't get ya, the walk-in closet might!

We might've staged this bad-boy a touch better if we were charging $3,300/month and making a nice portion of that on the rental, but who are we to judge?  If it works as a legit 3BR for you, there are lots of perks to enjoy, and it's a pretty decent value proposition for 2 or 3 roomies.  Anytime you can say "four blocks from Franklin" - you've got people's attention these days!


Pro's:  legit 3BR rental, lots of original details plus upgrades, dishwasher, free washer/dryer, private deck, access to huge yard is implied, lots of light, walk-in closet, relative value, great trains nearby

Con's:  not your typical brownstone, not staged incredibly, not necessarily cheap

Ideally:  people pay as much as $1,500/BR not far from here for glass box apartment rentals.  This certainly makes a nice alternative to that for many tenants.

Have the Bears Descended on Brooklyn??: 374 Pacific Street

When the New York Times called us "bullish" on Brooklyn, we couldn't help but smile.  Is there any other position to take in this market?  But a recent contract signing in Brooklyn could spell doom and gloom for all those bulls out there.  Perhaps we were wrong all along, and it's the bears who are controlling this market.  The market must be cooling off, right?  A stunning 5-story brownstone, renovated from head-to-toe, drops its asking price one million dollars after flailing on the market for months.  Then, it goes into contract for a price that's over a million dollars less than its latest price!!  In Brooklyn, the land of buyers still searching for million dollar brownstones, a house has to drop its price by over $2M just to sell?!  Is this the canary in the mineshaft for the onset of the bear market??

374 Pacific Street is a killer house to be sure.  Feast your eyes on what 26' wide and the best natural light in a brownstone money can buy actually looks like...

The listing has the house "boasting almost 7,000 square feet of interior space", Smart Home technology, zoned central A/C, and a 35' atrium.  The list of bells & whistles goes on.  So why does a home this huge and this gorgeous have to undergo a 30% price cut to get a contract??

Well, like many things, it's all a matter of perspective.  Can we really say it's "bearish" when a house first listed just under $8M goes in contract for well over $5M?  Is the glass over $2M empty?  Or over $5M full?


Just what is a bear anyways?  "Contrarians" in markets pride themselves on taking a position opposite to everyone else's.  You can read lots of contrarian "investors" who hate on Wall Street's bull market cycles.  They're kind of like the proverbial broken clock.  They're basically wrong all the time, holding out for that one time every 10 years or so when they're actually right.  Take a look at the 100+ year chart on the Dow, and you'll see how rare the bearish times really are and how short they last...

The chart on real property in NYC in the past 100+ years doesn't look too different.  The fabled million dollar brownstone is becoming almost a thing of the past in New York, including Harlem and the rest of upper Manhattan, and of course Brooklyn.  That still doesn't stop novices from looking for them in the most no-brainer neighborhoods.  However, back in 2009-2010, you could actually find them.  Perhaps back then you were among the many watching their net worth evaporate by as much as (or more than!) half during the financial lows of 2009.  The financial crisis created opportunity for savvy buyers poised with the capital to pick things up in prime areas north of a million, and sell them for much, much more today.

Cue 374 Pacific Street, whose most recent list price of $6.95M reflects over a 500% increase from the $1.335M it was purchased for in 2010.  Many covered the story of neighbors receiving a million of that, from Curbed to The Real Deal and beyond.  We tend to focus on the fact that this is another house (as "far east" as Bond Street!) selling in Brooklyn for over $5M.  That's bullish activity in our book.  Although, don't over look, this house sells for closer to $10M anywhere in Manhattan.  And it's still just over $800/sqft for a huge, unique house in a neighborhood where condos sail above $1,000/sqft.  So let's keep it all in perspective, people.




Pro's:  curb appeal, size, totally renovated, immense price flexibility, unique width, tons of natural light, price per square foot almost isn't even shocking (comparatively), high-end end-users dream of this

Con's:  well over $5M ain't cheap, renovation isn't everyone's taste, certainly doesn't qualify as an "investment" per se, where were you in 2010??

Ideally:  not what we'd spend this kind of money on, but it still beats the Triangle Sports Building any day.  If you had this kind of money to invest, we'd lean towards buy & hold properties grossing well over $200K/year that still sell for less than this.  But there are $5M+ condos in Manhattan that would drool over this house.