Carroll Gardens 2-Family Coming to Market: 155 Nelson Street

As seen first on HomeCanvasr.com pre-market, 155 Nelson Street is a cute Carroll Gardens 2-Family coming to market for $2.25M.  This 17' wide 3-story between Court Street and Clinton Street is currently used as 3 floor-thru 1BR apartments, and can be delivered vacant or with free market tenants.  Clean & stylish with many original details intact and some modern upgrades, we were really impressed with how well the house shows.

With an extension on the garden floor (washer/dryer already in place!), the house has a finished backyard deck on that level and outdoor space on the parlor level...

Wide plank floors and tin ceiling in great shape...

Our iPhone can't really keep up with more profesh' photography though...

Local brokers pointed out to us such comps as the gnarly 3-story estate sale at 546 Clinton Street which listed for $2.4M and closed for $1.75M last month to developers - and can't hold a candle to this house on Nelson Street.  We see 155 Nelson as much more suited to the end-user market than that house.  While toward the bottom rim of Carroll Gardens, 155 Nelson Street is around the corner from such coveted local destinations as Prime Meats & Frankie's 457.  And when your closest coffee shop is the adorable (& ever-expanding) curated space that is Le Petite Cafe...

...then you can't really feel like you're too off-the-beaten-path here anymore.  About equidistant to the F train at Smith & 9th and at Carroll Street, people used to fade these blocks, and now they're actually pretty sweet.  If Corcoran can move the tiny 16' wide (but decked-out) 145 Nelson Street for $2.65M last month (or over $1,300/sqft), then there are dozens of buyers who should like the value at 155 Nelson Street.  Afterall, over a dozen 2-Family properties have sold for this price or higher in the past year in Carroll Gardens.  We see 155 Nelson best used as an owner's upper duplex with garden rental covering half a millie in mortgage, but what do we know? With open houses coming soon, it'll be easy to come see for yourself.


Pro's:  totally turnkey, great rental income potential along with owner's duplex, condo alternative in BoCoCa's current market, shows great, can be delivered vacant or with tenants, no big broker commission on the scene

Con's:  doesn't Google Map well if that's all you go by, bathrooms would probably need cosmetic updating to bring inline with modern tastes, only 17' wide

Ideally:  quaint BoCoCa gem that can be easily taken to the next level

Listings: TriBeCa Loft Living in BoCoCa - 186 Sackett Street

New to the Listings section of the blog, it's an extra-deep loft style 3-Family in Carroll Gardens for $3.5M.  186 Sackett Street is billed as "Tribeca in Carroll Gardens" - and these days they're almost not that far off.  While the West Village townhomes top out over $20M, Brooklyn's 'baby West Village' - as we've affectionately dubbed it - Carroll Gardens is still shocking folks with its townhomes consistently over $3M.  Homes such as 42 4th Place for over $3.5M, 324 Degraw Street for $3.3M, 296 Degraw Street for just over $3M, and the narrow 48 2nd Place for just under $3M are just some of the sales we've covered and heard about this month.  So while nobody's really aching to be as close to the BQE as 186 Sackett Street is, the BoCoCa surroundings are all being filled in.  And what 186 Sackett Street lacks in ideal location it may make up for in loft-style and over-sized 85' depth, putting it over 5,000 sqft.

The aesthetic is BoCoCa, but the proportions are Tribeca-like.  15' ceilings, "1,100 sqft of finished mezzanine", over 1,000 sqft floor plates in renovated albeit generic condition.

Backyard isn't large, but it's there...

The two 2.5 bedroom rentals command some serious coin and top tier tenants in this neighb' these days, and the building is delivered vacant.  Neither the curb appeal or the interior style will wow, you but this is renovated & turnkey living for less than $700/sqft - in the land of $1,000+/sqft condos.  And in a market where smaller fancier townhomes in locations considered much more "ghetto" trade for $3.5M and over $1,000/sqft, like 102 Gates Avenue and nearby 384 Vanderbilt Avenue.  Inanimate deterrents like the highway can be a more manageable thing to fancy buyers than less-savory neighborhoods, so this Sackett house could be a relative value anywhere between $3M and $3.5M for the right buyer at this rate.

186 Sackett Street is also in the coveted PS 29 district.  And trading size for renovated & slightly generic interior by the highway didn't stop cash buyers from locking up nearby 99 Kane Street for almost $3M cash.  For those of you who'd rather be by the highway or the canal than the perceived "hood" (and, believe us, there's plenty of you) this is worth a look.


Pro's:  large, unique, totally turnkey BoCoCa 3-Family with lofty owner's duplex, amazing rental income potential on two floor-thrus, PS 29, super competitive PPSF

Con's: uninspiringly adjacent to the BQE, mish-mosh exterior facade, not insanely stylish or appetizing interior, plenty of money to spend even if the PPSF is nice, no central A/C?

Ideally:  a huge turnkey canvas that'll trade at a price that amounts to a bargain for the right buyer

The BoCoCa Condo Game is No Joke: 85 1st Place

If an entire turn of the century brownstone with original wood details all to yourself for ~$900K in Crown Heights or Bed-Stuy isn't your speed, maybe you'd rather have an unrenovated 1,200 sqft floor-through condo slice of one just 3-4 miles west for the same price.  Back in March, we showed you that a barely-renovated condo in a 20' x 45' brownstone over here gets almost $700K.  And we showed you the next-best buy after that one went.  Now for an even better space at a better price per square foot, you could've slid into 85 1st Place, Parlor Floor, listed a few weeks ago for $899K and in contract now.  Even before the first open house on the weekend, Platinum Members got an early peak at it during a preview that week - call it, "the shirt before the shirt."

What do you think of this pricing?  Another one in this building sold in 2007 for $865K, so this is nothing new.  You get the parlor floor of a 25' wide brownstone that's deep with 13' high ceilings, lots of light, huge windows, an original mantle, great floors & moldings.  Sure, the kitchen & bath haven't been touched in decades, but they left it that way to let the buyer personalize it to their taste.  People buying over here have the funds to pimp their own ride.  This is the kind of pricing (for space that hasn't been 100% renovated) that made us believe 116 1st Place was ready for a quick conversion too.  And there's still a deal on this block for a nice price that's got about a millie in implied upside based on this and other sales.  It's the 35 St. Marks Ave story all over again.

(Agents's adorable doggie not included)

Pro's:  locations, high ceilings, 25' wide, original details, floors & moldings, low maintenance

Con's:  gone already, dated kitchens & baths

Ideally:  what's the next-best condo with original details in this neighborhood?  Or sit on the train a few minutes longer for an entire townhouse at these prices.

Surprise, Surprise: 473 Sackett Street

Well-above asking price for a sparkling-nice house with a Corcoran listing on the Gowanus-y end of Carroll Gardens? In 2012?? Get out!

Yeah, 473 Sackett Street came out for $1.695M for just a few days in January, went away, and came back for only a few weeks more. It closed last month for $1.825M. Even in the market doldrums of late 2010 - early 2011, something as simple as 476 Degraw Street was able to close above its asking price of $1.6M. So it was no surprise to see a sleek, modern 2-Family with a yard in this market fetch more. While some were busy whining about location and price, others were sinking their teeth into the great pictures of this simple, stylish renovation...

They went with central A/C, restored the Carrera marble wood-burning fireplaces, wide-plank floors, sky-lights, modern appliances, and restored the old-school moldings. That's how you blend old & new-school, baby! An SRO shell for $1.49M like 272 Dean Street should have to write a written apology if this is what $1.8M gets you just down the street. This is just another notch on the belt for where this market is, and how far off the $1.5M BoCoCa & Park Slope buyers really are.

Pro's: tasteful modern renovation, kept the mantles, backyard, deck over the yard, well-presented listing

Con's: didn't last long, went above asking, kvetch about Gowanus if you must, not on everyone's favorite end of this neighborhood (but it would probably be pushing $2M if it were a block or two over)

Ideally: finished products that are marketed well sure get a premium. If ya can't beat 'em, join 'em.

When "If" is a 4-Letter Word: 228-230 Court Street

On a hit song from a few years back, Gwen Stefani plays a bad girl who wishes she wasn't. She asks her man, "Now tell me, boy, now wouldn't that be sweet? If I could be sweet..." And who could disagree? IF she were sweet, of course it would be sweet. But she admits that's all hypothetical.

It reminds us of the old Yiddish saying, "If grandma had balls, she'd be grandpa," where the "if" in question is so far-fetched that it has no bearing on the current situation.

Accordingly, a huge corner lot in prime time Carroll Gardens at 228-230 Court Street would be a sweet 6.85% cap at $5M, if it grossed the $424K/year the set-up calls for. But that rent roll, it appears is just one big "if" at the moment. After all, can you lease a space like this for $85/psf in Caroll Gardens? Funny you should ask, because the same company is simultaneously marketing the same space for lease at that price. If you could get "if" and "then" on the same property at the same time, that'd be sweet. If not, then it's all conjecture.

Everyone we've spoken to agrees it'll be some hundreds of thousands of renovation to get this space to the point where it's fetching that kind of rent. The whole point of a cap rate for an investor is that it's a fixed return on a performing asset that stays steady or goes up. We can't slap a specific cap rate on this thing like that until it's proving it can make that money. Anything else is speculation, so let's just call it that. If you got their actual rents and bid a 6.85% cap on those figures, we don't think they'd be happy. But at least that'd be a true 6.85% cap.

It's like when 262 Prospect Place promised us their insanely-high common charges would come down after you buy the property. Nah, why don't you get the charges down first and then come talk to us. If you wanna play that Wimpy game, then "we'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

Pro's: huge corner lot, prime time location, chance to reposition a huge property with great rental upside potential

Con's: cap rate is all conjecture, gotta convert the funeral home

Ideally: if these listing brokers can bring the operator who'll fund most of the build-out and pay these rents, then they'll have a cap rate worth talking about

Tease of the Year: 116 1st Place

On our Platinum Member radar since day 1, back in October or November, this killer-diller 4-Family has so much going for it on so many levels we don't know where to start. And, yes, just like our last pick, good luck finding this on your StreetEasy or your NYTimes. 116 1st Place is a 4-Family brownstone between lovable Court and Smith Streets. It's around the corner from the F/G stop at Carroll Street. It's across the street from the picky-parent-approved PS 58. It came out for $1.989M in the fall, dropped to $1.9M, had multiple-offers with back-ups for a time, then came back out, and a whole lot of other details we can't quite go into here.







Everybody and their dog knows how to type in Corcoran.com (4.5 million a month, and counting...) and those agents tend to get off their bums from time to time, so it figures that their place in estate condition around the corner went in contract above $2M, while this thing languished under mediocre marketing and haphazard servicing, only to now be off the market. Corcoran, have at it. You know you can get this seller this price. Get up out there and make that commission, yo! On a block that wants almost $4M for a 4-Family, we can't even begin to count the ways and types of buyers this thing is a great move for. Too bad it's gone, for now... we guarantee dude gets 10 calls this week he never otherwise would've gotten. Who loves ya, Brooklyn??

Pro's: Platinum Members Only

Con's: Platinum Members Only

Ideally: Platinum Members Only

Next-Best Condo in Carroll Gardens: 360 Court Street, #22

The true-blue 2 bedroom apartment in a great location in Brooklyn is hard to find at $700K. We've covered ones in Boerum Hill, Williamsburg, Park Slope, and "Park Slope". Today's pick is a "2BR" in a unique space. 360 Court Street, #22 is in a converted church right on the corner of Court Street and President Street in Carroll Gardens. It's not everyday you get "soaring cathedral ceilings, stained glass windows, dramatic plaster arches and columns, and unique multi-level living" at this price point.





Throw in a nifty renovation, central heat & A/C - and the only real drawback we can see is the 2nd bedroom is a loft space.



This apartment is a slam-dunk if there were 2 legit bedrooms, but it's still the next-best buy for the right couple in this neighborhood. The church isn't for everybody, but unique spaces like this have traded at nice premiums in Brooklyn Heights and Fort Greene. No reason to see why this won't also.

Pro's: top notch location, price point, unique space

Con's: not a true 2BR, maintenance at $750+ is a lot to chew on for new buyers,

Ideally: if it's not gone already, make a move. You don't see these come along everyday.

In Contract in Carroll Gardens: 564 Henry Street

When you're dropping over $2M on a 4-story brownstone, you want more than a fixer-upper, right? Well, not anymore. At least not in the best neighborhoods. Just ask the folks at 220 Garfield Place. Today we take a look at a 4-Family "currently being used as a 3 family" that some were waiting to come down in price, and we figured never would. 564 Henry Street came out exactly 2 years ago at $2.3M with Prudential and dropped to $1.99M by the October 2010. But it wasn't until Corcoran got their hands on it and listed it for $2.15M that it went into contract.

This isn't the first time we've seen a price come up on a place that can't sell. And it's not the first time we've seen a price coming down that's finally met a buyer as the market comes up in this area. You didn't need to read the tea leaves to know 564 Henry Street wouldn't last forever. Even 6 months ago gut renovations were already going for above asking price over here. The listing tells us that "for over 35 years the same family has truly maintained this home," and the interior over here at 564 Henry Street has an estate feel at first glance:



Not too shabby, but sub-par photography for Corcoran standards & definitely not the best look inside a place for $2.1M, especially compared to the job Brown Harris Stevens did on Warren Street. Luckily, BK to the Fullest "Platinum Members" are headed to another 3,200 sqft 4-Family around the corner for much less money.

Pro's: location, curb appeal, some nice elements

Con's: going to need updating, price is steep for a dated place

Ideally: stunning finished products for just a tad more than this abound. But don't expect the dated places to stop going for these prices at this rate either.

A Real $2.5M+: 177 Carroll Street

After taking a look at a listing yesterday that wants a price that's just plain uncalled-for, it's nice to see a place with a price that actually is. 177 Carroll Street is a totally turnkey 2-Family that just came out for $2.65M. This is a lot of money, people, don't get us wrong. But at least they give us 7 great interior pictures, a detailed lay out, and a convenient open house this weekend... which is way more than we can say for this BoCoCa neighbor who isn't even giving a decent effort at fetching its $2.5M list price.

It's not that hard, brokers. For the $100K+ commission coming your way for a listing this pricey, it's worth tidying up, slapping some new paint on the wall, and throwing the trendy lighting fixture up there yourself. These owners picked it up for $1.25M in 2003, and certainly did a good job:







Please tell some of these other jokers with sub-par $2.5M+ listings to step their game up.

Pro's: location, curb appeal, great renovation, professional listing

Con's: 17.5 wide, shallow yard (if any), tons of options at this price

Ideally: hem & haw about the design details if you will, but at least this listing gives it the ol' college try.

Different Strokes: 400 Bond Street

Prices are no joke right now in the best parts of Brooklyn!

400 Bond Street, listed for many months at $999K, is now in contract. Call it "Gowanus" if you will. Wonder why it's almost a million dollars for a 15' wide place with rental-looking fixtures, if you'd like. But this is what is happening with prices. Just as sellers moaned on the way down, buyers are now moaning on the way up. And both have to either move with the market, or get mowed over. There's nothing compelling going on over here on 400 Bond Street in our book, but that doesn't mean it won't fetch its price in this seller's market.





There sure is some generic space and tiny bedrooms for this price per squarefoot, but at least you get a roof deck!



For less money, we'd much rather have 931 St. Marks Avenue, that went in contract just over a week ago. But that's just us. Obviously, you've seen the premium people pay for the top areas. Even 210 Hoyt Street starts to look like a bargain across from the projects, compared to 400 Bond.

Bond Street is a condo alternative for someone, but we'd even rather be in this over-priced co-op for less money than a so-so space on the edge of Carroll Gardens. It's definitely a case of "different strokes for different folks." But if you think you're sneaking up on anybody with bargain prices in the best parts of Brooklyn, it's a case of "Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Willis?!?!"



Pro's: techincally - it's all yours, a garage, a little terrace, a little roofdeck, on the edge of a great neighborhood

Con's: on the edge of Gowanus, rental-grade fixtures, no back yard, garage isn't wowing us, wouldn't you rather get a condo?

Ideally: figure out what compromises you're willing to make, because the steals are all gone in this market, and even previously-overpriced is finding its buyer.