Open House Sunday: 446 Prospect Avenue

One man's "Park Slope" is another man's "Windsor Terrace". But a rose by any other name, would it still sell for almost a million dollars? If a brownstone falls in the forest, would anybody still overbid for it? Either way you cut it, 446 Prospect Avenue is worth a closer look. Sometimes we go through long stretches of hardly worthwhile, over-priced places, but things worth their weight have been popping up all over recently. This 2-Family brick building looks ready to go. It's turnkey interior, proximity to the F train and Prospect Park, as well as nice, semi-hip amenities makes this a totally legit buy:





Sure it's only 16' wide, only has 4 bedrooms, not many square feet, and the exterior's seen better days. But it's 50' deep, has a deck and finished basement, beats most condos, and the open house means no scheduling snaffoo's with flakey agents (you know who you are!) and the chance that they actually mean to sell the dang thing. Walk over there this Sunday 12:00-2pm and check it out!

Pro's: condo alternative, close to the train & park, amenities & actual Park Slope are near-by, totally turnkey

Con's: exterior, 16' wide, not a lot of BR's or SQFT, Windsor Terrace-y

Ideally: check out the open house and see if there's a catch, but this shouldn't last long either...

South Slope Condo Alternative: 279 13th Street

Lots of things make 279 13th Street a compelling buy. The list price of $1.179M (or $671/sqft) is competetive with the rest of South Slope brick & brownstones, the condo market, and the rest of the 2-Family market. The interior is very turnkey and has some great retained/restored details:





Sure, 15' wide is going to give you some narrow spaces. But this is great condition at a great price. Compare it to a more expensive fixer-upper like 313 12th Street or 443 11th Street. For an even deeper discount, you can check out the smaller, further, dinkier, cheaper 195 13th Street. This looks like one of the most do-able buys out there, probably won't last long...

Pro's: price, interior, curb appeal, beats most apartments

Con's: 15' wide, not a lot of sqft

Ideally: anywhere close to $1.1M, we'd call this a strong buy

Clinton Hill Conversion: 26 Lefferts

A conversion in Clinton Hill for less than a million?? Join the club!

26 Lefferts, listed for $899K & currently chopped up into 7 units, needs conversion into a 1, 2, or 3-Family. It joins the distinguished company of 26 St. James, 137 St. James, 189 St. James, and 238 Lafayette as a renovation/conversion opportunity in Clinton Hill, many of which are right around $1M or just below it. For the most part these places are great bones, delivered vacant, in need of some hundreds of thousands in renovations, and SRO or other kinds of C of O conversions. Financing can be tough, sellers are said to be looking for all cash deals, which puts even more pressure on price. We've been told places like 137 St. James (which looks like the best in breed over here at this rate) have a ton of offers and back-up offers at asking price or above asking price. Which is kinda odd, 'cause we've been told this since early January and the dang thing sure doesn't look like it's in contract yet to us.




Ya gotta like a shell with a nice exterior & curb appeal that's under a million. Ya gotta like being able to put your own details and finishing touches on it. But by the time you put the downpayment needed to do the deal AND you fund a hefty renovation out of pocket, you might looking at well over $300K in intial cash outlay, at which point you might just get something turnkey with 20% down on $1.5M in a more desirable neighborhood, or you might skip over to Bed-Stuy and get a more epic property that isn't a tiny 20' x 35' like 26 Lefferts is. 109 Lefferts, which recently went into contract, looks to be a superior move in this genre.

Hit with a Lis Pendens for a foreclosure mortgage on just $52K in 2009, 26 Lefferts was later picked up in a foreclosure auction for $526K on 2/7/2011. They wasted no time listing it for $899K a week later with Prudential, and now re-listed with BLS. Not a bad turn-around for a month's time, but this may not yet be the price...

Pro's: curb appeal, make it your own, price point seems low

Con's: needs expensive & lengthy conversion & renovation, financing is tough, off the beaten path a bit, 20' x 35' doesn't give the biggest floorplate to work with

Ideally: there's lots of plays to be made in this genre, and it's a huge outlay for not the most amazing area. People with the funds to make it happen might be looking for something more like 414 Dean.

Update-able 2-Fam in South Slope: 313 12th Street

Check out this funky little, boxy, 16' wide 2-Family! 313 12th Street is between 5th & 6th Avenues in the semi-more afforadable South Slope. The interior has that 70's-infused Ladies' Man feel of 238 Lafayette:








("Yeahhhh.... thass cool...")

For something more turnkey in this price range, you might get a little more bang for your buck out of the 3-Family 310 Lafayette over in Clinton Hill, but the Park Slope appeal is it's own kinda thing. But if you're fixing up a 2-Family around this purchase price, the location of the recently-reduced 414 Dean is superior to 313 12th Street. But there's value down the road here for the right price...

Pro's: curb appeal, Slope-y location, amenities, double-duplex layout

Con's: needs updating, 2-Family status, pricey for a fixer-upper, better things out there

Ideally: with turn-key type places selling in this neighborhood for this price, and lots of equity in the place, make a stab at a lower price that works for you.

NOW We're Talking: 154 Underhill Avenue

Back from a quick Caribbean hiatus, we finally have a listing you can sink your teeth into almost sight-unseen. 154 Underhill Avenue is a 4-Family limestone that sits right by Grand Army Plaza, right by Prospect Park, in stately Prospect Heights. Sure, it's only 3 stories and it's in "estate condition", but it's not everyday you see a 20' wide 4-Family in this area for under a million.

The owners are sitting on lots of equity, but unless this needs a complete gut renovation (which we can't imagine), this is a great buy. With lots of activity going on, bananas-ridiculous prices are back. And things that have no business being within a quarter million of what they're listed for are popping up left & right. It may create an over-priced climate that forces some buyers to overpay just because they know somebody else will if they don't - and there's a finite number of these places - which is what makes a legitimately-priced listing like this an extra special breath of fresh air.

Pro's: neighborhood, price, 4-Family status, curb appeal

Con's: 3 stories, probably needs updating, no interior pics, odd showing hours (which actually works in savvy buyers' favor)

Ideally: get in there and get this thing! It will not last.

Quaint, not too Gowanus-y 2-Fam: 291 Hoyt Street

Tucked away in this little sliver of Carroll Gardens east of Smith Street, west of the Gowanus Canal, and south of the projects that run the avenue between Hoyt and Bond the two blocks between Wyckoff and Douglass comes 291 Hoyt Street. This is certainly a kind of sweet-spot. This location is within walking distance of the same stretches of Smith & Court Streets that people pay out the wazoo to live by, and a short few blocks to the F train at Carroll Street. This price of $1.5M isn't cheap by any stretch, but it's certainly turn-key and gorgeous on the inside for the price that some people paid for shells and turned into $3M mini-mansions. And the projects around the corner didn't deter those people.





This 2-Family brick building is up against such nicey-pricey neighbors as 452 Sackett and 70 2nd Street (which just went into contract after just about a month). We still would've preferred to spend this kind of money on a bigger, basically-just-as-nice 4-Family like 82 Butler Street or 645 Baltic. But as the wacky 2-Family market goes, this ain't shabby.

Too bad there's not likely to be much price flexibility with the current owners buying in 2007 for $1.295M from a Halstead listing for $1.6M from 2006.

Pro's: totally turn-key, killer interior, sun-room extension on the first floor, finished basement, walking distance to Carroll Gardens trains and ameneties

Con's: 2-Family, 16' wide, 3BR's total?, sort of off the beaten path but where's the value in the pricing?

Ideally: We'd still rather have a 4-Fam for $1.4M than this for even $1.3M, but the kind of client who swooped up 476 Degraw will probably make a go at this.

Not Our Cup of Tea: 355 14th Street

Brown Harris Stevens does well with the high-end listings and they seem committed to taking better pictures than ever. We're not sure if that's going to make anyone drop $1.65M over here for something so small, but it's worth a shot. 355 14th Street is a 2-Family in South Slope just off lovable 7th Avenue. Coverted from a Single Family, it sits at only 16' x 40'. Although, it sure cleans up nice:





The design inside is pretty neat-o, from the floors to the walls to the molding. But you can see why they didn't include a picture of the exterior in the listing. You get a 2BR owner's duplex with a "Japanese-style cedar deck overlooking the garden", plus a one BR garden rental unit. You're paying for quality not quantity over here, but no matter how nice it is, we look for more than 3BR's for our $1.65M. If you've got that kind of money to spend and you like Prospect Park, we think you're better of with some off the plays in Prospect Heights like 407 Sterling.

Pro's: cleans up nice in pictures, lots of great interior details, deck & yard in the back

Con's: price, curb appeal, 16' width, only 3BR's, SOUTH slope

Ideally: There a plenty of 2-Family's in this price range we'd go with before this, but the owner's sitting on all equity and this is, afterall, Park Slope...