What Does 1.3 Million Look Like?
Happened upon an open house in Carroll Gardens (south) today. The two-family duplex on Huntington (between Court and Smith) seemed nice enough, despite being in viewing distance of the crumbling end of Smith Street by the Smith-9th subway stop. The garden-level studio apartment was the length of the building and had a new kitchen and what looked like a marble fireplace. The exposed brick added some character, but it didn't have any spectacular details like fancy molding, and many of the renovated parts felt on the low-end of a Home Depot renovation. The small finished basement below had maybe a six-foot ceiling(!!!), which screamed claustrophobia, but there was a washer and dryer. Upstairs in the main unit, also with exposed brick, the first floor had a large living room/kitchen with fireplace and bathroom with W/D. An open staircase led to what I call 2.5 bedrooms (although they were all separate rooms, the last one was itsy-bitsy) and another bath, with hardwood floors on all levels. Outside, a decent yard with a deck on the garden and second floor added a nice touch. "Perhaps one day I will be able to afford a brownstone," I wistfully thought. However my open-house fantasy turned to dust when I saw the asking price of 1.3 million. And there were people at least feigning interest! As of Sunday night, the listing was on the open house section of Awaye Realty's page ... but the "view" link for more info goes to the wrong place. Can't you do better than that for 1.3 million?
UPDATE: Here's some photos from Craigslist.
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see? this is why we gave up! *sigh* there are so many nice homes out there... now we just have to figure out how to make our millions!
The sad part is, it was possible for you. People just want 10% down or more.. Who has $130K sitting around?
-Dennis
I live in the area and have seen many places like that. Truly tragic. What's the address? I'd like to go on propertyshark to see how much they originally paid and see how greedy they really are.
Never mind. I go it off the Waye site (203 Huntington)
Took a look at the Dept of Bldg records for this property. It looks like the going rate alright -- about $600 a square foot. A lot of the properties in the nabe recently have gone up to $800 a square foot.
Still it is not exactly an investment deal. The studio would probably fetch $1,500 tops around here, since it is under 700 gsf. Property taxes are low at $1400 but the rest isn't. Let's put it this way, even with the rental income, no rehab money put in, and the tax benefits, at 5.5% for a 7/1 adjustable rate mortgage, it's like spending about $4000 a month on a 1400 sq ft apartment. And if you moved out, that's what you'd have to charge in rent for the 2.5 BR just to break even.
Sound like a good deal?
BK Squeeze: Why "greedy"? Knowing that end of Carroll Gardens, and reading the description, it sounds like the place may well be overpriced. But why is it greedy for the owner to try to get the highest price that the market will bear? (That owner, after all, may be moving and having to pay for another house from another owner who is charging what the market will bear.) What is the morally acceptable amount of profit one can make on this house? Why is the owner ethically obligated to sell the price for less than he/she can, in order to provide BK Squeeze the brownstone to which he/she is entitled?
(By the way, if you're the BK Squeeze I'm thinking of, I actually enjoy your blog.)
Greedy not at all! But anyone paying $600 to live at that end of Carrol Gardens is a sucker. The housing stock over there stinks, the schools stink, the canal still stinks and the Gowanus towers overhead, not to mention that I wouldnt stand on the c/o Smith and 9th after 10pm w/ $60 in my pocket, much less pay $600 a sq ft to live there.
The 3 rules of real estate still apply - and that area is no location, no location, no location.
In reply:
Maybe greedy isn't the best word to describe the person that lists that place for $1.3 million, but like the next commenter said, who is going to pay $1.3 million for that place? Trust me, if I had that kind of scratch, I wouldn't spend it on that place.
The problem is that I've seen the same kind of situation in several places I've seen throughout several nabes in the BK -- A crappy house on a terrible blighted block in a nice neighborhood or an "up and coming" one. The price does get put up to the max and it stays there. Over the past year, I've seen several properties (more than I can count on both hands) listed for more than the market going rate or priced comparably to much nicer places that have stayed unsold for nine months or more.
People tend to think of the pull of the market as some alien force that is out of their control, but it really all starts with you, me and all the little guys out there who decide whether something is a good or bad deal. I've cast my vote.
Mister Squeeze (from the aforementioned site)