House of the Day: 47 Willow Street
If you don’t mind your townhouses on the skinny side, this new listing at 47 Willow Street might be a relatively inexpensive way to get your piece of the rock in Brooklyn Heights. (Yeah, we know, we’re not saying $2,400,000 is an insignificant amount of dough–just that it’s not a lot for a whole house…
If you don’t mind your townhouses on the skinny side, this new listing at 47 Willow Street might be a relatively inexpensive way to get your piece of the rock in Brooklyn Heights. (Yeah, we know, we’re not saying $2,400,000 is an insignificant amount of dough–just that it’s not a lot for a whole house in nice shape in The Heights.) The Second Empire brownstone has lots of beautiful original details (though the exposed brick on the garden level feels a little out of place). One upside of the house being narrow is that there’s no need for a supporting wall in the parlor floor so the staircase is open to the living area. Lovely!
47 Willow Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
Apparently the answer to where to buy a couch like that is…1965. Sad to hear it needs new systems.
sorry….meant to say 47 Willow above (not 47 Hicks)
After posting above, I saw this house in person. It is a complete renovation. It was last “renovated” in 1965. Anyone who buys this house will have their hands full with both installing all new systems (i.e., plumbing, electric, heating, and central air) AND maintaining the abundant original details. In other words, the renovation will require extra care (and expense) to update the systems while maintaining the charm of the house. A gut renovation is when everything is removed and then you start from scratch. In most cases, a gut is much simpler than a careful renovation/restoration. 47 Hicks falls into the category of renovation/restoration. Of course, someone could gut it, but that would defeat the purpose of buying this house, whose comparative advantage is the existence of much of the original details such as plaster moldings, fireplace mantels, etc.
The chandeliers add a touch of old-world charm, but the listing agent said that all of them will be removed! That’s a joke because it is the original detailing that gives the house charm and the seller will strip much of that out before closing the sale! The Estate is obviously trying to squeeze as much money out of this place as possible, including the separate selling of the chandeliers to antique dealers!
I have to respectfully disagree with the earlier comments that this will go close to asking price. As I suspected and wrote in an earlier comment, this place is way overpriced at $2.5 mln. Of course, there are such entities as emotional buyers who may fall for the aged charm of the place. To those, I would say, good luck. You’ll need it if you go in near the asking price.
Bkhts2 makes some good points.
As a reference check, last year there was a house about 2 blocks away on Cranberry Street with similar ownership history and in similar condition that sold for just over $2 million. It had been listed (very briefly) with a no-name broker at $2.35 million. And that house was a little bigger and had more conventional dimensions (20x40x4); maybe you give this house extra credit because this block of Willow is slightly more desirable. All in all, I don’t think anyone is going to be rushing to pay ask on this house.
That said, the good thing (if you’re an owner) about a pricey neighborhood like BH is you have more upside potential with a newly renovated/good condition house, which can justify sinking some serious dough into the fixing.
If you do a simple ACRIS look up and other cursory web searches, you find that the house was owned by the same person or family since at least 1966. There have been no transfers of deeds recorded in at least the last 45 years. Like many homes that have been held by a single family for decades, this home is definitely in “estate” condition. That means that it will need a full renovation. The broker-babble about needing just updating for the kitchen and bathrooms may sound nice, but it will likely need all new systems (i.e., plumbing, electric, and possibly heating). For those looking to bring it somewhat into the 21st Century, central air would also have to be added.
It looks like a charming little house, but $2.5mln is without a doubt extremely high for what it is. An unsuspecting buyer may think that they could put in a few hundred thousand and call it a day (maybe they could), but to make this a true gem would require much more than that.
Before investing in a major renovation, a buyer should consider what the payback could be. There is no getting around the fact that 12.5 feet width is extremely narrow regardless of how nice the place looks in photos. Conservatively, you could easily put in $500K in reno, which would put you at $3mln+ for a very narrow house.
Having said all that, I agree that it is charming and well laid out for such a narrow house.
Don’t know about the couch.
But I still want to know what does smells like old people mean?
I want that brown couch. Seriously, anyone have any suggestions as to where one might find a couch like that?
@Daveinbedstuy – you cant put the dining room in the back of the parlour as the “front parlour” isnt able to work as a “living room” basically this building is so narrow the front parlour acts as a “hallway entryway.
there are some really good photographs in this building “stretching” optics over reality.
@NorthHeights, totally agree, went for a walk past last night, no way the fifth floor front bedroom looks like this, has to be attic with slopped ceilings etc – also keep in mind there is no bathroom on the 5th floor so you’ll end up having 4 bedrooms (4th/5th fl) with 1 bathroom…… and no space to extend that out.
people are stupid when it comes to real estate and will probably sell for ask but for me not worth a penny over $2m and even then i’d probably pass as just doesnt allow for modernisation/increase bathrooms-closets etc.
Smells like old people….
What does that mean?