859 St Marks Avenue
hi everyone, I might be the “lucky” person who gets to restore 859 Saint Marks Avenue. I am having second thoughts, though. Our offer was accepted, but the engineer’s report was about as bad as one could expect. The needed repairs greatly exceed the value of the house – by many hundreds of thousands. The…
hi everyone,
I might be the “lucky” person who gets to restore 859 Saint Marks Avenue.
I am having second thoughts, though.
Our offer was accepted, but the engineer’s report was about as bad as one could expect. The needed repairs greatly exceed the value of the house – by many hundreds of thousands. The Now Landmarked building needs a LOT of historical restoration. The side façade is also leaking like a sieve… in need of pointing and brick replacement …which no one has ever mentioned before on any forums.
My question is has anyone else gotten a report or inspection done on this house? Is there any advice to be given. I have the ability to pull out of this sale. I put language in the accepted offer which allows me this option if the repairs are over 750k. I have also discovered the title has some major problems as does the C of O (SRO??). The city swears it is, the realtor swears it isn’t. Who do I believe? It has tenant violations, which means if it is an SRO, I’m in for a very, very long (years) wait to begin any rehab.
I’m afraid I may have bought a rather large paperweight.
Any advice?
And please let us know what you decide. If you buy, we’ll be over with cookies and chocolate 🙂
It is of course up to you, but LPC is not going to “make you” return the roof line to its original look. The LPC designation grandfathered in the current facade, warts and all.
I’m really sorry to hear about the additional damage. Thinking about this place falling apart is just awful and heartbreaking.
There are and were several liens. The last time they tried to sell the house, the buyer asked for concessions/credits for the damage, which is totally expected with any “non-As Is” sale or non-foreclosure-like situation.This is a normal sale for a house with issues; a seller expects to credit the damage in the final amount.
Unfortunately, they were obviously didn’t get the memo and said no credits. The person wisely asked for their deposit back… which they refused to do and lawsuit ensued, of course. No one did well on this except the attorneys. The pending suit prevented sale.
The present multiple liens are for a myriad of taxes and from the city’s vacate order.
I am sure they decided to unload this house once the Landmark status was pending. The amount of restoration plus the legal ramifications from the C of O and the tax situation likely persuaded them to get rid of it. I think all that would persuade me!
No, we aren’t “loaded” at all, just very resourceful and handy people. I will likely wear old several pairs of knee-pads on this puppy. Don’t hate me… you are welcome to come help lay tile and skim walls with me! I’ll bake cookies!
I ask again… if anyone has dealt with a bad Title or C of O… or Certificate of non-harassment… please drop a line here!
its real easy to decide, as someone pointed out above.
if you can afford this to go over budget and be a money pit [but get to live in it and enjoy it] then buy…
if you can’t afford it to go over budget, and could potentially ruin your finances… no bloody way…
so sad, but true. if the price comes down to super low [which sounds like it will have to] reconsider..
that’s a ton of cash to sink into the place. if you’re loaded, I would consider doing it as it’s a really nice unique house. but if you’re not loaded to the point where you wont worry about needed any of this money for other reasons/needs, then I would hesitate to do it. No House is worth putting yourself into a financial budget tightrope like that.
“When we saw it again last month, there was at least 150k more in water damage. The skylight was caved in what we think was the entire winter.”
That is a big difference from when most of us saw this on the house tour two years ago.
I-cards are on file for this building http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/home/home.shtml
What’s the lien for?
Ok…
the house is empty, that’s true. But it was evacuated by the city because of a fire in 2006 or 07. The tenants were displaced… and may have a grievance. The City may also impose
fines.
The issues are ALL OVER. The back is the least problem. The entire west façade (side). The entire wall needs re-pointing and brick repair. The 3rd to 5th floors and staircases are sloped and will need to be supported/righted.
The back bay is literally falling off the side of the house and pulling the wall down with it.
The roof might need to be restored to the original Mansard style.($$$) The Landmarks status is for all three sides; the windows will cost the same as tuition at most Ivy League schools.
We had a GC go through the entire house. He pretty much matched the inspector. Did I mention the inspector is an architect? His estimates were right on the button in most cases.
The awful thing is that we offered a good price for this house 2 years ago. They took it off the market. When we saw it again last month, there was at least 150k more in water damage. The skylight was caved in what we think was the entire winter.
Thanks for all the comments. They help a lot!
Let me add my “I hate, I hate you” to MM’s. the house is magnificent and if you can get the price down because of the engineer’s report and you do the work, you will have one hell of a house.
Like MM, I’m wondering about the C of O. As she says, the house has been empty for many years. We had it on our House Tour in 2009 and it made people gasp, it was so beautiful. There is a guy down at the end of that block who bought the end house (just before the little white brick church). that house was in terrible shape but he has done wonders with it. It would be good for you to try to talk to him too.
The best of luck.