1. 25 September 2010 · 11:41 PM ·

    The Gross, The Bad, and the Ugly

    Okay. We’ve been looking at buildings and houses for a few months now. We’ve probably seen at least a dozen, and folks let me tell you: it is not pretty out there. As with most things in life, especially New York Real Estate life, money buys you freedom and choice. And unfortunately, this is something we don’t have much of.  Even by joining our finances together, the properties we can afford are generally at the margins of desirable areas, or just plain not in good areas. And there’s always a trade off: more space = worse location; empty lot = higher financial risk; good existing conditions = higher initial cost; fixer upper = lower initial cost but longer renovation time. It’s enough to make me play the lottery for the first time in my life.

    Through it all, the group has kept an open mind and has been patient with each other, but there are occasional minor misunderstandings, and the nature of making a decision with 6 people involved is sometimes slow at best. The key to our success in making it this far is openness, respect, and trust.  Too bad some owners and realtors don’t hold the same values.

    Last week we got a “tip” from a friend that a certain abandoned house was being drastically reduced and the family was desperate to sell.  Michael and the friend called the owner and arranged a viewing. As it turns out, the price has not been reduced, the house was a complete dump, and a gut renovation would be required. In addition, the house was much smaller than we thought, and couldn’t be more than a two family. The asking price? $700,000.  This is only about $100k lower than completely renovated (and much nicer looking) houses on the same block are selling for. Obviously the owner was trying to cash in on the “future worth” of the property, even though *oddly enough* he had not actually invested any money into the house in at least a decade or more. But, hey, according to him the neighboring housing projects are getting ready to turn co-op! Who knew? Who knew, indeed…

    Here are some photos of the interior of this prize winning house:

    I’m not afraid of a challenge, but this place has been “for sale” for at least 5 or 6 years, and now we know why.

    So, the hunt continues…

    The Hunt Red Hook

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