FINDING HOME
From the UK to BK

Dean & Juliana are excited to move to New York City from the UK. They’ve found a school for their daughters, have made a few local friends, and are eager to flex their creative muscles with a townhouse renovation. Much of our tour happened over facetime, until they flew to the city for a weekend to view their top homes in person.

Here were their priorities:

• Historic charm

• Simple renovation needs

• A building foot print that is 20ft wide x at least 45ft deep

• 15 min walk to their daughters’ school

• Under $6m after renovation costs

As they quickly learned, townhouses rarely need only a simple renovation.

Here were their options:

No. 1:
The Fort Greene Charmer

This 4 bed / 3.5-bath townhouse delivered beautifully intact moldings and an extra deep parlor floor, just as Juliana desired. While the home was marketed as move-in ready, we quickly realized it wouldn’t be quite possible for their family. The third floor had a partial extension that was quite literally falling off, unbeknownst to the sellers (If you stuck your head out the window, you’d see the exterior walls were disconnected, and the extension was leaning away), and every kitchen and bath needed to be redone - so it would be best to renovate prior to move in and skip living with all the dust. To make matters more challenging, there was an open electrical permit and no working electricity on the garden floor, both of which can present an issue when applying for a mortgage…

No. 2:
The Park Slope Period

This home had been loaded with darling historical details - though not all from the same period. The parquet floors, millwork, and flooring inlay were mostly in prime condition, and the century-old pocket doors had been so well maintained that they pulled out like butter. But the bathrooms and kitchen were fresh out of the 1950s, with the kitchen still in its original location on the garden floor. Juliana and Dean hadn’t been eager to live in Park Slope. They felt the streets were too narrow and buildings too tall, leading to a lack of sunlight coming through the windows.

No. 3:
The Clinton Hill Color Bomb

This home was so beautifully styled with art, color, and unique lighting fixtures. Again, plenty of the original millwork and molding had been preserved, though mostly painted white - while the original hardwood floors had been painted back. Juliana and Dean would want to strip everything back to the original wood, which would certainly be an expensive undertaking. And for an extra challenge, this home had still been classified as a Single Room Occupancy house (SRO), which would present major delays for their closing timeline.

*names have been changed

Which Home Do You Think They Chose?

DEAN & JULIANA HOME:
THE FORT GREENE CHARMER
And the winner is… this charming (but deceptively complicated) townhouse.

I often say that every NYC townhouse has one big issue — this one had several. A falling-off extension, an open electrical permit, and in my buyer’s situation, foreign credit hurdles that made financing tricky.

We needed a lender who could navigate it all, architects who really knew landmarked properties, and a team to problem-solve every step.

People ask what brokers really do, beyond touring beautiful homes. This is it. Eyeing the roadblocks before they hit, and having the right attorneys, lenders, and architects in our network to get it done.

Because in NYC, every townhouse is a puzzle — the right team puts the pieces together.

MARKET INDICATOR
Manhattan

Manhattan is filled with submarkets, and this data speaks on the borough as a whole. But I can tell you from my boots on the ground: I’m seeing a small shift in favor toward sellers. Notice how inventory has decreased over the past three months while contract signings have held steady. My clients on the UWS won a small bidding battle on a well-priced condo, and a condo toured in Tribeca had two offers in after just a week on market.

This data focuses on the neighborhoods northwest of Prospect Park. You can see how active buyers are in the market - though sellers are beginning to cool down as we approach summer vacation time. I expect to see fewer listings in the coming months, as is typical in the summer. Smart sellers would take advantage of this upcoming inventory shortage: Notice the decline in inventory last summer, coupled by the consistent contract signings. That’s a signal of competition among buyers to score a home.

PROTECT YOUR ASSET
Check Out Our Townhouse Maintenance Guide