real estate Archives - Page 4 of 5

Sullivan County Homes Under $30k

June 22, 2011 RH

Think you can’t afford a second home? What if I told you you can grab one for as low as $15k? Yup. I’m not saying it’s the most desirable house in the most desirable area, but you can make it a sweet getaway.

Don’t even THINK of grabbing that house above for $15,000. I want that one. Looks like an old farm house but it was actually built in 1970. This could be a plus, as it sits on 2.31 acres and old farm houses are almost always right on the road. So it’s possible this house is set back a bit. It’s located in Monticello. Last time I was in Monticello, I was about 12. No kidding. It was kind of crappy back then, although it’s a beautiful landscape. Anyway, who cares about any of this? The. house. is. $15k.

This listing doesn’t give much detail. I guess the agent couldn’t be bothered to even take a picture for her commission on the $29,900 list price. Looks good from that angle. It’s a 2594 square foot four bedroom in Hurleyville, NY. I think I have an idea of where that is. Nice hikes and all, but not much going on culturally. In fact, I do believe that if you’re not an orthodox Jew, you may feel a bit out of place. On the other hand, if this is a flip, a 4BR would be a selling point.

Yeah, I know. It looks like a trailer. But hear me out. It’s actually a 1950 ranch on 4.9 acres. divided into 2 parcels. Still with me? Good. Take a look at the interior shots. There’s something to work with here. Can you see your mid century fab getaway? Are you seeing the fifties kitchen? Oh, I didn’t mention that it’s in Neversink and includes lake rights and three outdoor sheds.

**When you’re looking at distressed properties, please keep in mind that you may encounter wildlife living INSIDE of the house. Try not to freak out. Where boots and bring a flashlight (although, if the realtor doesn’t have a flashlight for abandoned homes, they should be fed to the wildlife).

Red Hook and Rhinebeck for Under $210k

May 25, 2011 RH 1 Comment

$189k. Village of Red Hook. It may not be an ideal country home because of the lack of property, but it’s perfect if you want to go out and get drunk and not have to worry about driving home. This is right in town! You can always take a drive to the nearest hike. Who needs to maintain property anyway?

Rhinebeck. $149k. Ok, so it’s a 1042 square foot vinyl sided POS. Try to find something in Rhinebeck on 1 acre for anything close to that price. I dare ya. Location, location, location! Right near the Performing Arts Center. Never underestimate the value of being able to walk to your destination in the country. I don’t want to hit a coyote at night. Do you?

$209k. Rhinebeck 1910 farmhouse. The drawback of old farmhouses is that they sit right near the road. The interior of this baby is not to be overlooked, though. It sits on half an acre. If you have dogs, you can always fence in the back yard. Um, have you realized yet that I’m looking at these for myself?

Click on the pics for more info or twist my arm to drive up and show you myself.

Country Homes Under $100k

May 18, 2011 RH

Want a weekend house but think you can’t afford it? Let’s see how low we can go. These homes need TLC, but I chose only desirable areas. What’s the mortgage on a $100k house? Like a dollar per month? Come on, you can do it!

The wreck above is located in Highland, NY within the New Paltz school district. Yes, it’s just short of being a tear down, but it’s $74,900. The home is less than 1000 square feet but sits on 1.7 acres. Interior shots here.

A small cabin in the woods of Kerhonkson, NY has access to the stream in the above photo. The 594 square foot home is quaint, but not much to look at. It sits on one acre. Price? $69k.

Ok, so this house isn’t too impressive. The 600 square foot vinyl sided POS has been renovated in Home Depot style. Here’s the thing….For $99,500 you got yourself a house in Milan near Red Hook, NY. 2.26 acres with access to a stream at the edge of the property. Suh-weet.

Government Properties for Sale

May 10, 2011 RH 3 Comments

Back when NYC was run down during my youth, I heard stories about abandoned buildings that could be bought for one dollar. I remember thinking that I wanted to do it, but I was like twelve. Well, FYI, there are still abandoned government properties and they are ready to deal!

It’s doubtful these properties are the greatest bargain ever, but there may be a good buy in there somewhere. Plus, purchasing one of these places helps pay off the national debt. The map lists industrial structures, monuments, office buildings and land across the United States. Most of the local properties are in the Gateway National Recreation Area. Seems like a good idea for factories or artist cooperatives.

No prices. You must inquire for more details.

Via NPR

Home Buying 101

May 9, 2011 RH 2 Comments

Are you still wet behind the ears when it comes to home buying? You’re not alone. Everybody has a first time. Just sit back and relax, baby. Reclaimed Home will make it alright.

Seriously, it’s a big f*in’ deal. That’s alotta dough you’re forking over. You SHOULD have questions. So, what steps do you need to take? How do you go about it?

1. The first thing is to go over your budget. Pretty obvious, but it’s incredible how many people start looking before they have their finances worked out. How much do you have for a down payment? Don’t forget that closing costs will be between $10k-$20k.

Talk to a mortgage broker or bank to see how much they will lend. Then take a good look at your present and future and make sure you can pay that monthly amount. Do you need rental income? How much? Size matters in this instance. Bigger rental units equal more income.

2. Location, Location, Location! True dat. The one thing you cannot change. Unless you want to move the house and that’s kinda a big deal. You can redo just about anything inside the house. Maybe even add an extension if it’s a tad small for your needs. But you have to love where you live. And please do yourself a favor and never put the house before the neighborhood. You can have your dream house, but if you hate life outside of those four walls, then what?

3. It’s an investment. Yes, you need a place to live, but that doesn’t mean you should make unwise decisions. Just don’t get ripped off because you fall in love with some bathroom tiles or a zip code. (Yeah, I know I mentioned location is key, but it doesn’t mean by any means necessary). What’s a good investment? A run down place in a great neighborhood. A fabulous dream home in an up and coming neighborhood (that you also happen to love). What’s a bad investment? The best house on a shitty street 10 blocks from an awful train line.

4. To Renovate or Not. Hmm. Personally, I loves me some fixer uppers; however, it’s not for the faint of heart. BUT! If you don’t want to renovate, you kind of can’t be too fussy with what’s on offer or you’ll be looking forever. What are the chances that the seller has put in exactly what you desire? So, you’re either buying into someone else’s taste or you make it your own from scratch. Tweaking a finished home is great, but keep in mind that it’s awfully wasteful to rip apart a $30k kitchen so you can make it your own.

Question is, do you have what it takes to live with a renovation? Are you hiring people or tackling it yourself? Do you want to be married to your house for the next few years? That means you’re a house wife. Oh, it’s all worth it in the end, but you need to realize what you’re getting yourself into first.

On the other hand…. and I can’t stress this enough….be careful when buying a “renovated” house. You do not know what is going on under those new floors and walls. Don’t want to scare you or anything, but not everyone repairs rotting joists or repoints structural brickwork before slapping something over it. If it looks like a quick, shoddy renovation, there’s a good chance something may be going on underneath. Not a rule of thumb, but we found crazy-sloppy work in 4 out of 4 of my houses. Just sayin’.

Well, that should be a starting point. Feel free to post questions if you have any. Now, go forth and look!

Country Homes Under $200k!

May 4, 2011 RH 2 Comments

Oh, this is bad. I just got agent’s access to Dutchess, Orange, Ulster and Sullivan County MLS. My renovations are nearly finished in Brooklyn, summer is near and I don’t have a weekend place. I shouldn’t look. I’m not in the market. But it’s so tempting. Must stop looking…. (But if you want to look at them, maybe I wouldn’t mind taking a drive up with you.)

The house above is a “handyman special”. Those words are music to my ears. For $159k, you can be located right in the Village of Rhinebeck on 2.8 acres. Hello! It’s not a small house either: 2575 total square feet. 1000 of that is unfinished, but the place needs a total rehab anyway.

Hyde Park short sale for $179,925. An 1850 Colonial on 3.46 acres. The house is 2300 square feet and has a barn! Doesn’t look to be in bad condition.

Village of Millbrook. A 1940 stucco 824 square foot home on hardly any property. Listing price is $180k and the agent says bring in all offers. Ooh, this looks like a nice fixture upper! What better way to spend your weekends in the country than working on your house. I kid, I kid.

This one actually brought tears to my eyes. This house wants some lovin’. Located in The Gunks near the town of Pine Bush, famous for it’s UFO Festival and my mom’s siting of the KKK way back in the early 70’s. (True story. They’re probably long gone by now.) This deliciously scary looking 1820 fixer upper is $198k and sits on 2 acres. Heeerrre’s Johnny!

Developer/Broker Break Up on 15th St

April 21, 2011 RH 5 Comments

An anonymous tipster emailed about the marketing of 155 15th aka Harbor Hill Condos in the South Slope. It seems that the broker and developer have decided to go their separate ways.

Douglas Elliman sent an email out to prospective buyers basically saying they felt the developer’s price points were unrealistic in this market.

I usually take no interest in new development real estate nonsense, but I found this one interesting because this is the building that was erected where a church was knocked down. Now, I’m not a religious person and if I was, I certainly wouldn’t choose Catholicism (no offense) but part of me can’t help but wonder if there’s some Poltergeist shit going on at this site.

Or it could just be unrealistic developers and brokers who wanted the listing and promised them the world to get it.

Killing Gatsby (Again)

April 14, 2011 RH

“They were careless people — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that about Tom and Daisy back in 1925, but the same can be said about today’s throwaway society. The rumored Gatsby mansion is being demolished, just like many of the other Gold Coast homes of the past.

Developers will tear the house down to build a new McMansion. Because who wants the piece of history that inspired one of the greatest Amercian novels when you can have a brand new super sized tacky house?

Clearly Long Island needs to do something about their landmarks and preservation. This just isn’t right.

Unfortunately, it’s too late for Land’s End. The original fixtures have already been removed. Demolition is under way.

Hundreds of Gold Coast historic mansions have been torn down. Perhaps it’s a good idea to visit the remaining few before it all becomes a valley of ashes.

Via NY Times

All photos by Jen Ross.

WTF Craigslist Ads

January 10, 2011 RH

Did you ever notice some of those crazy Craigslist ads? Like, why are these people selling things they should be throwing in the garbage? Why can’t they figure out how to take a picture?

Take the photo above. Great picture, right? Good for them. Phone cord: $1. These people photographed . every. item. in. their. sale. A tong: $1. A plastic spatchula: $1. Who has the time for this? And who wants to go out of their way to buy these things when you can get them at the local 99 cents store? Phone cords? Hell, I have several at the bottom of my desk drawer. They’re all tangled and unused. Want one? Free.

This bed and mattress are for sale. HOW F*CKIN’ LAZY ARE YOU THAT YOU CAN’T MAKE YOUR BED BEFORE PHOTOGRAPHING IT????!!!! Come on, man!

The funny thing about this piece isn’t the out of focus photo. It’s the price. Only $200,250. Or maybe it’s $2,002.50. Plus, it’s listed in midtown. If you read further, it’s actually 10 minutes from midtown. That probably means Queens or Roosevelt Island.

Nothing wrong with this cute coffee table. Except it’s listed as a bookcase. Is it me or is this a coffee table? I could be wrong.

Goodbye, Dream Home

December 14, 2010 RH 2 Comments

In a few hours we’ll be closing on the sale of our Beacon house. Don’t get me wrong, I’m elated that I’ll have one less headache. You know the saying “The more you own, the more it owns you”. We’ll take weekends off instead of working on the house and we’ll buy toys for ourselves because we won’t be paying two mortgages. It’s all good!

I can’t help but feel a bit melancholic though. This was our dream house and it took us a long while to arrive at a place where we were able to afford our perfect house. We thought we would stay forever. We stayed for six years.

So, goodbye huge backyard. Goodbye spectacular antique woodwork. And stained glass. And awesome wrap around porch. So long, pocket doors. Turret.

It’s not you that we’re leaving, House. Don’t feel bad. As of today, you’ll get a fresh blast of love from someone new. If we could transplant you to Brooklyn, we would. But alas, it isn’t to be. We needed to be back in the city at this time.

We are fortunate enough to be living in another architectural dream of ours: The Brownstone.

But between you and I, House, Queen Anne Victorian trumps narrow brownstone living any day of the week.

I’ll miss you! 🙁

PS: I’m keeping the logo.

Beacon Open Houses Today!

November 7, 2010 RH 1 Comment

Two open houses today from 1-4pm in Beacon. Both cute 3 bedrooms priced at $269,900.

The one in the photo above was written up here back in June. They’ve since lowered the price. It’s worth a look, trust me. Address is 21 St. Luke’s Place.

This 3BR home one is at Dinan and Rombout. I haven’t been inside, but it looks great from the photos.

More info @ JonCar Realty: 845-831-3331

Weekender: Greek Revival Under $200k

October 27, 2010 RH 3 Comments

This fabulous Coxsackie, NY house belongs to a friend of mine. Sadly, I’ve never been invited up to see it in person. (How subtle was that hint?)

The Greek Revival was built circa 1839 and has been lovingly restored by said friend. I know that “lovingly restored” is a ridiculous real estate term, but it’s true…she did the restoration with love. And a bit of good taste didn’t hurt either. Before photos on Flickr.

$199,900 will get you 3 bedrooms in a 1969 square foot home on 1/3 acre bordering a state park.

So, where is this funny sounding town of Coxsackie? It’s upstate in Greene County. That’s west of Hudson (both the town and the river) and close to the other quaint towns of Athens and Catskill. It’s most famous for (in my mind) the kick ass Coxsackie Antique Center.

Check out the house! If you buy it, maybe you’ll invite me up.

This House is Empty Now

October 25, 2010 RH 5 Comments

We rented a truck and some guys last Friday to move the rest of our belongings from Beacon to Brooklyn. Anything left in the house was sold off in our moving sale on Saturday. Apart from a few leftover items that will be donated or dumped, the house is sitting empty, waiting for the new owners to come and make it a home again.

The sale was called for 10am on Saturday. We woke up early to get our personal belongings out of the way. As I sat on the toilet at 9am, the bell rang. And that was it. The early birds had arrived.

The first moving sale we had prior to putting the house on the market was in the driveway. This time, we had things from the basement all the way up to the attic and out to the garage, so we let people wander around.

My husband asked afterward if I felt violated having people rip through our stuff like that. Had we been given that extra hour to get a few more tote boxes out of the house, it would have been fine. But I had forgotten about some boxes in the attic. When I went upstairs in the afternoon, I found Alpine’s garbage scattered about the floor. I felt protective of her. There were a number of antique bottles that we took back from people. That’s a memory that stays together. Not for sale.

Then I saw we had left a box of old tax files up there. Hopefully, we weren’t visited by an ID thief because they could have gotten our social security numbers and birth dates quite easily. Yeah, that was a big no no. More important than any other expensive possession I grabbed out of the house.

The thing about these sales is people don’t respect your stuff. They don’t carefully go through boxes and closets. They scatter things about. I can’t imagine what it’s like to run an estate sale if you’re a child of an elderly or deceased parent, when it’s a lifetime of memories up for grabs.

I’m not saying I’m not the first one through the door at an estate sale! I love going through people’s old photos and keepsakes. It’s a way of honoring their lives.

Anyway, I don’t know what I’m going on about. We were in the house for 6 years. We were just getting rid of some old junk. I’m just getting sentimental about the house now that the transfer of property is becoming a reality.

Bad Real Estate Photos

September 29, 2010 RH 2 Comments

11124757_350×263.jpg

All of the shots on this $459k Bed Stuy home look as if they’ve been taken with a fish eye lens, but it’s obvious a guy took the photo. Because they don’t know how to PUT. THE. FRIGGIN. TOILET. SEAT. DOWN!

Wow, killer views of the parking lot on this Bronx apartment! The screen. The wire hanging down. But wait, there’s more…

WTF? Check out the listing. There’s an image of a hand taking money out of a mouse trap. I don’t get it. Can someone explain?

A 2600+ sq ft home in Ditmars Steinway, Queens. The realtor has 3 shots up on Trulia. All of the same bathroom.

New construction on Staten Island for $1,385,000. Ya think maybe for that price the agent might have gotten a few shots? No, this was it. It’s not making sense to me. Looks like two different staircases put together. And what’s the black business on the left side of the frame? Don’t tell me they snapped a shot from a video!

Time to Refinance or Buy Property?

August 31, 2010 RH 2 Comments

Economics is not my bag, man. But…tell me if I’m wrong. This is a great time to get a mortgage, right?

I’m looking at the rates and it’s in the mid 4%’s for a 30 year fixed and in the 3’s for a 15 year! I want to know why everybody isn’t running out and buying or refinancing. Is it because the banks aren’t loaning money?

I did the math on my own house. I wouldn’t be saving enough to refinance at 30 years, but if I paid the mortgage down and did a 15 year, I’d be rich, bitch! Too bad the only way to get the bucks to pay it down is to sell the other house.

So, I’m watching the rates and hoping that they stay low until someone realizes it’s a great time to buy my house. And then I can refinance!

reclaimedhome.com

Posts tagged real estate