Greatest Real Estate Finds

[Rod Hagen]

 

https://www.zillow.com/homes/43-Courthouse-Dr-Guildhall,-VT,-05905_rb/193818039_zpid/?mmlb=g,0

 

 

I mostly like the kitchen, but I need more light, maybe a skylight or a SunTube.

[samhexum]

10 upside-down houses that will upend your senses

 

https://nypost.com/article/upside-down-houses-around-the-world/

 

[samhexum]

Woolworth Building’s penthouse relists for massive discount

 

The Woolworth Building penthouse is back on the market for $79 million — a far cry from the $110 million it originally asked in 2014.

 

The five-story “castle on top of a castle” — as developer Ken Horn calls it — starts at 727 feet up. Horn’s Alchemy Properties is leaving the 9,680-square-foot behemoth as a blank raw slate.

 

However, it comes with proposed interior designs by Thierry Despont and David Hotson.

 

Details include 125 windows, 24-foot ceilings, a private elevator — and a 408-square-foot observatory terrace. The buyer will also have access to the building’s amenities, which include a gym, a lounge, a pool, a wine cellar and tasting room and a bike room.

 

The lower Manhattan terracotta and limestone building, designed by Cass Gilbert, was the world’s tallest building from 1913 to 1930.

 

[samhexum]

Affordable Senior Housing Lottery Launches for 44 Units in Williamsburg

 

An affordable housing lottery has opened for 44 units for seniors in an eight-story building at 40 Debevoise Street, between Humboldt Street and Graham Avenue in Williamsburg.

 

Of the affordable apartments, there are 26 studios and 18 one-bedroom units. According to the listing, monthly rents will be 30 percent of household income — potentially zero to $1,280 a month. Applicants must qualify for Section 8 and be 62 years of age or older.

 

The lottery is set at a maximum area median income range of 50 percent. Eligible incomes range between $0 and $51,200 for households of one to three people.

 

Building permits show a total of 65 units in the building. In the cellar is a fitness room, spaces for six bicycles and a laundry room. Community facility space and retail will occupy the ground floor, while the second floor promises an indoor recreation room and outdoor passive recreation area.

 

Before construction began in 2018, the property was a parking lot.

 

Applications for the affordable housing lottery must be submitted by May 18, 2021. Apply through NYC Housing Connect.

 

 

 

 

[Rod Hagen]

Affordable Senior Housing Lottery Launches for 44 Units in Williamsburg

 

Bathroom looks really good size for NYC. The number of lottery applicants will be dispiritingly large.

[samhexum]

This six-floor castle in Yonkers is on the market for just $1.3M

 

 

 

If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a castle, this is your chance.

 

This $1.3 million castle with 31 rooms has all the romantic features, including a six-floor spire, a Catholic chapel and 360-degree views of Manhattan and the Hudson River.

 

The low price — Westchester County properties aren’t even considered “luxury” until they hit the $2 million mark — is likely due in part to its location in Yonkers, which is still a commutable distance from Manhattan, as proven by the past two owners, commuting since 1929. Another possible factor: updates needed in the nine-bedroom, six-and-a-half bathroom property (more on that below).

 

“At that price, it will attract a lot of interested parties and allow us to maximize turnout [at the open house on April 10 and 11] and give everybody a chance at viewing the property,” listing broker Bryan Dale of Exp Realty told The Post.

 

The 6,000-square-foot American shingle Victorian mansion has eight fireplaces, 100 windows, cathedral ceilings, hardwood floors, gothic peaked windows and exposed wooden ceiling beams, according to Realtor.com.

 

A massive two-story, 150-foot wraparound porch has a main level and an additional 80-foot lower level beneath fortress-like stone walls with open-air semicircular window cut-outs. Before the pandemic, it hosted parties of up to 80 guests, said Dale.

 

“The porch has a lower level which includes large granite arches holding up the property as if it were a medieval castle,” Dale added.

 

Inside the foyer, every room on the first floor has a fireplace. The living room fireplace is inscribed “Lisieux,” a region in France, and above it, a display is inscribed “God is our peace.” The tiled stone floor has several Persian area rugs, and gilded antique furniture pairs with eclectic knick-knacks, which define the character of the house.

 

 

Through pocket doors, the dining room has a huge semicircular window and a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace with a round firebox. The room has wood floors, built-in bookshelves and a floor-to-ceiling mirror. A second dining room has an identical semicircular window but offers a white, tiled fireplace with Roman columns — plus a built-in alcove for displaying sculptures.

 

Through a hallway, an expansive family room has been extended into the spire, giving the room a partial circular shape. It offers a brick fireplace, wood floors and a grand piano.

 

 

After you climb a wooden staircase and pass a church pew bench and Tiffany stained-glass windows, potential buyers will find eight bedrooms and four bathrooms on the third and fourth floors, many with their own fireplace. The third floor has a sitting room with a reading nook.

 

The fourth floor has a chapel, which once held over 200 Masses on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan before Dr. Paluel Flagg, the former owner of the house, had it moved and reassembled in the castle. Dr. Flagg was the founder of the Catholic Medical Mission Board in 1912, which was later led by Emmy-winning preacher Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, who held Masses in the chapel, said Dale. (The Post was not able to independently confirm the source of the chapel.)

 

The tower extends to the fifth and sixth floors, which serve as a gym and an observatory with 360-degree views, though it has an unfinished ceiling.

 

“The observation deck has a panoramic view. You can see the Hudson River and the New Jersey Palisades … It allows you to step outdoors at the very top of the property,” said Dale.

 

The basement has a laundry room, a workshop and a one-bedroom apartment with a bathroom and a kitchen.

 

The home was built in 1892 for the president of the American Real Estate Company, E.K. Martin, who developed the neighborhood of Park Hill.

 

The sellers are a three-generation family who bought the 0.84-acre property in 1983 for $140,000. Carl and Colette Tiktin, an author and a teacher respectively, along with their daughter found the house advertised in a newspaper soon after their old home had been destroyed in a gas explosion. They purchased the house with Colette’s sister, Michele Shapiro, and her husband, as well as the sisters’ parents (who had the surname Lafond), according to a 1985 article.

 

The sellers repaired the house to its current state, but it is now in need of more love. It doesn’t have central air conditioning or heat, and the small kitchen is an investment opportunity, with old appliances and outdated wooden cabinets. The bathrooms could be outfitted with more luxurious appliances, photos show.

 

“When they initially purchased it, the house was in disrepair. They completely restored and renovated it to its original condition. Since then, they have maintained the property,” said Dale.

 

 

https://nypost.com/2021/04/02/this-castle-in-yonkers-ny-is-on-the-market-for-just-1-3m/

Edited April 3, 2021 by samhexum

[BSR]

It's not up for sale, but Putin's house in Sochi, Russia, certainly is an interesting work of architecture.

 

[+ sync]

It's not up for sale, but Putin's house in Sochi, Russia, certainly is an interesting work of architecture.

 

The roof looks about right to serve as a helipad.

[Guest]

It's not up for sale, but Putin's house in Sochi, Russia, certainly is an interesting work of architecture.

 

It looks easy to defend from a ground invasion. As long as heavy artillery isn’t involved.

[samhexum]

NYC rents are in free fall, now reaching record lows

 

https://nypost.com/2021/04/23/nyc-rents-continue-to-hit-record-lows/

 

 

does any have any other great real estate finds they can share? ?

It's not up for sale, but certainly is an interesting work of architecture.

The roof looks about right to serve as a helipad.

It looks easy to defend from a ground invasion. As long as heavy artillery isn’t involved.

[samhexum]

https://nypost.com/2021/04/27/inside-abandoned-disney-like-village-made-of-empty-castles/

 

Haunting photos reveal hundreds of abandoned castles left to rot in Turkey

 

Is this the creepiest place on Earth?

 

Hundreds of Disney-like castles built for wealthy Gulf investors are now sitting empty. The haunting images are making the rounds online as developers struggle to revive the decrepit neighborhood — now the stuff of nightmares.

 

Located in Turkey, the abandoned village first began construction in 2014, and was initially designed as a luxury community for foreign buyers.

 

Known as the Burj Al Babas project, the village — located on the base of Turkey’s northwestern mountains — appears to be a diorama of miniature villas.

 

The residences all look the same, with bluish-gray steeples and Gothic fixtures, calling to mind the castles in Disney films and theme parks.

 

But hit by a devastating economic downturn in Turkey, the once-grand plan crumbled, leaving the mini chateaus hollow. They now join the ranks of the world’s creepiest abandoned dwellings.

 

Its developers, the Sarot Group, failed to come up with the required amount of money to finish the project and sought bankruptcy protection in 2019, despite money that was left from the $200 million budget.

 

The developers had intended to use the region’s hot springs to heat each home, claiming that the water had healing properties.

 

“You can drink the waters, and it cures stomach ailments and kidney stones,” the Sarot Group’s CEO, Mezher Yerdelen, told the New York Times in a 2019 interview. “If you bathe in it, it heals skin problems, rheumatism, and slipped disks.”

 

Homeowners also would’ve had the option to choose from three different layouts. The villas were designed to feature a jacuzzi on each level, and residents had the option to install an elevator and indoor pool.

 

Buyers snapped up more than 350 of the houses, which are priced between $370,000 and $500,000, depending on location, Yerdelen told the Times. Of the more than 732 villas, about 350 were sold to Arab investors.

 

By 2018, half the buildings were underway until Turkey’s economy took a major hit and many of the sales fell through.

 

In October 2018, Turkey’s inflation rate reached 25% — the highest it had been in 15 years, largely influenced by the decline of the nation’s currency, the lira.

 

“Our sales dried up,” Mezher Yerdelen added. Some customers canceled their agreements, some stopped their payments.

Today, the village remains idle, with no plumbing, heating or any sign of human life.

 

Thomas Brag of Yes Theory documented his experience exploring the village last month.

 

“A lot of these unfinished abandoned projects, it always looks like they left halfway through a workday… like you still see some boots on the ground, and gloves, and construction equipment,” Brag

.

 

“There is still raw materials here that are valuable and that’s always the strangest part about going to half-finished construction abandoned places,” Brag added. “[i’m] thinking about what it must be like to be a construction worker here when they were doing this and then being told to just stop what you’re doing and then you just never really found out what happened to it.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2021 by samhexum

[samhexum]

NYC mansion with abandoned renovation relists for $25M

 

 

An Upper West Side mansion is back on the market for $25 million — the same price it asked in 2019.

 

The landmarked property, at 3 Riverside Drive, was once owned by broker and developer Regina Kislin, the daughter of Sam Kislin — a Ukrainian-born metals trader.

 

The elder Kislin, a former member of the New York City Economic Development Board, also has decades-long ties to Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, and one of Trump’s late partners, Soviet-born billionaire Tamir Sapir.

 

The younger Kislin bought the spread for less than $10 million in 1995.

 

In 2017, the residence was bought at auction for $15.8 million — a dramatic drop from its original $40 million asking price in 2012.

 

At 37 feet wide, the mansion is almost double the size of most townhouses. Built in 1899 by Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert in a French Renaissance Revival style, it features elaborate gargoyles and cherubs carved into its facade.

 

Inside, however, the scene is less picturesque. The seller was part-way through a major renovation when he abandoned plans. But the mansion does come with “approved” plans by Italian architect Achille Salvagni for over-the-top details such as a “half-Olympic-sized” marble pool, a stadium-seating movie theater, a rooftop terrace, radiant heating throughout, an onyx-walled hot tub and bulletproof windows for the lower front of the house.

 

The home, with some 19,000 square feet of space, also comes with approved plans for nine bedrooms and 11 bathrooms. It looks out to Riverside Park, the Hudson River and gets good natural light, according to the marketing materials.

 

 

 

 

[samhexum]

https://www.brownstoner.com/real-estate-market/clinton-hill-brooklyn-historic-homes-pfizer-mansion-280-washington-avenue-enter-contract/

 

After Years on market, Remarkable Pfizer Mansion Enters contract

 

 

 

 

[marylander1940]

My real estate find it's that you don't need much to be comfortable.

 

width=969pxhttps://64.media.tumblr.com/9dd15ac7ac3378a019c162332e4b4011/f15e3faa0c2374fc-b2/s640x960/b2ee25225757bf2bc1de7d5e9fab474378ad96ad.jpg[/img]

[+ azdr0710]

according to realtor dot com, this appears to be the lowest-priced single family home for sale in the City of San Francisco......as with most in this price range in SF, there is a pending or contingent offer.....

 

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1727-McKinnon-Ave_San-Francisco_CA_94124_M19102-83292

[+ Pensant]

https://nypost.com/2021/04/27/inside-abandoned-disney-like-village-made-of-empty-castles/

 

Haunting photos reveal hundreds of abandoned castles left to rot in Turkey

 

Is this the creepiest place on Earth?

 

Hundreds of Disney-like castles built for wealthy Gulf investors are now sitting empty. The haunting images are making the rounds online as developers struggle to revive the decrepit neighborhood — now the stuff of nightmares.

 

Located in Turkey, the abandoned village first began construction in 2014, and was initially designed as a luxury community for foreign buyers.

 

Known as the Burj Al Babas project, the village — located on the base of Turkey’s northwestern mountains — appears to be a diorama of miniature villas.

 

The residences all look the same, with bluish-gray steeples and Gothic fixtures, calling to mind the castles in Disney films and theme parks.

 

But hit by a devastating economic downturn in Turkey, the once-grand plan crumbled, leaving the mini chateaus hollow. They now join the ranks of the world’s creepiest abandoned dwellings.

 

Its developers, the Sarot Group, failed to come up with the required amount of money to finish the project and sought bankruptcy protection in 2019, despite money that was left from the $200 million budget.

 

The developers had intended to use the region’s hot springs to heat each home, claiming that the water had healing properties.

 

“You can drink the waters, and it cures stomach ailments and kidney stones,” the Sarot Group’s CEO, Mezher Yerdelen, told the New York Times in a 2019 interview. “If you bathe in it, it heals skin problems, rheumatism, and slipped disks.”

 

Homeowners also would’ve had the option to choose from three different layouts. The villas were designed to feature a jacuzzi on each level, and residents had the option to install an elevator and indoor pool.

 

Buyers snapped up more than 350 of the houses, which are priced between $370,000 and $500,000, depending on location, Yerdelen told the Times. Of the more than 732 villas, about 350 were sold to Arab investors.

 

By 2018, half the buildings were underway until Turkey’s economy took a major hit and many of the sales fell through.

 

In October 2018, Turkey’s inflation rate reached 25% — the highest it had been in 15 years, largely influenced by the decline of the nation’s currency, the lira.

 

“Our sales dried up,” Mezher Yerdelen added. Some customers canceled their agreements, some stopped their payments.

Today, the village remains idle, with no plumbing, heating or any sign of human life.

 

Thomas Brag of Yes Theory documented his experience exploring the village last month.

 

“A lot of these unfinished abandoned projects, it always looks like they left halfway through a workday… like you still see some boots on the ground, and gloves, and construction equipment,” Brag

.

 

“There is still raw materials here that are valuable and that’s always the strangest part about going to half-finished construction abandoned places,” Brag added. “[i’m] thinking about what it must be like to be a construction worker here when they were doing this and then being told to just stop what you’re doing and then you just never really found out what happened to it.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

That area of Turkey looks marvelous!

[samhexum]

Long Island man dodges eviction for 20 years, living in house he doesn’t own

 

A Long Island man who only ever made one mortgage payment has deftly used the courts to stay in the house for 23 years — for free, according to legal papers.

 

Guramrit Hanspal, 52, has filed four lawsuits and claimed bankruptcy seven times to avoid being booted from the 2,081-square-foot East Meadow home he “bought” for $290,000 in 1998.

 

So far, it’s worked: two different banks and a real estate company have owned the three-bedroom, 2.5-bath home since Hanspal was foreclosed upon in 2000. But Hanspal remains.

 

Hanspal’s not the only occupant of the home leveraging the U.S. Bankruptcy Code’s “automatic stay” rules, which give debtors a temporary reprieve from all collection efforts, harassment, and foreclosures.

 

At least three other people listing the home at 2468 Kenmore St. as their address have also filed for bankruptcy in Brooklyn Federal Court, winning the “automatic stay,” only to have the claims eventually dismissed, court records show.

 

“It’s really a group of people that are more than willing to use the courts and abuse the courts to whatever extent they need to extend their illegal occupancy,” said attorney Jordan Katz, who reps current property owner Diamond Ridge Partners.

 

Hanspal’s history of litigation “is incredibly long and sordid,” said Katz, who added that while he’s seen occupants staying in foreclosed homes before, “nothing even approaches the length of this one.”

 

“He’s not legally occupying that property,” Katz said. “It’s an outrage.”

 

And a good deal: Hanspal, who had an initial 7.375 percent interest rate on the $232,000 adjustable-rate mortgage, likely saved himself upwards of $440,000 by not paying his bills.

 

Hanspal got the mortgage from Washington Mutual in 1998 and made exactly one payment — $1,602.37, — before defaulting, prompting the bank to begin foreclosure proceedings a year later, court records show.

 

By May 2000, Washington Mutual successfully foreclosed on the home, and Hanspal was “forever barred” from any claim to the property, according to the judgment of foreclosure.

 

But Hanspal never left. By January 2001, he filed his first bankruptcy claim, records show. He went on to file another in November 2001, two in 2002, and one in 2003.

 

If bankruptcy filings didn’t work, Hanspal simply went to state court seeking relief, sometimes acting as his own attorney, according to an August 2005 order from Nassau County Judge Burton S. Joseph.

 

Meanwhile, in 2004, Hanspal transferred the deed of the home to a friend, Rajender Pal, even though he had no legal right to do so, according to court papers. Pal, using the Kenmore Street address, filed for bankruptcy in 2005, staving off eviction yet again.

 

“Mr. Hanspel and Mr. Pal’s apparent frivolous conduct in using the Court system and the

Bankruptcy proceeding as a sword to get out of a lawful debt, rather than a shield, is most disconcerting to this Court,” Joseph wrote in 2005, threatening sanctions.

 

By 2008, Washington Mutual had gone under, marking one of the largest bank collapses in American history, with its assets eventually taken over by JP Morgan Chase.

 

The new bank was also unable to boot Hanspal, and has been locked in litigation with him for years, with Hanspal filing at least three lawsuits against JP Morgan Chase in Nassau Supreme Court. The two sides are also in an ongoing legal battle in Brooklyn Federal Court.

 

Hanspal claims in court papers that Chase committed “blatant fraud” in 2010 by trying to evict him when it didn’t have proper title to the home, and accused the bank of withholding “surplus” funds from a previous auction of the property.

 

Chase slammed Hanspal for “clogging the court docket” with “patently frivolous” claims.

 

By May 2018, Chase unloaded the property to Diamond Ridge, which offered Hanspal $20,000 to leave. He didn’t take the deal, and instead, filed for bankruptcy again in 2019 and 2020. Another purported occupant of the house, Boss Chawla, filed bankruptcy four times in 2019, as did another resident — allegedly named John Smith — who filed once.

 

“There always seems to be a new occupant who pops up at the last moment,” said Diamond Ridge attorney Katz. “They never show up in court.”

 

At least one judge thinks it’s time for Hanspal to go.

 

“The history of this case going on for approximately 20 years must come to an end,” Nassau District Court Judge Scott Fairgrieve wrote in a December 2019 housing court proceeding.

 

Diamond Ridge has spent $150,000 on legal fees and paid $50,000 in property taxes since purchasing the home, said member Max Sold, who added, “as of this writing [we] still have no known end in sight.”

 

The pandemic may give Hanspal yet another reprieve, noted Katz, who said the COVID-19 backlog in New York’s housing courts has kept them from pursuing their eviction effort.

 

Hanspal did not return messages. A woman who answered the bell at Kenmore Street and identified herself as a tenant said Hanspal was not at the home, which featured at least three cars without license plates in the driveway.

[CuriousByNature]

For $289K, this 9×60-foot on the east side of Vancouver could be yours!

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/at-289k-vancouver-s-most-affordable-property-is-also-the-city-s-tiniest-1.6007132

[marylander1940]

[samhexum]

We Asked the Bushwick Piano Building’s Architect: Why?

 

“It just hit me, the idea of doing a piano, since we had room for it” is the architect Yochi Nussenzweig’s not entirely satisfying explanation of his design for a new building on Evergreen Avenue in Bushwick. It’s an eight-unit rental (with three apartments designated affordable), ready for occupancy in the next few months, and it has, as you have perhaps noticed, a giant 60-key piano keyboard scaling its façade. Nussenzweig further explains that when he realized there was an unadorned strip of brick up the center of the building’s street front between the windows, inspiration struck, and five octaves of aluminum ebony and ivories were soon on the way. When Brownstoner posted the renderings a few days ago, they elicited a there-goes-the-neighborhood groan online. One person on Twitter wrote that “Bushwick is going to overtake Williamsburg in the most insufferable Brooklyn neighborhoods ranking within a year.”

 

Is it, in fact, an attempt to attract “creatives” who might be musicians? Nussenzweig, who is 28, doesn’t have much to add beyond “this client likes unique and interesting designs,” and certainly this qualifies. (Though perhaps “distinctive” is more accurate than “unique”: The Country Music Hall of Fame comes close.) It generally fits into the long tradition of architectural follies and curios, buildings that make little sense in their context but are charming enough to become, on occasion, distinctive and even beloved bits of a cityscape over time. If a hot-pink brownstone can become enough of a local phenomenon that repainting it brown is newsworthy, why can’t a Billy Joel apartment building become a local landmark? It is the 1980s piano-key tie (I had one of those & it’s still hanging in my closet) buildings.

 

Does Nussensweig, who also designs offices, synagogues, and houses, play the piano himself? He does indeed, a little. Growing up in Williamsburg, he says, “we used to have a keyboard at home, so I got to know how,” he says. This megakeyboard, of course, is unplayable — and any pianist will tell you that the black keys are rendered a little too small. But if they’d been laid down on the sidewalk instead of on the façade, you just know that they’d end up being a local guidepost. You could, conceivably, tell people “Meet me by the low C,” and grownup 1980s kids would be reenacting Big out front every weekend.

 

ARTIST'S RENDERING:

 

FINISHED PRODUCT:

 

INTERIOR:

[lonely_john]

That's how they're able to build so fast.

Projects usually have 3 dimensions: Speed, Cost, Quality.

In most cases, 1 has to be sacrificed. In the case of China, we know which one.

[lonely_john]

Toronto's Real Estate market is really bad

 

This Tiny Toronto House is now Listed for $1 Million

 

 

This Tiny and Filthy Toronto house is on Sale for $1 Million

 

Here's why this Tiny Toronto House might actually be worth $1 Million

This Tiny Toronto house Surrounded by Garbage costs $1.45 Million

 

 

Sometimes you stumble upon good finds, still not very affordable

 

This $2.2 Million Toronto loft house was literally made for working from home

 

width=475pxhttps://media.blogto.com/uploads/2021/02/23/1614103374-20210223-8-trefann-kitchen.jpg?w=1400&cmd=resize&height=2500&quality=70[/img]

 

This is what a $3 Million House looks like in Toronto

[marylander1940]

On 3/9/2021 at 5:16 PM, JoeMendoza said:

stumbled upon this wonderful real estate dream - 4br, 2ba that was closed for just $150K in VT - boasting a 28' x 40' wing that could be up for someone's imagination!

 

https://www.zillow.com/homes/43-Courthouse-Dr-Guildhall,-VT,-05905_rb/193818039_zpid/?mmlb=g,0

 

does any have any other great real estate finds they can share? ?

Would you buy it?

I also remember @Unicorn asking if someone would be a house were someone was murdered but I can't find it. There's something related at the end of this video. 

 

Edited June 25, 2021 by marylander1940

[+ MysticMenace]

52 minutes ago, marylander1940 said:

Would you buy it?

I actually would if it was located in VA or DC. Just don't see myself actually living in VT. If were in VA, I could invest more in hiring the Property Brothers in reimagining the whole place from top to bottom...shirtless (and pants-less). 😂

[marylander1940]

1 minute ago, JoeMendoza said:

I actually would if it was located in VA or DC. Just don't see myself actually living in VT. If were in VA, I could invest more in hiring the Property Brothers in reimagining the whole place from top to bottom...shirtless (and pants-less). 😂

Maybe one day you'll be the star of your own show!