SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

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Telling Tips is a series of articles from local experts to help you save money, make better decisions and plan for a better future.

In New York, there is what seems an almost endless debate between buying and renting a home; between owning a piece of property that you can say is yours, versus paying someone for the privilege of living in theirs.

There are pros and cons to both approaches, but if you’re going to go along with the theory that buying is the best way to spend your money, then you better know what’s in the Contract of Sale. And if you’re going to want to know what’s in the Contract of Sale, you better have a clear understanding with your attorney.

Far too often I find clients are simply ready to sign on the dotted line. If they’re buying a Dyson on Home Shopping, they’re certainly checking out the warranty to see what it covers. But if they’re putting down hundreds of thousands of dollars, many of them simply trust that the lawyer has done what the lawyer should do, and they sign away.

This, my friends, is a terrible mistake. A client should always know (and in my opinion has the responsibility to know) what it is that they’re agreeing to.

“But a lawyer should tell the client what they need to know when they buy real estate,” you say. Granted. Yes. But I find that sometimes clients will feel too intimidated to ask, and it’s to their detriment.

Here are some of the common questions you should ask your attorney if you’re buying some real estate in New York:

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The current structure, with an overlay of the proposed designs. Scale is approximate.

Community Board 15 voted overwhelmingly to approve a planned Manhattan Beach McMansion on the site of the rectory of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, despite objections from a local community group.

The request for a special permit to enlarge the current building by more than three times its current size and nearly double the size allowed by law came before the board during their Tuesday night meeting. The board voted 26 in favor and five against (with one abstention) to approve major modifications to the 92-year-old structure.

That approval came despite opposition from the Manhattan Beach Community Group, who said the lawyer’s claims about the building were based on faulty data.

“The measurements that they’re using for this house is flawed. The whole procedure is flawed. He shouldn’t be allowed to build that house,” said MBCG President Ira Zalcman.

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Two towering condominium buildings together boasting 102 units just south of the East 12th Street Belt Parkway bridge have sat incomplete for years. Now, new owners have taken control and promise to complete construction soon.

Sochi on Banner at 2750 East 12th Street and 1125 Banner Avenue were purchased earlier this month for more than $17.5 million, clearing the way for progress at the previously stalled site. The new owners, Irongate Realty Partners – a subsidiary of Manhattan-based GFI Capital Resources Group – vows to complete construction soon, and open it up as a rental building.

“We are presently completing construction on the property,” Michael Weiser, president of acquisitions, told Multi-Housing News. “One building is 95 percent complete and the other is 70 percent.” Weiser added that construction will be finished in the next six to nine months.

Weiser said the building will turn rental, claiming it will be the only exclusive rental building in Sheepshead Bay.

Sochi on Banner was a project of The J Companies, which still lists the projects on its construction page and notes that it’s a $22 million contract. According a website specifically for Sochi, it was planned as a luxury condominium building with units “starting in the low $300s.”

Construction began in 2006, according to Department of Buildings records, but neighbors say it sat stalled and incomplete for at least two years.

Real estate citywide is seeing a buyer’s market these days, and buyers are looking to Sheepshead Bay and other Southern Brooklyn neighborhoods ahead of all others.

While the sale of homes spiked 6 percent for the final quarter of 2011 Brooklyn-wide, neighborhoods in the borough’s southern stretches boomed more than any others with a 20 percent jump, according to a Prudential Douglas Elliman study reported by the New York Post.

“Brooklyn is hot and the desire to purchase there is very strong,” Prudential Douglas Elliman CEO Dottie Herman told the paper. “Those who live there want to stay there when they make a move, and outsiders are lured to the borough.”

Fueling the surge was a desire by homeowners for lower-priced housing, especially co-ops.

Co-op sales in Brooklyn rose a staggering 27.6 percent in the final quarter of 2011 compared with the same time in 2010.

But at the same time, the average sales price of a Brooklyn co-op plunged from $400,997 to $339, 156.

“The sharp drop in mortgage prices resulted in co-op sales surging,” said Jonathan Miller, who prepared the report.

The people who benefit most from low mortgage rates are those who buy on the lower end, he said — and New Yorkers are buying smaller and cheaper these days.

Areas with cheaper homes saw sales boom.

For example, there was a 20 percent jump in sales in south Brooklyn, which includes such neighborhoods as Bath Beach, Bensonhurst, Brighton Beach, Flatbush and Sheepshead Bay.

Looks like the Hell House has been granted salvation.

Since November of 2010, contractors have been renovating the spacious white-colored house where legendary animator Winsor McCay once resided, and now the property owner said the project is almost complete – and has a price tag nearly six times the amount he paid.

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Click to enlarge

Longtime readers of Sheepshead Bites should know that I love – LOVE! – the sort of marketing that relies almost exclusively on superlatives, especially when the words used stand in stark contrast to reality.

Take, for example, the “most luxurious day care center” that, unfortunately, never bothered with the luxury of getting its employees proper background checks or certification. Or the luxury condos built right across the street from one of the city’s worst housing projects. Or the medical offices best suited for Dr. James Bond (actually, that one was pretty luxurious), or the “Imperial” class seating on Transaero flights that led us to ask if this kind of marketing is specifically targeted to Russians, and why.

We may never know the answer to that last question, but there’s no doubt that there’s an obsession in our neighborhood with marketing things as luxurious, gourmet or deluxe. And, occasionally, you get one that just jams a bunch of words together, like the marketing for 2409 Avenue Z, the old Tre Fratelli space.

Yes, “Super luxury oversized condos” are for sale there, with such amenities as, um, balconies, and, er, “automatic parking” – whatever that means.

In reality, the space is kind of small. It’s a triangular three-story building, with the first floor used for retail and parking (the “automatic parking” appears to be a car elevator, which actually seems more obnoxious than opulent). And, unless the plans have changed since we first reported on it in July 2010, those two floors of residential are broken up into five units.

So… what’s so Super Luxury Oversized about that? Well, I guess it sounds better than “Glorified Closet-Sized Apartments of Mediocrity .”

In totally unrelated news, Sheepshead Bites is proud to announce that we have eliminated our advertising and sponsorship packages and are now offering “Uber Luxurious, Premier Deluxe-ified Grand Gourmet Advertising Opportunities on our Palatial Webmansion, Paired with Sensual, Posh Sponsorship Opportunities.” Click here for details.

Opulance. We has it.

Community members and elected officials from Brooklyn’s Marine Park section opposed a developer’s request Tuesday for permission to complete an oversized building that violated the zoning code.

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I go to real estate companies all the time when I need a professional suit. When I need a casual suit, I go to a pharmacist. My zoot suits are ordered exclusively from cell phone stores.

Oh, 1702 Avenue Z, how I love you so. The incompetence of the various people around you never fails to provide content for me. Today it’s this sign for professional suits – surely you meant suites – but there’s a whole history of fumbles that leaves me bewildered… and amused.

Sure, most recently it was the “Whoops! We forgot to build a garage!” that led to some impromptu sidewalk destruction and the removal of freshly planted trees. But you were screwing up long before that. There was the time we got locked in during your not-so-open open house, and that was just the first run of the new realtors – Dreamlife. And, of course, we can’t forget how bigger brokers abandoned you after a botched deal caused a prospective tenant to call it quits.

Thanks for the latest laugh. We’re looking forward to your next boondoggle.

For only $4,999,999, this can all be yours. Source: Curbed

Ever wish you could live in the lap of luxury, like, say, somewhere sophisticated on Central Park West, but hate that you wouldn’t have stunning vistas and easy access to the beach? Well, fret no more all you dreamers — for a scant almost $5 million, your real estate fantasies can surely come true.

In these troubled times, if dropping a cool $4,999,999 for a three bedroom, two bathroom Brighton Beach condo is no financial object for your bad affluent selves, has Prudential Douglas Elliman got a sweet deal for you, according to a post on Curbed:

Our brains short-circuited when we clicked on the listing for Penthouse 2A at 125 Oceana Drive East in Brighton Beach. The 3BR, 2BA condo that the listing describes as “the best oceanfront penthouse in Brooklyn” is also the most expensive property currently on the market in Brighton Beach, with an ask of, brace, $4,999,999. Because the $5 million psychological barrier is really the problem here.

So, do we have any takers? Any wanna-be Huguettes out there? And can someone please tell me what that thing is poking its head over the top of the lounge chair on the left. Because I have got no idea. It looks like an evil gargoyle.

Photo taken May 24, 2011

Man, don’t you just hate it when a developers try to sell their residential units based on amenities that don’t exist?

That’s why every time I passed by 1702 Avenue Z (on the corner of East 17th Street) for the past year or so, my eyebrows raised. Dreamlife Realty, a mysterious broker that took over after bigger names abandoned the project, posted a sign in one of the upper windows advertising “Indoor Parking.”

To which I asked, “Where?!”

Keep reading to find out what’s going on here.