The Price is Right on Lefferts Ave... ?

In our humble opinion, this is a super cute house.  Lefferts Ave. is lined on one side with 1920s (or 30s?), two story bungalow-ish houses, similar to those found on Maple I.  We appreciate the open feel of these houses as well, as they're more light-filled than most brownstones and many of them are equipped with built in dressers and stuff.

We do not know the condition of this house, but we do know one thing: there's some price confusion out there.  One ad has the price as $595K.  Another has the price at $770K.

That's a giant difference.  We hate to beat the same drum again and again, but we believe that the big firms do a much better job marketing homes in PLG.  That sort of price discrepancy is ridiculous, and, based on the ad, our guess is that the broker handling the property will not co-broke.

Poor organization and limits on publicity do not do right by the seller.  We're all about the little guy getting his/her piece of the pie, but it shouldn't be to the seller's detriment.

Comments

[JJOE]

I was thinking this same thing the other day, about small realtors. I saw in the NY Times real estate section the house at 131 Maple Street up the street from us was listed for sale with Century 21 Block & Lot. But the realtor's link in the listing was a dead link going somewhere in the overall huge Century 21 website. Then when I searched there for the address it didn't come up. Then I searched for anything in Brooklyn NY and nothing came up! In other words, the Century 21 website is completely useless. I then googled Century 21 Block & Lot, got their individual website, and found the house there. (Why THAT link wasn't in the NY Times, who knows). But they offered no photos and little information. Smaller realtors may charge less commission, but if they do less work for it and the seller sells the house for less money, what's the point of a lower commission?

[PeaceLoveNap]

I was just ogling this house the other day. Very nice.

[carrie]

Aguayo & Huebener - a "boutique" agency - has brokered 2 houses on my block in the past year and have bombed at both. The first, a 2-family frame house offered at $~775 is cute but was a mess at the open house we attended. If you're going to sell a house that's 3/4 of a million $, you'd think someone could at least sweep and clean the dirt off the walls. As far as I'm concerned, this is the broker's fault as much as the home owner's.

The other house is a limestone currently for sale at $999k. If this place sells, it won't be because of the agent's efforts... the only notice I've seen of this house is a Craigslist ad that advertised an open house but had the wrong address and neighborhood listed. There's not even a sign in front of the house... (I sent a note to Brownstoner about the place and he said he'll make it a HOTD - the place is gorgeous - but, again, this isn't thanks to the broker).

If and when we sell our house, there's no way we'll use a broker. The amount of money you pay them isn't worth their meager gestures.

[leffres]

Re Aguayo & Huebener -- when we were looking 6 years ago our worst horror stories during the real estate search were Aguayo & Huebener related.

[JJOE]

The first house we looked at in PLG was repped by Aguayo & Huebener, and we were immediately very turned off by the broker at the open house. She barked at us the moment we walked in, "we don't co-broke!" barely saying hello first. It was gross.

[tripster]

the place on lefferts is in really poor shape . . . owned by an old lady who has been there for decades as the dust gathered around her.
But definitely could be a deal for someone looking for a fixer upper.
Put $150K into it and you still have a nice place for $750K
I agree with the different prices--that is a bad sign

[blase]

The house needs 200K minimum. It's in shambles.

[Blini]

This house is in awful condition. The house next door closed less than a month ago at a price of $530,000. How does a broker get off anything close to what is being asked?