Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Listing of the Day: Correcting the Fraud

E. 201st Street and Decatur Avenue 2 Bedrooms - $1700/month

My apologies again for posting a too-good-to-be-true LOD last week at this same building that ending up being a scam (Thanks again, Newburgh Restoration).

Here's a two bedroom for $1700. Totally legit listing with an offer for potential renters to even speak to the tenants departing for Philadelphia. Not as great a deal, but not horrible. The little write up from last week still holds, methinks. So let's try this again:

The building itself is not the worst Fedders monstrosity I've ever seen (it's not even the worst in the hood). There are cute little balconies/terraces for everyone but the ground floor. The makeup of the building seems decent enough - not overly rowdy. There's a Mexican family, who use indoor seating as outdoor seating, a hipster with a small dog, a grand dame Puerto Rican woman who decorates her balcony with plastic ivy vines and lights.

The hood has some pretty cool stuff to offer. You'd be near the Mosholu Parkway, which serves as a long green park (with a road) that connects Bronx Park to Van Cortlandt Park. You'd be near the Bronx Greenway and great biking. The Botanical Garden is pretty damned cool as well, and until October there is a twice weekly farmer's market at the Garden.

There is decent shopping on Bedford Park Boulevard, a bit more on 204th Street across Mosholu Parkway, and yet even more down on Fordham Road. If you want really fresh and quality products like bread, cheeses, meat, fish, pasta, or produce, I'd take the 15-20 minute walk to Arthur Avenue or ride my bike over.

Fordham University and Lehman College always provide cultural offerings to the hood like lectures, talks, plays, and musical performances. Fordham provides pretty decent college sports to the nabe.

The hood is saturated in transportation with the B/D at Bedford Park Boulevard and the Concourse, and the 4 train at Bedford Park Boulevard and Jerome Avenue. The Botanical Garden also has a Metro North stop.

Further Reading for the Studious Types:

New York Times "Living In - Bedford Park"
The Real Deal "Bronx's Bedford Park Hidden in Plain View"
AMNY "Bedford Park, Bronx"

FULL LISTING

~ErLu

4 comments:

Nick Napolitano said...

I love Bedford Park, but don't feel like Boogie Downer should be promoting real estate developers that cram in these multi-family condo monstrosities where beautiful homes used to be. The house that used to be there was huge with trees and a nice front porch. When you squeeze in condos-turned-to-rentals as fast as this developer did you change the look and feel of the neighborhood and the homes are often not well made.

Boogiedowner said...

Thanks for reading and commenting, Nick. I am sure the house that sat there was beautiful. The gripe you have is less with BoogieDowner and more with whomever sold the old beautiful house you remember.

BoogieDowner likes to profile all sorts of housing stock. We have LODs that range from rentals to for sale, from fedders monstrosities to lovely affordable single-family homes, from fancy-pants Fieldston mansions to flophouses.

I really don't think there's anything ethically improper about using this as an LOD.

This LOD might fit someone's financial/geographical/space needs. As they say in the car biz, "An ass for every seat."

Newburgh Restoration said...

Welcome ;)

Jay Gould said...

As I said in a comment in another part of this site, I am the current owner (NOT the builder/developer!) of this house. I'm not a fan of the builder (who still owns four out of the five houses) but they are reasonably good quality.

The apartment advertised is the second-floor apartment (I live in the one with no terrace - why would you WANT one on the ground floor?) I'm still looking for the right tenant; someone who wants to use Metro-North to commute either north or south would be ideal. The commute time from Botanical Garden Station is 25 minutes to Grand Central, and about the same to White Plains. The rent is 1/2 to 2/3 what it would be in either area, and the apartment is probably nicer - and newer.