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Ditmas Park/ Kensington

A decade ago, buyers drawn to Ditmas Park’s Victorians, complete with front porches, backyards and driveways, would have found 99-cent shops and vacant storefronts lining Cortelyou Road, the main business strip. Today Cortelyou has a number of popular restaurants, bars, cafes and shops catering to an evolving clientele. A recent addition, Brooklyn Industries, the hipster outfitter, opened its 16th clothing store at the corner of Cortelyou and Marlborough in December. That’s a good distance from Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, where the first shop opened in 2001.

Ditmas Park’s increasing gentrification is helping attract and retain families who might previously have gone to the suburbs. “There’s more holding them here now,” said Jan Rosenberg, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years and is a founder of Brooklyn Hearth Realty. “It’s more of a neighborhood.”

Younger families who bought one- or two-bedrooms and had another child are now selling those apartments and buying the next step up, she said. Sometimes that might be a grand Victorian, but more often it’s a smaller home nearby in Kensington, a diverse neighborhood of Orthodox Jews and immigrants from Pakistan, the Darfur region of Sudan, and Poland, among many other places.

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$510,000

Ditmas Park

1818 Newkirk Avenue, Brooklyn

2 Bedrooms     2 Bathrooms     29 Weeks On The Market

1250-sq.-ft. postwar co-op; 24 hr. doormen, dining room, renovated kitchen and baths,
h/w floors, terrace, 3 exposures; maintenance $1,036, 50% tax deductible; listed at $519,000.
Broker: Brooklyn Hearth.

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December 2nd, 2012

ON THE MARKET

By Suzanne Hamlin
CARROLL GARDENS CO-OP

$1,169,000

BROOKLYN: 331 Sackett Street (between Court and Smith Streets), #4LR

Maintenance: $1,411 a month

A three-bedroom two-bath co-op with a home office, a washer and dryer and six closets including a walk-in, in a self-managed pet-friendly 1920 building. Rebekah Carver, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (646) 489-4446; brooklynhearth.com

PROS: The floor plan of this updated unit is ideal, with all three bedrooms on one end and the living space, kitchen and home office on the other. The living space has two fireplaces and four windows. The office and bedrooms have Brooklyn and Manhattan views.

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ON THE MARKET

By Suzanne Hamlin
DITMAS PARK CO-OP

$ 1,475,000

BROOKLYN: 636 East 19th Street (Foster Avenue)

Taxes: $5,770 a year

A seven-bedroom two-bath 1915 house with two half baths, a butler’s pantry, a finished basement, a wraparound front porch, and a decked and landscaped backyard with an in-ground sprinkler system. Rebekah Carver, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (646) 489-4446;brooklynhearth.com

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February 5, 2012

ON THE MARKET

By Suzanne Hamlin
DITMAS PARK CO-OP

$ 345,000

BROOKLYN: 570 Westminster Road (Newkirk Avenue), D5

Maintenance: $597 a month

A one-bedroom one-bath unit with a nursery in a 180-unit Art Deco building with 24-hour doormen, a bike room, storage and a central laundry. DeAnna Lenhart, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (917) 539-9620; Brooklynhearth.com Open house Sunday, 2 to 3:30 p.m.

PROS: A sleekly designed space on the fourth floor, this unit has a large, newly renovated kitchen with a breakfast bar opening to the living/dining room, a nursery with sliding doors built into the bedroom, a windowed bathroom, and a foyer and a long hallway.

CONS: Washers and dryers are not allowed in individual units.

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BEVERLEY SQUARE WEST VICTORIAN

$ 1,200,000

BROOKLYN: 253 Rugby Road (Beverley Road)

Maintenance: $5,138.52 a year

A six-bedroom two-and-a-half-bath circa 1900 house with a library, a finished basement,  a front porch, a back deck and a two-car garage. Jan Rosenberg, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (347) 446-9688; www.brooklynhearth.com

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DITMAS PARK DUPLEX

$510,000

BROOKLYN: 415 Argyle Road (Cortelyou Road & Dorchester Road), #2-3L

Maintenance: $1120 a month

A two-bedroom one-and-a-half-bath co-op with a large living space, a renovated kitchen and a street-front terrace in a midcentury elevator building with a garage, a laundry room and a backyard. Jan Rosenberg, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (347) 446-9688; www.brooklynhearth.com Open house Sunday 1 to 2:30 p.m.

PROS: The hardwood staircase in this unit gives it a houselike feel.

CONS: The building does not allow dogs; maintenance is relatively high.

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KENSINGTON CO-OP

$279,000

BROOKLYN: 400 E. 17^th Street (Cortelyou Road & Dorchester Road), #200

Maintenance: $642 a month

A one-bedroom one-bath co-op with a separate kitchen, a living room and a terrace in an 81-unit doorman building with an elevator. Rebekah Carver, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (646) 489-4446; www.brooklynhearth.com

PROS: The kitchen has a copper sink and a pass-through into the living room. Both it and the tiled bath have recently been renovated. The street-front terrace, which runs the full width of the apartment, has planters for privacy and is large enough for a table for six.

CONS: There is no tub; there is a waiting list for in-building parking.

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KENSINGTON CO-OP

$ 254,000

BROOKLYN: 415 Ocean Parkway (Avenue C and Cortelyou Road), #4A

Maintenance: $525.11 a month

A one-bedroom one-bath co-op with a living room and a large foyer in a 59-unit prewar elevator building. Rebekah Carver, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (646) 489-4446; www.brooklynhearth.com

Open house Sunday 1 to 2:30 p.m.

PROS: This bright, quiet unit, in the back of the building overlooking a courtyard, has a newly renovated kitchen and bathroom, two bedroom closets and a foyer large enough to be an office or dining space.

CONS: The kitchen is quite small and doesn’t have much counter space.

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$1.125 million

Ditmas Park

439 East 19th Street, Brooklyn

5 Bedrooms   3 Bathrooms   2 Half Baths   195 weeks on market

110-year-old 3-story house; carved oak staircase, pocket doors, beamed ceilings, 4 fireplaces, study and balcony off master bedroom, 50-by-120-ft. lot in historic district; taxes $5,162: listed at $1.175 million. Broker: Brooklyn Hearth.

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By Suzanne Hamlin

MIDWOOD TOWN HOUSE

$ 575,000

BROOKLYN: 871 East 15^th Street

TAXES: $3,261 a year

A three-bedroom one-bath 1930s attached brick house with a front porch, a backyard, a deck and an open living/dining/kitchen area. Jan Rosenberg, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (347) 446-9688; www.brooklynhearth.com. Open house March 7, 2010, 12 to 2 p.m.

PROS: The house has hardwood floors, crown moldings, a renovated chef’s kitchen and a washer/dryer.

CONS: An M.T.A. switching station is nearby; the subway runs behind the house.

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By VIVIAN  S. TOY WITH MARK MARCELLE S. FISCHLER, SUZANNE HAMLIN AND ANTOINETTE MARTIN

DITMAS PARK CO-OP

$265,000

1115 Dorchester Road, #2E

A one-bedroom one-bath co-op with high ceilings, hardwood floors and a washer/dryer hookup, in a 27-unit prewar pet-friendly building. Jan Rosenberg, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (347) 446-9688; www.brooklynhearth.com Open house Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009, 12 to 1:30 p.m.

MAINTENANCE: $346 a month

PROS: The unit has new electricity and plumbing, recessed lighting and doorway transoms. Custom shelving and a kitchen backsplash made of tin ceiling tiles add style.

CONS: There is very little closet space.

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$415,000
Ditmas Park
1818 Newkirk Avenue, Brooklyn

1,200-sq.-ft. co-op in a postwar building; part-time doormen, kitchen window, h/w floors, terrace, 3 exposures, laundry room in building; maintenance $968, 37% tax deductible; listed at $419,000. Broker: Brooklyn Hearth.

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By VIVIAN S. TOY; WITH ELSA BRENNER, SUZANNE HAMLIN AND LISA PREVOST

DITMAS PARK VICTORIAN

Price: $1,249,000

BROOKLYN: 439 East 19th Street

A five-bedroom three-and-a-half-bath frame house with a back porch, a second-floor balcony, four fireplaces, a finished basement, and a separate two-story garage with water and electricity. Jan Rosenberg, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (718) 856-3572; www.brooklynhearth.com.

TAXES: $5,162 a year

PROS: The house has period details like built-in china cabinets, pocket doors and window seats. Upgrades include central air-conditioning and a large kitchen with poured-concrete counters.

CONS: The bathrooms could use updating.

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By: VIVIAN S. TOY WITH ELSA BRENNER, SUZANNE HAMLIN AND LISA PREVOST  

KENSINGTON CO-OP

Price: $249,000

BROOKLYN: 811 Cortelyou Road, #6B

A one-bedroom one-bath co-op with a large foyer, four closets, built-in bookshelves and an eat-in kitchen, in an 83-unit prewar building. Jan Rosenberg, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (347) 446-6088; www.brooklynhearth.com

MAINTENANCE: $821.87 a month; temporary assessment: $49.42 a month

PROS: This sponsor unit requires no board approval and comes with three months' free maintenance. It is on the top floor, with southern exposure, a graceful layout and generous room sizes.

CONS: There is no doorman; maintenance is relatively high.

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By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM, WITH ELSA BRENNER, SUZANNE HAMLIN AND LISA PREVOST 

KENSINGTON CO-OP

Price:  $419,000

Brooklyn: 599 East Seventh Street (off Cortelyou Road), #2F

A two-bedroom two-bath corner apartment in a 1961 building, with an L-shaped living room-dining room, large entrance hall, seven closets and three exposures. Rebekah Carver, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (646) 489-4446; www.brooklynhearth.com

Maintenance: $877 a month, plus a temporary $48.48 monthly assessment

Pros: This newly refurbished second-floor unit has great light and an appealing floor plan. The kitchen is accessible from both a hallway and the dining area. The master bedroom has an en suite bath; the second bedroom has two closets and two exposures.

Cons: Both the Q and the F trains are a 10-minute walk away. There is a waiting list for parking in the building.

FLATBUSH: $287,000

25 Parade Place, Cross st: Woodruff Av./ Crooke Av.

Prewar one-bedroom, one-bath co-op, 950 square feet, with eat-in kitchen with stainless-steel appliances, soaking tub and walk-in closet; building features Art Deco lobby and courtyard. Maintenance $576, 50 percent tax-deductible. Asking price $299,000, on market three weeks. Brokers: Rebekah Carver, Brooklyn Hearth Realty and Robert Herskovitz, The Corcoran Group

    Prospect Park has never been more affordable and close by than in this oversized one bedroom in Ditmas Park. Olmstead and Vaux's masterpiece is only a block away. Light streaming in from oversized windows and lovely pre-war details are just some of the highlights of this newly renovated apartment. The oak floors have been beautifully redone. Enjoy dining in the brand new windowed eat-in kitchen with it's new stainless steel appliances. The large bathroom features a soaking tub and a walk in shower. Storage is a dream with many closets including a huge walk-in. Lovely shops and restaurants are only a few blocks away and you are minutes from the best of Park Slope. There is no need to worry about your commute when the Q/B train is only three blocks away and you're only 20 minutes from Wall Street and 30 minutes from mid-town Manhattan. The building is pet friendly too! This is the best bargain in the neighborhood - buy it now before it's too late!

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By SUZANNE HAMLIN

Address: 1818 Newkirk Avenue (between 18th and 19th Streets), #1C. Brooklyn, NY

Price:  $419,000

The Property: A three-bedroom two-bath co-op with nine closets, a dining area and a terrace in a 1953 elevator building with a doorman, basement parking and a bike room. On the first floor above the lobby, the apartment has three exposures and windows in every room. It is three blocks from the subway and shopping. Recently refurbished, the apartment has redone hardwood floors, new molding and new kitchen appliances. The bathrooms could use updating. Maintenance is $969 a month. Open house Sunday, 12 to 2 p.m.

Why It's a Buy: Other apartments in this line have the same square footage but only two bedrooms. In June 2008, an apartment on the fifth floor sold for $509,600. This unit, a sponsor sale by the co-op board, requires 10 percent down, and the building has been preapproved for mortgages by two banks.

Best Feature: The floor plan offers a graceful combination of public and private spaces in 1,250 square feet. The entrance hall leads directly to the dining area and large living room, which is flanked by two wings. The kitchen and two bedrooms are on one side, and a large bedroom and terrace on the other.

Agent: DeAnna Lenhart, Brooklyn Hearth Realty, brooklynhearth.com; (917) 539-9620.

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By SUZANNE HAMLIN

DITMAS PARK CO-OP

Address: 221 East 18th Street , #4E (between Beverley and Albemarle Roads)

Price: $275,000

The Property: A one-bedroom one-bath co-op with a large foyer, eat-in kitchen and dining area in a prewar elevator building. The apartment was recently painted, the parquet floors refinished and new stainless steel appliances installed. On a residential street, the building is close to Prospect Park and subways. The monthly maintenance is $640.

Why is it a buy: The 1940 building converted to a co-op in the 1980s and is more than 50 percent owner-occupied. Because this unit is a sponsor sale, the down payment is only 10 percent, and no board approval is needed. The apartment was listed in June for $334,395, and similar apartments in the area have recently sold for up to $300,000.

Best Feature: A classic prewar apartment, the unit has five closets, a built-in bookcase, arched doorways and a spacious bathroom with a separate shower stall and bathtub. At 975 square feet, it is unusually large for a one-bedroom apartment. The foyer, as large as many contemporary living rooms, could easily become an office.

Agent: Jan Rosenberg, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (718) 856-3572; www.brooklynhearth.com. Open house Sunday, Dec. 11, 2008, 12 to 1:30 p.m.

It took Ali Newman and Desmond Curran two tries to sell their two-bedroom one-bath co-op in Kensington, Brooklyn.
     The first try was in February 2007. They listed the apartment at $335,000 — they had paid $190,000 for it in 2005 — and one month later accepted an offer of $330,000. But the deal fell apart. Very shortly after that, Ms. Newman learned she was expecting a second child.
     They had long considered leaving the city, but the pregnancy caused them to postpone the search. They took their home off the market.
     A year later, now a family of four and feeling the crunch of apartment living, Mr. Curran, 42, a special education teacher, and Ms. Newman, 33, a high school guidance counselor, put their apartment back on the market, listing it at $365,000 on the advice of their broker, Jan Rosenberg of Brooklyn Hearth Realty. This time, the road to a buyer was much longer.
     Mr. Curran and Ms. Newman had updated when they moved in: stripping wallpaper, refinishing floors and installing new kitchen cabinets. Now their biggest challenge was to contain a mass of toys and baby gear.
     To prepare the apartment for open houses, they moved their bicycles and a baby swing to a storage space in the building’s basement. Ms. Newman said she considered redoing the bathroom, which is entirely pink — sink, toilet and tub — but Ms. Rosenberg disagreed.
     “We were advised not to put any money into it,” Ms. Newman said. The broker thought that a bathroom renovation would not pay off.
     Among those who attended the open houses were Briana Maley and her husband, Neal Cohen. They had been living for three years in a one-bedroom rental apartment in Windsor Terrace. With the birth of their son, Ezra, in 2007, they were looking for something larger, in either Kensington or Ditmas Park.
     From the start, they were less than impressed with the property. “The building itself didn’t seem well maintained,” said Ms. Maley, a grant writer for New York University, recalling peeling wallpaper in the hallways.
     And they were turned off by several aspects of the unit itself. “The kitchen was dark, and the fire escape led into the children’s bedroom,” she said. “The pictures on the Web site made it seem a lot more spacious and airy.”
     In the end, Ms. Maley and Mr. Cohen, an assistant district attorney in Staten Island, abandoned their Brooklyn search altogether, as Mr. Cohen accepted a job in Washington.
     Ms. Rosenberg, the broker, grew frustrated. Despite several open houses, there was not a single offer.
     In April, Ms. Rosenberg enlisted the services of Chris Houghton, the owner of Trailer Park, a furniture store in Park Slope. “It wasn’t so much the price — the apartment itself needed tweaking,” Ms. Rosenberg said.
     Mr. Houghton suggested replacing the heavy drapes with curtains that would let in more light, and also rearranging the furniture. Ms. Newman had a home office in the master bedroom, and Mr. Houghton moved it out, setting it up in the large living room.
     Ms. Rosenberg described the living room back then as “kind of a hodgepodge,” and thought potential buyers might see it as too open and unmanageable. Placing an office in the space showed that the area could serve multiple functions, she said.
     She also found that most visitors, like Ms. Maley, expected the apartment to have more light, based on the listing photos. She had the photos darkened to more accurately show the actual light the apartment received.
     Meanwhile, Jenny Offill and David Hirmes were renting two floors of a Park Slope brownstone on 10th Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues. The apartment included a basement and backyard, where they tended a vegetable garden. They couldn’t imagine giving up these assets — until their landlord delivered some bad news. In the four years they had lived there, the monthly rent had risen from $2,400 to $2,600; now it would be $3,000.
     Ms. Offill, a writer and creative writing teacher at Brooklyn College and Columbia University, began combing the Internet for listings. She and Mr. Hirmes, a Web director for Channel 13, the public television station, capped their price range at $350,000. They had heard good things about Kensington from friends who had moved there.
     The co-op was the second apartment they saw, and in the months that followed, Ms. Rosenberg walked them through it several times, even though it cost more than they had budgeted. After several disappointing visits to apartments within their price range, they decided to raise the cap to $450,000.
     Nevertheless, when Ms. Offill saw that the price for the Curran-Newman apartment had been reduced, which the broker suggested after the staging, she knew it warranted another look. She arranged with Ms. Rosenberg to see it again, and found the apartment — newly decluttered, newly curtained and newly arranged — much improved.
     Ms. Offill, 39, knew others would be impressed, too. “I was afraid someone would recognize it for the deal it was,” she said. She and Mr. Hirmes, 37, made an offer of $325,000, and accepted Mr. Curran and Ms. Newman’s counteroffer of $345,000.
     “I feel like we did a very un-New York thing by buying at the bottom of our price range,” Ms. Offill said. The couple, with their daughter, Thea, 3, moved into the apartment in August.
     By then, Mr. Curran and Ms. Newman were living in Buffalo. In February, before selling their apartment, their offer of $270,000 for a three-story Victorian in that city’s Elmwood section, listed at $279,000, had been accepted.
     They closed in July, with Ms. Newman’s father co-signing the mortgage since the sale of their Kensington apartment had not been finalized. Mr. Curran gleefully listed the house’s features: four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, a cellar with a laundry room, a fireplace and stained glass windows.
     “We just could not believe how far our money would get us here,” Ms. Newman said. “It was like some weird alternate universe.”

By VIVIAN S. TOY; WITH ELSA BRENNER, SUZANNE HAMLIN, AND LISA PREVOST

PROSPECT PARK SOUTH CO-OP

Price: $489,000

Brooklyn: 1409 Albemarle Road (corner Rugby Road), #2A

A two-bedroom one-bath unit with an eat-in kitchen and a 450-square-foot terrace in a 1938 building. Rebekah Carver, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (646) 489-4446; www.brooklynhearth.com

Maintenance: $1,117.32 a month

Pros: The unit has a convenient floor plan and the generous living spaces of a classic prewar apartment.

Cons: The bathroom is small and could use new tile.

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By VIVIAN S. TOY WITH ELSA BRENNER, SUZANNE HAMLIN AND LISA PREVOST

Kensington CO-OP

PRICE: $249,000

BROOKLYN: 811 Cortelyou Road, #6B. A one-bedroom one-bath co-op with a large foyer, four closets, built-in bookshelves and an eat-in kitchen, in an 83-unit prewar building.
Maintenance: $821.87 a month; temporary assessment: $49.42 a month

Open house Sunday, 12 to 2 p.m.

PROS: This sponsor unit requires no board approval and comes with three months' free maintenance. It is on the top floor, with southern exposure, a graceful layout and generous room sizes.

CONS: There is no doorman; maintenance is relatively high.

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By VIVIAN S. TOY

Ditmas Park Co-op

Price: $289,000

Brooklyn: 570 Westminster (at Newkirk Avenue), #D6

A one-bedroom one-bath in a pet-friendly doorman elevator building with a bicycle room. DeAnna Lenhart, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (917) 539-9620; www.brooklynhearth.com

Maintenance: $521.26 a month

Pros: In a prewar building with an inner courtyard and a notable Art Decco lobby, this well-tended apartment had large rooms, a logical layout, a foyer, lots of closets and eat-in kitchen.

Cons: The bathroom is small.

     Six years ago, Yvette Folk made a real estate purchase that not everyone in her life could see the value in.
     “My sister called my father to say that I had lost my mind,” said Ms. Folk, 52, describing the offending apartment: a one-bedroom co-op in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, on Albemarle Road. The property had sat vacant for two years after the owner was evicted for nonpayment of maintenance fees.
     “The place was not very nice,” Ms. Folk said. “There was about two inches of dust on everything, the kitchen’s tiles had dirty grout and all the paint was peeling.”
But there was plenty to like - apart from the rather amazing price of only $16,000 (the cost of the maintenance owed on the unit) - there was the apartment’s quiet position at the back of the building, overlooking the tennis courts of the Knickerbocker Field Club, as well as the oversized rooms. “The bedroom fit my queen-sized bed, a big dresser, a chest of drawers, an entertainment center and a Queen Anne chair — and still left me room to do my aerobic exercises,” she recalled.
     “Plus, it was a mixed community, with Spanish, West Indian, African-American and white residents. I just really liked the area.”
     She had vision and enough financial sense not to walk away from an amazing deal: Pay the amount owed in back maintenance, and the place would be hers.
     The former owner of the unit had been foreclosed upon, and its shares had returned to the co-op board. Because the unit had sat empty for so long, the board wanted to unload it quickly. So, $16,000 later, Ms. Folk had made her first real estate purchase.
     She spent another $1,000 on legal fees and moved in, having work done on the floors and walls for a total of $5,000.
“My sister came back eight months after her first visit and said, ‘Is this the same place?’ ” she recalled with a laugh.
     And now, with her recent sale of the place, the deal has paid off in spades — but not before a rocky eight months of twists and turns while it was on the market.
     In 2005 Ms. Folk, a lifelong New Yorker who is an employee recruiter for accounting and secretarial positions, decided she wanted to try out a new city. She found a renter to sublet her apartment while she relocated to a rental in the Washington area. And after two years, she decided she wanted to stay there indefinitely.
     She put her place on the market a year ago with DeAnna Lenhart, a broker with Brooklyn Hearth Realty who lives in the building.
     Ms. Lenhart strongly suggested repainting the unit, as the renter had gone over Ms. Folk’s antique-white paint job with jarring, uneven coats of bright blue, neon green and red, and chocolate-brown moldings. But Ms. Folk wanted to make a go of selling it as-is, so they left it alone, deciding on a list price of $259,000.
That’s when the roller-coaster ride began.
     It started out promisingly enough, with a full-price offer coming in the first week. But the prospective buyer got cold feet quickly. After about two more months and no real bites, they lowered the asking price to $249,000, and Ms. Lenhart made another pitch for painting the place to improve its marketability. “I felt so certain it was purely a lack of people’s imagination and not the apartment itself,” Ms. Lenhart said.
     In exchange for raising the broker’s fee to 6 percent from 5 percent, Ms. Lenhart offered to have the place painted back to antique white, change the dated switch plates, regrout the bathroom tiling and undergo a professional cleaning. Ms. Folk agreed to the work, and a subsequent open house in October brought in two offers in one week. A couple won the bidding war with an offer of $250,500. But then, after a delay of more than four months, the co-op board rejected the application.
     The apartment was vacant, so to raise the ante, in February, Ms. Lenhart had it staged and rephotographed. “At this point we wanted to do everything we possibly could,” Ms. Lenhart said. She also raised the list price to $255,000, explaining that “some time went by, and values in the neighborhood were going up.”
     Some lookers came and went, including Steven Morales, who was drawn by the price and proximity to Prospect Park. But the place just wasn’t quite right for him. “It needed more work than we wanted to invest in, such as new finishes and fixtures,” recalled Mr. Morales, 40, an architect who found another apartment nearby. “We were also looking for a place that had the potential for creating a second bedroom.”
Still, in March, three offers did come in — for $260,000, $255,000 and $245,000 — and Ms. Lenhart was cautious, in light of the recent board rejection. One bidder had a weak credit score, and another had an income lower than that of the rejected couple; she advised Ms. Folk to go with the lowest offer from a buyer with solid financials — which she did, countering with $250,000. The buyer agreed, and the sale closed in May.

     THE PROPERTY It took eight months, a price cut, a paint job and some staging to sell this one-bedroom Ditmas Park apartment in Brooklyn for $250,000.
      “At this point I didn’t want her to be taking any chances,” Ms. Lenhart said. “He was such a slam dunk that I felt there was no way the board would reject him.”
     Her instincts were right about that winning buyer, Jonathan Fox, a 28-year-old lawyer with the New York City Commission on Human Rights whose parents had agreed to help him substantially with the down payment. When he put in his bid, he was living in a Prospect Heights rental with two roommates.
     “I knew I wanted to stay in Brooklyn for the long term, and that rents would keep going up,” Mr. Fox said. “The market had stabilized and opened up an opportunity.”
     Mr. Fox was limited to certain neighborhoods because of his budget — under $300,000 — and began his three-month search in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, finding places mainly through Craigslist and in the newspaper. “Nothing felt perfect,” he said. Eventually, he shifted to the area south of Prospect Park, and was drawn to see the place on Albemarle Road.
     “It’s very large — I liked that it had a separate kitchen — and it’s also laid out in a way that really maximizes the space,” he said, adding that he loved the wood floors and the built-ins, and the fact that it overlooks the tennis court.
     He does plan to renovate the kitchen and fix up the bathroom. But the unit, Mr. Fox added, “has very good bones and a lot of potential.”
     And Ms. Folk could not have been happier with the outcome of her long sale. First, she netted $200,000, which allowed her to purchase both a car and a $265,000 condominium in Arlington, Va.
     Second, she was pleased to know that her labor of love was going to Mr. Fox. “The buyer is a sweet young man,” she said, adding that he seemed to understand what she had long believed: “There’s just something special about that place.”

By VIVIAN S. TOY, WITH VALERIE COTSALAS, SUZANNE HAMLIN AND LISA PREVOST

DITMAS PARK DUPLEX

Price: $545,000

Brooklyn: 415 Argyle Road (near Cortelyou Road), #20

A two-bedroom two-bath co-op in a 105-unit 1960s brick building. Jan Rosenberg, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (347) 446-9688, www.brooklynhearth.com

Maintenance: $1,066 a month

Pros: Because the bedrooms are upstairs and the downstairs living space opens onto a street-front terrace, this duplex feels like a little house. Recent upgrades include new bathroom and kitchen fixtures.

Cons: Bedroom closets have curtains but no doors. The building has parking, but buyers desiring a spot would have to join a waiting list.

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By VIVIAN S. TOY; WITH ELSA BRENNER, SUZANNE HAMLIN, AND ANTOINETTE MARTIN

KENSINGTON CO-OP

Price: $289,000

Brooklyn: 800 Cortelyou Road (between Eighth and Ninth Streets), #4F

A one-bedroom one-bath unit in a 1960s building with an elevator, a laundry, parking and storage. DeAnna Lenhart, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (917) 539-9620; www. brooklynhearth.com

Maintenance: $568 a month

Pros: The apartment has three deep double closets, a linen closet and a recently renovated kitchen and bath.

Cons: The building lobby is dated.

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DITMAS PARK CO-OP

Price: $509,600

Brooklyn: 1818 Newkirk Avenue, #5C (corner of East 19th St.)

A three-bedroom two-bath apartment with a terrace on the fifth floor of a 1950s six-story elevator doorman building with a parking garage. Jan Rosenberg, DeAnna Lenhart, Rebekah Carver (718) 856-3572, Brooklyn Hearth Realty; www.brooklynhearth.com. 

Maintenance: $920.53 a month

Pros: With three exposures, this recently renovated 1,200-square-foot apartment has an appealing floor plan. This is a sponsor sale, so no board approval is necessary.

Cons: Under co-op rules, no dogs or cats are allowed.

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Brooklyn
DITMAS PARK
$313,600
1818 Newkirk Avenue

1-bedroom, 1-bath, 925-sq.-ft. co-op in a postwar building; 24-hr. doormen; dining area, renovated and windowed kitchen, hardwood floors, 2 exposures; laundry and party room in building; maintenance $647, 40% tax deductible; listed at $313,600, 2 weeks on market.
(broker: Brooklyn Hearth Realty)

By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM; WITH CLAIRE WILSON, VALERIE COTSALAS AND SUZANNE HAMLIN

Art Deco Co-op

Price: $389,000

Brooklyn: 570 Westminster (between Ditmas and Newkirk Avenues)

A two-bedroom one-bath co-op with an L-shaped foyer that doubles as a dining room. Jan Rosenberg and Alice Hoffman, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (718) 856-3572; www.brooklynhearth.com

Maintenance: $752.60 a month

Pros: Beautifully maintained, this original Art Deco-era apartment has an appealing layout, including generous hallways and closets, and an eat-in kitchen with a washer-dryer. The building has a 24-hour doorman and is pet friendly.

Cons: To add another bathroom, some closet space would have to be sacrificed.

By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM; WITH ELSA BRENNER, SUZANNE HAMLIN AND LISA PREVOST

Retro Duplex

Price: $399,000

Brooklyn: 415 Argyle Road, Ditmas Park

A 1,300-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bath duplex with a terrace in a 105-unit co-op building built in 1962. Jan Rosenberg and Alice Hoffman, Brooklyn Hearth Realty (718) 856-3572; www.brooklynhearth.com.

Open houses Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Maintenance: $910 a month

Pros: There are three large closets upstairs.

Cons: The apartment needs a serious cosmetic updating.