Archive for the 'brooklyn real estate' Category
Ready for the Tour?
April 26th, 2010
For the fifty first time (!) Park Slope Civic Council is hosting the neighborhood’s House Tour.
And of course, we can’t help ourselves. We’re ready to binge on the area’s remarkable architecture and design. You’d think we’d have had enough of looking at properties…
Perfect treat for people downright addicted to their community and its housing stock.
On the menu: Neo-Tudors, Romanesque Revivals, Queen Annes, French Neo-Grecs, Neo-Classical, Neo-Renaissance, Italianate Neo-Grec.
When: 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM SUNDAY, MAY 16
Where: Starting Point: Poly Prep Lower School
Brownstoner: Brooklyn Real Estate and Renovation
April 15th, 2010
- 244 and 246 Hall Street Finally Sell
- Wednesday Links
- Tuesday Blogwrap
- Closing Bell: Engravings on Degraw
- Building of the Day: 40 Hicks Street
- New Building for 306 Bedford Avenue
- Vanderbilt Getting New Bagel Shop
- House of the Day: 325 Macon Street
- Co-op of the Day: 132 Joralemon Street, #3C
- Rental of the Day: 265 Berry Street Triplex
Have you seen this logo? Logo thief spotted in Gowanus…
March 5th, 2010
Okay. So we do feel honored that a home remodeling business in our area would find our logo incredibly attractive. But attractive enough for them to use it to promote their own business? Definitely not kosher.
Either way, while our legal department gets busy with a Cease and Desist Order, we’ll just enjoy the logo thief’s not-so-unique approach to advertising. And of course, just putting this out there: this contractor has nothing to do with Ideal Properties Group… so, in case he gets in touch with you, know that we do not endorse his home remodeling (or design) skills.
The picture you see here was taken by one of Ideal’s agents, literally two blocks away from our office (the side of which proudly displays our logo). Our guess is that the contractor got the idea while driving by, on his way to Lowe’s.
Oh, and dude… the font is totally off, and your “roof” angles are questionable.
The End of an Era
July 17th, 2009
It is with great sadness that we learn that Tom’s Restaurant on Washington Avenue has changed hands. On the bright side, its long-term proprietor and neighborhood’s staple, Gus Vlahavas, finally gets to spend his days gardening and enjoying life outside of diner business.
As much a legend as the place itself, Gus is not only the one who brought us fancy pancakes (before his reign, during his father Tom’s time, the pancakes were simple and unadorned with blueberries, bananas, walnuts…), but he is the very reason this greasy spoon diner is a destination.
Tom’s is where most of the neighborhood gets their morning coffee, or enjoys a breakfast replete with morning newspapers. The diner’s claims to fame, besides Gus and his infectiously friendly personality, are wacky 1930’s approach to interior design, kitschy memorabilia, framed and autographed lyrics to Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner,” Gus’s mom Stella (the queen of the register, peppermints and lollipops), and free cookies, coffee, and wedges of oranges that you will be showered with by busboys while you wait on line to get in.
As we ponder the (bleak?) future of Tom’s without Gus, we get lost in predictions that the garden will be redone to accommodate additional tables, and we are convinced that the new owner will have Tom’s opened on Sundays. We can only hope that the new owner doesn’t put an end to egg creams, cherry lime Rickeys and flavorful pancakes.
Barely a Saturday goes by without a line winding out of Tom’s. We are used to seeing it and we hope to see it for as long as Tom’s is our reality.
No matter what the future may hold, the ring master will be dearly missed…
(New owner pictured above)
Park Slope to Open Its Doors – Annual-House-Tour-Time!
April 23rd, 2009
This year, Ideal Properties Group joins the effort: starting May 1st, tickets for the event will be available for purchase at our Seventh Avenue office (78 Seventh Avenue, corner of Berkeley Place). For additional information and/or ticket reservations, please call: 718.840.2757.
(Starting Point: Poly Prep Lower School, Prospect Park West and 1st Street)
Ideal Properties Group Supports “Snowflake Celebration”
December 1st, 2008
Keeping Brooklyn’s money in Brooklyn? An initiative definitively worth wholehearted support. Park Slope’s Chamber of Commerce and the Buy in Brooklyn Campaign announced a “series of Park-Slope-wide SHOP LOCAL, SHOP LATE Events” known by its popular nom de guerre, Snowflake Celebration.
Park Slope’s second annual event – scheduled for December 4 and December 11 – invites local merchants to keep their doors open late, and help create a holiday atmosphere. Participating businesses are expected to stay open until 10 pm, and offer special, business-specific promotions.
The event is aimed at supporting re-circulation of Brooklyn’s money by way of Brooklynites making purchases at locally owned businesses.
Ideal Properties Group LLC wholeheartedly supports the effort! To every Brooklynite who spends $50 or more in any of the participating businesses (for complete list of participating businesses, please click here), we offer 20% off our standard broker’s fee. The offer applies to any residential rental offers. To redeem, please shows us a receipt, dated December 4 and/or December 11 (for any purchases made after 9 pm). The offer ends December 31.
Happy Brooklyn shopping!
Impromptu mandolin duet… live… in our new office!
October 11th, 2008
But now that the dust has settled… OK, maybe somewhat settled… we find our real estate world digress deep in the abyss of our talents. A friend drops by, and one of us pops up their faithful companion, the mandolin. The friend retorts by popping up his own. And then impromptu music happens, and we all delight in it, and it all makes sense again.
Our new office is beautiful and inspiring. And we find it really hard to take a decent picture of two musicians, embroiled in their inner selves, with their heads moving, bobbing, dictating, and keeping the rhythm.
And we love having friends over – especially the ones who play and sing really well.
From us, to you.
Associate Broker Brad and his friend taking it away…
Digital Passer-by Beware: Ideal Agent at Work!
August 8th, 2008
“Safety First!” is our agent’s motto… See for yourself, and you be the judge why the rest of the office thought this photo deserved admiration and publication.
Thanks to our trigger-happy office paparazzo Yuliya, you all get to enjoy, and we all get to share.
Ideal Agents
Can we work something out just between the two of us?
August 7th, 2008
You have just read the most innocent-sounding question the distant resonance of which most real estate agents dread.
This week’s nomination for the coveted “Rotten Apple of the Month” goes to a client who was shown a commercial property a few weeks ago… Having disappeared off the face of the planet for a number of weeks (after a number of showings of properties they professed to have “really, really liked,”) the client magically reappeared earlier this week.
Their re-emergence on the client scene in and of itself wouldn’t have warranted this write-up, had they actually contacted their agent. Instead, they contacted one of the properties’ owners directly, suggesting they would like to “cut the broker out of the picture.”
Interesting world we live in, where we don’t mind paying for services such as dog walking, but we don’t care to pay a fee where the service has been provided with utmost care and professionalism, and where corresponding fee was dully earned…
There’s always a rotten apple…
August 1st, 2008
… in a barrel. Be it a barrel of real estate agents, a barrel of landlords, or a barrel of tenants-to-be.
It would be a big fat lie, or at least a willful misrepresentation, to say that all of us (agents/brokers) are great.
Some of us are still in the training stage, on our way to a fully rewarding professional destiny… and have no clue what we’re doing.
Some of us unwillingly disregard our manager’s warnings for the day.
Some of us fail to get fully familiar with all the particulars of listings—or we may forget to pass crucially (or seemingly crucially) important information on to our clients.
By virtue of being human ourselves, there are days when we get up and start the day off by hating it. There are days when our boyfriends tell us they’d like to start seeing other people. There are days when our beloved pets die of cancer. There are days when our mothers manage to convince us to visit the family friends we never liked. There are days when the lunar cycles are just simply off.
But most of those days are rare.
And most of our work days are great, because we work in a great firm. We joke around, we tease each other, we share details about listings, we share our professional and private stories.
And most of the clients we encounter on a daily basis are great people, in need of a good, honest, professional service. And the “most” in the previous sentence can be hypothetically quantified at 99.9%
But there’s always that .01%
What a small number, and what a big pain!
We all surely agree that reality warrants a dutiful blog entry whenever identified. So, from now on, we promise to bring you a monthly “Rotten Apple of The Month” column… We will faithfully record events and situations, take a vote on the one deserving of a blog mention, and present the “rottenest” entry to our blog readers.
This month’s rottenest client will remain a secret, because we’re still trying to get one of our agents off the ledge of mental distraction.
Cheers.
