NYC housing Twitter – help me out with something. I& #39;m looking a 6-fam building in Ridgewood for sale. It& #39;s 1853 Madison St. It& #39;s a great location – gentrifying neighborhood, beautiful street. Nice brick building, 5,600 sq. ft. It& #39;s asking $1.1 million.

Good price, right? Except it& #39;s fully rent stabilized. NOI is $35,242, because average rent in the building is just over $900. And that& #39;s the broker& #39;s underwriting – no allowance for court costs to collect rent, and other expenses are probably understated too. Plus closing costs

But whatever, let& #39;s take the broker at their word. Let& #39;s assume your wife is a lawyer and your brother is a title agent, so closing is free. Yay! So at a 6% cap rate, the building is actually worth...a little under $600,000. Yikes. Not great, but at least it& #39;s a positive number!

Except...wait. It& #39;s actually an original Gustav X. Mathews building, quite a pedigree! But it was built in 1913, so it& #39;s 107 years old. And oh yeah, did I mention that it& #39;s in a historic district? And the owner has never pulled a permit except to change from oil to gas?

So, first of all: Does the property actually have any value? And secondly: How can this possibly end in anything other than the DOB issuing a vacate order?