Are you a family outgrowing your current 2 or 3 bedroom? Are you tired of squeezing everything you own into small closets and rooms that barely fit furniture? Do you want to avoid the homeownership pains of a townhouse but you still want period details?

Alright, I'd move into this one tomorrow if I had the liquidity to afford it.

Why an apartment, not a townhouse

Lots of families think they want a townhouse with a backyard. And as someone who had young kids during Covid, I think the backyard era saved my sanity on a few occasions. But (and it's a big big big but), townhouses have roofs, and boilers, and Sisyphean levels of leaves (see my earlier post), and basements that can flood. You get my point.

An apartment can save you a lot of headaches, and this listing proves you can also get a ton of space and an absolutely unbeatable location where you would otherwise need to shell out at least $3M to get the same amount of space in townhouse form.

Location, location, location

You are literally steps away from Prospect Park, the farmers market, the Brooklyn Museum, shops and restaurants on Vanderbilt, and lots of access to public transport.

Now you are probably thinking that this coop will have the square footage of a shoebox, but no. It is 2,200 square feet and four full-size bedrooms. I could almost be tempted to have another kid if I lived here.

It's on the 4th floor, so it's a bit off the street from a noise perspective, but not so high up that you can't see trees. As you know, I think seeing trees is important.

Enter the foyer

Enter the large foyer where you can display art as well as an avalanche of different shoes and backpacks and coats. Notice the parquet hardwood floors as you walk towards the living room. Once there, notice that you have space for lots of seating and even more room for your children's roughhousing, impromptu dance performances, and other nonsense.

The dining room door (a mildly controversial stance)

Walk through a pocket sliding door to get to the open kitchen and dining room. Semi-controversial stance that having a door between the living room and dining room is actually really great. Noise insulation if cooking is smelly, noisy, or something you otherwise want to keep hidden. But you still get all the fun of an open floorplan with this amount of space, since the dining room is open to the kitchen.

Is the kitchen a little dated? Sure, but nothing you can't fix with some cabinet replacement and maybe some new countertops. Appliances look A+.

The bedrooms are legitimately enormous

The bedrooms in this apartment are legitimately enormous, and I'm not just saying this because the photos are well shot. Every single bedroom has room for a bed, dresser, desk, and sitting area. The fourth bedroom has a sink in it, which you might take out if someone is using it as their main bedroom. Otherwise it's a perfect office, exercise room, guest room, or sanctuary of your own design.

Honestly, the thing about this apartment that works is its location. Yes, you don't have a backyard. You have Prospect Park. That's pretty spectacular.

What I'd want to check on before buying

• Monthly maintenance is ~3k, make sure this is in your current operating budget.
• Anticipated capital expenditures. Roof, facade, elevator, boiler. If any of these are on the near horizon, there will be an assessment.
• Underlying mortgage and any upcoming refinance. A board that's refinancing in a higher rate environment can push maintenance up meaningfully.
• Subletting policy and flip tax. Matters for resale, matters more if you ever need to rent it out.
• Board personality. Some prewar coops on Eastern Parkway are easygoing. Others will reject you because your dog is the wrong size.