Just Reduced! 2107-9 Naudain Street

3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1860 SF: $489,000

Own a piece of history in Rittenhouse!! Don’t miss the opportunity to live in this stunning architectural landmark designed by the students of Louis Kahn. The home boasts a private entrance with patio/yard including mature trees that proves to be a true secret garden. Or provides the rare ability to build or expand and carries its own address. The home includes an original mosaic by Isaiah Zagar off a brand new beautiful kitchen, as well as may other creative elements. The glass back wall of the home, 6 skylights, and the circular window that spans two stories floods the home with natural light. There is a private back patio as well as a large roofdeck and yoga loft that make this city dwelling truly unique. All new house systems including kitchen appliances. Come see this dream home!

Check out the Postlet for this listing to see more photos!

For further information or to schedule a showing for this property, please contact:

Jamie Gordon
REALTOR®
CITYSPACE
2200 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19144
O: 215.625.3650
C: 267.971.7028
F: 215.625.4721

353 Cliveden Street

3 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1456 SF: $169,900!

Beautifully rehabbed home in Mount Airy across from Cliveden Park. Property includes all new kitchen with granite countertops, slate tile floor, breakfast bar, and stainless steel appliances. The living room has a nice stone fireplace and recessed lights. The whole house has crown moldings and hardwood floors throughout. All bedrooms are good sized and bathroom includes shower with frameless glass, tile, sit in shower, and Jacuzzi tub. At the rear of the home you have a garage and drive way followed by a very large yard approx. 100 ft deep. It is truly a great value for the price.

Check out the Postlet for this listing!

Eric Sweeney
REALTOR®
CITYSPACE
O: 215.625.3650
C: 610.551.9221
F: 215.625.4721

Just Listed! 909 American Street: 2 units

Unit A: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1400 SF, $399,900

Beautiful condo in the heart of Northern Liberties. A total rehab and high end renovation. Upper bi-level unit, 2nd/3rd floors, includes beautiful open kitchen/dining/living space, 2 ‘master suite’ bed/baths, and aprivate roof deck with incredible views of BF Bridge, Center City, and Liberty Lands park. Tucked between 2nd and 3rd Streeets, across from Liberty Lands, this is the BEST location in Northern Liberties. Incredible natural light via nearly 12 windows and skylights. Truly an amazing property. All design/build elements done by Onion Flats’ protege, Shawn Dougherty of Small Axe Studios. Do not misss this one!!

Unit B: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 900 SF, $299,900

Beautiful condo in the heart of Northern Liberties. A total rehab and high end renovation. Garden unit on first floor, includes beautiful custom steel bridge entry to open kitchen/dining and above sunken living space!! Master suite bed/bath features a walk out to aprivate garden. Tucked between 2nd and 3rd Streeets, across from Liberty Lands, this is the BEST location in Northern Liberties. Incredible natural light via nearly 10 windows and skylights. Truly an amazing property. All design/build elements done by Onion Flats’ protege, Shawn Dougherty of Small Axe Studios. Do not misss this one!!

To see more pictures, check out the Postlet for these listings!

For further information about these units or to schedule a showing, please contact:

Johnny McDonald
215.669.0469

CITYSPACE
2200 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215. 625.3650

Nutter Butter Post by Rachel Lipton

You might notice that Today’s Nutter Butter does not directly refer to our great city’s Mayor, but instead the focus is on a project that the REALTORS of Philadelphia have come up with to help the RDA (Re-Development Authority) and other city agencies sell blighted properties to bring in much needed tax revenue and perhaps help push these hard to swallow budget proposals to the back burner.

Realtors helping sell government-owned vacant properties

By Jennifer Lin
Inquirer Staff Writer

Al Perry sells houses for a living, so it bothers him to see a boarded-up shell or overgrown lot that is owned – and ignored – by the city. As president of the Greater Philadelphia Association of Realtors, Perry is working on an idea that could help the city reduce blight and raise money.

It’s marketing: Use Realtors to sell some of the 11,000 vacant houses and lots owned by government entities.
The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, which owns about 3,000 of those properties, is testing the idea. So far, officials like what they see.

Terry Gillen, the RDA’s executive director, said that for the first time, the authority had listed properties on the region’s multiple-listing service. Five are in Southwest Philadelphia and two in South Philadelphia.

Realtors with three agencies, including Perry, also are showing houses to prospective buyers – another first for the RDA.
“With its scattered small properties, the RDA is not in the habit of going after sales,” Gillen said. If it owns a lot or an empty house, a prospective buyer would have to comb city records to find that out.

As part of the pilot project, the RDA also has listed 12 properties on its Web site to measure public interest. Offers have been made on half of them.

The RDA intends to post online the address of every vacant property this summer.

“Realtors, meanwhile, are advising the RDA on how to simplify its paperwork and make buying a property from the agency easier. In addition, they are giving advice on pricing,” Gillen said, for they tend to have a better grasp of whether appraised values are too low or too high.

“We definitely want to try to take this project to the next level,” Gillen said. “We’d like something bigger than the pilot by this fall.”

For decades, blight has been a challenge for Philadelphia mayors and redevelopment officials.

The city has about 55,000 vacant properties and lots, of which government entities own about 20 percent, according to new data from the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors.

The RDA has 2,920 vacant properties and lots, the association said. Many of those decrepit assets were acquired in the 1950s and 1960s for redevelopment plans that did not materialize.

There is “immense interest” among Realtors in Philadelphia in collaborating with the RDA and “cleaning up city streets,” Perry said.
In the pilot, which began in February, the Realtors were given five houses and two lots to market, ranging from $19,900 to $43,700. The lots, in the 1200 block of Webster Street in South Philadelphia, are under agreements of sale and could fetch $17,400 more than the RDA had expected. The agent will earn $2,500 or 6 percent of the sale price, whichever is lower.

Under terms of the sale, the properties must be redeveloped within 18 months.

Philadelphia Realtors borrowed the program idea from Baltimore, which has 30,000 vacant houses and lots.

Baltimore calls its program SCOPE – Selling City-Owned Properties Efficiently. Since 2005, 263 sales have been transacted, raising $6.6 million for the city.

Joseph Landers III, executive vice president of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors, said, “The city didn’t think its property had any value. Our members said, yes, it did.”

To deter speculators, Baltimore requires that the nonprofit Community Law Center review each sales agreement. The law center checks finances and searches for outstanding judgements or housing-code violations. Robert Strupp, a lawyer for the center, said that, to date, no property had gone into foreclosure.

SCOPE, too, requires buyers to rehab properties within 18 months. The city pays a broker $2,500 or 8 percent of the sale price.
Philadelphia City Council wants to know more about the Baltimore program.

“If it worked in Baltimore, I don’t know why it wouldn’t work here,” Councilman James F. Kenney said.
One big difference between the cities is the political component. In Baltimore, sales of city property require approval by the Board of Estimates, which sets fiscal policy and includes the mayor and president of the council.
Here, state law dictates that any sale by the RDA go before Council for approval.

For the pilot program, Council President Anna C. Verna and Councilman Frank DiCicco gave their advance approval of sales.

Urban redevelopment experts say that for the Baltimore program to work here, Council members must be willing to pre-approve locations to sell in their districts, as well as the uses for the properties. Otherwise, if Council can derail sales, buyers might be reluctant to make offers.

3186 Cedar Street

3 bedroom, 1 bath, 952 SF, $144,900

Moviated seller, bring all offers! This is a newly renovated three bed house WITH PARKING and side yard. Yes, beautifully rehabbed and parking in Port Richmond. A hard to come by piece of property. There are hardwood floors throughout, kitchen with granite and stainless steel appliances, nice bathroom with ceramic tile, and lots of closet space. The house has abundant light from the side and front windows. The parking has a stainless steel gate that scrolls up with a touch of a button. Come check this one out!

Check out the Postlet for this listing!

For more information or to schedule a showing for this property, please contact Eric Sweeney at 610.551.9221.

By Aaron Stella

In the early nineteenth century, Philadelphia’s inner city enjoyed a wave of development that originated at the Delaware Riverfront and eventually surpassed the Schuylkill River. As the development tide approached Rittenhouse Square, originally known as Southwest Square, it became obvious that the area would quickly become a desirable location. Developers then purchased large tracks of land, swiftly erecting luxury brick and brownstone row homes that generated up-market property values faster than anywhere else in the city at the time. Fast-forward 200 years later: Rittenhouse is still one of the Philadelphia’s most popular addresses, and now, it possesses some of the finest shopping and dining amenities in the city. Although many of Rittenhouse’s original edifices still remain, several luxury high-rise apartment and condo complexes have sprung up to accommodate Rittenhouse’s still burgeoning popularity. Developers, however, have taken great care to preserve the architectural mastery characteristic of Rittenhouse homes. Restaurants and specialty business proprietors in and around Rittenhouse feel the same incentive for the preservation of finery. After the Walnut St. and Chestnut St. couture thoroughfares, 18th, 19th, and 20th streets provide various transports of delight, from boutique clothiers, antiquarians and florists, to hip cafés, elegant ristorantes, bistros, and the occasional gastropub. In fact, the fine dining situated around Rittenhouse Square—the area’s namesake—is quite possibly the best in the city; where famous restaurateurs like Steven Starr, Neil Stein and others have opened up some of their flagship restaurants. And if you’re an enterprising gourmet yourself, Rittenhouse contains a full complement of fresh and super grocers in convenient, walkable locations. Transportation is also easily accessible: Rittenhouse is a de facto hub for SETPA buses, Philadelphia’s main means of public transportation, and a hop, skip and a jump from the Broad St. and Market St. Subway lines. All things considered, the best way to enjoy Rittenhouse is to be out and about in Rittenhouse. Go see for yourself why Philadelphians frequent the Rittenhouse area more than any other area of the city.

Bet you want to live in Rittenhouse right? After reading this post, how can you not want to live in Rittenhouse? Ready to take the plunge? Check out our Rittenhouse property listings page!

Rehabbed cash flow property – Temple University: $235,000

12.7% cap rate

Rehabbed Temple University Occupied Property: $200,000

12% cap rate

Gina Cabell

323 Gaskill Street

3 bedroom, 2 full, 1 partial bath, 1533 square feet: $525,000

Beautiful Sun filled 3 Bedroom, 2.5 bathroom – Completely Remodeled on a side street. New Cherry Hardwood Floors throughout the house. The Eat-in chef’s Kitchen has granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances with Cherry Cabinetry. The 24 foot brick patio offers a quiet refuge at the end of your busy day. There is a full bathroom on the first floor. Master suite on the second floor includes a walk-in closet and Large bath with double sink glass vanity, marble tiles, jacuzzi bath and separate shower with designer fixtures. The third floor has an additional two bedrooms with lots of closet space. The fourth floor dormer space has been converted into a Family Room that can double as a guest bedroom. 7 years remaining on tax abatement!!

Check out the Postlet for this property here!

For even more information, or to schedule a showing of this property, please contact:

Gerardo Suarez at 610.453.4455.

1425 Locust Street, Unit 11E

2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1746 square feet: JUST REDUCED TO $799,000!

Hardwood floors throughout and spacious views of the city. Walk through the foyer into your wide open living room, seperate dinning room and kitchen. Oversized Kitchen features upgrades including gas cooking, 48 inch bio cool fridge, built in Miele espresso maker. Off to the right of the foyer are two bedrooms. The master includes a full marble master bathroom with Jacuzzi and a den which can be used as your personal office or sitting area. Located in the ARIA Condominium building you are steps from everything. The building has a fitness center, lounge, business center, pet spa, and bike storage. The home comes with an extra wide storage unit in the basement. Truly an exceptional buy.

Check out the Postlet for this property here!

For more information or to schedule a showing of this property, please contact Gerardo Suarez at 610.453.4455