Out and About - Rooms with a view

Certainly, views are often a big selling point. They can add thousands and thousands of dollars to the price. They are worth a premium . . . if the buyer thinks so.

When searching for rooms with a view, though, perhaps it's wise to consider why some folks are indifferent to the exposure. For one thing, even sweeping views of rivers or skylines can be taken for granted over time; in other words, the view can become devalued. Another issue centers on where in the home or apartment the view is best enjoyed. If that spot is a balcony or rooftop, the cold, the sun and insects can significantly reduce the amount of time anyone would want to spend admiring the vistas in summer. In addition, the tradeoff for views from outdoors frequently means reduced space indoors.

How many times can the sight of the Washington Monument or the Empire State Building inspire appreciation of them, the view detractors might ask? How can you fail to be awed by seeing them, the view lovers might respond?

Of course, there are views and there are views. If the view outside your co-op or condo is the walls and windows of other condos and co-ops pressing in, then you may well decide that extra bucks are well spent on a higher floor or different exposure. But if that improved view will cost substantially less than, say, the penthouse, perhaps there is only so high you will want to go – in floors and in price.

Like many issues with real estate, the decision about views could not be more personal. But it's a decision that should be conscious and informed.

Below are some of the properties seen recently in the District of Columbia and New York City.

D.C.

• In Observatory Circle, a one-bedroom apartment currently configured as a 725-sf studio with a huge balcony overlooking fountains, gardens and Virginia beyond. Nicely updated with a wood-burning fireplace that does not convey (because it's a witticism shown on a TV), this condo in a beautifully maintained 1966 building with outdoor pool and numerous other amenities is listed at about the right price of $425,000 with a $556 monthly fee that includes utilities.
  
• A renovated Shaw rowhouse perhaps best viewed as a condo alternative. With three small bedrooms and a single tiny bath on the second floor, this property has a modestly finished kitchen, patio, brick fireplace and a decently finished but low-ceilinged basement with wall-to-wall carpeting. It has been on the market for $679,900 for more than a month, and the price needs to come down.
  
• In Kalorama, a gorgeous but overpriced five-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath Victorian-style home built in 1910 and remodeled twice since 2000. It features two wood-burning fireplaces, period details, high ceilings, plenty of light, stunning kitchen, a studio with French doors handsomely incorporated into the house end of a detached garage beyond the rear patio, an expansive master suite on the third floor, and a lower-level rental unit that generates $1,300 a month. At $1.799 million, this property has languished on the market since mid-June. And that span says it all.
  
• Still sitting on the market after 170 days in Brookland, a three-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath home must have a price reduction. Listed at $375,000, this property needs just enough love to update and thereby create a warm and cozy home. It would be better listed at $349,000. This 1940s house is full of light, original wood floors, a sunroom and three moderate-size bedrooms. The original garage, now closed in, can easily become a charming family room. Additionally, it would be relatively easy to finish the basement with two bedrooms and a full bath, transforming the place into a five-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home. But a more realistic price would $349,000.
  
• In Observatory Circle, a bright and sunny two-bedroom, two-bath co-op with a nicely updated kitchen, older bath, carpeted floors and a long balcony with memorable views of the Potomac River and Virginia. Aside from the balcony and its views, the 1,200-sf apartment is rather ordinary. Even at what seems to be the reasonable offering price of $434,995, this unit, for which garage parking is available at $70 a month, has gone unsold for months. One explanation might be the monthly fee: $1,458, which includes the building's underlying mortgage and property taxes.
  
• An ideally situated three-bedroom, one-bath rowhouse that defines "potential" in Brookland in a charming block of local museums, art galleries and the like. Not even a block from the Metro, this home is perched across the street from the one and only Colonel Brooks Tavern – tempting fragrances coming from every direction. The whole house needs to be gutted: There is falling plaster and a sense that either termites could have been busily at work or the damage above was caused simply by leaking water. On the market less than a week, this rock that could be a gem if an investor with vision finds good bones in the property and, in himself or herself, a modicum of patience plus a trove of cash. Listed at $350,000, this 1925 house has potential that would be worth realizing at a price no higher than $300,000.

N.Y.C.

• On the Upper East Side off Third Avenue, a 42nd-floor-condo with dizzying views through floor-to-ceiling windows and from wraparound balconies that give new meaning to the phrase "as far as the eye can see." Never mind the rest of the two-bedroom, two-bath apartment in a building with pool, health club and garage. It's nice enough, but who cares? Understandably, the price is sky high: $1.595 million with a monthly fee of $830 plus $900 in real estate taxes.
  
• Close to Bloomingdale's, a stunningly nondescript 500-sf alcove studio with a depressing interior kitchen, minimal closet space and not one other thing worth mentioning, except the aggressive price of $365,000 with a $707 monthly co-op maintenance fee.
  
• In Brooklyn's Cobble Hill, a three-level Federal-style attached house that all too clearly reveals its ownership by a speculator who invested a bit on substance while opting for transparently slapdash cosmetics. What's under that coat of white paint anyway? Exceptions to mere cosmetics are the new central air conditioning in two zones, new boiler, new hot water heater, smart wiring, speakers throughout and a kitchen with marble countertops and the requisite stainless appliances. If no parking and a lifeless cement rear patio are for the buyer, that person would be well advised to offer significantly less than the reduced asking price of $2.25 million, even taking into account the rental unit in the lower level.
  
• An Upper East Side co-op with two separated bedrooms – one of them converted from the dining area – a marble-tiled bath, a nicely updated galley kitchen that is optimistically described as eat-in because of knee space under a counter, and a 28-foot living room. In a building with renovated hallways and lobby, plus a roof deck with plantings, this 1,000-sf apartment is offered for too much money at $845,000.
  
• In Brooklyn's Park Slope, an oddly gut-renovated house with a new modern façade that sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb in a row of brownstones. This sleek 4,000-sf house with a duplex rental unit on the ground floor and basement is the victim of – how to put it? – unusual design decisions. The main floor of the owner's duplex is high on drama with a glorious kitchen boasting Viking appliances and a wine cooler, among other high-end features. Also off the main floor with its soaring ceilings is a deck through a wall of glass windows and doors. But the bedrooms upstairs are too small, lacking little closet space, and the superb spacious bath off the master bedroom is little compensation for that lapse. Still, the offering price of $2.25 million is not out of line for such space and quality finishing.
  
• Around the corner from the 92nd Street Y, a sweet pre-war one-bedroom apartment with four closets, windowed new kitchen (including granite countertops and GE Profile appliances), new bath, original molding, 10-foot ceilings and an eminently practical layout. This 700-sf co-op represents value at $495,000 with a $753 monthly fee, including tax.