Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, the husband-and-wife team who wrote and directed the psychological thriller “Open Water,” have put their Park Slope brownstone on the market, with an asking price of $3.1 million, according to the New York Times. “One problem with brownstones is they’re sort of dark in the middle,” said Hal Lehrman, a principal broker of Brooklyn Properties, which has the listing. “But they’ve put these amazing skylights on the top floor, and the floors of the stairwells are frosted glass, so light pours straight through to the parlor floor.” The couple, who paid $2.1 million for the house in 2005, opened up the parlor floor, which was originally three spaces, into one large room, and created a wall of glass that faces toward a garden, hiring MESH Architectures to do the renovations. [New York Times]

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Ken Freeman, senior vice president of sales with Massey Knakal, left, and Lee Soloman, a director with Brown Harris Stevens

From the January issue: If ever there were a Brooklyn neighborhood to lead the way for a rebound, it would be Park Slope. With its well-kept brownstones and its proximity to Prospect Park, Park Slope is routinely cited as one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the borough. But while it has seen a recent uptick in activity, even Park Slope has felt the market slide. Brokers interviewed for this month’s Q & A told The Real Deal that they saw more transactions in the final months of last year compared to the abysmal lack of trades before that. But they said that even properties that were “marginally overpriced” were still not getting the time of day from buyers. Part of the improvement can be traced back to the fact that inventory is down. That’s because Park Slope sellers who can avoid putting their properties on the market for the low prices are holding back. As one source put it, that low inventory is “an advantage for those that are currently listed.” For more on what’s happening with prices, sales volume and buyers in Park Slope, we turn to our panel of experts. more

From the May issue: Brokers famously sell the mantra of
location, location, location. But when it comes to their own offices,
that refrain may be changing. During the boom times, real estate
companies large and small rushed to open glittering storefront offices,
like Halstead Property’s mammoth 408 Columbus Avenue office across from
the Museum of Natural History, or the Tribeca office that Brown Harris
Stevens has on the ground floor of a 19th-century Romanesque Revival
building. The hope was to stake out their turf in prime neighborhoods
while attracting passersby. But New York’s housing slump has prompted
the rapid closing of some real estate offices, as firms seek to cut
costs, and the opening of others, as they seek to take advantage of
falling rents to gobble up new territory. And while closing an office
inevitably means ceding territory to competitors, with real estate
sales down nearly 50 percent from last year according to a quarterly
market report by Prudential Douglas Elliman, satellite offices are a
luxury many firms can no longer afford. [more]