Asa Miraglia spent more than two decades living with her husband and children in a center-hall colonial in Montclair, N.J., after the family moved there from Brooklyn.
“Montclair was the perfect place to come to, because it seemed so Brooklyn-y, and still is,” said Ms. Miraglia, 63, who loved tending the garden.
“It was a big part of my life, that house,” she said. “We anticipated staying there until the youngest went to college, and talked about what we would do after that. None of that matters, because then my husband left.”
Ms. Miraglia, who grew up mostly in Co-op City, in the Bronx, stayed in the house for two more years, until the youngest of her three children graduated from high school. Then she began the daunting task of preparing the six-bedroom 1916 home for sale.
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“In Montclair, there is an absurd emphasis on staging houses,” she said. “Weirdly, they love to put a teepee in the child’s room. It’s bizarre.”
Ms. Miraglia, an owner of the Scout Source, a location service that represents houses for use in commercials, photography and webcasts, had no trouble staging the home herself. It sold quickly, for just over the asking price, to a young family.
She was inclined to use her half of the profits to buy a small house. But property taxes in Montclair are high — $30,000 a year for the colonial — so she figured that if she did buy something, it would have to be somewhere else.
“I loved gardening so much,” she said. “It was soothing and something I was good at, and I didn’t want to give that up.”
Still, selling one house while buying another isn’t easy.
“Asa was figuring out what her next step would be,” said her agent, Leslie Kunkin, a sales associate at West of Hudson Real Estate, in Montclair. “Did she want a whole house?”
Ms. Miraglia decided to rent, at least for a while. She hoped to find a two-bedroom, so her youngest would have a place to stay when she was home from college. Her budget was around $2,500 a month, or a little more for someplace especially nice.
“Because I was so sad leaving the house,” she said, “I wanted to move into a place that, if it would not alleviate my sadness, at least would not add to it.”
Many Montclair rentals, if they aren’t in apartment buildings, are in two-family houses or are condominium units rented by their owners, Ms. Kunkel said. Ms. Miraglia avoided apartments in houses, which seemed to lack privacy. In Brooklyn, she had lived in owner-occupied brownstones “with the feeling that they were listening to your coming and going, and maybe having some judgment about it,” she said. She also wasn’t interested in amenities.
Among her choices:
No. 1
Montclair Luxury Two-Bedroom
The Montclair Residences at Bay Street Station, around 10 years old, was conveniently situated near the New Jersey Transit station. A two-bedroom rented for a little less than $3,000, depending on the lease term. Parking was $105 a month. (Many streets in Montclair prohibit overnight parking.)
No. 2
West Orange One-Bedroom Loft
The Edison Lofts, converted from Thomas Edison’s West Orange factory, opened about two years ago, with plans to add a shopping plaza with stores and restaurants. A one-bedroom with a den was around $2,800, plus $100 for parking.
No. 3
Montclair Prewar Two-Bedroom
A corner two-bedroom in this medium-size rental building, within walking distance of the Montclair Center business improvement district, had three exposures, a dining room and French doors. The rent was $2,100, with a parking spot and basement storage included.
Find out what happened next by answering these two questions:
Which Would You Choose?
Montclair Luxury Two-Bedroom
West Orange One-Bedroom Loft
Montclair Prewar Two-Bedroom
Which Did She Choose?
Montclair Luxury Two-Bedroom
West Orange One-Bedroom Loft
Montclair Prewar Two-Bedroom
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April 23, 2020 at 04:01PM
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She Traded a Six-Bedroom House for a Rental Apartment. Which of These Options Would You Choose? - The New York Times
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