74 Pearl Street, Buffalo

Showstopper brick, a slate mansard roof and a rare off-street driveway. 74 North Pearl is a Second Empire four-unit in the Allentown Historic District, steps from Allentown’s shops and restaurants and a short walk to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. Inside, a grand foyer wrapped in original carved woodwork and trim sets the tone, the kind of craftsmanship that simply can’t be replicated today. The sellers invested roughly $50,000 this year so the next owner doesn’t have to. The sewer line was replaced in PVC from the street to the house, with all-new backfill, and a brand-new concrete driveway was poured on top for off-street parking, a true rarity in this part of the city. The chimney, paint, landscaping and front patio were also refreshed, and a private backyard rounds out the lot. The mechanicals are solid. The boiler serving units 1, 3 and 4 was rebuilt two years ago. Unit 2 has two gas fireplace inserts on its own thermostat. The building has four electric meters, new sub-panels in each apartment, circuit breakers and a 75-gallon hot water tank. Baths are finished in stone, and every unit is working and rent ready. All four one-bedroom, one-bath apartments are vacant, so the next owner sets the rents and chooses every tenant from day one. The lower unit has room to add a second bedroom, and a shared laundry room adds income. The numbers work. Pro forma rents of $1,850 for the lower unit and $1,500 for each upper unit produce $76,200 in gross potential income and a projected NOI of about $44,000. That is a 7.35% cap rate at $149,750 per door. For owner-occupants, this is a textbook house hack: live in one unit and let three tenants carry most of your housing cost. For investors, it is a vacant, value-ready asset in one of Buffalo’s most established neighborhoods, a location whose next thirty years are written in its last hundred.