I realize a lot of these Mills Act properties have “sweat equity” in them and in some of them, the sweat equity was all “earned” by the current owner. I’m not saying “sweat equity” has no value to a current buyer. I am mindful of how much work it takes to hand-sand a staircase bannister and built-in cabinetry, for example.
However, most these owners were already paid for a good number of years for their “sweat equity” in the form of drastically reduced property tax bills. And I know one who even got a $25K “grant” from the City (for materials) that they installed themselves. These free materials combined with their “sweat equity” no doubt increased their property value hundreds of thousands of dollars over time. Many of the current owners bought their properties as “gut-rebuilds” for a song and made application to the Mills Act themselves. Therefore, I don’t feel these current owners need to recover every “labor of love” (in the form of an exorbitant sales price) that they did to their properties. If they are truly “preservationists,” they should endeavor to sell to someone who will greatly appreciate having and displaying their property in all its glory and has the will and means to maintain it properly for the life of their ownership. These buyers can be found from SOHO, the various local period-design groups and RE brokers specializing in historical properties.
