In Ditmas Park, it’s Lights, Camera, Listed
As you settle on your sofa to watch the Oscars, you might start wondering when the Academy is going to introduce an award for Best Real Estate featured on screen.
This 1899 Victorian in leafy Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, has appeared in more than 100 television shows and commercials — and it’s for sale right now. We spoke with Corcoran’s Eric Volpe, one of the listing agents, about what it’s like to get your home noticed by location scouts.
While it hasn’t made the big screen yet, 28 Wellington Court in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, has appeared in countless television shows and commercials, including star turns on The Daily Show, Blue’s Clues, and in spots for major brands like 1-800-FLOWERS, Kohl’s, and BMW.
It’s a home so photogenic that location rentals can take place with no additional staging. “The production companies are just using what’s there, whether it’s the sofa, the chairs, or even the silverware,” says Eric, based in Corcoran’s Brooklyn Heights office. “The house alone wouldn’t be so bookable if it didn’t have great furniture — the owners have good taste.”
Fittingly, the current owners, Jason and Crystal Marks, work in advertising. They discovered Ditmas Park a decade ago, when Jason set out to shoot an on-location commercial somewhere with a suburban feel that didn’t require leaving the city. The couple fell in love with the neighborhood’s grand Victorians with spacious porches and backyards, and ended up finding their very own dream house. Soon after moving in, they found a note under the door, asking if they’d be open to having their home used for a commercial. With that, 28 Wellington’s film career began.
After that initial, serendipitous booking, Crystal Marks began reaching out to location scouts on her own. Now, the property has active listings on two location scouting websites: Location Department and Peerspace.
“It looks like a very classic house, but then it’s very open format on the inside, so it’s easy to shoot in here and get the wide angles.”
The three-level house sits on a double-sized lot, with four bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms. The ground floor has an open layout, a kitchen with extra-wide marble countertops, stained-glass windows, and a comfortable and stylish living room. The house is being sold fully furnished, immediately ready for its close-up.
“Over the years, the owners have built the house into what it is, and it’s very well curated. It has a lot of what interior decorators would call ‘moments,’” Eric explains. “The placement of everything, whether a plant or a lamp, makes everything picture perfect, and every room has a purpose.”
Location rentals have made the property into a considerable income generator. One shoot alone funded a family vacation to Hawaii, where the Marks watched the commercial filmed in their own living room on a hotel TV.
According to Jason, the home has the winning formula: “It looks like a very classic house, but then it’s very open format on the inside, so it’s easy to shoot in here and get the wide angles.”
Now living full time on Shelter Island, the Marks are ready to let go of the place that not only played the perfect family house on TV, but proved the ideal set for their own lives.
One more Hollywood connection: The real estate marketing video created by the Volpe-Kelly Team for the house was filmed by Ryan Scott Fitzgerald, the art director for Anora — which won five Oscars this year, including Best Picture.
