6 Months After Going Under Contract, This 3-Bedroom Short Sale at 323 W. Schiller In Old Town Is Re-Listed

How long does it take to close on a short sale?

This 3-bedroom duplex down at 323 W. Schiller in Old Town went under contract last August and was just put back on the market again. That’s 6 months under contract without a closing.

The unit has been listed since June 2010 when a lis pendens was also filed against the property.

It appears to be a duplex down although I’m not sure of the floor plan.

Two bedrooms are on the second floor and one is on the main floor.

The kitchen has cherry cabinets, stainless steel appliances and marble counter tops.

In the agent’s comments on Redfin, an agent noted that the owners spent $10,000 on custom windows to minimize the nearby El noise.

It has all the other features buyers look for including central air, washer/dryer in the unit and parking.

Is this a deal for a 3/3 in this neighborhood?

Or is a buyer better off waiting until the bank takes possession and re-lists it?

Tammy Brody at Dwell One has the listing. See the pictures here.

Unit #1E: 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 1800 square feet, duplex

  • Sold in July 1996 for $200,000
  • Sold in December 1998 for $250,000
  • Sold in November 2000 for $339,000
  • Sold in June 2006 for $472,500
  • Lis pendens filed in June 2010
  • Originally listed in June 2010 for $589,900
  • Reduced numerous times
  • Went under contract in August 2011 with a list of $394,000
  • Re-listed in February 2012 as a “short sale” for $415,000
  • Listing says “bank approved”
  • Assessments of $200 a month
  • Taxes of $8184
  • Central Air
  • Washer/Dryer in the unit
  • Parking
  • Bedroom #1: 20×17 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #2: 10×10 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #3: 10×10 (main floor)

44 Responses to “6 Months After Going Under Contract, This 3-Bedroom Short Sale at 323 W. Schiller In Old Town Is Re-Listed”

  1. For like the 100th time, a trust deed is a mortgage, not a transfer of title to property. The original sale price was $200,000, with a $100,000 mortgage.

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  2. Would appear there is an issue with the second mortgage. First was $417, but there is a ~$100k second. Bet they insisted on getting something, and that vaused the buyer to walk.

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  3. It’s not unusual for a short sale to take 5 months or longer. I routinely tell my buyers to expect about 5 months. It can take 3 – 4 months just to get to the point where the bank assigns a negotiator. Once that happens things start to move a lot quicker – in theory. But then it’s not unusual for the bank to come back with some kind of heavy handed, take it or leave it bullshit that just pisses off the buyer and they walk. Or maybe the buyer has some kind of deadline and can’t wait any longer.

    Because of all this a lot of buyers and agents avoid short sales all together. Maybe their lease is up at a certain point or they need to move by a certain time so their kid can start at a different school or they just don’t like the uncertainty. So short sales will get you a better discount than an REO for this reason – less competition. And of course you can’t count on a short sale making it to the REO stage.

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  4. “the owners spent $10,000 on custom windows to minimize the nearby El noise.”

    When I think of Old Town, the El doesn’t come to mind.

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  5. I wouldn’t touch this place, too close to the Marshall Field Garden Apartments and I think there is a horse stable on this block. Nothing like the smell of fresh dung in the morning.

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  6. Closer to Marshall Field Garden Apartments also means closer to Starbucks!

    err…Not the best part of Schiller

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  7. “For like the 100th time, a trust deed is a mortgage, not a transfer of title to property. The original sale price was $200,000, with a $100,000 mortgage.”

    Sorry- I switched the two late last night. They are too close to each other on the ccrd!

    Yes- the original sale should be $200,000.

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  8. “When I think of Old Town, the El doesn’t come to mind.”

    Really? Clearly you don’t take it then. It’s hard NOT to think of Old Town when you’re sitting at the Sedgwick stop.

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  9. To be fair since he doesn’t live in Old Town, he’s probably thinking of Wells Street and the Old Town Triangle area.

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  10. I went to this building about 2 years ago with a friend. The building itself is not well maintained. The common areas looked like they needed to be updated/refreshed and the the exterior split face block didn’t look like it had any cracks filled so it probably was never sealed.

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  11. The unit and building just looks depressing

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  12. Ugly building and if the bank wouldn’t take the last offer and refuses to go below $415k, I think it is going to end up going back to them.

    Good luck getting the last offer as a REO in a year….

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  13. Another architect that needs to be flogged…

    I have yet to work on a short sale that took less than 5 months to close – even when the bank has supposedly approved the short sale price. The second lien holders are usually the hold up as they are the ones taking the loss.

    My most recent one was a Wells Fargo short sale and it took five months. The first mortgage was held by Wells. We were waiting on the 2nd mortgage. Of course, I was surprised when I found out that Wells also held the 2nd mortgage. It didn’t appear the two departments at Wells were even talking to each other.

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  14. so the seller installing new windows to fight the train noise says allot about this build quality of the rest of the building.

    my vote is “run run run far way from this”

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  15. “It didn’t appear the two departments at Wells were even talking to each other.”

    They absolutely do not. I’ve been in the same situation before. In fact, no one talks to anyone in these short sales. And the Equator system is a joke.

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  16. ” It didn’t appear the two departments at Wells were even talking to each other.”

    Separate bonus pools, so why should they?

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  17. Also, less snarkily, the 1st lien is usually a Fan/Fred loan, so guaranteed, and the second lien is usually held by the bank.

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  18. This has to be the worst building in “old town”!

    Mere feet from horse shit, subsidized housing, AND el tracks… we call that the trifecta of bad, the worst of all worlds!

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  19. Anon, you would just think they would be a bit more coordinated in their efforts. At the end of the day, the hit is all going back to the same place whether directly or indirectly – Wells. I can understand the lack of communication if you have two entirely different banks between the two loans, but not when the same entity is responsible for both.

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  20. How quickly we forget

    http://cribchatter.com/?p=11779

    Its at least a contender

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  21. Lets not also forget that you’re in the bottom two floors of a what appears to be poorly constructed and sealed split face block mccrapbox, better buy some water damage insurance…

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  22. Good reminder chichow…but at least it isn’t across the street from horse manure.

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  23. The building’s exterior makes me feel bad about life. The inside looks nice enough and it’s a large space.

    I like the idea of living near stables. I like the sound of neighing. I grew up riding horses. It’s unfortunate that I don’t think the stables in Old Town let people board their private horses there. Maybe it’s changed though.

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  24. Looks like a housing project replacement. Love the single width cinder block building trend. If it’s not absorbing water yet, it’s just a matter of time.

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  25. And it really matters little what floor you are on if water is getting into the block. The top floor is the worst though since the water typically enters through the leaking capstones at the top – but also enters through the sides depending on the buildings around you, and how well the sides are protected from the elements by the other buildings.

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  26. well water always finds the lowest point, and well…. you get the idea

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  27. Saw a yesterday on Bloomberg:

    “Banks, accelerating efforts to move troubled mortgages off their books, are offering as much as $35,000 or more in cash to delinquent homeowners to sell their properties for less than they owe.”

    Any evidence that this is really happening?

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-07/banks-paying-homeowners-a-bonus-to-avoid-foreclosures-mortgages.html#disqus_thread

    “It’s not unusual for a short sale to take 5 months or longer. “

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  28. > well water always finds the lowest point, and well…. you get the idea

    If water enters at the top, it will cause damage from the top all the way down. It’s not like the water damage is going to skip the top floor and head right to the ground floor to cause damage.

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  29. They might see 250k for this dump. Bad location and bad construction and really bad architecture.

    But there is a sucker born every… so who knows. Hopefully any potential buyers will google their way to this page and think better of it.

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  30. Jenny – Noble Horse doesn’t board horses, they haven’t done so since the late 90s. They run a “dinner theater” now. It’s probably a good thing that they don’t have private boarders as it is. The ones that used to board there only stayed because of the location and not much else.

    Unless things have changed, don’t forget the corner lot where the horses are turned out at. You get a bunch of big horses manuring in that lots and all bets are off, especially in the summertime.

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  31. too ugly to sell

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  32. As readers have pointed out, there are lots of problems with this property: location, noise, construction quality, and lack of curb appeal. Not sure what the selling price should finally be, but it should be significantly below the current asking price.

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  33. “If water enters at the top, it will cause damage from the top all the way down”

    which is exactly my point as to why the first floor duplex down is the worst, well worse than what you mentioned which was

    “The top floor is the worst though since the water typically enters through the leaking capstones at the top ”

    that very well may be the case but the duplex down will still get water damage if the capstones on top are leaking…

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  34. squeezed between the el and the horse poop. terrible.

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  35. I would like to look out of my windows and see horses milling about. I would tolerate the smell for seeing horses. I wish all the bike riders were replaced with people riding horses.

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  36. I’d much rather keep the bike riders! I’m very glad that bikes don’t randomly poop places and that I don’t need to keep an eye out not to step in it.

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  37. ” I’m very glad that bikes don’t randomly poop places and that I don’t need to keep an eye out not to step in it.”

    Well, of course the *bikes* don’t.

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  38. this building’s exterior looks like CHA replacement housing.

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  39. This is pathetic. I would be embarrassed to even rent here.

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  40. Just curious – does Noble Horse sell bags of its “products” to the public for fertilizer, like they do at the zoo?

    Yes, this is a textbook example of what went wrong in the early 21st century when the “locationlocationlocation” mantra was taken way too seriously by people who should have known better.

    It was probably originally advertised as “close to downtown, shopping, Old Town restaurants and Second City.”

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  41. “I would like to look out of my windows and see horses milling about. I would tolerate the smell for seeing horses. I wish all the bike riders were replaced with people riding horses.”

    I like horses too…..a lot ,tho it’s hard to imagine the state of the streets 100+ years ago with the mess. I wonder, did they have people employed just to pick up after the horses? Maybe their decendents r the people that write parking tickets : )

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  42. “this is a textbook example of what went wrong in the early 21st century when the “locationlocationlocation” mantra was taken way too seriousl”

    1. Built in ’96, so 20th c.
    2. It would be an example that the three els were not taken so seriously, given the proximity to the el.
    3. If you think the location is marginal now, think about what it was like in ’96.

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  43. living by the el is the “least bad” part of this location

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  44. CTG – go into the office at Noble and ask if you can fill some bags for fertilizer. They should be happy to send you home with a few bags for free, but be sure to bring your own bags. Normally they haul their manure out to their farm in Triumph, so having a few bags leave by other means turns into more room on their manure trailers.

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