Rare Bank Owned East Lakeview Vintage 2-Bedroom Rowhouse Comes On The Market: 639 W. Surf
This 2-bedroom vintage rowhouse at 639 W. Surf in East Lakeview recently came on the market.
It is bank owned.
Built in 1886, it still has some of its vintage interior features including 2 fireplaces, with one being in the master bedroom, and door and window moldings.
From the pictures, the kitchen appears to be intact and has stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops.
The master bathroom, also pictured, appears to be at least partially intact (there’s only one picture of the tub and shower.)
The listing says the lower level is finished and that there could be a third bedroom down there.
It has central air and a one-car garage. The lot size isn’t listed.
It’s a corner rowhouse though, as it’s at the end of a line of about 6 to 8 historic rowhouses on this street. There’s an alley on one side as you can see in the picture below.
The rowhouse last sold in 1999 for $655,000.
It has come back on the market, listed by the bank, at $699,000.
What’s the market for a 2-bedroom rowhouse at this price point in this neighborhood?
Jadranka Signoretto at Atlas Realty Group has the listing. See the pictures here.
639 W. Surf: 2 bedrooms, 3 baths, no square footage listed, 1 car garage
- Sold in April 1998 for $570,000
- Sold in August 1999 for $655,000 (per Redfin)
- Lis pendens foreclosure filed in July 2011
- Bank owned in July 2012
- Currently listed for $699,000
- Taxes of $11,583
- Central Air
- 2 fireplaces
- Bedroom #1: 21×19 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 12×11 (second floor)
- Family room: 19×15 (lower level)
I love this type of row house. Unless there are architectural issues, this seems like a good deal.
With three bathrooms this looks like a big two bedroom. I love Surf in this area and I love this unit, including that bathroom. This looks move-in ready, even though I’m sure many people would want to upgrade the finishes.
The master bedroom is huge and the living room is pretty big too, and the basement is finished and there is parking included.
I wonder what the assessments are. Depending on what they might get this sold pretty quickly.
Love it, barring horrible mechanical/flooding,etc. issues. Seems reasonable – why would there be assessments?
Me likey! Only 2 bedrooms though? End unit is great, but on the alley is not. I’m pleasantly surprised that the kitchen and the bath that’s shown seem to be not only intact, but modernized in a way that’s not awful.
I am not a fan of the ivy and it can create masonry issues you cannot see. I was instructed from my insurance company to remove ivy after their inspection for purchase. I wonder what they would say about this much of it.
@ChiBuilder — yes, the ivy is likely damaging the exterior.
very nice
I love the way ivy looks on old homes, but have also heard it’s not good for the exterior.
“I am not a fan of the ivy and it can create masonry issues you cannot see”
not the biggest problem with ivy.
Rats are on a record year in Chicago, ivy is a vermin haven, you get the picture.
I don’t understand what the big deal is with rats as long as they aren’t actually inside your home and you don’t collapse in alleys with food in your pockets.
The ivy-problem rebuttal I always hear is “Ever heard of the Ivy League? Those buildings are doing just fine.”
Is it a specific species that is a problem? English Ivy vs. Boston Ivy?
English ivy bad. Boston ivy and Virginia creeper good, as long as your masonry is in good shape to begin with. Latter two stick to wall, as opposed to rooting into cracks. Damage can happen if you just pull it off your building while it’s green; better is to kill and let everything die and dry, and then pull it down.
When did they last pull it off outfield wall at Wrigley to repair masonry?
OTOH, the widespread fear of ivy is good to keep in mind if you are planning to sell your building.
Maybe the Ivy is the only thing holding this place up!
Why is this place even in foreclosure to begin with if they bought in 1999? It is listed at more than what the owner paid in 1999.
“The ivy-problem rebuttal I always hear is “Ever heard of the Ivy League? Those buildings are doing just fine.””
Apparently, the key is “real” ivy:
http://www.ivy.org/about_bv12.htm
Wrigley is boston ivy, interesting link on the ivy league “real” ivy.
“interesting link on the ivy league ‘real’ ivy.”
Ditto. Despite the sniffy attitude of the “real” ivy people, that stuff pictured at Princeton does look great. Without serious attention, though, it will quickly make you hate life. English ivy is a virulent invasive species, not to be fucked with.
I wonder if ChiBuilder’s insurer tells people to remove ivy as a matter of course because it doesn’t trust homeowners to be able to distinguish between English ivy (Hedera) and the innocuous climbing vines. I’ve talked to masons who think the same way.
The stuff on the subject property looks like Parthenocissus — fake ivy, if you like — which is only annoying if it gets in the way of work needed on the building.
“Despite the sniffy attitude of the “real” ivy people, ”
UPenn are like UChicago students. Not really a-holes but boring as F introverts like they never had fun in their life. Cornell alums are pretty normal overall.
The rest are stereotypical east coast DBs. Striving to be the best gnawing rat to get their little piece of property in the BosWash corridor.
There’s a new appliance “finish” replacing stainless steel. Better get with the trends to prop up these lipstick on a pig real estate values, Chicago. Does this place have the original lead plumbing pipes? Just sayin……..
(Jenny, if it seems like “a good deal”, it wouldn’t be in foreclosure. Buy it!).
P.S. I ran Penn State back to Pittsburgh. He couldn’t dress himself out of a refund at Kmart and had serious grammatical and spelling errors in his online profile. Often seen in Lakeview East drunk as H too.
Jenny, you really do not know why rat populations are considered to be such a threat- in either an urban or rural environment?
Aside from the fact that they carry at least thirty different disease pathogens, many of which extremely virulent and dangerous to humans (google “bubonic plague epidemic” sometime), and which spread easily to humans via flea bites AND rat bites, they have this nasty way of getting totally out of control, doing two things non-stop that make them impossible abide, which is that they breed. And breed and breed and breed. And they chew. They chew and chew and chew through absolutely everything- wire, paper, plaster, even concrete… and yes, they are known to bite when desperate. And when their population swells, they wreck havoc on human dwellings and any place food is stored, like grocery warehouses and grain storage facilities.
Always call 311 and ask for rodent control when you see the little monsters.
The alley is both good (more windows) and bad (the noise, garbage, etc…) However, this alley is even more detrimental as it angles, cutting off potential backyard and garage space in comparison to the other units.