A 3-Bedroom Nearly New Townhouse With City Views: 1013 N. Cleveland in River North
This 3-bedroom in Basecamp at 1013 N. Cleveland in River North came on the market in July 2018.
We’ve debated this before- but is this even River North? The maps call it “near north side.” River North usually ends at Chicago Avenue. This is north of Chicago.
This listing is calling it River North.
This townhouse development was constructed in 2015 and sold out nearly immediately. It marketed itself as River North at the time as well.
This picture below is a generic picture of some of the townhouses, but not the one in the listing.
This townhouse is an end unit with a private side yard and two patios.
It has the preferred layout of all 3 bedrooms on the second floor, including the master suite.
The kitchen has the new “in” cabinet style with white cabinets on top and light wood faced looking cabinets on the bottom and the island. It also has stainless steel appliances and what look like stone counter tops.
The townhouse also has a private roof deck with downtown views, including of the John Hancock and Trump Tower.
It has a 2-car garage and central air.
There’s no basement but there are skylights.
Originally listed at $850,000 is has been reduced $30,000 to $820,000.
With buyers loving “new,” why isn’t this selling?
Stephen Johnson at Be Realty has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #6: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2150 square feet, townhouse
- Sold in August 2015 for $673,495 (according to Zillow)
- Originally listed in July 2018 for $850,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $830,000
- Assessments of $233 a month (includes lawn care, snow removal)
- Taxes of $14,556
- Central Air
- 2-car garage included
- Bedroom #1: 17×13 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 15×11 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 11×10
- Living room: 18×17
Why isn’t it selling? Because the greedy sellers are asking too much money for such a crappy location. It’s not likely they’ve put a dime into the place since buying. This listing teeks of “we put our time in in the hood just to try and make money, give us a windfall”.
Sid’s correct over priced
The views are going to disappear as the area develops.
Green areas totally suck, if you’re trying to sell, maybe water your lawn
This is not River North. I think it’s the Cabrini Green neighborhood. You could probably stretch it a little can call it Old Town. The agent can’t even tell the truth about the neighborhood, I’m not sure if I’d trust him/her about anything.
I like the place overall, but the kitchen would need to be gutted. I don’t understand the vastly different types of cabinets. Why did people decide that it looks good to have random cabinet types?
It’s also next to a poorly rated school, which is a huge turn off.
Nice enough place, but one of the best things about it is the view from the roof deck; and that, as noted above, isn’t going to last.
Overpriced by at least $125K.
this isn’t Sonies place, is it?
“We’ve debated this before- but is this even River North? The maps call it “near north side.” River North usually ends at Chicago Avenue. This is north of Chicago.
This listing is calling it River North.”
———————-
Nah, it’s Bucktown-by-the-Sea. Ever r.e. agent knows that. Even the name suggests fluid borders.
lol this place is under contract
I call this development Cabrini Greenberg. Its like the projects for yuppies.
LoL – River North my butt. This is really just Cabrini Green redeveloped. Located between the Chicago Ave & Division Street dead-zone. It is even built with all the units inward facing trying to built a fortress of safety in a jungle of a ghetto. Might work out in the long run.. but I wouldn’t hold my breath with the “mixed-income” housing set to return to the area.
Great points about the view.
I also think listing it for $180K over the 2015 price is indicative of what is going on with some of the places that linger on the market (including some of the SFHs I looked at this spring that lingered). Sellers are thinking the market is back so that means yearly/short term increases or short term increases like back in the bubble days, and people are just being more cautious.
Figure I can comment on this since its my house and all… We didn’t need to sell when it went on the market in July, so we were testing the waters with a high price. I actually put about 25k additional money into the house after we bought it as when you buy a new house it doesn’t come with Artimede lights, custom closets, blinds, racedeck garage floors, or even the glass in the master shower, or landscaping or any of that crap. And with the Jenner/Ogden Merger the public school option vastly improved so we figured why not price it high to see if someone would bite. People still showed up to the house to look at it.
I can assure you it will close for far under the asking price and thats fine with us. The area is actually great, its not ghetto at all. Its like living on a quiet island park in the middle of the city. And it is so close to every awesome neighborhood, I am going to miss it, but I understand its not for everyone. The development is absolutely amazing if you have young kids, they all play together in the main walkway area every night and neighbors are always out talking to each other like an actual community.
Yes those old rowhomes homes are an eyesore but they are empty and are being gutted right now and will probably be torn down very soon.
As for the views, if you look at the future plan for the area nothing in the immediate area will be taller than 3 stories, only along the major streets will 5-7 story buildings be constructed then towards orleans taller buildings near the el tracks.
And the grass is green as can be, the photographer cranked up the brightness to the max when he edited for some reason /shrug If you have any other questions I can answer them for ya no problemo
I like that this immediately follows the cute-ish little place on Melrose yesterday – good to compare. Different strokes and all. Personally, I’d rather make something charming of the Melrose house, than this cardboard tenement, I mean.. basecamp.. townhouse albeit more centrally located. I just don’t see any scenario where this development ages well, let alone this kind of appreciation for doing nothing.
Ah, congrats on the contract btw. Proves what we all know in the cheap seats. That’s one thing I wish we had on CC, results. Would shut up a lot of the peanut gallery when stuff actually moves despite the chatter here. I think your selling strategy was smart. If you don’t mind revealing, what did you choose as your next home? (not the actual house, just conceptually).
I’ll be renting a SFH… in Reno, Nevada 🙂
Oh, and I’ve lived in a Ranquist property – so I’m familiar with the pros cons of these things. IMO I think you’re leaving at a good time.
Agreed it’s interesting to compare this with the Melrose house. I’d take the Melrose house at this price point. The finishes in this TH are nicer, but the living space is very small, not enough room for a proper dining space. People buy three bedrooms for kids. Is there a playroom? This address is right in the middle of the words Cabrini and Green on google maps.
Oh, I didn’t realized it was actually your place, sonies, I figured that was just a joke. Congrats on the sale!
Sonies, I got excited when I heard Race Deck. Clearly you have great taste in cars and including a pic was a good way to add interest to the listing. But come on, that Aston deserves a painted garage.
The new owners can do that to their liking! Painting it was literally next on my list of “things to do” but got so swamped with life things that it just never got done…
As for the living space being small what do you mean, combined with the kitchen its almost 700 sqft? I opted to not have the mandatory table connected to the island. You can take the dining table and put it between the island and the sofa, there is PLENTY of room there. We just have it off to the side in that nook because we like having the main room be more open, but when we have guests over we move it to the middle of the room as its more personal to not be staring at a wall when you eat lol.
Not sure if my comments will ever get posted, but if they end up getting posted, Sonies, why are you listing it as being in River North when it’s not in River North?
Why not at least list it as Old Town?
Odd, my last post didn’t post although I don’t think I did anything different than usual.
CharlieDog: “Would shut up a lot of the peanut gallery when stuff actually moves despite the chatter here. I think your selling strategy was smart.”
They get updated at least sometimes, and I always appreciate that, when someone bothers.
The selling strategy makes sense if you aren’t in a hurry, and it would help the second-guessing “did I price too low” that comes with selling fast (I’ve been lucky enough or perhaps stupid enough to sell fast, but agree why not fish to see what kinds of offers you get), but you have to be willing to live with the stress/unpleasantness of having a place on the market, and also not buy into the argument that places get tainted if they are on the market too long.
I’m not sure I believe that about the taint, for the most part when I saw places on the market a longer time I just figured it was pricing and I might be able to bargain more. But I still have a deep-seated fear of that. It’s so easy to be totally neurotic about selling (I confess on my own behalf! I really hated the whole idea of selling), at least if you aren’t somewhat in the business and used to it or more familiar with it overall.
“I’ll be renting a SFH… in Reno, Nevada”
Hopefully there won’t be too much diagonal flooring in the Biggest Little City. You jumping in with both feet and choosing between the Epic vs Ikon, or easing in with a pass at Mt Rose?
I figured it was Sonie’s based on the drywall and flooring in the garage, only after I made my initial comment. Nice taste in rides.
Speaking of selling strategy, I would imagine it’s no coincidence that this didn’t get posted until after you had a pretty solid contract.
I wonder wha the group’s thoughts are on posting your own listing, whether it’s good of bad? I’ve always heard there is no such thing as bad publicity, but always worry in the back of my mind that some damning comment will get posted, maybe erroneous or just something negative that every piles on to. At a minimum people deciding your overpriced or don’t deserve a profit.
Am I crazy? Would you do it?
“or easing in with a pass at Mt Rose?”
My wife is new to the snow sports so we’ll probably get a Rose pass this year, its a 30 minute drive from the door of my job and I can be done with work by 1pm… I can go every day if I want! Which I might
actually I had no idea sabrina was going to post this (in all honesty I was hoping she wouldn’t!) unless someone else tipped her off
Thanks, I love my cars for sure
“I’ll be renting a SFH… in Reno, Nevada ?“
I almost took a job out there as a quant for a smaller financial company a couple months ago. You’re going to live the good life out there with no state income tax, congrats!
Meanwhile, the rest of us will be stuck paying 6.5% in state income taxes after the Porcelin Prince J.B. gets his way.
As for the townhouse, you couldn’t pay me to live where three people were shot in a park during a “peace picnic” just a few weeks ago. Why anyone would buy luxury housing near violent felons is beyond me.
My guess on the closing price is 775k.
Best of luck in the Silver State!
well to be fair the violent felons all live behind the jewel to the north, a good distance from these homes and across a major street. Honestly the rowhome folks don’t really bother at all since its fenced off like a frickin prison, and people only live on cambridge, with exception of during July 4th and around it they get a little crazy with the fireworks. Also a nice perk of the neighborhood is that since its not densely populated there are literally zero homeless panderers around. Crime happens in all neighborhoods, the less people the less crime generally… no way I’d live on Cleveland north of Division though thats for sure…
Wait, this development is called “Basecamp?” Little too on the nose for being an urban pioneer, don’t you think?
“I’ll be renting a SFH… in Reno, Nevada ?“
So sorry Sonies. At least you can drive to the Bay Area every once in a while when you want culture. Or even Sacramento.
Tahoe is beautiful in the summer time too. (just trying to keep your spirits up.)
Reno… (shudder).
Chicago is always here for you.
“actually I had no idea sabrina was going to post this (in all honesty I was hoping she wouldn’t!) unless someone else tipped her off”
Nope. No one tipped me off.
“Speaking of selling strategy, I would imagine it’s no coincidence that this didn’t get posted until after you had a pretty solid contract.”
Nope. I had no idea it was Sonies property and no idea it was under contract (as it didn’t say so on Redfin as of yesterday.)
I was just wondering why it was still available after being listed for several months.
I was also curious if people would consider that area the Green Zone. I would argue “no” as it’s not River North or the Gold Coast. I’m going with what the map says- that’s it’s the Near North Side.
“lol this place is under contract”
Thanks for sharing Sonies.
Why didn’t your agent mark it as under contract then?
Has it appraised out? Just wondering what they’re doing on the appraisals on these.
“I like the place overall, but the kitchen would need to be gutted. I don’t understand the vastly different types of cabinets. Why did people decide that it looks good to have random cabinet types?”
You would gut a 3 year old kitchen Jenny?
This is the style that is going to be “in” now so apparently you are going to be an unhappy camper for the next 5 to 7 years.
It’s the wood grain look on the cabinets with a mix of white. This is happening all over the place on both coasts (perhaps Sonies will see it in Reno too.)
“It’s the wood grain look on the cabinets with a mix of white. This is happening all over the place on both coasts (perhaps Sonies will see it in Reno too.)”
I question why it’s suddenly popular. Can’t be see that they are being manipulated with the ever-changing kitchen styles? Why do people like things just because other people tell them to like those things? It drives me crazy. At least when it’s clothing, people can buy it cheaply. Why spends thousands of dollars on something that looks ugly just because it’s suddenly in style? People used to loathe white kitchens, then designers decided that they were stylist and everyone liked white kitchens. Then, gray kitchens were in style and everyone hated everything that wasn’t gray. Now, a mish mash of white and wood grain are in style and now people think that a mish mash of cabinetry is nice. I guess I Still don’t understand why light wood toned cabinets with simple granite went from nice to ugly or why light wood floors went from nice to ugly.
Why can’t people decide what to like on their own? I would love electric blue appliances with blue eyes granite and maybe medium toned cabinets. I do not care if other people like this style. It is what I would do if I had money to re-do my kitchen.
“Why didn’t your agent mark it as under contract then?”
I’m sure he will soon
“Has it appraised out? Just wondering what they’re doing on the appraisals on these.”
the most recent sale was Israel Idonije’s unit that sold for $820k (almost same as mine end unit but worse kitchen but has full roof deck), there was a less desirable one that sold for $755k on oak st too about a year and a half ago, also rehabbed river village townhouses are selling in high 700 low 800’s so it should appraise out just fine.
as for why calling it river north, well thats what Ranquist sold it as the development was called “Basecamp River North” and since Cabrini Green isn’t there anymore its not a really big deal, I call it cabrini when I tell people where I live, but people don’t know where that is either so I just say Near north side.
“So sorry Sonies. At least you can drive to the Bay Area every once in a while when you want culture. Or even Sacramento.”
Yeah things have changed a lot since you lived in the Bay Area sabrina… downtown san fran is a shithole and reno is actually pretty nice now. The architecture sucks, but theres no traffic and no taxes and the airport is a breeze if I want to get out. Wine country is close too!
Also “culture” is overrated… its not like I go to museums during the week… Only thing I’ll miss is the free shows in millenium park! With the tax dollars I’m going to save on my income alone I can stay at the Ritz Carlton in Chicago for months and get my “culture” fix…. everyday life here in Chicago has just become too much of a hassle for what we need so we’re going to try life out west in a smaller town. As my friends say, if we hate it we can always come back!
As for this area being a green zone… I would consider it yes, but most who have not spent a lot of time in the area would probably not. Its literally in the middle of everything with transit, bike, walkability, drivability, good schools now, yuppies everywhere working out or walking their children, amenities being added monthly.
pardon my poor punctuation, spelling and rambling
sonies, where is your outdoor furniture from? I really like it.
“Yeah things have changed a lot since you lived in the Bay Area sabrina… downtown san fran is a shithole and reno is actually pretty nice now.”
I agree that the city of San Francisco is crappy now. I was just there. I couldn’t wait to leave.
But I’ll never agree about Reno. I would prefer Sacramento a million times over versus Reno. Nevada, is, shall we say, just not a place for me full time. The architecture in the entire state sucks. Kind of like Hawaii. Anyone ever try to find any houses with character there? It’s awful.
Why not try out somewhere else? That’s what I’ve always told people. You can always move back to Chicago. The grass always seems greener somewhere else. And maybe it will be better. My cousin moved to Las Vegas a year ago from the Midwest and he loves it. Different strokes for different folks.
jenny- I did the two tone thing 4 years ago before it even became popular… I wanted to offset the massive cabinets to make them seem less imposing on the living and kitchen space, having them the same color as the walls accomplished that. There are a lot of folks with all the same color cabinets, but I upgraded mine to taller cabinets , closed off the open cabinets (house comes with two open cabinets, yuck), and even had to pay extra for the exterior ventilation over the stove, But realizing the size of the cabinets I wanted the space to feel larger and that did it. The kitchen is really beautiful IMO it looks so nice in person.
MZ- I got it from allmodern.com a few years ago it is called “Carota 4 Piece Seating Group with Cushions” I don’t think they sell it anymore, but its powder coated aluminum so they are light but very sturdy and look good. The fire pit coffee table is the “Baltic Square Propane Table”
@jenny “It’s also next to a poorly rated school, which is a huge turn off.”
Ogden and Jenner just merged as of the start of this school year, so the new combined school isn’t really rated at this point. The Jenner building is pretty nice (I’ve played in volleyball leagues there) and it has lockers, so it should make a nice middle school.
@Davey “Cabrini Greenberg”
That name is already taken. It’s commonly used for Winston Towers in west Rogers Park. It’s a complex of 5 ugly condo buildings along the north shore channel between Touhy and Pratt (across the river from McCormick/Lincoln Town Center). The buildings look like projects and it seems like every jewish family on the north side and north shore has some older relative who lives there (grandparents, aunt, mom’s cousin, etc), hence the portmanteau.
Random, but are those Elemental Designs speakers? It’s very rare that I see such an impressive front soundstage (and enormous subwoofer) and they look familiar (and impressive).
ha yes they are! good catch! thats an A5-350 subwoofer and their tower and center channel speakers… amp blew out on the sub and so did their business so i’m driving it with a crown rack amp instead, thing still sounds great! The speakers aren’t really holding up though cosmetically 🙁
back on the market!
FUJB
“back on the market! ”
——————-
Sorry to hear that. Hope it passed inspection and appraisal and was simply a fault of the buyer.
Everything is perfect with the house and appraisal, the problem is with the city of Chicago’s error assessing about 26 houses in our complex completely and totally wrong… good to know the fucking department who calculates taxes and valuations can’t even do a simple fucking multiplication problem
I’m beyond annoyed with Joe Berrios’s gang of idiots, they can’t expedite any sort of appeal or error either… I have to wait until mid November or whenever they get around to the appeal and the buyers will have a definitive answer at that point. What a fucking joke!
Sonies: “…the problem is with the city of Chicago’s error assessing about 26 houses in our complex…”
Ime it’s an unusual situation if the city of Chicago has any impact on Cook County assessor’s calculations. I hope you can get it straightened out quickly
You know what I mean!!!
“I’m beyond annoyed with Joe Berrios’s gang of idiots, they can’t expedite any sort of appeal or error either… I have to wait until mid November or whenever they get around to the appeal and the buyers will have a definitive answer at that point. What a fucking joke!”
This has to do with pro ration or something more important? Can’t you just put stuff in escrow to deal with pro ration?
Yes it could have been dealt with with escrow (yay me crappin out more of my gross proceeds)- but buyers were concerned this valuation would be the new norm and wouldn’t want to deal with the increase in the monthly PITI… which is kind of BS but I get where they are coming from if I put myself in their shoes.
“which is kind of BS but I get where they are coming from if I put myself in their shoes.”
get where they are coming from, but also kinda bs since wasn’t that known (or should have been) at time of offer?
much more complicated but you could condition escrow not just on proration but on an adjustment based on the appeal. Guess you’d have to wait for board of review but you’d have to wait anyway if you were waiting on actual taxes coming out (as opposed to just the assment).
“condition escrow not just on proration but on an adjustment based on the appeal”
Gotta re-list. Why tie up the property like that?
“Gotta re-list. Why tie up the property like that?”
I mean close on the transaction with amount in escrow, not just for proration. If ass is denied, then monies [that’s a much better autocorrect than ponies] owes them $X (separate from tax proration), etc.
“close on the transaction with amount in escrow”
But buyer probably wants $X, and sonies is only ok with $X/10 dollars.
“But buyer probably wants $X, and sonies is only ok with $X/10 dollars.”
How about $11X/20?
I didn’t say it would be easy but if both sides think about what if the ass remained as it is, what makes sense in that world? ponies might not like that world but what would be the sensible deal in that world. I dunno, this buyer might not be the “right” buyer in that world, but then again they might, and they should just hammer out a deal.
And maybe the appeal works and everyone’s happy.
If I were you I would make a generous financial concession and get the deal done now. Ask them what they would need to close.
Appeals are tricky, especially now with hyper scrutiny on disparity in relative taxes north and south as well as public acknowledgement of the phony bologna appeal process.
Between carry cost, opportunity cost and what you might actually have to sell for, making a deal now may be the best decision.
what cost would you associate to it if the assessment remained as is? its probably 400-500 a month extra for X number of years, I would imagine the buyer would want way more than I would be willing to shell out, better to just relist and if nobody is interested by the time the appeal comes back, the buyers said they were still interested but I’m not going to hold things up otherwise. Either way it sucks as there’s nothing I can do to immediately fix the situation other than hurry up and wait for the ass office to get back with appeal results.
Why not ask buyer to put a number on it, with consideration of the appeal. They might want less than you expect. No chance buyer comes back months later at same price. They have all the leverage and they already know your threshold. If they don’t come back with a number, I’d rather offer them $20k to close now than take my chances and tie the money up. This could very easily slip until spring. Anyway, my 2 cents from the peanut gallery.
“I would imagine the buyer would want way more than I would be willing to shell out”
I don’t see why that would be, in terms of what your true views are, not negotiating positions. If they are teh right buyer at a low ass, not clear that they’re not the right buyer at a high ass. You don’t like the idea of the high ass and you hope to avoid it, but if you can’t, that’s teh world you live in, and your property will be affected by it.
This is all in teh way of a contingent payment, only to be made if you are in the high ass world. I think you are still living in a low ass world and won’t really think about the high ass. And if you’re right that there’s a low ass, this is all moot, you won’t owe them a thing.
If escrow was an acceptable option that would be great, but I’d bet it’s not going to entice a skittish buyer.
sadly I don’t think that will work… on a positive note, there was an absolute ton of activity on this listing, perhaps the significant price drop will bring out the people that were interested in the place again and get them to act. I will say one thing, now that Ogden school is right next door and the school year started the neighborhood vibe has improved even more.
“back on the market!”
So sorry sonies. 🙁
I am curious Sonies – – did they really not provide a proper place to stow the garbage can in the kitchen?
“did they really not provide a proper place to stow the garbage can ”
Under the counter is not, imo, a “proper place” to stow the garbage, unless you’re super retro and have a compacter.
I understand why it is done, especially in a smaller space, but do not like.
“did they really not provide a proper place to stow the garbage can in the kitchen?”
Nope, there was a place to put the microwave inside of the island though so nonny would be happy about that…
It was never a big deal for me I always had a garbage can next to the island or something like that in all my homes. You could have installed a pull out thing under the sink if you wanted but with the big deep sink (awesome) and a disposal there is not a lot of room under there… I suppose the best spot would be one of the doors on the island but I dunno I like shelving better and not a fan of smelly food trash inside my cabinets
this should be closing before the end of the year so yay, fingers crossed
pending congratulations!
You should throw in a simplehuman gift card, so they can pick out a nice trashcan.
lol nah, they’re already getting a great deal
for sale again, love what they’ve done with the place… haha, I can’t believe they took down a $3k light fixture and installed track lighting… smdh shoulda taken that with me
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1013-N-Cleveland-Ave-60610/unit-6/home/144509983
“for sale again, love what they’ve done with the place… haha, I can’t believe they took down a $3k light fixture and installed track lighting… smdh shoulda taken that with me”
I thought it looked familiar sonies. I was going to cover it in your honor. Lol.
Tough time to be selling anywhere downtown. I wouldn’t do it unless I absolutely HAD to, for whatever reason. Market will be better by the summer, but still not great. It’s going to take a couple of years for downtown to fully recover.