Still for Sale: Mini Condos @ Mini Prices: 1140 N. LaSalle
Remember the ad from a few years ago?
Mini Condos @ Mini Prices
These are The Flats on LaSalle (the reference to “flat” is a British thing, according to the website.)
1140 N. LaSalle in the Gold Coast was built in 1924 as a luxury hotel. All of the units are either small one bedrooms or studios. There is no parking. And there are no washer/dryers in the units (there is no space for them.)
Currently, there are several re-sales on the market as well as unsold units from the developer.
Several years ago they were giving away a Mini Cooper (get it? Mini Condos…Mini Cooper.)
If you go to their website, they’re still giving away the car in a raffle if you buy a unit.
Does this mean they’ve NEVER given away the car yet- in the last two years since they’ve had the promotion? The link on the website doesn’t say when they’ll do the raffle.
Anyway- originally the promotion was that they were selling condos for under $99,000. Recently, I saw an advertisement that listed the prices as $124,000. I guess even these studios have gone up in price.
There are several re-sales on the market right now:
Unit #608: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, no square footage given but probably about 500 square feet
- Sold in June 2006 for $142,400
- Currently listed for $169,900
- Assessments of $305 a month
- Commerce Real Estate Group LLC has the listing
- AC- window units (no central air)
The square footage of the various rooms are listed as:
- Bedroom: 12 x 9
- Livingroom: 15 x 11
- Kitchen 6 x 6
Unit #533: studio, no square footage listed but the room dimension is 11 x 18
- Sold in July 2007 for $126,500
- Currently listed for $139,900
- No assessments listed but other studios are around $225 a month
- Sergio & Banks has the listing
The Flats on LaSalle [website]
Complete madness.
Haha, I toured these a couple years back. Wow, they should have combined units or something….Does anyone know what your monthly payments would be if you purchased a unit? Does it make sense vs. buying?
I rent a 700+ square ft condo for $850/M. If you bought the 1/1 at the asking price of $169900 and put 20% AND got a rate of 6% your principal & interest alone would be $815. Add the $305 HOA’s and now your at $1120, we haven’t even touch on the taxes. All that is considering a 20% DP which would set you back $34,000!!! If you only go with only a 10% DP your P&I goes up $100.
I saw some units here a while back as well. It would be like buying a dorm room.
The person asking $169k is nutso crazy. Maybe they think they’re padding their ask with only 10% wiggle room…no central a/c LOL. Just another flipper living in fantasy world until they really need to sell..give them time. This building looks like a pre-WW2 housing project if they made them that big then.
I follow the low end of the market moreso than the high-end (as I don’t play the lottery) and you can get studios in this building for 112k still–they’re all over MLS.
Taxes wouldn’t be that much on these units though _if_ Chicago used a consistent formula as I’ve found 350sf studios in Uptown going for 100k with only $600/yr in taxes. With TIF who knows.
I could be wrong, but I used to walk by there everyday. according to the promo sign, the Mini will be given away when all of the units are sold…supposedly 250 units ..so you had a 1/250 chance to win. What a deal!
Chicago Bubble Blog does the rent-parity exercise, which is what you should do for every home price.
You will know right away if the place is overpriced. Works with any home in any price bracket. Also, remember that many rentals include the heat, taxes, insurance and other expenses that will be add-ons if you buy a comparable, so make sure you deduct those costs from the rent to get the “true” rent, or what you are paying for the use of the space per se.
Rents and incomes are the fundamentals that support housing prices, and we’re a long way away from an connection between them and current house prices.
I was an unfortunate renter in this building. I moved from out of state and signed a lease before seeing the dump. And when I arrived, I knew that it would be a long year. (My landlord conned me into paying $1150. I’ve since found out that he’s become realistic and lowered the price for tenants that actually see the apartment.)
My advice, don’t buy here and don’t rent. It really isn’t worth it. This building has no amenities. And this building also houses a lot of undesirables. The only plus that I can see, is that it is dog friendly. Of course, I don’t particularly like dogs so instead, I am often bothered by having to share a slow elevator with pitbulls, bulldogs, and greyhounds.
And yes, they’ll only hold the drawing for the mini cooper once all the units are sold. God knows when that’ll be!
My wife and I really like it here. We became tired of living in the suburbs and tired of the hassles of renting the 1 bedroom we own at the flats.
When our tenant moved, we sold our home in the burbs (and most of the junk we had in said home) and moved in.
We walk to everything. This includes work, grocery stores, movie theaters, restaurants, and the list goes on. We are down to one car and that is about to get sold as well.
I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the location of this building and the rock solid construction (concrete and brick through and through) make it hard to beat.
The property is in foreclosure!