Short Sale Brownstone in Southport Reduced: 1300 W. Roscoe

This 4-bedroom single family home at 1300 W. Roscoe in Southport recently came on the market as a short sale.

Two weeks later it was reduced $51,000 and is still available.

The house has mahogany hardwood floors, a renovated kitchen with cherry cabinets, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances.

The listing says the master bedroom has its own private terrace.

The house has central air and a 2-car garage.

It is, however, on the El line.

The house is also still listed $189,000 over its 2004 purchase price.

Is this a deal at this price?

R. Matt Leutheuser at Sudler Sotheby’s has the listing. See more pictures here.

1300 W. Roscoe: 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3600 square feet, 2 car garage

  • Sold in May 1996 for $27,500
  • Sold in August 2004 for $610,000
  • Originally listed in September 2009 for $850,000 as a “short sale”
  • Reduced
  • Currently listed for $799,000 as a short sale
  • Sold “as-is”
  • Taxes of $10,047
  • Central Air
  • Bedroom #1: 24×21
  • Bedroom #2: 12×11
  • Bedroom #3: 12×11
  • Bedroom #4: 12×11 (lower level)
  • Family room: 20×10 (lower level)

44 Responses to “Short Sale Brownstone in Southport Reduced: 1300 W. Roscoe”

  1. I’m very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany hw flrs.

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  2. The outside picture of this place looks like some crapshack in K-town. Inside looks nice though! Don’t know if its a good deal for “SOPO” LOL!

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  3. Bummer about the train. Too close.
    Also, if you look at the aerial view, there is NO backyard because the lot is 100 deep. Nice place on the inside though and I like the corner lot location.

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  4. This is not a brownstone

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  5. “Sold in May 1996 for $27,500”

    Must be a typo or a non-market sale. I’d absolutely believe $275,000. But $27,500 in ’96 would have been a steal if it were just the shell, without even floor joists.

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  6. the outside of this place looks like an apartment i rented on the west side 🙁

    and how private is this terrace when the train stops at SoPo station and all the train people stare at your “private terace”

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  7. “and how private is this terrace when the train stops at SoPo station and all the train people stare at your “private terace””

    Station doesn’t reach nearly this far east of SP; this is a good 75 yards from the end of the platform, but that garage-top deck is all but unusable, anyway.

    The extra parking space under the el is nice, tho.

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  8. “this is a good 75 yards from the end of the platform”

    anyone know how far before the train station the train starts slowing down. (starting and stopping are the noisiest)

    800k i really cant say its a “deal” for as-is on the EL. i am laughing at my desk pretty hard on this property.
    The place inside is very nice, its neutral which is great for resale.

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  9. Since when are typical Chicago BRICK 2-flats called “brownstones”. I am sorry we have graystones but brownstones are few and far between.

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  10. This isn’t moving fast, no matter what. Dude has a $1mm first mortgage on the place and a $184k second.

    At purcahse, he borrowed $488k. Then got a 2d for $300k 7 months later (presumably for the construction). Then he re-fi’d the first (with a subord for the 2d) at $750k 7 more months later (Dec-05). Then the $1mm re-fi in Dec-06, followed by the 2d executed 6 days later.

    There’s also a contract of some sort from the owner to another individual recorded in Aug-09, so that’s a potential wildcard.

    And, separately, why the h8 for the brick two-flat? It’s as “chicago” as the bungalows.

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  11. Since when is “Southport” a neighborhood? According to the address this should still be Lakeview.

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  12. Lakeview is several distinct hoods each with their own personality – wrigleyville, sopo (god I can’t believe I used that..), roscoe village, east lakeview, boystown

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  13. “why the h8 for the brick two-flat”

    no h8 4 the brick two flats, just reminds me when i rented on the west side.

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  14. “Lakeview is … roscoe village”

    Roscoe Village isn’t in Lakeview.

    “no h8 4 the brick two flats”

    Enh, your comment was ambiguous, tho the frowny trended neg; Sonies, tho, was clearly h8ing.

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  15. “Lakeview is several distinct hoods”

    LMAO! Guilty of realtorspeak aren’t ya russ?

    Please define for us the “distinct” boundaries of: “wrigleyville, sopo, roscoe village, east lakeview, boystown”

    Also I’m curious what bank enabled this serial Mortgage Equity Withdrawer? Is it our favorite Washington “FREE MONEY!” Mutual?

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  16. If SoPo really does catch on, Sonies head might explode…
    😛

    Very nice interior – shows well, but yes, the exterior wouldn’t be what I personally would want in a SFH. Nice enough, just NMS.

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  17. “Is it our favorite Washington “FREE MONEY!” Mutual?”

    Nope, or at least, probably not. The assignee on the $1mm mortgage (orig granted to MERS) is USBank. Don’t think USBank was a common trustee for WaMu rmbs, plus the relative unlikelihood that a $1mm mortgage went into an rmbs.

    “the exterior wouldn’t be what I personally would want in a SFH”

    Okay, people here rag on the cottages, rag on the modern boxes, rag on vinyl siding and now rag on the two-flats. Do y’all just love bungalows and four-squares that much, or is there a typical sort of Chicago SFH that I’m not thinking of? There are only so many things you can do on a 24-30′ wide lot.

    Or, MrsB, are you just saying that you want a suburban SFH?

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  18. Honestly, I have no idea what I want yet. Just…not that.

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  19. MrsB.

    little one keepin ya busy? havent seen you on CC in a while
    “Very nice interior – shows well,”
    shows well as long as the agent keeps the windows closed. that train brakes squeaking every 15 minutes will kill any deal.

    btw i remember you had two showings, any good offers? did you end up baking or making the roast?

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  20. “rag on vinyl siding”

    i rag on vinyl siding on anything priced over 400k

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  21. “i rag on vinyl siding on anything priced over 400k”

    Oh, I hate the vinyl, too. Not as much as asphalt roll, but close.

    But aside from the “design” contingent who dig the new stuff (nws–or perhaps bc of–the large $$$ associated), it almost never happens that something nice is said by anyone about the outside of a SFH inside the city limits. So I’m not sure if that’s bc we’re all too negative, or we collectively don’t actually like Chicago housing stock. And I don’t think it’s mainly tied to price–>as MrsB sez, this ain’t what she wants, not this ain’t what I want for $800k.

    Now, I don’t like the porch on this place, and I really don’t think the twoflats are necessarily the best corner buildings, but if you don’t like this, you don’t like modern boxes and you don’t like vinyl siding, but you want an SFH, it’s sort of the bungalow belt or the ‘burbs, isn’t it?

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  22. “So I’m not sure if that’s bc we’re all too negative, or we collectively don’t actually like Chicago housing stock”

    Or both? 🙂

    Asphalt roll. Ick.

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  23. “Or both?”

    But of course.

    Still have three (!) asphalt roll houses on my block. Can’t wait for them to turn over–perfectly decent frame 2/3 flats ruined by cheap maintenance 50 years ago.

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  24. Okay, another few things about this place specifically:

    1. Do we think he actually put in mahogony floors? Or was that just the color he stained the oak? Hard to tell in the pix, of course, but the living room shot w/ the sunlight doesn’t look like mahogony to me.

    2. Did this dude *seriously* think he’d be able to sell this place for $1.25mm+? Even if he pulled out a bunch of $$ from the refis, he put enough time and money into converting it from a twoflat to at least think (cognitive dissonance req’d or not) he might be able to sell it for enough to pay off the loans. Was there another house on the north side of Roscoe that sold for ~$1.2+ in 06/07?

    3. A MBR four (4!!) times the size of any other bedroom (it must include teh MBa in the 24×21, no?)? Does that actually make sense in a sfh like this? I know that chopping up the space in these buildings is kind challenging, but that’s *really* the best he could do? The MBR is over half the second floor–house is 21′ wide (bt the walls) and ~45′ long.

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  25. hey hey Groovester! To answer your question, YES, he is keeping me quite busy. And work too. And no, didn’t make anything! 😉

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  26. I live a few houses down from this place and it is better looking than the exterior picture would have you believe. And the parking spaces under the el suck; nasty oil drips down from the tracks, is so hard to scrub off and eats away at the finish on your car. Just ask the guy who parks his BMW at this place.

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  27. I also find it annoying when Realtors stretch a zone to make it sound better by calling a place “West Wicker Park” instead of “Humboldt Park”, but it does make sense to give more specific names as neighborhoods evolve. The Southport corridor has become pretty swank and I refer to it a lot as just plain Southport because it is a lot easier to say than, “Let’s meet in Lakeview on Southport between Belmont and Grace.” “See you in Southport” has a little better ring to it.

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  28. “you don’t like modern boxes and you don’t like vinyl siding, but you want an SFH, it’s sort of the bungalow belt or the ‘burbs, isn’t it?”

    most burb housing stock is an eyesore, the first thing i dont want to see when i pull up to a house is the fricken garage. I have always believed garages are not decorative and should be in the back or at least the side on a corner lot.

    yes i have expressed my hatred for modern boxes and will continue to do so 🙂

    I love small frame homes even if it has vinyl, just dont try to price vinyl siding over 400k. and i love cottages chicago style, maybe cause i am being nostalgic on bot of these styles. (or becasue i own a small frame home).
    Frame 2 flats with a nice yard and bungalows are what will bring me back to my teen years and would love to own one in the future.

    now my dream home would be a corner lot Victorian Queen Anne with a wrap around porch.
    being a hard core chicagoan queen anne’s are not a chicago owned design like bungalow’s and praries but groove still wants 🙂

    and before anyone says, victorians are only in oak park, riverforest, evanston, new construction hinsdale, etc. there are a lot of old victorians around chicago over by lakeview high school, old norwood park, a bunch in old irving park, LP, and Hyde park.

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  29. Victorians look cool looking from the outside have lost some functionality on the inside. They’re old and creaky, they have a lot of small rooms, they need constant attention, affordable Victorians require extensive restoration of in the interior wood. I’ve been inside quite a few on various housewalks and they lost a lot of appeal as soon I saw what the insides were like.

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  30. Frank Lloyd Wright homes or nothin, I say 🙂

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  31. HD, totatly agree with you about the upkeep and small rooms, small closets and every creaky stair on the staircase.

    but i love the seperate room thing (hate open floor plans). I like the formal dining room and sepertate breakfast/informal dinning room with seperate kitchen and seperate family room and seperate living room.

    so these old queen anne’s for me gain more appeal on the inside.

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  32. How does everyone always know how many mortgages the seller has on the property? Is there a site where you find that out?

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  33. “Frank Lloyd Wright homes or nothin”

    sonies i will now refer to you as Mr. Prarie

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  34. The exterior of this home just looks depressing to me. Maybe sprucing it up would help. The previous owner put a lot of effort into the interior, but nothing to the exterior. As a buyer, I would be very turned off to paying a premium price for a property when the exterior needs a lot of work.

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  35. I don’t get it

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  36. Mr. Prarie,

    it because you said “Frank Lloyd Wright homes or nothin” sarcasticly and since frank wright is most paired with his praire home desings i now call you mr. prarie.

    in my head its funny 🙂

    Jenny,
    I agree the exterior in the picture invokes sadness, but some one mentioned it looks better in person.

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  37. Well it would help the joke if you spelled Prairie correctly 😛

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  38. wow i spelled it wrong each and every single time! i wonder if my brain as been doing that my whole life? when i look at the word prairie my brain is telling me thats spelled wrong. dont do drugs

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  39. tehGroove: “I agree the exterior in the picture invokes sadness”

    See, you *were* doggin on the exterior. What’s the problem with Chicago brick? There are probably tens of thousands of places just like this all over Chicago. Which gets back to the “what, you don’t like houses in Chicago?”

    Although, I do have to say, I have NO idea why he didn’t take the pix in the AM, at least the outside one, when there actually would be LOTS of sunlight on the place. The shadows do make it look much worse than it can possibly be.

    I also hate the fence, but this close to the el station and Wrigley, it’s usu. almost necessary.

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  40. when i look at the word prairie my brain is telling me thats spelled wrong. dont do drugs

    that has nothing to do with drugs

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  41. “that has nothing to do with drugs”

    correct it has a lot to do with the CPS ejumakation i received 🙂

    “See, you *were* doggin on the exterior”
    yes i was dogging the exterior, and it reimnds me when i thougth it was a good idea to save money and go rent a place on the west side. not a good year
    “There are probably tens of thousands of places just like this all over Chicago”
    very true but the PICTURE of this one is a downer.

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  42. “I have NO idea why he didn’t take the pix in the AM”

    anon,
    i know bro, the pictures that agents take some time baffle the mind, the worst are the cellphone pics, the overdone are the photoshopped pics like the bungalow in portage park.

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  43. Very renovation and awesome staging furnishings. Shows great but I wonder if it will help or hurt in a sale. \
    IME, if staging furnishings are too specific, too focused and of a higher value than what should be in the house, it does give buyers a negative image..that of “well my furniture will not look this great…”
    Otherwise (other than L location) it is a great place and if they do find that specific buyer it probably will sell at or close to the 2004 price. Are banks now attempting to make a profit on short sales now?

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  44. ” Are banks now attempting to make a profit on short sales now?”

    WL:

    USBank is going to lose a fair amount of $$ on this one. $1mm first mortgage.

    And I am certain the ’04 price was for an un-updated 2-flat, so, yeah, $610k would be a good price for a buyer. Probably the cheapest *updated* brick SFH east of Western. It’s just a question of whether he did a good job on the mechanicals.

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