Less Than a Year Later, 3-Bedroom Lakeview Home Under Contract Within Days: 3652 N. Hermitage
Many of you will remember this 3-bedroom house at 3652 N. Hermitage in Lakeview just from seeing the kitchen which was the original kitchen with the older stove and cabinets.
We last chattered about it in May 2009 when it finally sold after being on and off the market, and reduced, since August 2008.
See our interesting May 2009 chatter here discussing what $500,000 will get you in Chicago.
Just five days ago, and less than a year after its previous sale, the house returned to the market listed for $39,900 more than the 2009 sales price.
The house is already under contract.
Two of the three bedrooms are on the second floor. The house has central air and a 2-car garage.
Oh- and the kitchen has NOT been renovated. I know some of you will be happy with that news.
Is this a sign of a hotter real estate market?
(this is the picture of the kitchen from the prior sale)
Berg Properties has the listing. See more pictures here.
3652 N. Hermitage: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 car garage
- Sold in November 2002 for $386,500
- Originally listed in August 2008 for $599,900
- Withdrawn in November 2008 at $599,900
- Re-listed in April 2009 at $539,900
- Sold in May 2009 for $525,000
- Re-listed in April 2010 for $564,900
- Under contract within days
- Taxes of $6551
- Central air
- Living room: 13×12
- Dining room: 10×10
- Kitchen: 14×12
- Bedroom #1: 14×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 18×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 9×9 (main floor)
- Partially finished basement
Guess the previous owner actually liked looking at their “retro kitchen” better than actually cooking in it. I have a much more modern kitchen in my modest rental.
The kitchen is a joke–why don’t they get a butter churn, an icebox and a nice hand-powered washing machine to go along with?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/PostcardAdvertisingHappyDayWashingMachineCirca1910.jpg
Seriously. That paper towel over the “sink” might as well be toilet paper. That’s how much I like this kitchen.
So the seller made a few bucks and found a (perhaps) foolish buyer. Hardly indicative of a full-on recovery.
Echhhh, what a fugly little dump. That kitchen is tragic. At least the new owner will experience no guilt at gutting it back to the studs.
Some folks will do ANYTHING to have a SF house in Lakeview.
That’s what makes markets so interesting and why you can score a splendid dwelling in an OK nabe for a give-away price while other people pay megabucks for something that’s almost unfit for human habitation.
Interesting from the prior:
“For the curious, the buyers are not flippers, but a family retuning to the city from the suburbs. They value the neighborhood, backyard, and indicated a redo of the kitchen was not high on their list. In good neighborhoods, there are very few SFH’s remaining that haven’t been turned into mcmansions, are still livable, yet still offer the opportunity to upgrade. ”
Wonder what happened.
Purely anecdotal but I feel like activity is picking up. I wasn’t paying nearly as close attention last year, so I don’t know how much is just the seasonality effects that are always in play, boom or bust. Most places I had seen go under contract have been ones that seemed competitively priced to me but recently I have seen some that seemed overpriced (granted I don’t know the actual sales price). E.g., the one below is nicely finished but it’s still asking $850K for a Bucktown cottage. Just went under contract.
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/2232-W-Charleston-St-60647/home/13357571
This price screams insane deal of the century, with a kitchen like that and the amazing curb appeal of a 1.5 story frame house with vynil siding it should have sold for a cool million
I live in the area and have met the owners. Totally suprised to see them move, they loved the area, my guess is job transfer, but I’ll have to check in with them next time I see them. There was never any sign up. The biggest ‘update’ that they did, was put a new garage in. If you remember from previous posting the garage when the current owners bought it was a tear down and non-functioning. But yah, so they spent 8000 grand on a new garage and made 31,000 in profit in a year, not bad. In all seriousness though I don’t think it’s out of line, this little enclave of lakeview is awesome (yes of course I am biased)
“made 31,000 in profit”
Which, I would expect, won’t quite cover the transaction costs.
kitchen is certainly dated, but people IMO vastly overestimate how important the kitchen is, and is it really that hard to replace a stove, fridge, etc? we did it, took our time, and somehow survived.
I’ll take a decent-sized kitchen that needs updating over one of those hallway-width ones that has state-of-the-art appliances.
“Wonder what happened.”
They realized they live in Hamilton, not Blaine? (One. . . agonozing. . . block. . . ).
I don’t understand all the hate on the kitchen. . . I would take this over generic 80’s or 90’s crap (or cheap granite/ss). And, frankly, that sink (if it’s metal / original), would probably pay for half the kitchen redo anyhow.
My beef would be lack of bedrooms– to me this is a 2/2. But if you don’t need that space, and want this hood, not a bad way to get in.
Considering many 2/2 McCondo’s are still near $500k in Lakeview, I would take this any day.
Stop the hating… You aren’t going to get a house in a decent part of the greenzone for $250k. Get over it.
SquareD.. Hamilton’s new principal has really turned the tide. I actually have two people on my block (i am in blaine) who opted for hamilton next year, lots of overcrowding and other issues they didn’t like about blaine. so mark my words, by next year you’ll be seeing people use ‘hamilton school district’ in listigs. Realtor hype never stops 🙂
This kitchen is so bad, I’d take a 50s streamline metal kitchen over it. Try keeping a hodgepodge like this clean- you have to spend your life wiping all those surfaces to keep it sanitary. No decent work space, either.
Just goes to show you that you don’t need a big name realtor to sell a place.
“Wonder what happened.”
“They realized they live in Hamilton, not Blaine? (One. . . agonozing. . . block. . . ).”
Hmm…either that or the Realtor representing the prior sale made some misrepresentations on here. But I don’t think Realtors would ever make a misrepresentation as they’re not salespeople but real estate experts/aficionados and aren’t influenced at all to try to get a deal done no matter what.
Even though I got the value wrong I stand by my statement from the prior thread:
“I suspect whomever bought this didn’t do it to live in it themselves. Hence, real estate speculator.”
Additionally I suspect the new owner is of this ilk as well. This thing will be back on the market soon enough as few of these HGTV lovers actually can afford the monthly nut.
I am dying to know the financing details on this latest purchase. Is it, heaven forbid, 10% down? Jumbo rates are low its party time!
“Is this a sign of a hotter real estate market?”
Is losing money a sign of a hot real estate market?
$564,900 – 6% realtor fee – $6551 property tax = $524,455. Throw in the city, county and state transfer taxes as well as maintenance and the monthly mortgage payment and they would have been better off renting. Probably. Anyone know how much it costs to rent a SFH in that area?
I don’t think this warrants being completely negative. It’s likely that they didn’t lose more than a few thousand compared to renting. But if only losing a few thousand dollars is considered a sign of a hot real estate market…
Also, I don’t think the 2009 buyers were HGTV flippers. They put 20% down and only took out a $10,000 2nd mortgage earlier this year (probably to pay for the new garage).
They probably intended to stay long-term. I wouldn’t be surprised if they recently found out this isn’t in the Blaine attendance area.
““Wonder what happened.””
a person over extended to buy a hood and realized that old houses have a lot of upkeep to get them back to standard. wonder if they got tired of the problems and cash when things break/leak/wont work on older houses.
i have seen many go for the old need of update place for the discount but not really realize the scope of what they are undertaking. DYI is fun to a point then it gets to ya after a while and if your not expecting that much DYI and you end up in over your head it can be even more stressful.
“Wonder what happened.”
All of their friends and their kids’ friends made fun of their kitchen. Just a guess.
Tipster, nice catch, I hadn’t looked. Yeah, that’s a little bit of a red flag when you just put down $110k-plus on a house. . . yet you need a second mortgage to spend $10k more.
Groove I think that means your hypothesis wins (although, hate to be too harsh, they might’ve gone in eyes open and had a job loss or something, who knows).
I think the kitchen is kinda charming, in a house on the prairie sort of way.
The kitchen is kinda charming, in a “hey honey look at that dinosaur technology and how much it must have sucked to be a housewife in the 50’s” in a museum kinda way
“Groove I think that means your hypothesis wins ”
i will be checking my mail box (dont disappoint)
“Wonder what happened.”
Scenario 1:
1)”Hey honey I spent half a mill on this cute lil’ cottage and I’ll I got you was this crappy kitchen”.
2) “Wife punches husband.”
3) “Wife leaves husband.”
Or the more likely but less humorous Scenario 2:
1) Couple realizes that they both need to work to afford outsized monthly nut on what they paid for the place.
2) Couple soon realizes thereafter that this kitchen is not a working couple’s kitchen and this cottage isn’t really a home suitable to a family, either. This is a kitchen for a stay at home parent so the other one can kneed the dough and hang the clothes up on the clotheslines and make sure the ice is promptly put in the icebox when delivered.
As we’re all guessing, I’ll vote for the work transfer scenario as most likely.
The answer is that one of them got a huge promotion. And since they now make 300k or more per year they’re moving into a new construction home in Avondale to live next to JMM.
HD, plus they put their money in the stock market in MAy 09 bc they had they extra cash by taking a loan. I heard they bought DOW 8000 and covered their position yesterday.
but Goldman helped them on trade, so the SEC has come in and taken all their money, forcing them to move
“i will be checking my mail box (dont disappoint)”
C’mon, I already been shook down by one accountant this year. . .
or the owners found out the national guard will be rolling down the street this summer to “protect” them from the dangers of the city. so the are packing up and going with Palitine which HD recommended to them.
“C’mon, I already been shook down by one accountant this year”
hehehehehee Good stuff 🙂
Flo – topical & nice! Their mortgage was actually sponsored by Magnetar, with the intent of getting into a CMO by Goldman.
Come on now bitches…stop hating on others who actually do what you are not able to do…
OWN A PIECE OF PROPERTY.
As has been often asked here, submit actual photos of your homes and let us see what kind of ghetto fab places you live in,
I think we’d all be interested in seeing THAT.
westloopelo,
I only own $200mill worth of properties on the internet, which is admittedly less than your $350mill worth of properties you own ON THE INTERNET.
“As has been often asked here, submit actual photos of your homes and let us see what kind of ghetto fab places you live in,”
Not a chance until after you live up to your threat/promise to have Sabrina post one of your props. Yeah, I know none of them are on the market right now, but those who make promises and don’t follow thru have little standing to demand from others.
There boys
lol
Just had to post an ‘angry post’ to get you bitches back on track
Now say something of substance
Actually two are still on market…now lets play ‘find westloops props’…..
a hundred drinks to the winner…
Bob ya up for it? and I mean REAL drinks not watered down $1 specials
“Just had to post an ‘angry post’ to get you bitches back on track”
How are things any more on track now? While we are OT, what’s a standard amount of time to give a seller to respond to an offer? What would be considered too aggressive?
“Actually two are still on market…”
Last time this came up, you claimed they were all sold or rented, so I don’t believe you.
good of you to have started believing in disbelief
“Last time this came up, you claimed they were all sold or rented, so I don’t believe you.”
“good of you to have started believing in disbelief”
When have I been the most credulous regular here?
I don’t see the point in a long meta discussion of whether or not WL’s (or SH, or John (of Miami), or G, what’s-his-3-names-from-600-Fairbanks or whoever) persona has any basis in reality, but when it starts being internally inconsistent on a point relevant to something that would be entertaining for the board, I’m going to say something.
“Last time this came up, you claimed they were all sold or rented, so I don’t believe you.”
The leases on two of the rentals expire on 5/1 and the present tenants were not interested in signing another years lease without me offering them discounts on the rental prices, so I decided to put them back on the market.
Both were put back on with pretty big price cuts in hopes that they will sell. There has been more action in sales so hopefully this will encourage the few people who were interested prior to reconsider.
My postings have been consistent…if you disagree, so be it.
Once again I will state I am way too old, way too tired and way too busy to maintain a fake internet persona.
I am not now, nor have I ever been interested in pretending to be someone I am not. If these types of accusations and other forms of game playing amuse you, go for it!!
How boring, staid and unfulfilling your life must be to focus your energies on trying to determine which of your fellow posters are real and which are…fake.
Take my comments any way you care to, but let’s just put an end to constant accusations of my not being anything other than who I am.
I have always respected you POV as you seem to have some idea of various facets of the RE industry, so I don’t understand your undying need to call out all of my comments and question the validity of my posts?
If and when one of my places becomes the topic of a thread here, I will most certainly step forward and claim it, but I certainly will not beg Sabrina to feature one of them just to satisfy your curiousity.
“Take my comments any way you care to, but let’s just put an end to constant accusations of my not being anything other than who I am.
I have always respected you POV as you seem to have some idea of various facets of the RE industry, so I don’t understand your undying need to call out all of my comments and question the validity of my posts?”
Is that directed at me? I believe I said I’m not interested in any stuff about who’s real or not, but whatever, you’ve demonstrated your thin skin w/r/t me from day one here.
However, you–in the last 6 weeks–had stated that none of your props were on the market so you couldn’t offer one up. Now you say they are. Seemed questionable enough on its face, w/o digging into any “WL is a figment of Heitman’s imagination” nonsense.
You also offered/threatened/promised (my recollection is the last) to provide Sabrina with one of them for posting here. You changed your mind? Fine. But man up and say so–whether b/c you hold the property in your name and want to remain anonymous, or you realize that those 2 properties aren’t reflective of your general quality of work, or just to mess with us, whatever.
I’m just trying to get you to live up to your (fake internet) word.
Yes my last post is directed at you! What moron would not understand that?
“However, you–in the last 6 weeks–had stated that none of your props were on the market so you couldn’t offer one up.”
OK…now open your ‘good eye’ and reread my post.
The leases on TWO of my six rentals are “SET TO EXPIRE ON MAY 1” and the tenants did not want to renew their leases without my offering them discounts on their already BEYOND REASONABLE and AFFORDABLE rental prices.
What part of that is difficult for you to understand?
No tenants to renew…no desire for me to go through the hassle of finding suitable new tenants to occupy them…with my desire to just be rid of them without taking a HUGE loss…larger than I already am with the recent price chops = them being placed back on the market for sale. GOT IT?
I don’t believe I ever “promised” to provide Sab the link to any listings I had previously. I did say what I just now stated again…should one be featured on CC, I would step forward and claim it to be mine….nothing more, nothing less.
Furthermore, on a RE blog that has deteriorated to nothing more than sour grape renters whining and complaining about homes they could never afford….YES, believe it or not, I do wish to remain anonymous.
Who could blame me?
With posters like you who have nothing better to do with their time than to come on 24/7 and voice nothing but piss and vinegar comments about properties they have NO WAY of ever owning…why would I expose my identity?
And BTW, none of my properties would ever fall into your made up category of “not being reflective of my general quality of work” and craftsmanship” EVER.
I am proud of all of our projects…whether or not they are owned by me or they are renovations performed by us but owned by others…I do not operate in that manner…EVER.
I do not place my name on any property that falls short, in any manner, of being nothing but built with the highest quality of materials and with craftsmanship that has been earned by men and women who have devoted their entire adult lives honing.
Look, I don’t come by your place of employment…wherever that might be, if you even do work for a living…and knock the *$&@s out of your mouth, so keep your foul comments about my work to yourself.
LOSER.
If westloopelo gets all riled and insulted at his tenants rent offers imagine what he’s going to do when he starts getting “lowball” offers on his properties for sale!
damn!, lol, anon as always, great working with you.
Sounds like sour grapes that westloopelo isn’t getting the rental caps he feels entitled to on two of his properties.
I’ve heard May is going to be the perfect time to sell a property in years, as its the month after the homebuyer tax credit is set to expire.
*cause I though he was talk to me too!, but I was just making the point/joke and thats all
I was neither ‘riled or insulted’ when the two (Professionals I might add) tenants boldly asked for a rent decrease on already pretty spectacular deals. I don’t waste my energy on such trivial matters.
I think you prompted a discussion on people making ridiculous low ball offers on any of my renovated properties in a prior post and what my response was.
I simply end all communication with their agents. I don’t get angry or exert any energy in responding to them…their game is over immediately and nothing more is said. I simply move on to the next agent and his clients.
I always get ’em sold so, it is not a big issue.
“Sounds like sour grapes that westloopelo isn’t getting the rental caps he feels entitled to on two of his properties”
Not at all sour grapes. I just realize the amount of time, money and energy that we put into the props. I also realize I am not in a position that I HAVE to rent to them at all.
It is just that these ppl had the balls to ask…no demand…that they be given a further discount by merely signing and remaining in my places.
Imagine their surprise when they received my refusal letter indicating I was going to place the units back on the market, no other communications were forthcoming and they were given thirty days to vacate! Sweet.
That’s the risk you take in trying to be a cheap ass.
“cause I though he was talk to me too!, but I was just making the point/joke and thats all”
I certainly thought it was reasonable that he was mashing together a response to both of us–you making the joke and me calling him out.
Of course, that’s the level of vitriol I’ve come to expect from the little [fella]–this is the guy who that me starting a post with “Um, …” was uncivil, yet he makes JoeZ at his most riled seem positively pleasant–complaining AT LENGTH (and w/o paragraph breaks) and with absurd insult whenever someone might poke even a little fun in his direction.
“Imagine their surprise when they received my refusal letter indicating I was going to place the units back on the market”
I don’t know why you’d even let them know the properties were going back on the market. You should’ve just said: offer refused, please vacate the premises by 5/1.
“That’s the risk you take in trying to be a cheap ass.”
Not really. What risk did they take? They wanted a lower rent and asked for it and didn’t get it. I see zero risk in that strategy.
“Not really. What risk did they take?”
not having a place to live at the price they want?
having to have the hassle of moving now?
““Not really. What risk did they take?”
not having a place to live at the price they want?
having to have the hassle of moving now?”
Yeah, they clearly were expecting–at worst–a “no, the rent is [same as last year]”.
And, as far as stating they were going back on the market, that’s the safest course from a potential lawsuit perspective. Don’t give any tenant you’re going to piss off any reasonable basis to sue you or attempt to holdover.
Westloopelo,
wife and i are still waiting to take you out for the going away dinner even after you left 🙁 we found a great little whole in the wall in cicero that is some good ol fashioned homestyle cooking with out the over sized portions.
and i told ya she even bought a new top for the event 🙁
You know what Groove, I will take you up on that offer for drinks on my next visit to the city. Not sure of the Cicero thing tho….ZED is more my style…love the rooftop patio and great service.
revassal, I didn’t even see your post and the comment(s) were not directed at you. anon takes great pleasure in *attempting* to push my buttons by degrading my work/questioning my identity and funniest of all, rehashing that years old comment of me using sarcasm about the ‘duh’comment he made. doesn’t seem to get sarcasm in any form.
regardless of what you think about me anon, I wish you no ill. This is merely an anonymous message board and not RL. I don’t care either way.
Agreed anon, this is exactly why I tell them the units are being placed back on market. They don’t get their discount and they have to be out in 30 days.
Now had they chosen to remain under the same agreement, I would have gone along with that.
None of my tenants in the past has wished to remain in a place that is on the market for sale. Is that even legal in Ill.? Letting them know this fact gets them to move and do so quickly.
“You know what Groove, I will take you up on that offer for drinks on my next visit to the city. Not sure of the Cicero thing tho….ZED is more my style…love the rooftop patio and great service”
wife and i are on a “off the beaten path” restaurant kick. by the time you back in town we may have moved on to fusion of some sort 🙂
we are going out for cuban tonight, cant wait cause for lunch i did mC’y deez and i think after i ate it i cried a little. need real food in me soon
“questioning my identity”
I know you “don’t care”, but you’re just wrong about this one.
I’ve *never* questioned your identity, merely said (many more than one time) that I don’t care if you are real or not, exaggerated or not, whatever or not, as your persona and contributions *here* are useful and generally entertaining (in no particular order). I’ve never engaged in any “he must be lying” speculation bc, (a) like you, I don’t care, and (b) like you, this is the internet, so *who* cares.
And, it was “um” not “duh” to which you objected. And if your (regular) objections to a lack of civility were intended to be sarcasm, I apologize that my over-educated, under-sophisticated mid-western fat ass didn’t pick up on your oh-so-sophisticated NYC/SoFla humor.
Finally, I don’t want to see one of your properties to find out who you are**, or to tear it apart, but to have some context for someone who (a) cares about what they do, (b) is useful/entertaining around here, (c) possibly steal some ideas (both as to rehab and what props can make sense as rehabs), and (d) just to see if the results–in my own opinion–back up all of your (extensive) talk about what a great job you do rehabbing properties (bc I am curious–hell, who wouldn’t be, you’re like a frickin carnival barker talking about them; just like I’m curious about Ze’s Rio aerie).
**Honestly, if you’ve been remotely truthful about even 50$ of what you posted here, and I *really* gave a shit, I bet I could figure out who you are in one weekend. And that’s assuming that you don’t have much of an internet trail (ie, no blog of your biz, no twitter, no facebook-a-rhea, no party pix, no string of glowing reviews of you/your work in multiple magazines). If over 50% of it is misdirection/similar nonsense (not lies–not accusing you of lying, my man), then I probably wouldn’t.
“None of my tenants in the past has wished to remain in a place that is on the market for sale. Is that even legal in Ill.?”
Yes. You can sell a house with a lease in place. There aren’t too many people interested in a SFH (esp. in your presumed price bracket) occupied by a tenant, but there are some. Of course, for the seller, you’d want 30 or 60 day termination AND the right to show it on short notice AND to access the place to clean up, etc. etc. So anyone with rental options is likely to say no, unless you rent it way below market, which is clearly not your thing.
Gotta hand it to your “over-educated, under-sophisticated mid-western fat ass” for such perserverence! No one has ever dangled him/herself at the end of every one of my sentences as you have. Where do you find the time to do this? I mean if I were to return the stalker like behavior exhibited by you, I would not own this business…not enough time in the day to do so!
BTW, what is it exactly that you do? Would you care to state your identity, place of employment, address and other personal facts for our entertainment? WOuld anyone take me up on this request? Well, other than MG or Lucido, whose job entails revealing such personal information.
Finally, you have dropped many subtle hints over the course of my posting history that would lead readers to question the validity of my posts/RL persona, so don’t deny those actions.
I guess you will just have to wait for one of my places to be featured on CC in order for you to offer your educated critique of my and my crew’s work. I assure you though, it does surpass many a Chicago based rehabber’s work.
Again, if/when (and there is a great chance one will as they recently have been relisted) one of my places comes on this forum, I will proudly step up, claim it and let you have your way with it. I am not at all worried about what kind of comments it receives as all of our projects meet and exceed very high personal requirements…both mine and every member of my crew.
Just to save you some steps in trying to reveal my identity, I have taken measures over the years to remain rather quiet. Even my companies contact information is rather hard to come up with. Most of my work is done word of mouth and I don’t waste much money advertising. No facebook, twitter or any other form of internet contact…sorry.
westlooplo: can someone buy a marble vanity top from one supplier/fabricator, and then buy the tiles from another on the internet (for cheaper pricing)? Or should they both be from the same supplier, source, shipment, sample, mountain, quarry, etc?
I am the seller of this house from last year. Not sure why the new owner is moving but would guess it has to do with an expanding family. We had two kids when we lived there and were quickly outgrowing the space. Depending on sale price, they will have turned a profit (BERG is discount, right?). I’m not surprised. There just aren’t that many smaller houses in lakeview that are livable. Everything was knocked down and replaced with McMansions during the boom/bubble.