5 Months on the Market for This Vintage 2-Bedroom: 1125 W. Belden in Lincoln Park
This top floor vintage 2-bedroom at 1125 W. Belden in Lincoln Park originally came on the market in July 2015.
The building was constructed in 1896 and has 12 units.
The unit has many of its vintage features intact including wood window moldings and the original pocket doors.
The listing says it has an “antique mantle” but not that it’s the original one. But it is wood burning.
But the unit has also been updated for modern tastes.
The kitchen has wood cabinets, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances.
It also has Bose speakers in the kitchen and dining room.
The unit also has other features buyers look for including central air and in-unit washer/dryer.
There’s no parking but it’s available in the neighborhood and the Fullerton brown line stop isn’t far away.
The building sits across the street from the DePaul campus which would make it ideal for a student.
Originally listed in July 2015, it has been reduced $29,000 to $350,000.
Why isn’t this selling in this hot market?
Jennifer Ames at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #4: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1200 square feet
- Sold in May 1994 for $160,000
- Sold in November 1998 for $220,000
- Originally listed in July 2015 for $379,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed for $350,000
- Assessments of $274 a month (includes water, exterior maintenance, scavenger, snow removal)- listing says it is self-managed and has $30,000 in reserves
- Taxes of $3463
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- No parking
- Wood burning fireplace
- Pocket doors
- Bedroom #1: 12×11
- Bedroom #2: 12×11
- Dining room: 13×12
Those reserves are awfully low for 12 units. I’ve always heard about $7000 per unit was safer. In the event that major work needs to be done, only having $30,000 in reserve could cause major issues for the association.
I’d be interested in hearing from others re what is typical to have in reserves. Based on my experience, $7000 sounds great in theory but also extremely unlikely in reality.
$30k for a building like this is very healthy. $7k per unit seems awfully high, unless maybe a high rise though.
My 6 unit building at $14k and we think it is pretty good. I have friends with practically no reserves.
I used to live in a rehabbed vintage condo on the border of Albany Park and Ravenswood Manor. We were 16 units and self managed, and we were told by our attorney and our insurance agent that $25K in reserves (this was 9 years ago, so perhaps they are up to $30K by now), was a healthy number. We had a special assessment for tuck-pointing and for roof replacement so we didn’t touch the reserves for those items. I would think that at some point if reserves get “too healthy” it means folks are being over-charged on the assessment and since the assessment is money that just goes away every month and doesn’t really build you equity, there is an argument for both keeping them as low as possible and keeping the reserve exactly at the recommended amount (and living with special assessments.) If this were an elevator building, a tall building, or a building with some other unique physical attribute, then the assessment conversation changes completely as you have major mechanical items to maintain that this building clearly doesn’t have.
7K per unit is really high for many buildings. You really should go by your operating budget and have at least six months expenses, preferably more. Of course the condition, age and amenities of the particular building play a part as well. The buildngs I’ve lived in have been more like 1-2 K per unit, though these were zero amenity buildings where half the owners were averse to spending more than the bare minimum, and it never felt better than just barely adequate.