The Vintage Condo Conversion in Old Irving: 4018 N. Spaulding
This 2-bedroom vintage unit at 4018 N. Spaulding in Old Irving Park was converted in 2005.
The building dates back to 1925. The unit appears to have some built-ins, such as the fireplace and bookcases in the living room. The kitchen, however, has been updated with stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops.
It also has central air and an in-unit washer/dryer but no parking.
The unit is priced $19,001 under the 2005 purchase price.
Is this a nice starter home for someone looking in the Irving Park neighborhood?
Margaret Gustin at Prudential Rubloff has the listing. See the pictures and a virtual tour here.
See the property website here.
Unit #3: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, no square footage listed
- Sold in April 2005 for $209,000
- Listed in June 2009 for $209,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $189,999
- Assessments of $188 a month
- Taxes of $2300
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- No parking
- Bedroom #1: 13×11
- Bedroom #2: 10×10
- Kitchen: 10×10
- Living room: 18×12
Walkscore of 74… bleh, why not just live in the burbs if you have to drive everywhere. Also, why buy a rental? A place like this would rent for $700 a month in a decent burb. But as a bonus, youre near the wild ass ghetto Golden Nugget on IPR. So there is late night entertainment nearby.
“bleh, why not just live in the burbs if you have to drive everywhere.”
Because with a walkscore of 74 I presume you don’t have to drive everywhere. I came from a burb with a walkscore of 11, you definitely had to drive everywhere, or at least walk 2+ miles down hilly twisty roads with no sidewalk to get to the nearest commercial establishment (a bar) or 3+ for a grocery store.
Google confirms there are at least 20 commercial establishments within a mile. And Brisku’s Bistro is right around the corner and thats a pretty sweet bar.
Yeah I checked and where I grew up in the burbs it has a walkscore of 25… so disregard my previous comment. I still wouldn’t want to live here though as I need to live a lot closer to work even though you can take the metra quickly from here.
“A place like this would rent for $700 a month in a decent burb.”
Berwyn? After all, it is the center of it all.
It really is too bad on several levels that so many apartment buildings were converted to condos.
“even though you can take the metra quickly from here”
no metra in walking distance this.
2/1 for 188k on kedzie and irving,
sorry i can rent a 2/1 for $800 around here.
It’s staged nicely, but oof, is it tiny. Odd fake fireplace, but again, nice staging touch.
Re: walk score – my husband’s childhood home has a walk score of 0. Boonies, my friends.
“Berwyn? After all, it is the center of it all.”
http://www.whyberwyn.com/
why indeed….
I especially like the “Berwyn Culture” bubble. BWHAHAHAHA!
“no metra in walking distance this.”
15 minutes; 30 if you limp. But that still ain’t “quickly”.
Oh, and close to the eastern IPR Golden Nugget, not the western one, which may be Sonies Metra confusion.
Condos like this are a dime a dozen. I have viewed about 150 such, and they all run together in your mind after a while. Take a nice old vintage, rip all the charm out of it, put in a basic kitchen and bathroom, and sell it for an inflated price.
I can understand why a developer would have to gut the kitchens and baths to redo all the rotted old plumbing, even if a great-looking antique bath gets sacrificed in the process (no such a thing as a great antique kitchen), but do they have to destroy the floor plan and make it look like some cheap tract house, what with “open” everything? The architects who designed these places by and large had better taste and judgment than the people who redesign them now.
I am seeing the prices crash on stuff like this, far lower than this price, especially in West Rogers Park. This nabe will be next.
as far as golden nugets go i never knew why the world needed two that close.
parents would take me to golden nugs for breakfast as a kid 🙂
anyone know if the one on diversy and pulaski is still there?
Anon,
also for some reason i keep thinking that pancake house on lincoln by montrose (in your hood?) used to be a golden nugget?
“pancake house on lincoln by montrose”
It’s a Golden Something. I actually don’t pay attention.
[Checking]
Angel. It’s a Golden Angel.
Foreclosure/short sales 2/1s in the OIP north of Irving are going in the low low 100’s. I feel bad for those people that paid in the 200’s at the height of the boom…
This is NOT Old Irving Park. Irving Park, yes. Old Irving Park, no.
For shits and giggles:
Where I live now: 98 walkability
Where I used to live: 0 walkability
Not kidding!
“This is NOT Old Irving Park. Irving Park, yes. Old Irving Park, no.”
Is it asking too much of Chicago’s relitters to set neighborhood boundries that they all can agree on? It seems every other posting here is said to be located in one area of the city, only to have the next person say it is located within the boundries of another neighborhood.
If a city as large as NYC is able to agree on what constitutes a segment of the city and all relitters after that can agree with these boundries, why are Chicago’s relitters unable to do the same? Neighborhood names are set in stone and there should be no need for everyone to say “This is NOT _______________, it is ____________!”
Also Laura, by the time a unit such a this has changed hands a few dozen times over the years, with each owner putting his own destructive touches on it, the chances of vintage units retaining ANY of the original period details are slim to none.
As renovators we usually have no option other than to go through and gut the interiors and rebuild them. Unless one has unlimited resources to be able to replace the original period characteristics, interiors like this have to be the end result.
I focus on making every inch usable space as that is now what buyers are demanding. The houses I renovate do not end up looking like characterless tract homes thanks to the varied backgrounds and experience level of my crew. We are able to replace period details with some unique and tasteful features, all the while giving the new owner as much space as possible.
“If a city as large as NYC is able to agree on what constitutes a segment of the city and all relitters after that can agree with these boundries”
C’mon, there is plenty of funny biz in NYC, too. Are you honestly saying that it *never* happens that the boundaries of, say, Harlem are bent to claim an apartment is not in Mornignside Heights? Or East Village rather than Alphabet City? Be serious, my man. Sure, the realtors who do so should be avoided, but they’re out there even in NYC.
Anyway. This place is plainly in Irving Park. One might be able to claim California Park. Or West Walker (both of whcih are “sub” areas of IP). Even Albany Park, if you stretched it.
But this place is almost one mile east of the eastern-most part of *Old* Irving Park. No one who has a true sense of what constitutes OIP would drive to *this* place w/o being confused. It’s like saying the dumpy apartment on Webster (next post) is in Old Town.
As much a I detest useless RE agents, those who work successfully in NYC do abide by the established boundries. I don’t think I have ever come across an instance of this happening there. The boundries are very well defined and agents/brokers don’t attempt to falsely advertise their listings as they do here.
“those who work successfully in NYC”
That excludes the *majority* who do not work successfully. As I said, the folks who bend the lines should be avoided, but there’ll always be someone coming up to replace them when they fail.
You give me any one “well-defined” boundary b/t a desirable ‘hood and a much-less-desirable ‘hood (Manhattan or Brooklyn) + 15 minutes, I *guarantee* I can find half a dozen NYC listings misrepresenting the neighborhood.
Now, they aren’t going to be classic-6s or tony co-ops or $4mm condos, but the rough equivalent of this 2/1? No problem.
I don’t really think NYC (Manhattan only) really has any desirable vs undesirable neighborhoods any longer. You do have a few streets in each section that may be a bit ‘rough around the edges’, but as far as saying one area really sucks…you really can’t do it. The one last area that is being updated into a ‘desirable’ area would be the LES. City officials have recently stated that rent controlled units there will stay just that. In doing so they keep Stuyvestant/ Alphabet city (no one calls it that any longer) the only areas where I and other regenters or developers would not do any type of business.
Most, if not all RE agents who do not make above a $300k salary range are history or have moved to and are doing business in Queens ($300k being the mark defining a successful and a not so successful agent) NYC is finally ‘really’ feeling the fallout. Those who are left and are now doing any amount of business are very, VERY well versed in what constitutes the neighborhoods they are working in.
Manhattan is comprised of 16 very well defined neighborhoods (with some subsections in these neighborhoods)…I don’t see how anyone could even attempt to pull off any ‘fraud’ when speaking of these neighborhoods. And yes, fraud would be the term applied if anyone in the RE biz would even attempt to push boundries outside the established lines, never mind publish such tripe.
Now that the LES or maybe HK/Clinton are the up and coming areas for redevelopment, I would say that maybe, just maybe, the chance for some misrepresentation there could occur. That chance, however, would be miniscule when compared to the misrepresentation that occurs in Chicago on a daily basis.
Now if you care to discuss Brooklyn, which some RE agents are claiming is THE *new* Manhattan, maybe you might have a point. But I don’t do business in that borough. Once was more than enough.
—BTW, I am no longer a resident of Chicago. All of our projects are complete and other than dropping in from time to time to check up on a few places that are sitting empty on the market, I am no longer living there.
Thank God… that day just could not come fast enough! Trying to find any comparison between the two cities is impossible. It is as though I was having a two year long nightmare I could not wake up from!! There is no place like home…there is no plaee like NYC…there is no place like home….
“Thank God… that day just could not come fast enough! Trying to find any comparison between the two cities is impossible. It is as though I was having a two year long nightmare I could not wake up from!! There is no place like home…there is no plaee like NYC…there is no place like home….”
Only a New Yorker would post a comment like that. Good riddance!
“I don’t really think NYC (Manhattan only) really has any desirable vs undesirable neighborhoods any longer.”
You do realize Manhattan extends beyond the UES and UWS, right?
There are plenty of undesirable neighborhoods in Manhattan still. As in those people would rather live in Brooklyn/Hoboken/etc than in Washington Heights, Harlem or Inwood, for instance.
If you were a NYer (and did the amount of business in both NY and Florida as I have) and THEN had to accomplish what I did in a hurting market like Chicago, you would be saying the same thing!
So please, unless you have any idea of what it took to retain my sanity for the last two years…which you never will…step off dude!
Spoken like a true New Yorker once again.
Bob, I grew up in NYC and know it like the back of my hand, so don’t even TRY to lecture me about what the city is all about. I have lived and done business in every corner of Manhattan all of my life, just as my father and grandfather have done. You not being aware of the city to the point of comparing Hoboken with Harlem shows you know nothing of the city. You may know Chicago well, but NYC is just beyond your scope of knowledge.
Buy at least one piece of property, then come back and try to give me your words of wisdom.
New Yorker and oh so proud of it.
And where is that cowtown/Midwestern sense of hospitality you all are famous for?
HEHE
I don’t think you need to have intimate experience with NYC to know that not all Manhattan hoods are desirable. If my poor actress cousin can afford to live in Washington Heights and is very envious of those who live in Greenwich Village because she can’t afford it that says something.
To think you are somehow omniscient when it comes to NYC speaks to your hubris and arrogance.
westloopelo,
I don’t think you know anything about NYC. I think you have an online persona that claims to but its all a fascade.
I bet most people that post here on CC know more about NYC than you do.
westloop,
dooooode you fricken left before we got to have the “first annual crib chatter groove is drunk and pissing in the plant get together “
“NYC (Manhattan only)”
Manhattan is 7.5% of NYC, by land area, and 19.5%, by population. When you say “NYC” (as you did in the post that started this), that includes 100% of NYC, by area and population.
If you mean “Manhattan only”, say Manhattan or New York. If you say NYC, then you come across as someone who doesn’t actually know that much about NYC–you end up sounding like someone who might argue that “New York, NY” includes anything beyond Manhattan.
Question–what would you say is the “clearly established” line b/t the UES and Spanish Harlem? And there’s no benefit to being in the UES compared to Spanish Harlem? You expect us to believe that?
The only neighborhood in Manhattan westloopelo knows about is the West Village. Because we all know he’s really from the Bronx.
A neighborhood is what you make of it, not what somebody who doesn’t live there might think it is.
Old Irving is not only much farther west than the Irving Park location of this condo, but you also must pass through another neighborhood (Independence Park) to get to Old Irving. This is obviously an intentional misrepresentation by the Realtor in a very lame attempt to add value to the listing.
This is a very walkable neighborhood but it’s working class so people walk to the Golden Nugget and countless mom-and-pop restaurants and corner stores that aren’t registered on Walkscore.com. I always get a good laugh when I look at all of the truly local businesses not listed on that Web site.
“BTW, I am no longer a resident of Chicago. All of our projects are complete and other than dropping in from time to time to check up on a few places that are sitting empty on the market, I am no longer living there.
Thank God… that day just could not come fast enough! Trying to find any comparison between the two cities is impossible. It is as though I was having a two year long nightmare I could not wake up from!! There is no place like home…there is no plaee like NYC…there is no place like home….”
The two cities are very, very different (as is DC, as is San Francisco, as is LA etc. etc..) I think the mistake you (and others) make is that you THINK that Chicago will be like Manhattan, when it’s not. Not even on the upper end of the real estate market.
And for that, we Chicagoans are thankful. Because, believe it or not, we can actually live in our “best” neighborhoods for a somewhat affordable price (depending on what you view as “affordable.”) We can live in gorgeous pre-war buildings with views of a lake for miles for about 10% of what you would pay in Manhattan. We can live right next to the greatest urban parks in the United States and 20 miles plus of coastline without going broke. And within blocks of some of the greatest restaurants too.
But we’re always happy to have new people come and check us out. Too bad you didn’t stay. It’s a great city with great real estate opportunities.
NYC to a “New Yorker” is everything south of 96th St. Argue all you want about 5 borough technicalities, but that is what it is and always has been.
Westloop. Rio, last week, won best gay global destination in the world, when you coming to visit? I can arrange a one way trip into the favelas for you 🙂
and Chicago is 100 times more pleasant to live in than Manhattan, 1/10th as cool but still more pleasant and with equally great food (better on average I would argue).
“NYC to a “New Yorker” is everything south of 96th St.”
“Everything south of 96th” is most of Queens, almost all of Brooklyn and all of Staten Island, no? Further demonstrating the geographic illiteracy and provincialism of “New Yorkers”.
It may be the center of the universe, but what’s the point of being the center if you’re completely unaware of the rest of the universe?
“NYC to a “New Yorker” is everything south of 96th St. Argue all you want about 5 borough technicalities, but that is what it is and always has been.
and Chicago is 100 times more pleasant to live in than Manhattan, 1/10th as cool but still more pleasant and with equally great food (better on average I would argue).”
I agree with your first paragraph Ze. While I do like, have lived in, and own a few places in Harlem and other neighborhoods above 96th St., for me and most of Manhattan, those boundries (96TH St on down to the tip of the island) are what constitutes NYC. In our minds, anon(tfo), it ends at the southern tip of the island. It DOES NOT include Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx. And that is all that matters to me.
I do not agree however that Chicago is 100X a more pleasant place to live…not by a long shot. The grime, the corrupt government, the lack of civic pride (remember the Olympics) the constantly changing boundries of gang territory and the lack of any real interest and $$$ to carry out regentrification to the areas that really need it, back up my opinion. 1/10 of the coolness factor yes, more pleasant, not at all.
And the culinary comparison…please…that is a laughable statement. NO comparison between the two cities in that respect…
These of course are merely the thoughts and opinions of a Native NYer and I won’t change my views.
Geographic illiteracy and provincialism aside, LOL…Ok…unless you are a native NYer or have lived there for an extended period of time, you will not realize nor will you agree with it…doesn’t matter to a NYer.
Regardless, I did what I came to do in Chicago, had a few good times and made a few friends. But it is not at all what I thought it would be. That Sabrina, is what I think everyone who comes from NYC to Chicago feels.
No place on Earth can compare to everything NYC has to offer and to try and emulate it only ends up in what I experienced during my nearly two years here…disappointment.
Does it mean anyone is wrong in their assessment of the two places…not at all. Just as in RE, what appeals to one person does not appeal to the masses.
That is all I am sayin’…
Bob so eloquently states:
“westloopelo,
I don’t think you know anything about NYC. I think you have an online persona that claims to but its all a fascade.”
Do you mean Cascade? LOL NaNaNaNaNaNa
and futher lashing out in anger like a schoolgirl:
“The only neighborhood in Manhattan westloopelo knows about is the West Village. Because we all know he’s really from the Bronx.”
OK whatever…although my home base is located there, West Village is so…25 years ago…I assume the last time you were there, if ever it was the place to be. ??SHRUG?? We have since moved onto Chelsea, HK (Clinton) and now…get this…Staten Island! Funny huh? Do you know where any of these locales are, oh angry one?
Like I said, get rid of the anger, anomosity and hostility you have towards those who have actually purchased their own homes and buy one yourself. Each week Sabrina features properties you say you can afford, yet you still are renting an $800 a mo apartment.
I mean, really. Get off the computer and do some real RE soul searching, you just might be surprised what you can do.
revassal on November 9th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
“A neighborhood is what you make of it, not what somebody who doesn’t live there might think it is.”
Mind if I use this thought? It is the best thing I have read on CC in a LONG time.
Ever since MG was handed his ass over the SQage issue that is…
“Regardless, I did what I came to do in Chicago, had a few good times and made a few friends. But it is not at all what I thought it would be. That Sabrina, is what I think everyone who comes from NYC to Chicago feels. No place on Earth can compare to everything NYC has to offer and to try and emulate it only ends up in what I experienced during my nearly two years here…disappointment.”
Perhaps it wasn’t the city. If my experience had been to live here (or anywhere for that matter) for 2 years and have “a few good times and made a few friends” I probably wouldn’t blame the city… A few? Ouch. I hope you can recover from the saddening disappointment provided to you by Chicago. And I don’t mean this personally other than to say that it might not be appropriate to air your cavalier views here. Save them for all your NY friends that must be dying to get you back.
p.s. “the grime”? have you seen your sidewalks lately? trashy.
“Each week Sabrina features properties you say you can afford, yet you still are renting an $800 a mo apartment.”
Because I’m not going to buy a starter property that costs a lot more than my current rental only to try to sell it a few years down the road. If anything this bust has taught me the “trade up” property phase is OVER.
You’re so loaded you likely could care little about the current RE downturn but as real estate has been the prime contributor to wealth building for most of Americans a miscalculation here for most people will be fiscally devastating.
“to try and emulate [New York]”
Seriously? Who’s trying to “emulate” NY in Chicago except NYers? TDon’t hang that on us, bub.
“We have since moved onto … Staten Island!”
So, you’ve moved out of NYC? How declasse.
“96TH St on down to the tip of the island … constitutes NYC”
Yeah, and a whole lot more than the ~900k people who live below 96th thing that the USA stops west of the Hudson. They’re wrong, too. Words have meaning, and NYC means the 5 boroughs. NY, NY, is just Manhattan; NYC gets you all of the assorted riffraff of the other 4 boroughs.
OK anon…what is with the I always have to be right hang up with you? NY, NY is just Manhattan…WTF do you go to every city in the US and make up your own definition of what the city constitutes?
As much as I (cyber) like you anon, and as much RE knowledge you seem to possess, once you start the ‘king talk’ on other subjects, I just get lost…
westloopelo might as well move to New Jersey he would definitely fit in there!
I understand your point Bob, but for most of Americans, buying a house is done solely out of needing shelter…and in a ton of those cases the sale is made based on an emotional decision.
As much as my family has gained their wealth into this business, my first house was purchased with this holding true. I really had no intention of going into this business until I started renovations on that first place. It was a pit of a place…basically a shell, but once I got a taste of what it was like to repair a place that I could call home I was hooked.
Here I am 26 years later and a few hundred projects later and I still get kick out of rehabbing an old beat up place knowing a family will be able to live out their dream of owning their own house. I have to imagine that these people bought my rehabs because they liked where they were going to live and not the $$$ they were going to make because of that decision.
Funny thing I do.Once one of my places sells, I have either my nephew or niece track that house to see if my thoughts are true…and sure enough, those who like my work enough to buy the house end up staying for years, some for the entire time I have been tracking them. So for that group it is not done with the idea of making $$$, nor do they fear losing it because of a bad decision.
“WTF do you go to every city in the US and make up your own definition of what the city constitutes?”
No. New York City (aka NYC) is a genuine political entity. Saying that New York City is only Manhattan is akin to saying that Great Britain is just England–it’s simply demonstrably false.
Perhaps if you didn’t spend so much time insulting Chicago and Chicagoans, I wouldn’t bother as much. But decrying how little Chicago does for the “lesser” (my word) parts of the city while defining away over 90% of NYC (ie, the vast “lesser” parts of NYC) is just a little to rich for me to easily let go.
Lets work out a licensing agreement.
”
revassal on November 9th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
“A neighborhood is what you make of it, not what somebody who doesn’t live there might think it is.”
Mind if I use this thought? It is the best thing I have read on CC in a LONG time.
Ever since MG was handed his ass over the SQage issue that is…
“