A 3-Bedroom Penthouse Listed Under the 2004 Purchase Price: 1125 W. Wrightwood in Lincoln Park
It is not that common to run across 3 bedrooms plus 3 full bath units like this one at 1125 W. Wrightwood in Lincoln Park.
Especially at a price under $600,000.
At 2400 square feet, and a duplex-up, the unit feels more like a single family home.
Built in 1999, it has two private decks and a family room on the second level.
Two of the three bedrooms are on the main level.
It also has vaulted ceilings and marble baths, along with a claw foot tub in the master bathroom. The kitchen has stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops.
The unit has been on and off the market since August of 2008 and is now listed under both the 2006 purchase price and $17,500 under the 2004 purchase price.
Is this a steal?
Mario Greco at Prudential Rubloff has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #3E: 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2400 square feet, 1 car parking included
- Sold in April 1999 for $470,000
- Sold in September 2000 for $600,000
- Sold in May 2004 for $592,500
- Sold in May 2006 for $630,000
- Originally listed in August 2008
- Withdrawn
- Currently listed for $574,500
- Assessments of $173 a month
- Taxes of $6815
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Bedroom #1: 13×12
- Bedroom #2: 11×10
- Bedroom #3: 15×14
- Family room: 18×9
Oh to be the 4/99 buyer. Making 28% in 17 months.
To comment on the property. Meh. Family room is 18×9 and is nothing more than a balcony overlooking the rest of the place. For this price and room count, I would rather have sepreate room to get away from others. (Ever want to read while someone else watches TV with out having to go to your bedroom?) In this place all the public rooms are effectively combined.
I just wouldnt like guest walking through the boom-boom room to get to the deck/outdoor areas.
anyone know of issues if the builder would have put the bedrooms in the front and the kitchen and living in the back open to the deck?
If i were to buy this place the top bedroom wouldnt be a bedroom but a family room/media room.
Not just under the 2006 and 2004 price, but also under the 2000 price! HD’s prophecy is close to being fulfilled!
the boom boom room. wow. never heard that. can’t decide if it’s better or worse than “where the magic happens.”
But yeah, that’s a bit of a hassle. There’s anther place like this up closer to belmont that makes you walk through the master to get to the third bedroom. very odd designs.
and i can’t tell if having a deck of my kid’s room would make me nervous or not.
I just don’t understand the splitting the bedrooms on seperate floors in a duplex. What’s the point? If all the beds were upstairs then the family room could be behind the kitchen with a balcony and the MBR could still have a balcony too. (There are 2 balconies in this place and both are through bedrooms.) Plus this would solve Groove’s request.
“Groove77 on March 16th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
I just wouldnt like guest walking through the boom-boom room to get to the deck/outdoor areas.
anyone know of issues if the builder would have put the bedrooms in the front and the kitchen and living in the back open to the deck?”
What’s with the wild price fluctuation of the last few sales?
nice return by the 1999 buyer. $130K in less than 18 months. well done!
“and i can’t tell if having a deck of my kid’s room would make me nervous or not”
having door knobs with a kid scares me 🙂 you would think a one year old wouldnt understand that but the do he is just not strong enough yet to turn it, but give him time.
so having a deck would freak me out no matter how i rig it to lock.
“If all the beds were upstairs then the family room could be behind the kitchen with a balcony and the MBR could still have a balcony too”
Which seems the most logical, but i do understand trying to maximize the light from the front windows with the loft part. but it seems like wasted space.
The listing starts by touting “Oscar Mayer School!” which is accurate per school locator, but the school at least from a quick look at scores doesn’t seem worth promoting. Or maybe the exclamation point is meant to warn rather than attract. Is there any upside to the school? Free hot dogs?
Once again, I’m going to have to call BS on the 2400 square feet.
All of the rooms (so not counting bathrooms, closets, hallways) add up to 1,079.
Top floor is 600 square feet MAX.
Must have some big bathrooms!!!
I am shocked.
“All of the rooms (so not counting bathrooms, closets, hallways) add up to 1,079.
Top floor is 600 square feet MAX.”
Checking the floorplan, main floor is ~1080 to the interior walls (~1200 to exterior ealls), 2d floor is ~610 (~700 to exterior). Can’t get to 2400 even if you include the decks (~330, total).
Somebody is up to their not-so-old tricks!!!
“Somebody is up to their not-so-old tricks!!!”
But, seriously, the presence of the floorplan is worth a helluva lot more than a stupid estimate of SF, when almost no one in Chicago lists it with due diligence.
Ok i get 1411 sqft including decks not counting bathrooms, closets, hallways, stairways, neighbors bedrooms, lakefront, blogo’s hair and the cement walk way to the public sidewalk
“Top floor is 600 square feet MAX.
Must have some big bathrooms!!!”
whatver, “sqfootage is just a number”
🙂
This place makes me want to take a nap, and LOL at the kiddie castle on the deck out back
“LOL at the kiddie castle on the deck out back”
wait till you see the 3k monster i just bought last weekend. i will post a picture of this beast in my back yard 🙂
“Ok i get 1411 sqft including decks not counting bathrooms, closets, hallways, stairways, neighbors bedrooms, lakefront, blogo’s hair and the cement walk way to the public sidewalk”
I think you underestimate the size of the hallway–lotsa hallway.
“whatver, “sqfootage is just a number””
As is price. 25% less SF = 25% less $$, so $430k.
I’m sure that, nothwithstanding our carpping, Mario will find a buyer at over 97% of list.
“But, seriously, the presence of the floorplan is worth a helluva lot more than a stupid estimate of SF, when almost no one in Chicago lists it with due diligence.”
Then don’t include the bogus square footage in the description. People – like Sabrina who quotes it above – expect that the representation is true (or at a minimum, close) and not grossly exaggerated. Does anyone know whether the square footage of the kiddie castle is properly included?
That said, I am sure the realtor will be on here soon to defend his assertion.
Who designs these kitchens? Why are there so many kitchens with the oven right next to the refrigerator. The fridge already sucks up energy use. Why on earth put it right next to the hottest object in the house?????
Oh to be the 4/99 buyer. Making 28% in 17 months.
April 1999 to September 2000?
Could have made double that in the stock market.
Off topic as i always am,
did you guys notice the the time on CC was not updated to the archaic day light savings time? Way to keep it real Sabrina!
Oh to be the 4/99 buyer. Making 28% in 17 months.
April 1999 to September 2000?
Could have made double that in the stock market.
One of the things that I hear a lot from those that are big into real estate is the huge amount of gains that are possible. But they always ignore what else was going on – it is almost always possible to mirror those huge gains in other investments that have drastically lower transactional and holding costs.
So to reinforce this notion:
Apple
April 1, 1999 $36.06
2-for-1 split June 2000
Sept 1, 2000 $63.44
Return: 250%
Cisco
April 1, 1999 $109.94
2-for-1 split June 1999
2-for-1 split March 2000
Sept 1, 2000 $68.56
Return: 149%
There are plenty more like it.
If you had leveraged yourself up just like you do with a mortgage, you could have made a crapload more money in the stock market while investing in solid, safe companies. And at the same time you wouldn’t have paid property taxes or assessments and when you sold your shares, the commission would have been perhaps a few hundred dollars instead of ~$36,000 with the house.
“If you had leveraged yourself up just like you do with a mortgage, you could have made a crapload more money in the stock market while investing in solid, safe companies.”
Uhh thats kinda the point how you CAN make a crapload in RE. After the 1929 stock market crash that was the catalyst for the Great Depression they realized that a leading cause was no limits on excessive speculation. One of the remedies was to limit broker margin to 1:1 at the outset and to force your broker to make you maintain at least 25% equity in your positions at all times or else face whats called a “margin call” where you have 3 business days to send your broker money to get back up to 1:3.
Unfortunately the lesson learned of excessive speculation leading to a global economic meltdown seemed to be restricted to equities. And in the last decade we had a different asset class without similar restrictions take off. Heck we had examples of UNLIMITED leverage where some of the RE loans were 100% financed.
Even today you can essentially achieve UNLIMITED leverage via a FHA loan and the tax credit. Once that expires the leverage ratio only drops to 3.5% equity, or 1:27.6.
Bob,
Lets assume that the 4/99 purchaser put 20% down on the home ($94,000). They sold for $600,000 and paid a 6% commission. So at closing, they received a check for $188,000, a $94,000 profit in 17 months. This is excellent.
Now, consider the alternative. The purchaser instead buys Apple stock at your max listed margin. Therefore, their $94,000 becomes 10,427 shares @ $36.06. In Sept 2000 they sell their 20854 shares @ $63.44, pay $500 in commissions (it’s a guess – commissions were definitely higher back then) and receive a check for $1,040,477, a profit of $946,477 in 17 months. CRAZY.
No amount of leverage in RE would have accomplished this profit – the value of the house simply did not rise high enough.
I still argue that you can almost always find a better investment than real estate at any point in time. It is simply better to treat a house as a home.
Unfortunately Tipster you cannot start with one part equity to three parts debt, thats just the minimum level before a margin call. You must start with one part equity to one part debt.
They would’ve been restricted to 2,995 shares. Which would’ve split to 5,990 shares at 63.44.
So their amount is 380,000, but lets not forget margin interest of, say, 5%, which would be (.05*94,000, or 4,700, small but important). 380,000 – 94000 – 4,700 = 281,300 gain. Yes you can make a lot of money in the equity markets using margin, but you can also use a lot very quickly as well. I like to think of it more as a double edged sword one side with gold at the end of it and the other with blood.
I’ve seen this place. It was one of many that put me off duplex uppers. I just don’t get them. There is no room for a TV, unless you hang it over the mantel, which you are not supposed to do. The balconies are not guest friendly. And, the “family room” is really just a waste of space.
All that said, this place wasn’t bad if you like this sort of layout. There is a spendy one on Buckingham that has been on the market almost a year, which has the eat-in kitchen in the back next to the balcony. This sucks for entertaining, because you are so far away from the living room, but kinda nice for grilling.
Oscar Meyer is nothing to brag home about. I think they bus in the kids from the projects. Alcott is pretty darn good and we all know Lincoln is better. Weiner.
I have to say that generally Mario Greco has the most rational prices on his listings of any of the big Chicago realtors.
Oscar Mayer has a new Montessori school – hence the trumpeting. Just sold 2629 N. Dayton #3N with 3 offers for over asking price – virtually the same floor plan and floor plate as this one.
Isn’t anyone bothered by the awful, tiny, unceremonious nook allotted for the dining table? For 600K, I’d like a real space for guests to dine, not a table crammed in between a living room fireplace and the kitchen. Why did anyone let developers get away with calling that an acceptable dining area for a 600K place?
Danny, I came to the conclusion that you’re better off without a table if you want to make this space work well.
Again, this place is one of the better duplex uppers I saw, but I just can’t get behind the layout.
“Oscar Mayer has a new Montessori school – hence the trumpeting. Just sold 2629 N. Dayton #3N with 3 offers for over asking price – virtually the same floor plan and floor plate as this one.”
We discussed 2629 N. Dayton over a month ago. It has been on the market for a year.
Read about it here: http://cribchatter.com/?p=8203
I remember that thread well. I hated that unit. That said, I don’t understand what the realtor (MG) above is saying. It was on the market forever and now it all of a sudden sells with multiple offers. Was there a drastic price drop?
MG – how do you get 2400 square feet on this place?
We had the seller pain all of the oak trim/doors white. The reaction was immediate. This was on the market for a long time and it was listed by the seller (has agent’s license) at much higher prices.
oops. PAINT. Not pain.
Yes- that unit on Dayton has been reduced quite a bit from its March 2009 list.
Just goes to tell you- that pricing a property right is a big part of sales today. (also- apparently- staging/painting it correctly.)
If this is indeed true that changing the paint had a substantial effect on the marketability of this unit then I think we should be able to discuss such things as paint on here.
Discussing the paint job was a clever way of avoiding addressing the fact that the realtor misrepresented BOTH of these units as 2400 square feet. My nieces and nephews do the same thing when they get caught doing soemthing (divert, divert) but, in their defense, they are kids and still learning the importance of honesty.
“Discussing the paint job was a clever way of avoiding addressing the fact that the realtor misrepresented BOTH of these units as 2400 square feet.”
It wasn’t really all that clever, Jon.
“If this is indeed true that changing the paint had a substantial effect on the marketability of this unit then I think we should be able to discuss such things as paint on here.”
Agreed – staging and paint are important factors in selling a home (despite being easily changed), so I don’t see why it can’t be discussed.
Hey, MG! Jon asked you a question about the square footage.
Ignoring the question doesn’t make it go away. If anything, it casts doubt on the validity of other information in your listing.