A Rowhouse With Great Bones in Little Italy: 820 S. Bishop
This 5-bedroom brick rowhouse at 820 S. Bishop in Little Italy was built in 1873.
The listing says it needs updating. Yes, those look like green appliances in the kitchen.
But looking beyond that, the home has tall ceilings, bay windows, a fireplace in the living room and hardwood floors.
It also has central air and a 2-car garage.
Additionally, even though it’s a rowhouse, being a corner property, it is only attached on one side.
The rowhouse was recently reduced by $50,000.
Is this a good townhouse alternative?
Bob Satawake at Keller Williams Gold Coast has the listing. See the pictures here.
820 S. Bishop: 5 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 car parking
- I can’t find an original sale- same owner since 1991
- Originally listed in June 2009 for $799,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed for $749,000
- Taxes of $5008
- Central Air
- Bedroom #1: 21×18 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 12×9 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 19×8 (second floor)
- Bedroom #4: 13×11 (lower level)
- Bedroom #5: 10×7 (lower level)
- Family room: 19×13 (lower level)
“Is this a good townhouse alternative?”
Yes, but not at this price, in this condition.
bahahahaha funny! And the avocado appliances are the punch line
This place needs some serious updating. Who knows what else is wrong with it. 750k for this house in this hood? No effing way.
I really like the front door.
That’s really all I can say.
“I really like the front door.
That’s really all I can say.”
Good thing the realtor took 3 pictures of it…
walk or run past this home almost daily. Bishop is a quaint street that dead ends almost at taylor. Just beyond the culdesac there is a nice little garden area that shares a courtyard space with a starbucks, etc. and has a fountain.
Anyways, there is new construction on this small, historic street and there are others that have been preserved quite nicely. I wouldn’t pay near asking for this, knowing the amount of work that does need to be done to it. For high 500’s, low 600’s, someone could invest in it and the numbers would still make sense. Personally I love the location – close to downtown for me, and rush for my wife. There are single family homes in close proximity to this listed above a million.
1435 w. flournoy – 1.325 mil
836 s. miller – $950k but heard that would be taking a significant loss
1424 w. lexingotn – 1.2 mil. – use to be closer to 1.4 or 5 mark.
So what exactly is the difference between a townhouse and a rowhouse? The condo/homeowners association?
There are some interesting old houses in this area, surprisingly located on the little park – I always forget it’s back in there.
Uh…current owners…your retirement cashout is back in 2005.
“Just beyond the culdesac there is a nice little garden area that shares a courtyard space with a starbucks”
Is that Joe DiMaggio Piazza (or whatever)? Possibly the most bizarre non-sequitor of public art/place naming in Illinois.
A rowhouse is usually a single-family unit attached to one or more adjacent units where all the units were built with a unified facade and were built generally all at once.
A townhouse is usually a single-family unit built right next to other units, but were built without unified facades and not built at the same time.
Think of some of the heterogeneous blocks in the Gold Coast versus the unified street facades on many blocks on S. Berkeley in Kenwood.
I would call this house a “rowhouse” beucase the house it is attached to likely has the same facade.
But these terms are often used interchangeably by those with less knowledge of architectural history.
Also, condominium ownership can involve pretty much any building form imaginable – Apartment buildings, rowhouses, townhouses, single-family detached, two-family, etc, etc.
“And the avocado appliances are the punch line”
just wait in 2021 people will pay insane amount for their kitchen to look like this and it will be called it vintage or retro.
so dont dismiss the the avocado and orange color combo of the 70’s (my fridge in my garage is avocado and still works and i have a orange 70’s office chair in there too!)
This block was NO FUN in 1991. . . hats off to seller for seeing the neighborhood through!
“Good bones” on a centenarian attached unit, though? I’m conflicted.
Normally I’d say if it’s been rockin since 1873, bound to be solid. But what about the neighbor’s place / i.e. the 140ish year old north wall of your home?
But I bet if seller can come down 10%, maybe a little more, it’ll sell. Fun block to live now.
“bahahahaha funny! And the avocado appliances are the punch line”
Hey Sonies do you have any Guess Jeans or Cross Colors apparel you could sell me cheap from days gone by?
probably uses as much electricity in a yr as buying a new one
“so dont dismiss the the avocado and orange color combo of the 70’s (my fridge in my garage is avocado and still works”
ComEd will give you 50 bucks for it.
Hey jumping RE long Fidos so eager for status:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126040517376983621.html
Looks like you missed the boat. Home loanership IS the new avacado! Hahaha I’d default in a second and trade my credit score to drastically upgrade my lifestyle or networth. Just be thankful that this isn’t the Sun Belt or else you really would hate me.
Not being approved for a Macy’s card for seven years is a great price to pay for tens of thousands of dollars of COLD, HARD CASH.
Nice hood!
If you’re gonna call Taylor Street “Little Italy” I’m gonna have to stop reading your blog. 60 years I’ve lived in this town and never heard that neighborhood called Little Italy until the Italians were almost gone. They were the Taylor St. Dukes not the “Little Italy” Dukes.
I heard the city tourism people hire a couple of Italians to come in from Villa Park to hang around in front of Al’s and Mario’s in their undershirts.
“probably uses as much electricity in a yr as buying a new one”
Revassal, i only run it in the summer to hold beer, ice and soda.
“Although I do have some dusty Z Cavarichi’s that used to be pretty cool back in the day. They might even still be tightrolled!”
i just laughed so hard i got tears in my eyes, picturing Sonies with a I.O.U sweater and Z Cav’s fixing his pants cuffs everythree blocks and listing to his sony walkman with bass boost bumpping “color me bad”. or better yet sonies in a pair of cross color orange overall shorts with one snap unbuckled bumping Snow Informer.
“Hey jumping RE long Fidos so eager for status:”
Bob, these people obviously made some mistakes and capitalized on them (in some ways and not in others). You just seem so bitter and pissed at people that own homes (and all your posts tend to group homeowners together as silly investors and system manipulators)…
For some, having a place to call their own, having the stability of not having to move at the whim of some landlord, fixing a mortgage like you can’t fix rent, being able to make a place home — all regardless of the end game — is a real perk. I’m sure you see that though even if your comments don’t reflect that reality.
“I heard the city tourism people hire a couple of Italians to come in from Villa Park to hang around in front of Al’s and Mario’s in their undershirts”
Good stuff old man,
I thought the italian’s already left elmwood and Villa Park
“in a pair of cross color orange overall shorts with one snap unbuckled bumping Snow Informer.”
Yeah in addition to that imagine a 6’5″ white dude rockin with a Kid (from kid’n play) height gelled up flat top with zebra stripes buzzed into the side of my head and a pair of blueblockers. That’s totally me…
Also on a side note… what the hell were we thinking?
“Also on a side note… what the hell were we thinking?”
I have no clue but when friend post old pics on facebook and i see myself wearing florescent green cross colors pants BACKWARDS, i die a little inside 🙂
“wearing florescent green cross colors pants BACKWARDS”
ala Kriss Kross? Comin’ atcha?
Niiiiiiiiice.
MrsB,
right on the money! the late 80’s early 90’s wardrobe choices i made were very disturbing.
as was the 10inch aquanet hair poof you probably had going on at that time 🙂 (i will pay $10for that picture, heheehehehehe)
side note;
you guys sell yet? did ya move? or you going to do what that teacher in the wsj atricle did the bob posted earlier?
🙂 Ah yes, good times those were.
Sidenote answers:
Sold. Moved. (I didn’t see the article.)
article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126040517376983621.html
you guys stay around UV or hit the burbs? did you find a comparable daycare right away?
congrats on the sale!
Thank you! It was a very long summer. We had three contracts on our place, with the first two falling through for various reasons.
OH MY, wow, what an article. Luckily we were never in a position where we’d have to “walk away,” but I do know of at least one couple who has done it.
it took me three times just to get to through that article, kept cursing out loud at my desk. CFO walked by once and heard me, told him purchasing screwed up again he laughed and walked away 😉
I bet the first two contract were like dangling candy and then taking it away 🙁
“it took me three times just to get to through that article”
They talk about three people–two of whom *still* are losing money monthly on “investment” properties and a third who was paying almost 12% (blended rate) on $423k in debt–plus is paying $700/mo for a used (5 or 6 yo) sports car (probably over 60-72 months). Typical knuckleheads.
Those ‘Typical knuckleheads’ are destroying America from the core outwards.
I had a real hard time getting through that article as well.
Nice article– I missed it as well, so thanks Groove.
But is this destroying America?
Isn’t this just how markets come back in line with reality??
Seems to me all these people are going to be renting for a looooong time. . . at some point their landlord could be you me or Bob, after he swoops in, picks up his now-tenant’s former home for pennies on the dollar, and launches his slumlord career.
You, me and millions of other people will be picking up rental properties for years to come, uniformly decreasing rents everywhere. The only landlords who will make money are established landlords with multi-unit buildings purchased pre-bubble….because as we all know, real estate investment is a long term investment. Those landlords will be laughing all the way to the bank.
that aside, it’s destroying america in the sense we need debt destruction to give rise to opportunities to create new wealth, sort of like the Hindu circle of life where Shiva destroys and from the destruction Brahma creates.
“Seems to me all these people are going to be renting for a looooong time. . . at some point their landlord could be you me or Bob, after he swoops in, picks up his now-tenant’s former home for pennies on the dollar, and launches his slumlord career.”
“The only landlords who will make money are established landlords with multi-unit buildings purchased pre-bubble….because as we all know, real estate investment is a long term investment.”
C’mon. I know (or hope) you are exaggerating for effect, but there are several over-generalizations in there.
Which isn’t to say your “typical” landlord with a condo or three isn’t almost certainly f’d. But there’s a lot more to the residential rental market than stuck flippers and pre-bubble buyers of multi-unit buildings (many of which traded at “traditional” cap rates all thru the bubble–albeit based on somewhat inflated rents).
Yuck, looks like the cornice is gone.