After 3 1/2 Years, What Will Happen to This 3-Bedroom in Lincoln Park? 919 W. Wisconsin
We’ve chattered about this 3-bedroom unit at 919 W. Wisconsin in Lincoln Park several times over the past 3 years.
See the original chatter from December 2008 and pictures here.
In that time, it has been reduced numerous times.
The property recently came back on the market with a new price.
If you recall, it has a unique outdoor space with multiple decks, a green house and gardens totaling 1144 square feet.
It also has 3356 square feet of living space on two levels, including a lower level recreation room.
The kitchen has stainless steel appliances. There are no pictures of the bathrooms.
Built on a 25×73 lot, the property has windows on 3 sides, central air and 1-car garage parking with a parking pad for a second car.
What will it take to finally sell this property?
Jennifer Ames at Coldwell Banker now has the listing. See the pictures and a floor plan here.
919 W. Wisconsin: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 3356 square feet, 1 car garage
- I couldn’t find a prior sales price but looks like it sold before 1989
- Originally listed in October 2007 for $1.25 million
- Reduced several times
- Was listed in December 2008 at $999,970
- Reduced
- Lis pendens foreclosure filed in July 2009
- Was listed in December 2009 at $935,000
- Reduced
- Lis pendens foreclosure filed in May 2010
- Lis pendens foreclosure filed in June 2010
- Currently listed at $900,000
- Assessment of $182 a month
- Taxes of $3655
- Central Air
- Greenhouse
- Multiple decks – including a walkway that leads over the walled in garden
- Bedroom #1: 11×18 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 11×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 10×12 (second floor)
- Family room: 18×15 (lower level)
Taxes are only $3655?? Does someone from the Assessor’s office live here?
So it was possibly last sold over 20 years ago and it’s going into foreclosure? Ouch!
“What will it take to finally sell this property?”
A decent price to start.
The good outdoor space helps offset the fact that roughly 1/3 of interior space is on the sewage level.
What’s a well-finished, but poorly lit, 3-bedroom townhouse going for in non-prime LP?
$550-750k.
The place could use some updating. There’s no pictures of any of the bathrooms, which is a little concern to me. Bedrooms are so-so. Good amount of space, and that outdoor space is killer. I think you could get $825 pretty easy.
The fact that this is not cookie-cutter adds to the price psf, imho.
It’s grown by almost 10%, too. In Dec-08, it was listed as having 4100 sf of “total living area” and now it’s at 4500 sf.
Also, “approximately 3,356 square feet” implies a precision that is wholly inappropriate.
The layout of this place is too funky… giving up width for the external south corridor, ditching a front entry for a nondescript side entry, only having one garage space when the plan show it as a tandem garage.
Even looking past all of that, the interior needs a good deal of updating and I don’t think that basement space could serve any real function without a lot of creativity.
“I couldn’t find a prior sales price but looks like it sold before 1989”
Hasn’t been updated much since then either. Hello floral patterns!
“square footage is just a number”
-Mario Greco
“So it was possibly last sold over 20 years ago and it’s going into foreclosure? Ouch!”
This folks, is a good reason as to why you don’t use your house as an ATM
That outdoor space makes me totally, totally melt. It’s pretty much what I’d be buying if I bought this place. The place is certainly fine, but wow – the summer parties I could have…dreamy.
Well we know they didn’t spend any of that money on paint….white walls would drive me crazy. They could really warm up this place with some color on the walls.
Un/underemployed architect perhaps?
In my opinion this property’s listing history is a bit of a running joke in the neighborhood. I believe the price changes that have been removed from the MLS record were mostly in $100 increments (888,900 to 888,800) so the property continually listed as reduced. Not much has changed with the pricing — just a new broker and a good one, so we’ll see.
Lisa’s comment is further proof that RE is emotional. Plenty of bars and restaurants that can be rented out for the one or two summer parties you throw for far cheaper than overpaying for a 3 bedroom townhouse (without the good LP school district).
Does he also have a variation on that for a pick-up line?
“square footage is just a number”
-Mario Greco
Lisa’s just imagining ‘Right Said Fred’ 90’s style coke parties with shirtless men on the catwalk, yeah, on the catwalk
lol…I did not know houses can grow, but well, you live and learn : )
I am not too familiar with SF market, but this place needs a complete kitchen rehab and most likely same holds true for the bathrooms (no pictures). I like the bedrooms and the attic and all and the fact that it is airy and white (no hideous red, green and yellow walls). The exterior is very unimpressive, so overall not sure it is really priced right. On an irrelevant note, love the painting on top of the fire place.
“It’s grown by almost 10%, too. In Dec-08, it was listed as having 4100 sf of “total living area” and now it’s at 4500 sf.”
Were it not for the roar of the trains and Clybourne commerical corridor, the resident could hear the gentle sounds of the river, and everything in it, drifting past.
Geographic kidding aside, I think it’s a really cool place. Not sure if it’s nearly a million dollars cool, but it’s cool.
Good job Sonies! You made me spit up my drink with the Right Said Fred comment.
I looked at this property about a year ago during an open house. The owner was there with the realtor at the time (Chaz Walters) and seemed really overbearing (which is likely why this property never came down to a reasonable price). When I had a few questions, I directed them to the realtor yet the owner kept jumping in.
Ok, on to the property itself. It’s very outdated. The kitchen needs to be gutted. The floors are linoleum. The countertops are laminate. The cabinets are a throwback to the 80s.
The tile in the entry/foyer is very 80s and ugly.
The bedrooms are relatively small, but ok.
The basement is what kills this property. When the home was gutted and rebuilt inside, they sunk the living room and dining on the 1st floor. What this did to the basement is horrible. I am 5’4″ and my head practically touches the ceiling in the basement. My husband had to duck the entire time we were down there. Unfortunately, it’s not usable space unless you want to duck every time you go down to watch TV or use your home office. I don’t see how you could have a home gym down there unless it was a recumbent bike.
The square footage includes the basement, which is a joke. This property really should be marketed based on the 1st and 2nd floor space only.
It needs a massive amount of work – which may be cosmetic but it’s still the expensive kind (kitchens, bathrooms?). Sounds like the owner needs that Real Estate Intervention guy over.
Skr8 fug. So bad that even the former members of Right Said Fred would crack on it to your face if they somehow found their way to your midnight in the garden of good and evil party.
*Fun fact – this practically backs up to that big LP house on here last week that was reduced by ~50%, the one that was most certainly *NOT* on the L tracks and was def worth more than 100k on Bissel.
Okay, I was wondering about the front (facing Bissell) unit–thinking if that could be had relatively cheaply sometime in the future, this starts to make more sense.
The front unit is 1875 Bissell. It has an assessor’s market value of $252,250. The assessor has it as a condo, sharing the full lot with this property. The featured unit has *the same* assessor’s MV and is also of-record as a condo, not “fee simple with an HOA” as the listing claims.
1875 Bissell sold for $465,000 in *1995*. And $292k in ’88. So the re-combine for cheap was a pipe dream.
This one has ~$650k (face amount) in mortgages on it, so letting it go to foreclosure seems a sign of stubbornness more than anything else.
“*Fun fact – this practically backs up to that big LP house on here last week that was reduced by ~50%, the one that was most certainly *NOT* on the L tracks and was def worth more than 100k on Bissel.”
Another fun fact–the house on Bissell that this one does *in fact* back up against is also for sale:
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1873-N-Bissell-St-60614/home/13350308
$2.495mm.
“Lisa’s just imagining ‘Right Said Fred’ 90’s style coke parties with shirtless men on the catwalk, yeah, on the catwalk”
great now i am fricken humming it at my desk. still classic sonies, classic a heck
Grooves to sexy for cribchatter, so sexy yeah!
I think this place needs a real estate intervention, badly. I am not sure it is going to be very attractive to anyone at anything above $650k or so, and maybe not even there. I love the outdoor space but there are a lot of things to offset that.
Dealbreakers for me:
Trying to include outdoor square footage. This makes me wonder what other kinds of tricks I am missing. I agree that the outdoor space is a major plus but it’s a plus to what is essentially and 3/2.5 duplex down.
Basement ceiling height and walls. This is just on the cusp of what I think that you can reasonably consider a finished basement.
The finishes throughout simply don’t appear to be even close to what is appropriate for that price range. What’s the rental price point where you stop seeing linoleum – $900 a month?
You would have to buy the place on Bissell and this one for $1M total, and then do a combine and gut rehab, and then it may be liveable. If you figure $400 for the Bissell place next door, that means $600K for this one. Anything more would be way out of line.
This guy did buy the place ages ago, and told me that when he bought it this was a ghetto. people left abandoned cars on the street in front of the house and no one wanted to live in this area. times have certainly improved around here. The basement is about 6ft high so make sure your short otherwise you cant use it. outside is ok, you can barely hear the train which is a plus in my opinion. This is just a tough place to sell.
“This is just a tough place to sell.”
Not really. It’s just a tough place to sell *at his asking price*.
He might have been able to sell it in ’07 for $900k, and I think he’d get a buyer now, pretty quickly, if the asking price were $725k–not that I think he’d *get* 725 for it, but 725 ask would draw out someone who would make a reasonable offer.
this place just felt very awkward. Sure you could list it at 100k and it would sell, but pricing this place accurately is tough (maybe just tough for me). This is one of the few properties that I just have no clue on what its worth. I would have trouble spending even 650k on this place.
“this place just felt very awkward. Sure you could list it at 100k and it would sell, but pricing this place accurately is tough (maybe just tough for me). This is one of the few properties that I just have no clue on what its worth. I would have trouble spending even 650k on this place.”
I think you underestimate the number of little people with money in Chicago.
sorry anon, that might work in LA, but not here
“In my opinion this property’s listing history is a bit of a running joke in the neighborhood.”
Looks like it’s at 68 listing status changes since 10/9/07, including 25 price changes.
“sorry anon, that might work in LA, but not here”
If we were in LA, you’d have found it funny, but not here?
This place screams 90’s. Reminds me of my childhood..the tiles in the entryway are gross.
I like this property, but not the price. Not much bothers me (yes, even the tiles)except the kitchen cabinets. The basement is most certainly a kid zone due to the ceiling height. The entry hall is very gracious, but the stairs seem rather tight.
“This guy did buy the place ages ago, and told me that when he bought it this was a ghetto. people left abandoned cars on the street in front of the house and no one wanted to live in this area”
This basically applies to everything west of maybe 400 back then no? Gold Coast, portions of Lake View. But that is it.
To which Chicago shall return?
No, no, that’s been postponed a couple of years with Rahm as mayor. At the bare minimum, he has a vested interest in keeping the value of his northside property. But we’d be half in the bag if any of the other sorry bunch of hacks and losers were elected.
“To which Chicago shall return?”
the rahmfather shall cure all thats ill.
JMM i have a question to ask you off-line about you hood. i would ask it here but dear gosh i to want to awake the crazies.
hit me up at Groove77cc at yahoo dot com
My husband and I also looked at this place in the summer. We thought it was a SF, but the pics were very deceptive. It is so late ’70s, needs a ton of work, the garden is actually pretty tiny (and remember, I’m used to NYC size…), too close to the train tracks, and the layout is painfully awkward. We looked at every SF/row house in the Lincoln Park and Gold Coast area between $900k – 2mm. I would pay $500k for this, tops.
“To which Chicago shall return?”
I dunno. It used to be the country wasn’t as split geographically along political lines.
Chicago being the most D leaning part of the midwest likely will attract a steady stream of D transplants from other states. Whether its the teacher who would rather earn 80k in Crook county vs. 40k in random Indiana county or gays & gay sympathizers there will be a draw to Chicago of transplants.
They will reliably vote D and hence taxes will slowly eek up over the years. We have a long way to go until we get to Calfornia & New York taxation levels so it could be a slow fiscal decline.
There is definitely an opportunity for Chicago to rise and continue to cultivate the talents of the midwest. Bust the unions and you open up real manufacturing opportunities in value added areas like highly engineered components, food and other areas. The other wild card is international tourism. I don’t know the numbers, but we’ve got to be way behind that of LA, SF, DC, NYC and BOS as city vacations (granted CA has some other attractions going for it). Most Euros and Asians I meet abroad don’t even know Chicago exists. And these are not folks who haven’t been to the U.S. many, many times for business and for travel. Let’s face it, a family from Shanghai is more interesting as a tourist than someone from Des Moines. Chicago is too reliant on dumpy midwestern tourism. Plus tourism sometimes translates into business decisions, expansions, etc for foreign corporations.
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/919-W-Wisconsin-St-60614/home/13350562
“New” at…. Wait for it….. $1,079,000.
I saw this in person some time ago, before the SS appliances were installed. I cannot fathom the rationale behind substantially _raising_ the price. !!!
Looks like the frig stove and range were all that was done.
@chichow, yes, totally lame kitchen effort. Was not trying to imply anything meaningful was done. I recall a bath with water damage too. But the bank has approved sale at this price! Yeah, I bet it has.
I saw this property recently. The home is far from a million dollar home. It is very outdated and lives like a townhome or row home. The seller is also out of touch with the market. The home is worth at best $650k. If you combine it with the front unit then you have a a million dollar property. I do not understand why Chaz with bother indulging this guy. In almost four years he still hasn’t awaken to what it is worth. This wasn’t worth $900k even before the market went bad.