After 3 Years, Will This Gold Coast 3-Bedroom Finally Sell in 2012? 1327 N. Dearborn
This 3-bedroom duplex down at 1327 N. Dearborn in the Gold Coast has been on and off the market since November 2008.
In that time, it has been reduced from $1.395 million to $949,000.
But that is still $41,500 above the 2005 purchase price.
Although the building was built in 1896, the unit doesn’t have any of its vintage features.
The listing describes it as “restored” and “neutral.”
The main floor has 12 foot high ceilings and a fireplace.
Instead of hardwood floors, however, it has limestone floors throughout the main floor, including in the two main floor bedrooms.
Two of the three bedrooms are on the main floor, along with a den. The third bedroom is in the lower level along with a family room and a half bath.
There are no pictures of the kitchen or the baths in the listing.
The unit has the other features buyers look for including washer/dryer in the unit, central air and 2 car tandem parking.
Will this unit finally sell in 2012?
And will the sellers get a premium to the 2005 price?
Linda Shaughnessy at Baird & Warner has the listing. See the pictures and floor plan here.
Unit #1: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2500 square feet, 2 car tandem parking
- Sold in June 2000 for $795,000
- Sold in April 2005 for $907,500
- Originally listed in November 2008 for $1.395 million
- Reduced numerous times
- Currently listed at $949,000
- Assessments of $600 a month
- Taxes of $11467
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Bedroom #1: 16×18 (main level)
- Bedroom #2: 13×12 (main level)
- Bedroom #3: 8×15 (lower level)
- Den: 9×10 (main level)
- Family room: 13×27 (lower level)
As positive as I am about real estate, this place is really overpriced. The owners (if they really want/need to sell) should list it at 699k and be done with it (if they can afford it). I don’t see this going for more than 750k (and more like mid 600s).
After three years the owners still haven’t come around to the fact that they’re going to lose money on this if they want to get rid of it. Likely quite a bit of money, at that.
It’s really pretty and really overpriced. I don’t know why the owners think they are exempt from losing money in real estate. Hanging onto places and hoping they will sell seems like a bad idea when assessments and taxes alone are costing $1700 a month…. $61k over 3 years. What a waste. It doesn’t look like they still live there full time judging by how perfect everything looks.
This is a sad situation as it is difficult to have to pay to sell a house just because one bought at the wrong time and wrong price.
This is perhaps the Versailles of basement apartments. $1 Million Dollars? LOL
My former boxing instructor bought a condo when he moved from Queens to Austin, TX during the bubble. It was a 1BR new-construction loft a little too far off the beaten path – a property which would appeal to a specific subset of buyer in Austin. He realized pretty quickly he hated his job, so quit, changed careers and moved to Laredo. He tried to sell, but by then real estate prices had started to tank, plus he had all the transaction costs to pay. A few other sellers in the building had listed similar units at around the same price.
I told him to slash his asking price to 10K below what the others were asking. I tried to explain that he was going to lose money no matter what and it was better to die in a quick crash and burn rather than a slow, painful hemmorhage. I tried to show him how his PITA carrying costs were going to add up over time to a much higher loss than if he dumped the place quickly. But he got mad at me and didn’t want to discuss it and just kept hoping it would sell.
The condo in this thread reminded me of him. I hope he finally sold his loft. I don’t know what happened because after that conversation he was pretty mad at me and aside from a cursory “hi – how’s it going?” e-mail here and there, we have not been buds since.
No pics of the kitchen or bathrooms? Limestone throughout the first floor? Not one positive distinctive feature? Sorry, but these people are high.
Ahahaha, wtf – http://il.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20081008_0001117.NIL.htm/qx
Nat…. Best comment ever!!! OMG.
Nat – Thanks for that glimpse into people’s “real story/real lives”!!! It restores the confidence in my decision to live in a SFH. These types of problems exist in almost EVERY condo association I have been involved with (and no, not because of me). In my experience, it is better to pay for everything yourself because then, you get to make all of the decisions!!!
“These types of problems exist in almost EVERY condo association I have been involved with (and no, not because of me). ”
Oddly enough we don’t have such issues in our condo association. I may not like everyone in the building particularly, but we don’t hose down the stairs and file lawsuits against each other.
Nat- Great find!
What a great story for would-be condo buyers. Imagine living in your **caugh caugh** Million Dollar Gold Coast Home only to have such petty, unpleasant house-mates – to whom you are financially married, share a roof with, and must see regularly. Brutal.
Seconding Best comment ever!!!! Mo money, mo problems. Absolutely hysterical.
With a small assn, it is all too easy for things to change when the composition of the building changes. Things can be fine for years and then poof. Here, for example, the subject unit is part of the 2-unit majority block. However, the putative new owner could go either way. And either way, it’s a no win. Side with the top floor, the 2d floor will be disgruntled, side with the 2d floor and the 3d floor’s disgruntled. With approx. 8 unit and smaller buildings, a single unit can be enough to shift the balance of power and hence affect one’s quality of life.
Plus, you are tied to your neighbors and their financial situations. If a few units are in trouble, the whole situation can go south very quickly since there are not a lot of units voting, not a lot of options for officers, and not a lot of other units to pick up any slack. And self-management can be OK or a disaster. It’s easy to personalize things when it’s a DIY operation, as exemplified by this situation. A larger professionally managed assocation may not be perfect, but it’s a different animal than a small self-managed assn, charming and lovely as many of them can be. The federal case, btw, settled on appeal after being fully briefed. That’s one seriously expensive fight between neighbors.
What a nightmare. I’ve been extremely lucky to never have dealt with this kind of crap with my neighbors. It seems pretty clear that one or both parties is that type of person I seek to avoid contact with in my life.
I need a spell checker that can help me with the word “cough”. Sorry.
I previously thought this perfectly encapulated the hazards of small assns but I’m knocking it to second place under Nat’s link…..
http://www.salon.com/2011/08/09/condo_hell/
Wow. That sounds terrible. I would much prefer the anonymity of a large building or single family home. I wouldn’t live anywhere with a tiny association. Even large associations aren’t perfect. My friend’s association in Nashville is so bitter that they fling racial invectives at one another. There’s also a couple, where the guy is blind and the woman is deaf and someone insulted the deaf woman and the blind guy went nuts, screaming and punching the air.
I wish I lived in a world of land tortoises.
TB: I thought your spelling of cough was done with a phony, snob accent and loved it. Keep on caughing!
jenny not only did your tale make me lol but I wouldn’t mind an HOA like that. So long as I had enough influence to veto any proposal to spend hoa monies to make building more ADA compliant, that is..
Hahaha. Wut? How can you possibly pick a side in that given the available information? Let me guess: you hate lawsuits/lawyers? Or: you are your HOA’s president? Or: you are Mr Conroy?
It always surprises me when people are willing to make bold assertions and predictions from scant information and using mostly their own biases as the basis for their choice. It shouldn’t surprise me anymore, I suppose, but it still does.
“I can tell when people are lying. Really.”
“Let me guess: you hate lawsuits/lawyers? ”
Dude, has he really been that subtle this time around? He did manage to avoid responding to (almost typed her real name) Milkster’s request for new ethnic food recommendations, but he just can’t help himself completely.
I love this place and this area is one of the few where I would buy a duplex down (I also love limestone buildings) but this price seems ridiculous. Good luck with that.
A neighborly dispute over parking and common area maintenance is elevated to an expensive lawsuit, noting “extensive settlement discussions” in text of ruling, over trivial “offenses”. Judge got it right, disability claim specious. I was wondering why high assessments for a 3-flat that likely doesn’t have a central boiler anymore; this tiny association probably has major legal bills to pay. Now let’s not talk more about plaintiffs because they may sue us for libel.
A tiny association coupled w/wealthy non-handy people who are self-managing their little association entity is a nightmare scenario. This demographic is often used to “giving the orders”, rather than “acting on orders”, and expect maintenance work to be magically performed inexpensively, quickly, and without fuss or complication – just like at the corporate office, while expecting that their own small infractions and peccadillos are easily excused.
We’ve friends who own unit in a small vintage condo association, with only a small common outdoor space, who served as the officers of the self-managed association for many years — until two new owners arrived, treating this couple as their maintenance staff, calling late at night w/complaints, getting verbally abusive, and using garbage as a strategic weapon (blocking their front door w/discarded sofa, for instance). Our friends endured two years of condo hell until one combatant finally moved, and the other lost momentum.
I don’t think “beautifully restored” means what the agent thinks it means.
Boring, boring, boring. Original master bedroom converted into a kitchen, all the vintage detailing is gone, boring ‘hood, duplex-down… all for a million? Bwahahahahah.
It sure had a lot of work done to it, and not in a good way. I’ve said on here before that if you rob “historic” vintage of everything that makes it historic vintage, then you’re in for a sad reality check in today’s market. Ridiculously overpriced condo. Forever may it rot, as far as I’m concerned.
$800K — at BEST. I give it $725.
War of the Roses has everyone distracted. I csn’t believe no one commented on the kids’ room.
Go Sox! It is awesome other than the cow rug.
Boiztown, preach it boi!!
“He did manage to avoid responding to (almost typed her real name) Milkster’s request for new ethnic food recommendations, but he just can’t help himself completely.”
Two of his recommendations have become favorites of mine:
Ethiopian Diamond at Broadway and Norwood in Edgewater
Joong Boo Market Cafe – In the Joong Boo Market at Belmont and Kimball
And from anecdotal evidence, I still maintain he loves his women like he loves his food. Spicy and ethnic!
” I csn’t believe no one commented on the kids’ room.”
You mean the prison cell?
“you mean the prison cell?”
It is to protect the young’un from those awful third floor neighbors.
“but he just can’t help himself completely.”
What? The roles of defendant and plaintiff in that case match exactly, the paradigm, which repeats itself endlessly. Anybody can make claims in a lawsuit, it doesn’t make them true.
“What?”
Well, Sabrina deleted it, so there will be no fisking of your post.
The sad part about this, is back when I was looking for a place (in 2009/2010), I’d have considered this if it was priced at 1.0MM. But at that time they were slowly chasing the market down and were priced much higher. It’s something I’ve been writing about on here for the past few years, too many owners chasing the market down slooowly and lamenting as the banks price it at the true market.
Now, I agree with the others… this won’t sell until it’s below 900K now (where just two years ago I would’ve said that that’s a big bargain!).
“Now, I agree with the others… this won’t sell until it’s below 900K now (where just two years ago I would’ve said that that’s a big bargain!).”
Would you buy it now at the $725 suggested above?
“you mean the prison cell?”
Yes, call me traditional, but kids’ rooms should be livestock-themed, sports-themed, or incarceration-themed, but not all at once.
“but kids’ rooms should be livestock-themed, sports-themed, or incarceration-themed”
Take away the bunk beds and it makes me think “The Meat Council Presents: `Meat and You: Partners in Freedom” featuring Troy McClure:
” Troy: Come on Jimmy, let’s take a peek at the killing floor.
Jimmy: Ohhh!
Troy: Don’t let the name throw you Jimmy. It’s not really a floor, it’s more of a steel grating that allows material to sluice through so it can be collected and exported.”
when i grow up, i want to go to bovine university
Sabrina: When is the filter coming in?
—
not helping the SNR:
clio (January 5, 2012, 12:31 pm)
Nat – Thanks for that glimpse into people’s “real story/real lives”!!! It restores the confidence in my decision to live in a SFH. These types of problems exist in almost EVERY condo association I have been involved with (and no, not because of me). In my experience, it is better to pay for everything yourself because then, you get to make all of the decisions!!!
cLio (November 28, 2011, 7:36 am)
I think people don’t truly understand the maint. involved with a sfh (even one as small as this). Roof repair, porch repair, basement flooding, foundation work could cost tens of thousands. For a place this small, why not just buy a condo instead (you save money in the long run with the maint/upkeep costs).
Back on the market again. Same ole same ole