An Uptown Greystone 2-Flat with 5 Car Parking and a Wide Lot: 1431 W. Argyle
This vintage greystone 2-flat at 1431 W. Argyle in Uptown has a couple of unique features you don’t see every day.
It has parking for 5 cars and a wide 50×116.55 foot lot.
The two units consist of:
- Unit #1: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, currently rent for $1200 a month
- Unit #2: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, owners unit
The listing says rental income is $14,400 a year.
There is individual heat and gas. It looks like there isn’t central air.
The property has maintained much of its vintage character with crown molding and hardwood floors. There are also large pantries off of both kitchens.
From the pictures, it appears that the owner’s unit kitchen has been updated with white appliances and newer cabinets.
Given its price under $425,000, is this 2-flat a deal?
Suzanne Cimino at Koenig & Strey has the listing. See the pictures here.
1431 W. Argyle: 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 5 car parking
- Sold before 1993 (I couldn’t find an original price)
- Currently listed for $424,000
- Taxes of $6629
you said uptown and i stopped reading at that poing
“you said uptown and i stopped reading at that poing”
Eh this is a pretty good location. Anything west of say, Racine in Uptown, especially further north and closer to Andersonville, is a liveable neighborhood.
Something has gotta be wrong with it on the inside/with the mechanicals – for that extra lot & a bona-fide greystone building I’d stay up every night with a shotgun to deal with the riff-raff.
At this location, I would go to Andersonville for anything I need and not Uptown. Plus you have the cemetary buffer from the crazies in Uptown.
Haven’t run the numbers, it seems like a deal for a double lot (almost, not as deep as standard) and a true greystone.
Could they be looking for a multiple offer over ask or (as skeptic said) there is something wrong…
Skeptic, there is much less riff raff where this place is. I agree with Barry. This is north of Lawrence, and west of Broadway and is much nicer than most of Uptown as it does not have all of the public and low-income housing. The Sheridan Park section of Uptown has good and bad pockets where this place on Argyle should be fine.
I looked at this one last night. There was a lot of activity for the 1st day on the market (probably 4 other groups looking when I was there). Good place but there are smokers in both apartments so you would need to air that out, which wouldn’t be too big of a deal.
I think it would make a great SF conversion for not that great of an expense. You could also build on the other lot or sell it.
The bedrooms were both in pretty good size, I liked the vintage woodwork and new wood windows.
Also, the basement was clean and had good access and ceiling height for a duplex.
At the end of the day I am not in love with the location because it a little bit south of the heart of Andersonville, but I do think it’s a deal for someone.
Double lot greystone in this location for this price? AT first glance, seems like a very good deal…
You better like Vietnamese food if you live here.
For the record, I do enjoy a good PHO.
I do not enjoy parking lots jam packed full of enraged Asian drivers.
great price for a double lot except:
This is a money losing proposition as a rental
nobody will be building anything on the vacant lot for years to come
additional expenses to convert to a sfh
me thinks this is a remnant of a bubble pricing and bubble thinking.
I think of this area this close to Clark Street and Foster as being South Andersonville.
North of Foster Andersonville (Lakewood-Balmoral ) is technically Edgewater.
You have to remember that both Edgewater and Uptown are large areas which contain multiple smaller neighborhoods.
This is about two blocks to Hopleaf. An easy walk to the Redline and the Metra stop on Lawrence.
I wonder if this 50 ft lot has one or two pin #s?
One PIN: 14-08-313-008
It appears to be overassessed, too, at $536,540 for the 2009 reassessment.
$1200 rent sounds suspiciously high for a 2/1 in this nabe, no?
“There is individual heat and gas.”
Sabrina, the listing says separate gas and electric for the units but the heat is paid by the owner. It does say “Radiators, Indv Controls” but that likely only means you can turn them off.
JPS, not really. I lived a little bit north of here and was paying $1650 for a 2/1 back in ’01. Nearly everything we looked at was $1200-$1700 for spacious vintage 2/1’s on a decent street right off the shops on Clark. Admittedly, our place was nicer than most condos at the time, but the stuff we looked at for $1200 were sh*tholes imho.
Not sure what rents are now, but A’ville is a little quirky with rents/condo prices. Nice little hidden gem of a neighborhood and you really need to know the right streets to live on.
Argyle is on the edge of A’ville, but it is west of the Broadway force field that separates A’ville from the nut jobs to the east.
Very safe area… although I could see Chads/Trixies being a little scared of the Argyle Redline stop.
“Very safe area… although I could see Chads/Trixies being a little scared of the Argyle Redline stop.”
It’s a little… ethnic for C’s and T’s, but not terrible. Of course, if I lived here, it’s not terribly further walking to the Metra, which is cheaper and a lot faster (well, depending on destination to some extent) to the loop, so I wouldn’t even bother with CTA.
While I am not personally interested in this place-I do think it offers a unique opportunity for an owner/occupant who wants an amazing city garden in a great neighborhood. You could live here for a while with tenant upstairs and then convert to single family later.
Also that huge garage could be producing upwards of $700 a month
Why don’t we compare this place to Mario Greco’s charmer on Foster:
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1453-W-Foster-Ave-60640/home/13399103
You can definitely rent a very nice vintage 3/1 these days in the heart of Andersonville (there are tons of them for rent every May and October 1) for 1400. I don’t know whether the rent listed here is legit, but if it is, the renters could have a much nicer 2/1 (or a similar-quality 3/1) in a better location (futher north, on teh side streets off Clark) for 1200…which means any future owner may have trouble securing tenants for this place at that price.
This is a good deal for the money. I know this place by the trim. It’s east of Clark St., in a very good area, and it is extremely well-kept. I didn’t know the interior was so beautiful and intact. The kitchen in the 2nd unit could stand some refreshment, but altogether it is a beautiful property.
The two bed easily rents for $1400 a month without heat (flats hardly ever include heat), maybe more with the covered parking space, and space for two cars. Space for two cars is very exceptional along the lakefront.
But I don’t believe those low taxes. Are those the taxes for 2010? A friend of mine has a 2-flat vastly inferior to this in the same neighborhood, and his tax bill is around $10K. So you might want to look up this year’s tax bill, for this year’s property taxes are confiscatory across the board.
Nice building, looks like it has some extra width, and great lot. it is WEST of glenwood – which i think conneccts you to andersonville/clark street rather than uptown.
will go multiple offers over list.
My wife just called on this place and it’s already under contract. 4 days on the market! They even stopped showing it. Too slow Joe.
I think so, too, bubbleboi. Graystone two- and-three flats are very coveted, especially in Andersonville, and especially with covered parking, for TWO cars no less. This property will move very quickly and probably be bid up.
You guys should buy it at list and put it on the market to take advantage of those multiple bidders going after this POS in uptown. Or maybe Bubbleboi can live on top while Laura lives in the lower level
I would buy it at list if i thought it would actually sell for that cheap. But i don’t think i’ll have the opportunity, unfortunately. There will be other bargains, but this is a good one.
Sonies – what do you think an appropriate price woudl be?
Sonies,
I don’t think this will sell to a speculator-it’s too expensive for that and the side yard is something that will appeal to an owner occupant.
i’ve lived around the corner from this building for 2 years, and it is definitely altogether different from the typical uptown riff-raff. andersonville is stretching south along clark street towards lawrence, and the further you get from broadway, the safer and quieter the neighborhood is.
Sonies, Laura will no way ever live on the ground floor or low first floor, not in any city or town. That’s why I like apartments- I can live above the ground, preferably on the third floor or above. I’ll live up and bubbleboi can live on the first floor, preferably with a big, loud dog.
And the housing bubble lives on…
It’s already under contract just like some expected it would.
Sonies, you’re a douche bag.
During the housing bubble this would have gone for closer to 600k.
I think this is priced at very early 2000’s pricing.
Let’s do the math on a back of the envelope, monthly cash flow calculation:
This is basically two 2/1’s that rent for roughly $1,200 a piece. Now let’s assume that one is owner occupied and the other is rented out.
$550 tax + $1871 mortgage (30yf @ 5% – with 20% down) + $100 insurance (roughly) = $2,471 minus, maybe, a couple hundred bucks tax benefits above and beyond the standard deduction.
So, basically you’re putting down $84,000 and paying $1,200 a month or a little less to live in a 2/1 – that you as a buyer could otherwise just rent for $1,200 a month. Yes there is a vacant side lot that .. is vacant. So it’s like saying there’s a large yard. Yet it doesn’t really increase the price of rent.
This isn’t the worst priced property I’ve ever seen because it’s not totally off the cuff cash flow negative. But it’s not a totally great deal either. It’s not like the tenant is paying your mortgage, he’s only paying half and you get to live in a 2/1 just like your renter for about what he pay.
However, the buyer has to maintain the building and put down $84,000 whereas a tenant can leave basically whenever he wants.
I see why this went contingent so quickly. There’s a relative lack of inventory at this ‘deal’ price point so people jump on ‘deals’ like this rather quickly.
However, just wait. If you think there are deals today there will be even better deals tomorrow. Soon enough, sales volume will return to ‘normal’ and most properties that sell will be priced like this or better.
The double lot is a large advantage for this property or IMO any 2 flat in general. Not surprised it went so quickly.
HD,
You can’t buy a large livable single family house in this nabe ( with a single lot, let alone a double) for under 500k.
Two family owner/occupied properties are not bought as simple investments. Someone is buying a home. At this price it may appeal to someone originally looking at SFHs.
Who owns/runs the nursery behind this (check the aerial)?
I don’t know how many vegetables you’d grow with the 45′ condo building to the east casting shadow.
It’s a block of streetside garbage pickup, which sux.
The almost party wall on the west is a minus.
If the argyle stop is too much, the Lawrence stop is only slightly further–2/3 v 1/2 mile.
All said, anyone buying it to live in for under $475k should end up pretty happy, barring deferred maintenance not obvious in the pix.
This is a total brownstoner wet dream property. The heat has individual controls because it’s hot water = two thermostats (at least). I’m not surprised it went quickly, it looks like it in good condition.
RE tax “bounce” problem soon occurs w/two flats and three flats on northside of Chicago. Assessor re-assesses property based upon sale price, and when building turns over to a new owner. RE taxes soon sky-rocket to reflect a much higher tax assessment valuation. In certain neighborhoods, there is an extreme differential in valuations between buildings owned by same landlord-occupant for two or more decades, versus more recently sold buildings. Annual tax amount differential may be $5,000 to $10,000, or more, and can absorb nearly all the gross rent from a unit.
Our old three-flat changed hands twice since we sold it, taxes are now in $12,000 range, while rents are in the $1000 to $1200 range for Edgewater neighborhood, and landlord’s gas heat bill for winter months is likely in the $1200 to $1500/month range. These buildings tend to be gas-hogs, given uninsulated walls, older windows, and tenants that are not fuel-vigilant. Given cost of these “Green Zone” multi-unit owner-occupied buildings, the new owner soon discovers that his costs are not necessarily covered by rental income, and his cash requirements are substantially higher than expected. Add in the monthly “unexpected repair” costs too.
I wonder if that can happen in reverse. I bought a building on the Northside last year for less than half of the value Cook County has placed on it.
Needless to say I have appealed the taxes.
This is not a sfh. It is an apartment building where you rent one of the units out and live in the other one.
“This is not a sfh.”
Who said it was, HD? Dahlia said it might appeal to someone who initially was looking for an SFH, and it would be reasonably easy to convert down the road.
Even without *any* structure, one would be hard pressed to find a double lot–yes, even now, and yes, this isn’t quite a full double–in a comparable hood for $400k.
“RE tax “bounce” problem ”
This one is currently assessed with a MV of $536k (land is 41%(!!) of assessed value). Unless they got serious overbidding, there will be an easily-winnable appeal, not a bounce. H/O exemption is in place, so a non-o/o would need to be aware of that wrt billed tax amount.
Sounds to me like someone thinks it sold as an SFH alternative. To which I said that it’s not an SFH, it’s an apartment building.
“Someone is buying a home. At this price it may appeal to someone originally looking at SFHs.”
“Sounds to me like someone thinks it sold as an SFH alternative.”
So it’s another one of those weeks, HD? Reading teh stupid into any comment you disagree with? cuz that ain’t what dahlia said.
It’s not an apartment building, it’s a two flat.
My point is that the market is not valuing this property by some rental calculation, You persist in trying to pound this square peg into a round hole and then be surprised when it still doesn’t work.
I live in a multi-unit that I own. I bought a home. There are things about my building that I value immensely , like the great light we get from all four sides. Renters don’t pay extra for that. But as a homeowner I value that.
The new owners of this property could add a deck off the first floor yard side and have a great space for entertaining. Really there are lots of options, including turning the property in to an SFH.
“Renters don’t pay extra for that. But as a homeowner I value that.
The new owners of this property could add a deck off the first floor yard side and have a great space for entertaining. Really there are lots of options, including turning the property in to an SFH.”
Oh, dahlia, you’re just an FB trying to rationalize having paid way too much to spend your life in an apartment, serving as the unpaid super for an apartment building, you junior-land-baron, you.
It’s cheap and I get to pick my neighbors.
“It’s cheap and I get to pick my neighbors.”
I was, of course, being snarky.
closed for $450,000.
Bidding war apparently?
yes