Bucktown Bank-Owned McMansion Reduced $910K: 2322 W. Charleston
It’s back!
We chattered about this new construction McMansion home at 2322 W. Charleston in Bucktown (along with its next-door-neighbor twin, 2324 W. Charleston) nearly a year ago.
Back in February 2008, the owner was under stress as a lis pendens had been filed.
Read our chatter and see pictures here.
Now, it’s bank-owned and has been reduced by $910,000 from its original 2007 listing price.
Here’s its history:
2322 W. Charleston: 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2 car garage
- Old house sold in January 2005 for $360,000
- Sold in October 2006 for $1.5 million
- Lis pendens filed in June 2007
- Was listed in July 2007 for $1.7 million
- Reduced to $1 million by February 2008
- Bank-owned as of October 6, 2008
- Now back on the market at $790,000
- Taxes of $13,775
- Lisa Kay at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the listing and newer interior pictures here.
would the taxes get lowered if it sells at this price?
this locations has some perks. you’ve got the Charleston bar down the street. and holstein park and their large swimming pool isnt far away. plus the blue line and Margies candies is a very short walk. spent a lot of time in this hood 8 years ago and it seemed safe enough then.
pretty sure the schools suck though.
I think the bank is finally being realistic here. The taxes could be appealed and should come in the 10-11k/year range. For this location the price no longer seems outrageous.
Interesting. I look at this property and I think I might actually buy something like that. Then I start to think…what’s wrong with it? Is this the winner’s curse waiting to happen?
Don’t forget the Artist’s Gallery around the corner, great place to see live, loud music while being able to get a pack of 2 yr old Andy Capp’s hot fries.
And the house looks gorgeous. I wish floorplans were posted, I dig Rubloff’s site for that reason.
WaMu was the senior lender (altho DB was the trustee–an example of DB being involved, but as the trustee, not the lender). $1mm first and $425k second on the $1.5mm purchase.
No appliances and the last picture–of a bathroom–has some suspicious stuff on the wall, esp when there’s also a bucket in front of the toilet. Need a very thorough inspection to be comfortable.
I actually put in a bid for $850k on this place like 10 months ago. Never heard back. I wouldn’t do it now though. Bucktown for $850k in this market. No way.
Yeah, I noticed that suspicious stuff on the wall and thought it was maybe a camera artifact. My first thought is mold. BTW, once again a real estate agent finds it appropriate to shoot a photo of the toilet and bathtub and doesn’t even move the box in front of the toilet or close the lid. I guess it’s too much work for the realtor.
My biggest pet peeve is a photo of the bathroom with the toilet seat up. I mean seriously, how hard is it to close the lid.
“doesn’t even move the box in front of the toilet or close the lid”
Maybe she didn’t want to walk on whatever was on the floor.
IF this house has mold, its fubar!
ay’s story is exactly why the banks should not be managing their REOs. They should be outsourcing this to someone with actual knowledge and expertise of local real estate markets and conditions.
Just look at the listing agents for a lot of these REOs and all the effort they are putting in.
So basically our tax dollars going to subsidize these idiot bankers who can’t get a clue on how to run their business. In the rest of corporate America if the stakes are high and you don’t know what you’re doing you hire/contract it out to someone who does. But these idiot commercial bankers just can’t figure it out.
The threat of outright failure would definitely help them figure it out, in my view.
Bob: Not that you’re wrong, but ~10 months ago the bank didn’t control the proeprty. IF ay had been able to track down someone at WaMu with decision making authority (highly, highly unlikely unless ay was a WaMu executive), it might have gone somewhere. But there is NO WAY that the borrower would have pushed a 15%-off-the-first-mortgage offer through. The realtor made the right call not wasting time on it, at least at the time. It will probably be different in ’09.
Also put in a bid (for both props actually) never heard back. Both props have extensive water damage from burst pipes. Also plenty of mold… no longer interested. The wall damage in the bathroom is from a hanging mirror that was glued on and fell. The toilet seat is up because the upper part of the toilet cracked when the water in it froze. This home is a disaster and hasn’t had the required zoning inspections from the city either. Buyer beware…
JK
Well, I read the listing and there is no mention of water damage or frozen pipes or anything bad. In fact, it sounds like a great place. Seriously, though, it looks haunted. Can new construction be haunted already?
hmmm I cant figure out if I am “A QUIET “HOMEBODY” OR A CONSUMATE ENTERTAINER”
JK,
Thanks for the additional info. I was right about the mold but for the wrong reason. Sometimes I think I wouldn’t want to buy any house that someone was willing to sell me at the price I offered.
Interesting about the mirror. Who in their right mind glues a mirror to the wall? And why would you want a mirror there? What did they want people to be able to see?
“Who in their right mind glues a mirror to the wall?”
It’s pretty common, Gary, if you have a frameless mirror. But I doubt that’s the cause of what I was (and I think you were) looking at in the picture–it would be a mirror located at least 50% behind the toilet tank. I pretty sure it’s mold.
“Sometimes I think I wouldn’t want to buy any house that someone was willing to sell me at the price I offered.” – Gary Lucido
Classic.
So if that really is mold, how much would it cost to get this baby into livable kitchen? I *love* that outdoor fireplace!
“So if that really is mold, how much would it cost to get this baby into livable kitchen [sic]?”
If the other reports of un-remidiated flooding in the whole basement are true, you’d have to, at a minimum, remove and replace all affected drywall and insulation. And cut holes in all teh rest to make sure that there isn’t any hidden problem. And fix all the burst plumbing, have the electric checked and repaired and buy appliances. You might get lucky and get it all done (right–not talking about half-assing it and calling it good enough; and also without picking up a hammer yourself) for ~$75k. Could be $200k+, if everything is really bad, and you need to replace lumber and tear up tile in teh basement, too.
I wonder how often mold remediation fails. Rumor has it the failure rate is high. That’s the real risk.
“Rumor has it the failure rate is high.”
They’re just trying to do it too quickly, or there’s an (almost) unfixable problem (e.g., the foundation sits in the water table). If you (1) take enough stuff out, (2) clean and treat everything appropriately and (3) use the correct materials to replace the damaged parts, there is no reason for it to recur. The problem is doing 1, 2 and 3 can be more than the cost of tearing down and starting over and insurance won’t pay for it.
gack. Thanks, TFO. I’ll just buy a place with a deck and put a fireplace on it myself. 😉
KW–I was rolling in the appliance, too. The mold removal itself is not too expensive–but, as Gary noted, mold remediation is not a perfect science–it’s the cutting and replacing of walls, plumbing, flooring, etc.
It is much less of a problem in older homes, b/c mold doesn’t grow well on plaster and lath. But yeah, adding the fireplace would be cheaper.
I just looked at this house. Nice, but you can tell there are issues here. Im sure just another developer who left the country. I wonder where it will sell? Listed for 790k…needs 50k for sure. Isnt that about fair market value for a house like this????