Foreclosure Alert: Will Someone Save this Hyde Park Mansion? 5438 S. Hyde Park Blvd.
This bank-owned 7-bedroom vintage brick mansion at 5438 S. Hyde Park Boulevard in Hyde Park has been on the market a month and is listed at 50% off its 2006 purchase price.
The listing says it retains many of its vintage features (but there are no interior pictures listed).
Built in 1902, the listing says it has a newer 2.5 car garage. However, it also has water, and now, mold damage.
Will this piece of history be saved?
Bev Labuda at Re/Max Team 2000 has the listing. See the picture of the front of the house here.
5438 S. Hyde Park Boulevard: 7 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, no square footage listed, 2.5 car garage
- Sold in 1987 (no price listed)
- Sold in August 2002 for $647,000
- Sold in December 2006 for $1.1 million
- Lis pendens in August 2008
- Bank owned as of July 2009
- Originally listed in July 2009 for $550,000
- Currently still listed for $550,000
- Taxes of $11,200
- Space pac cooling system
- 2 wood burning fireplaces
“WATER DAMAGE, MOLD”
STAY AWAY! Don’t even buy this place for 100k since you’ll never be able to sell a previously moldy house even if you spend the money to fix it up.
These listings crack me up — these banks sure have lots of rules for the potential suckers looking to buy a moldy “jewel of the past.” I know that’s the way it works with foreclosures (so you don’t have to tell me), but it’s just comical to me that the now-owner (bank) of a moldy house that has fallen into disrepair gets to make the rules. An absolut (intentional) fool might go after this one.
Not our fault the bank was too stupid to turn off the water in a timely manner before winter and the pipes broke. Idiot bank they should eat the entire amount of this loan.
I am a bit disappointed during this economic crisis I’m not seeing as many bankers get laid off as I think deserve to. Stupid bankers need to be homeless. How about that for an anti-charity?
I can’t help rubber necking inside these places when I am in the area to see just how bad. I called the agent since this one’s on a lockbox and the list of rules got longer if you’re brave enough to enter. I’ll be taking my hardhat and face mask tomorrow morning.
I can’t wait till an exploded meth lab property is featured on cribchatter for over the 2006 price
This sounds like a job for Armando Montelongo and his real estate team.
“This sounds like a job for Armando Montelongo and his real estate team.”
Seriously, that was hilarious! Where are all of those guys now?? I especially like watching the South Carolina flippers..I forgot their names, but one of their employees “Ginger” was moderately attractive.
‘This sounds like a job for Armando Montelongo and his real estate team.;
-he’s one of my favorite TLC/HGTV semi-professionals. Hope he saved some money in the past few years.
‘neo I’ll be taking my hardhat and face mask tomorrow morning.’
take some pictures and post them on a picture sharing site for us.
Tony, the South Carolina folks are still on, but they moved to TLC. The show is called the “The Real Estate Pros.”
I also enjoy watching for Ginger.
Neo, bro be safe and good luck, let us know you got back in one piece.
Just looking from Google streetview the house looks amazing. But just like everyone’s saying, it’s mold and I bet it’s everywhere. It’s too bad an amazing house like this got messed up. It would be awesome to see some inside pics from ‘Neo’
http://chicagoismynewblog.wordpress.com
I saw this place in late ’08 when it was marketed as a prospective short sale. The staircase is absolutely gorgeous and must be seen to be believed. Plenty of square footage inside. I was willing to get serious but winter was approaching and everyone warned that the short sale would take forever. I passed, and lo and behold it seems the pipes broke over the winter, the basement flooded, and the roof leaks took their toll.
It was an education to see that six figures had been sunk into a kitchen remodel and new garage but the roof was allowed to leak into the upstairs bedroom. Maybe that kind of thinking was part of what led to the foreclosure. At any rate, had the bank been more willing to deal last year, I might be the one sweating the mold remediation, albeit without exploded pipes…
Correction: upstairs bedrooms. I have photos…
I am always amazed how many people renovate a kitchen, bathroom, but the basics – windows/roof/plumbing etc are a mess…
I think this one was agent owned before the bank took over.
The question is is the south side going to wind up like Detroit with tons of these houses where theres no will to renovate and they just sit and get boarded up and rot?
This is prime Hyde Park, one of the best areas of one of the better or best neighborhoods on the south side. But are there investors willing to sink a bunch of dough in to fix this up, and are able to get financing, and there is sufficient demand for this renovated? WLelo?
Its near Metra, the Point, UC and there are presumably still good jobs at UC, which should be insulated from the recession somewhat.
Call me crazy but this could be an 800k house like those on 57th st..but only if the investor can get it from the bank for at least 100k less.
$800k on 57th? You aren’t dreaming big enough, if you mean the ones close to the university.
In pristine shape I would say this house could easily be worth what the aspiring flipper paid.
The south will rise again!
Anybody thinking of buying in Hyde Park should do their own due diligence: Prices for SFHs have increased dramatically since the early 2000s, at a rate of appreciation way above LP/LV. Also, I have found SFHs in LP to be in much better shape than in HP. Sales have decreased dramatically, and many owners have taken their houses off the market to rent out (at half or a third of what it would cost to buy!). IMO, HP is still in for much more hurt than LP. I think the couple of real estate agencies that dominate the market in HP don’t want to see the signs (and, from what I have heard, if an outside agency happens to list a home at a very low price, it creates a lot of controversy in the real estate community).
Thanks for the thoughts, rachel!
Nothing from Kenworthey?
“I am always amazed how many people renovate a kitchen, bathroom, but the basics – windows/roof/plumbing etc are a mess…”
You would be surprised at how many do this…granite up the ass and it is leaking and the pipes are falling apart.
Rule $1 in renovating for resale…Check for structural, roof, plumbing, electrical and flooring defects BEFORE you blow your budget on a new kitchen/bath.
Bob, I considered for a milisecond the possibility of renovating a few massive structures in this area that can be picked up for $200k (NOT $550) with dreams of reselling for $800k+. It is just that there is NO market for such renovated mansions in this area, at this time.
Only a VERY experienced and very wealthy owner/renvator (as opposed to flipper) should buy this place hoping for a historical grade mansion for his/her own use…for the next 30 years. While it is indeed possible to get rid of mold in a place like this, it is a very exhausting and very expensive process to go through. One I will never go through…again.
Proofread WL proofread…should be #1 not $1…which could be the same thing…
IMO HP is going to slowly turn into the LP of the south over the next 5-10 years. Now that incomes have dropped and consumers are getting smarter with their finances, more people are going to start considering Hyde Park instead of continuing to pretend to be able to afford LP/SV/etc. (Not everyone’s pretending but I def know some people my age that pay $1500 alone in rent and they only make 45k a year) And once U of C completes the yuppification of that Harper Court area, it will attract even more decent people. Something tells me this house will go through another winter and more weather damage until the bank gets a reality check and lets it go for somewhere in the 300s. If this mansion were over by the Obamas then the bank would easily get 500k for it, even with the damage. But Hyde Park BLVD is to close to the HP/Hood border to command that type of premium.
Lauren, to a large extent, HP already IS the LP of the south, at least wrt to SFH, without the amenities (crime, shopping, restaurants,…) – prices are very close for what you get, at least around the million dollar mark. You might get marginally larger lots/homes in HP, but they typically are in much worse shape, often without parking etc. And I have been looking casually in both areas for 2 years (waiting for prices to drop…)
Every time I visit Hyde Park, I think it must surely be the most beautiful neighborhood in the city, more than even than near north side. But, as you say, it has these problems with crime and lack of urban amenities.
Too bad for this lovely house, but you’d need to get the thing for a tear-down price to justify it. Mold mitigation is really expensive. You’d probably have to gut it and rebuild it from the studs.
I would have thought that banks would have had a list of procedures for dealing with and safeguarding foreclosed homes, the first being to turn off the utilities… and maybe put anti-freeze in the pipes. A friend of mine with a summer house in Wisconsin does that when he closes it up for the winter.
Banks are the worst when it comes to protecting the homes that are in their possession. They do not have the funds or time to perform even the most basic of preventive maintenance (turning off utilities, removing meters, etc.) so these abandonded foreclosed homes will only continue to deteriorate to the point that a tear down is the only option.
Lauren, I think the fact that incomes are dropping would be THE reason that buyers will stay away from here. Only very few people with $$$ will look to the future possibility of their getting any return on their investment, even if it is a home they reno for themselves. I got to say, it was quite tempting to do a reno here as I love these old mansions. But once I realized the places I was renovating were going to be going the rental route, reality set in and forced me to look elsewhere…and I am in this business for the long term.
I think it will be decades before, or if UC would sponsor a ‘village’ built there…even longer for it to gain status of LP, RN or LV. Even what is considered a dilapidated neighborhood like Rogers Park is regentrifing at a faster pace. There is just no erasing the fact of serious crime only blocks away…a few generations from now, but not now!
“without the amenities (crime,”
You obviously know nothing about HP then. Please sign up for UC’s campus crime alerts and you will find crime is alive and well in HP.
Or just check http://www.hpherald.com
While HP may be safer than surrounding neighborhoods, you can’t compare it in safety to LP where the demographics are more favorable.
Maybe I misinterpreted your message, rachel. I took it to mean that crime there is a lot less than LP but upon further review that seems not to be the intent. Sorry.
lauren, Hyde Park Boulevard runs north and south (where this house is located) and east and west on 51st. So I’m not sure what to make of your statement that the boulevard is too close to the hood — have you ever been to Hyde Park? This part of the neighborhood gets no more riffraff than anywhere else, and much less than other places (i.e. northwest HP), with the added benefits of being located on a busy street so as to deter opportunistic crime, two blocks from the Museum of Science and Industry, three blocks from the lake, close to the Metra, and directly in front of the Jackson Park bus stop. Aside from the mansions on Woodlawn near the University, I can’t think of a more desirable location in Hyde Park. Obama lives in Kenwood.
Laura, totally agreed about the beauty of Hyde Park.
For those that think Hyde Park is the next LP… Good luck. North side yuppies/homeloaners aren’t interested in commuting by (a) #55 to Garfield Red Line, (b) long crowded bus ride during rush hour or (c) infrequent cab after missing the infrequent Metra train by twenty seconds.
Chris- I graduated from U of C in 02. Hyde park is surrounded by hoods so it doesn’t matter which direction you’re heading, I happened to be talking about the hood when you’re heading south. Just last week in Jackson Park a man was robbed at gun point and held down while another robber raped the man’s fiance. That was a good 4 blocks away from this mansion. If I were to move to Hyde Park it would definitly be closer to Woodlawn or Kenwood where I get free presidential level security and the 0 tolerance University police.
No hoods to the north (Kenwood) and no hoods to the east (lake). University police patrol the area around this home too — there’s a dorm a block south. But I get it. You’d rather live in a different neighborhood, one known as an area of stately old mansions and huge lots, with significantly lower population density, and pay three or four times the price. Well, sure, who wouldn’t. By the way, the future owners of this home, supposing there are some, will never have any need to go to Jackson Park.
It sounds like you just don’t like Hyde Park.
I visited this house last fall and even got an estimate on repairs. The house was a short sale then and listed for $850k. At the time (before the winter issue arose) my guy estimated structural repairs would cost $350. There was already leaking/water damage in the kitchen from a botched second floor patio job. My guess is this house is essentially worthless now.
Everyone knows in the HP to stay away from Jackson Park. Just as they know to stay away from the Cottage Grove green line station.
Jackson Park is a nice natural barrier protecting west HP from the neighborhood beyond the park (and its residents).
Woodlawn is a nice street too but its my understanding HP blvd has a lot of security as well. Security doesn’t necessarily mean safety as I recall there was a sex assault near here not too long ago in a doorman building, doubtless. No idea why she didn’t fight back in front of the doorman when they guy walked her past him but I think they got the guy.
Bob – I believe you want to say Washington Park, not Jackson. Since the only thing Jackson Park is a western buffer for is Lake Michigan.
Off-topic – but I find it curious that Washington Boulevard runs through Garfield Park and Garfield Boulevard runs through Washington Park.
Good point Bob. Sort of like how Kennedy was shot in a Lincoln. Also goes along the lines of how Sirs Clint Black and Barry White got their names…..
i wonder if neo made it back safe?
Neo will be alright. He’ll probably be wearing a gas mask and haz mat suit.
I don’t understand this. How can banks not have the funds/time to do these simple things to prevent hundreds of thousands of dollars of value dropping off their assets? There are services that can take care of this for a reasonable cost. Banks are so zealous to protect the value of a property when there is a mortgage on it (insurance requirements etc.) — why do they do so little to protect the properties they own outright?
“Banks are the worst when it comes to protecting the homes that are in their possession. They do not have the funds or time to perform even the most basic of preventive maintenance (turning off utilities, removing meters, etc.) so these abandonded foreclosed homes will only continue to deteriorate to the point that a tear down is the only option.
cause they are nitwits and the feds should prosecute them for fraud/ defrauding gov’t, taxpayers, and shareholders. Maybe negligence/fiduciary duties too, but I am not a lawyer.
JPS,
If everytime you collossally F’d up the government ran to your aid to throw money at you to the tune of billions of dollars would you be incentivized to run your business any more efficiently?
Makes perfect sense. Banks that should be out of business for this outrageous and inefficient behavior instead continue to exist due to the financial sector bailout.
Banks are overwhelmed. Plain and simple. Too many foreclosures; not enough bodies; no money to hire additional people. Moral is low among employees. Nobody cares so the files just sit on somebody’s desk until, you know, they get around to doing something about it.
Just back from the ‘jewel of the past’. A Few comments (checking to see if i am allowed to post my photos to Flickr for you all to see.)
-The areas pretty decent. Lots of older condos and some SFH’s around. Hard to see there being a huge demand for $1m+ house anytime soon though.
-Condition wise I did not need the Haz Mat suit but it certainly would not be for the faint of heart.
By level:
Basement is wrecked, does not look like it has ever been finished, it’s like a dungeon now, Ducts hanging down and some very rusty pipework.
First level, the kitchen was nice but all the appliances obviously gone. Saddest part for me is this place had those bowling lanes wooden floor which I really like in older houses. They are trashed. Large swollen breakouts and lots of damp still in there. The staircase is very nice and in decent condition.
Second level, fared better although the rooms were never big to start with. The family bath survived in decent condition, the en-suite in the master is a waste of space, you’d need to reconfigure the floor plan to make it livable.
Third level, decent condition but again it was not all that great to start with. I was not expecting modern wide open spaces but to engage in this kind of renov program the basic plan has to be exceptional. This is not.
So conclusion was that even if you want to find yourself a money pit this one is not it IMHO. You could live in the very nice clean new garage they inexplicably decided was more important than replacing a nasty old bathroom in the master but I think the bank is going to watch this one rot.
thank you neo, glad to see your safe.
its sad to see a once great place like this will be torn down.
is the picture of the front as good as in person?
“its sad to see a once great place like this will be torn down.”
Just sounds like it needs to be completely gutted and start fresh from the bricks (or nearly so). Which is really as, or more, expensive as tearing the thing down and starting over, except from a permitting perspective.
Also, they dropped it to $540k.
Neo, very sorry to hear that. In late ’08 the basement was still unfinished (obviously) and a bit like a dungeon but not ‘wrecked’. Hardwood floors were in average shape when I saw them — many scratched to hell but nothing more than that. Did you make it to the attic? It sounds like the roof leaks in the kitchen and bedrooms didn’t do as much damage as I would have thought…
Of course the real blame here lies on the original homeowner who did no kind of preventative maintenance.
Homedelete, were banks more proactive managing the odd foreclosure during the boom?
anon, but how many devolpers would really want to do a complete gut? i dont think they can get away with a tear down and throw up a box oops sorry modern design like the do in bucktown and over by belmont diversy and lincoln area.
Banks handled them better because 1) they were usually occupied, 2) and often sold at judicial sale and 3) reo realtors were not overwhelmed.
“anon, but how many devolpers would really want to do a complete gut?”
Two within 8 houses of me in the past 3 years. Totally different buyer’s market, of course, but it’s really just a question of how little will the bank take (or how much of risk a reno-dude is willing to take).
If one wanted to live in HP, I think it would be worth consideration at something around $200k, with an ability to spend ~$500K on a reno–subject to adjusting the PP up and the reno cost down based on what’s actually usable in the house besides the structure. Basically, $750k all in makes for an acceptable risk, I would think, b/c there’s a decent chance of upside from there.
Exterior could certainly do with some decent maintenence work, all the window needs stripping and repainting and the masonry needs a touch up. There is a very good looking greystone opposite that might comp well for the finished article.
I tried to figure this one both as an investor and someone looking for something to live in from April next year. My conclusion was that you could do a very good rehab on this and still lose money as an investor unless they drop the LP much lower.
I did not notice much obvious mold but the water damage was pretty extensive and who knows whay behind some of the plaster and woodwork. If the floor plan was better I’d say you could try to salvage but this needed more rehab before the damage so now it feels like a stud-rehab.
The zoning is RM-5, so 12 units are possible for this property, if it is actually 5,000 sqft. But its in the Private Lakefront Protection district. So, a complete teardown maybe possible, but perhaps there is the possibility of gutting the interior, attaching an addition to the rear and dividing the building into multiple units – 6-10 units maybe.
This scenario could help defer the cost of purchase if the bank is only willing to bend slightly on the price, the reno costs and preserve the street facade of the building to assuage any historic preservation opposition.
i’ll take it for 100K and WL’s money to rehab it.
My $.02:
There are better streets in HP, but not many (Woodlawn, Harper, University, Madison Park are better, to name a handful). Some might see the busy N-S running HP Blvd. as an asset, some a drawback–but in any event it’s better than the E-W branch of the street that Lauren thought it was on. There are many apartment buildings near this home. It is close to the amenities (Promontory Point, shopping, buses, Metra)–but I’m not holding my breath for the renovation of Harper Court, Laura! (I love HP dearly, but the place is seriously overrun with self-defeating NIMBYs.)
I also agree that SFH prices have outpaced prices on any other category of home in HP. I purchased my place in 1997, and at the time, unless I’m crazy and completely remembering wrong, you could get a decent (not fabulous) single family home for $3-400K. Now, the prices for a similar place are much closer to a million. I think it’s because as LP got out of control for SFH, young professional families settled on HP (and the Lab School) as a good alternative.
I’m so happy to see so many HPers (and aspiring HPers) on this board! Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who loves this neighborhood. 🙂
Oh, and as for crime, this location is as good as any in HP, which isn’t as bad as people think. The stories just get out of control. Take the story of the Jackson park robbery/rape described above. First, it didn’t happen four blocks from here; it happened at about 63rd street in the Park, which is closer to a mile away. And, it wasn’t two guys stalking a nice man and his fiance taking an evening stroll. It happened at about 11 o’clock at night, and reading between the lines of the police report (which involved one assailant, not two) it was pretty clear that this older couple were out in the Park for a little nookie–it might even have been a prostitute and her john. Jackson Park IS unsafe at night–lots of partying goes on; I suspect at least one-half and probably both halves of this couple were pretty loaded for a single assailant to have managed to hold off the man while raping the woman. Also, they caught the guy almost immediately.
Anyway, my point is not that what happened isn’t awful, it’s that it’s the city, you have to take care, and it’s not the law of the jungle down here. 🙂 I run through Jackson Park all the time when it’s light out; it’s stunningly beautiful.
Kenworthey, I love Hyde Park, and love reading your posts too! This home was too good for its owner.
i love hyde park/kenwood alot too. It has a huge stock of old beautiful homes at decent prices.
when we bought in 2002 we were going to 2 open houses one over on maryland ave and i think 53rd i cant remember the other but it was more in kenwood towards the edge by the scary part. but on the news there were alot of reported rapes around the u of c campus which scared my wife a lot. i couldnt talk her into going to at least the open house. I regret that now cause those hoods would be safe than the one we live/stuck in now.
Now listed for $479,900.
Closed in December 2009 for $451,000. Good luck to the new owner(s) and godspeed in restoring this old gem!