How Big Do You Like Your Loft? 1020 S. Wabash
There is a 3200 square foot loft for sale at 1020 S. Wabash in the South Loop. Technically, it is a three bedroom “which is opened up to a massive 1 BR”.
Does a 3200 square foot one bedroom sound like the ultimate in loft living?
Unit #7E-F: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, (but walls removed so that it’s a one bedroom), 3200 square feet, 12 foot ceilings
- I couldn’t find an original sales price- somewhere around $500,000 (?) in 2000
- Was listed in fall of 2007 for $899,000
- Listing withdrawn
- Listed in April 2008 for $875,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $799,000 plus $40k for parking
- Assessments of $756 a month
- Sudler Sotheby’s has the listing
I think it is an awesome space, but that is too much. Is there a balcony/terrace off the dining area?
Aren’t there rules about how many bedrooms you can claim in a listing? I could have a place that could theoretically have 6 bdr but if it only has 2, don’t I have to list it as 2. Does the fact that it used to have more bedrooms make any difference?
There is no way the heating and air-conditioning bill is included in the assessments. Those bills have got to be monstrous.
This is one of the better looking lofts shown yet. The view of lake michigan (I think that’s lake michigan in the first picture) is an added bonus.
David: Yes, there is a balcony off the dining area.
Sorry I meant 1st interior picture, which is the second picture above.
As for the bedroom counts – I’ve seen worse than this: A home listed as 4 BR, with one bedroom open to the rest of the house (technically ok, since has the potential to be closed off), and one “BR” in the basement with no egress window, and a bathroom accessible only on the second floor through another bedroom.
There is a bit of lake view, looking at the listing site. They have a few similar-height buildings between them and Grant Park, but then a clear line of sight to the lake. The blue-green color outside the dining room is the railing of the balcony.
At least one of the opened bedrooms is easily recoverable — the red room in the last picture has the visible doorway, plus a roughly 6′ wide opening at the far end of the huge room (on the end far from the dining room). I’m not quite sure where the third bedroom is, based on the pictures.
I am a bit troubled by how much they talk about it as 3BR in the listing — I don’t have a problem with them labeling it as “Bedrooms: 3” and explaining in the text the true situation. I am more bothered by them having room sizes for the former bedrooms, however. Even more so if the 3rd BR really doesn’t exist as even 3.5 walls anymore. Based on what I can construct from the pictures, this could be completely honestly advertized as a 2BR (with the second opened to the LR).
Cool space. Can’t fathom the climate control.
A 3,200 square ft 1-bedroom is still a 1-bedroom at the end of the day. Maybe I can make my 500 sq ft studio a 1 or 2 bedroom by putting up partitions.
ya, it’s annoying, BUT, i think the listing agent is just trying to emphasize the size (3200 sft), and, in all likelihood, because of the way mls auto-searches (and, hand-searches, frankly) are run, she is trying to make certain that the unit, which has the easy, easy potential of being converted back to 3bed/2bath, comes up in the right buyers’ searches — in the searches of buyers who are looking in this price point and for this kind of size (because sooooo few agents post sq-footage, agents rarely run searches based on square footage). she is probably wagering that not many people are looking in the south loop for a 1 bedroom (standard of 1000sft and less, off the cuff) for 800k or so.
also, if a buyer puts in an offer and, in the offer/contract states “seller will either (a) grant a credit of $xyz to buyers for partitioning off of walls to re-build 2 extra bedrooms or (b) sellers will, post mortgage contingency and attorney approval periods, and any other contingencies, and per mutual agreement re other details, re-construct the walls to accommodate 2 extra bedrooms” — i bet the sellers would totally agree to it (in some form).
I am curious about how an appraiser would deal with it, though. I presume that an on-site appraisal (as seems to be standard again) would recognize this as a *huge* one BR, so it would be compared to other 1BRs, adding about 2000sqft (or about $500K).
At 3200sqft, this seems like a plausible price, but getting it to appraise high enough may be an issue. I don’t have a good feel for prices right here, however.
Was the original sale as one, combined unit, or did the owner combine after purchasgin two units?
It looks like it was purchased from the developer as one (combined) unit.
The assessor lists separate units E and F on other floors, but there is not a missing PIN at 7E/F. From their website:
17-15-306-036-1007 1020 S Wabash Ave 8A
17-15-306-036-1008 1020 S Wabash Ave 7G
17-15-306-036-1009 1020 S Wabash Ave 7E/F
17-15-306-036-1010 1020 S Wabash Ave 7D
17-15-306-036-1011 1020 S Wabash Ave 7C
For those who don’t read between the lines — if 7E and 7F had been sold separately by the developer, I would have expected the county assessor to have created two property identification numbers for the two units. If the units were later legally combined into one parcel, at least one (if not both) of the original PINs would have been delisted. This would create a “missing” PIN between 7G and 7D.