Is This “Handyman’s Special” in Ravenswood a Deal? 4844 N. Ashland
This 4-bedroom victorian single family home at 4844 N. Ashland in Ravenswood just came on the market listed at a condo price.
The listing says it is a “handyman’s special” but it appears to have some good bones.
The four bedrooms are on the second floor and the listing says there is hardwood underneath the carpet (and one of the bedrooms is in a turret.)
The main floor has hardwood floors, which the listing says are sandable. The house also apparently has a “newer roof and gutters” and a full unfinished basement.
Built on an oversized lot, it has a two car garage.
The property is sold “as-is” and needs court approval but the listing says it’s not a short sale. I can’t find any record of the bank owning it either.
Is this a deal for a single family home in this neighborhood?
Joanne Nemerovski at Prudential Rubloff has the listing. See the pictures here.
4844 N. Ashland: 4 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, no square footage listed
- I couldn’t find an original sales price
- Currently listed for $260,000
- Taxes of $6336
- No central air- window units
- Bedroom #1: 10×16
- Bedroom #2: 10×14
- Bedroom #3: 11×9
- Bedroom #4: 9×11
More like “Handyman’s dreamhouse”
Because there is so much work to be done to this place, he’ll never finish!
Other than being on Ashland close to the unredeemed Lawrence intersection, that’s a screaming deal. It *will* have multiple offers at/near ask by next week.
If it were on Paulina, I’d buy it to rent out (or fix and flip), but I hate places on really major streets.
I see places under 400K on various parts of Ashland all the time. Same thing with stuff on Western in North Center/Lincoln Square. With ones priced under 300K in a good ‘hood, I’ve often wondered if it might be worth it to buy and reconfigure/rebuild so that people can’t look into the room that’s on the first floor facing the street…perhaps by putting the living space at the back or doing something else to make the house more backyard-oriented. I just don’t know if anyone would buy it down the road.
That place would be a steal if it wasn’t on Ashland.
“That place would be a steal if it wasn’t on Ashland.”
And the taxes, of course. Need to appeal the taxes.
With the obvious qualification of possible structural issues, I think this is likely a deal even being on Ashland. Ashland is tree-lined and almost pretty on this block. The Ashland bus doesn’t go past Irving Park, and teh Damen bus only comes over to Ashland at Foster, so at least it’s a good deal quieter. As Anon says, the intersection–with the terrible repair shop–is bad, but you’re half a block up from there, and going towards Andersonville (don’t know how many late-night sirens you get at Methodist Hospital).
I’ve been in this house. Last summer it was listed for about $400k. I was told by the agent that the lady who owned the home had lived there for 40 years–the would explain why you can’t find a previous sales price. If memory serves, the lady might have moved into a smaller or assisted-living facility? Someone had mentioned that a sale would need court-approval? My guess is that it’s a probate court; definitely not a bankruptcy court.
Not one but TWO bays! Nicely shaped rooms and a kitchen that’s easy to renovate without changing the layout of the house. No need to move walls around.
The house looks like a steal, barring any major structural problems.
Danny, in a number of past projects I have done exactly what you are wondering about.
I would reconfigure the floorplan so the stairway would run the width of the house rather than the length. Of course I would leave the front facing windows in place and would simply apply one of those easy to install window films that would give the impression that the window was frosted. There are a number of companies that offer a large variety of these window coverings. For this type of project I have found that either a frosted design or a faux shoji rice paper design would give the best effect from outside. The best ones were when I would do a ‘floating’ staircase that would cast a very unique shadow when viewed from the street.
Making this change would accomplish a number of things…it would allow more usable space to the house, privacy from passersby on a busy street while still allowing light to flow through the rooms.
This does seem like a pretty good value. I manage a 3 flat on the 4100 block of Ashland and the traffic noise is not bad. In the room closest to the street I’m sure you would hear some traffic noise, but towards the back of the house not really.
Not seeing the house in person and just looking at the pictures, it doesn’t appear to need an excessive amount of money.
You’re three blocks from the Ravenswood Metra… Taxes would need to get appealed. They do seem high. Maybe a high assessment because of the larger lot…
depends on the amount of work; if you have to put in 100K, then you might want to consider one that has already been renovated.
I went to go see the property after being very excited. Man, it would be a deal for someone who wanted a blank slate by tearing the whole thing down and just buying the land. But the current structure, in my opinion, is too problematic