One Year Later and Trying to Sell (again): 143 W. Burton in Old Town
We’ve chattered about this art deco building at 143 W. Burton in Old Town (or is that River North???) several times in the past year.
See our March 2008 chatter and pictures here.
See also our July 2008 chatter and pictures talking about the same units here.
Unit #3S, an 800-square foot 1/1 finally sold in September 2008.
Here’s its history:
Unit #3S: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 800 square feet, penthouse unit with skylight
- Sold in June 2004 for $233,000
- Was listed in March 2008 at $249,900 plus 29k for parking
- Reduced
- Was listed in July 2008 for $230,000 plus $29k for parking
- Closed in September 2008 for $226,500 (I don’t know if that included the parking)
- Assessments of $210 a month
- Taxes of $3,406
- No central air
Unit #2S never sold. It vanished from the market but has now come back on at nearly the same price as it was listed for last summer. And now there’s no parking – but rental parking is available.
Will it have better luck in 2009?
Berg Properties still has the listing. See the most recent pictures here.
Here’s its history again:
Unit #2S: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 800 square feet
- Sold in November 2001 for $194,500
- Sold in August 2002 for $214,000
- Was listed in March 2008 at $260,000 (included the parking)
- Increased!
- Was listed in July 2008 for $265,000 (parking is $20k extra)
- Withdrawn
- Currently listed for $269,900 (rental parking available)
- Assessment of $210 a month (special is paid)
- Taxes of $3,039
- No Central Air
This place isn’t selling because the owners haven’t staged it to sell. Get rid of those weird built-in cabinets in the bedroom, paint the walls light beige, put up a few paintings and get some curtains. Oh and drop that price a little. $269 is a bit high for an outdated unit, especially in this market.
Agree with Lauren. This is actually cool space in a great location but the interior needs an overhaul. You can’t sell something purely on hope and possibility…its a Chicago condo not a Chicago presidential candidate 😉
This will sell below the 2002 selling price.
The way equities look… timing nicely to the Spring not buying season. Oh is this going to get fugly fast…
Discount broker.. I love it!!!!
People not loving giving 5-6% when they are underwater. 5-6% is one big chunk of change. Monopolistic NAR bastards!
Lauren: it is worse than a bit high because not only are they priced high, they are RAISING the price. IMO they are either delusional or are just not trying to sell.
Hmmm, 3S sold for $226K back in September and the market has gotten worse since then — so let’s go for $270K!
Like you said — they are either completely clueless or not really interested in selling.
JPS,
Or they are not in a hurry to sell and have given themselves some room to come down to the price they really want?!
Ze,
Totally agreed. One thing I haven’t seen discussed enough on this site is what will happen to brokerage commissions once housing prices stabilize but yearly price appreciation fails to materialize (as I anticipate will happen). By and large white collar workers want to own but their jobs require them to be mobile… Something has to give and I think it’s the transaction cost of brokerage.
This is a property which is going to need to find somebody who wants a unique art deco place and to live simply. It’s just really not for most people.
“Or they are not in a hurry to sell and have given themselves some room to come down to the price they really want?!”
A year ago, they wanted $240k for it. Now they are asking $270k for it–so I suppose they still want to get $240k for it, but that’s (to be nice) optimistic in a time of prevailing pessimism.
Raising your ask to 20% over the selling price of a superior unit is dumb in any market, let alone today’s market.
Even if they find a greater fool willing to put this under contract, it will not close unless the borrower is willing to make up the short fall because there is no way the unit will appraise at the contract price.
No way any appraiser is going to be able justify that price when a higher floor unit sold at a higher price barely five months ago. Any underwriter is going to want a damn good explanation why 3s sold for $226k in September and 2s is all of a sudden worth $44k more on a lower floor. 3s WILL be a comparable property in the appraisal report as required by most lender’s these days since you have to have a comp from the building.
Edumakated,
You clearly forgot about one segment. The cash buyer. The owner of this unit is surely going to snag a cash buyer at or near their ask. Think wealthy baby boomers looking for an in town unit or foreign oil sheiks, etc.
Yeah, lots of wealthy cash buyers are looking for 800 sq. ft 1/1’s. That’s a huge market there.
JPS,
Sorry I should’ve put the /sarcasm tag at the bottom of my post. 🙂
Bob:
Stupid ole me! I clearly didn’t see that the cash buyer was the target market of this place.
I really just want to see the smirk on the appraisers place when the loan officer calls with the order and says the contract price is $269k. What will be even more hilarious is to hear the shit fit from the Realtor when the LO calls and says the place won’t appraise for the contract price. I really want to hear their excuse as to why it is listed at that price and how the appraiser doesn’t know what they are doing.
The ONLY way this unit could be justified at this price is if the 3s unit sold under duress such as a foreclosure or estate sale which would be noted in the appraisal. All the other comps from neighboring buildings better be solidly above 270k though.
Bob — I got it 🙂