One Year Later, Lakeview Mansion Still is a Short Sale: 461 W. Melrose
We last chattered about this 7-bedroom Lakeview mansion at 461 W. Melrose in February 2009.
See our prior chatter here.
The house has a vintage exterior but was renovated recently with a more contemporary interior.
There is elevator access to all 5 floors.
Three bedrooms, including the master, are on the third floor and 4 bedrooms are on the second floor.
There also appears to be as many as 6 parking spaces (though one listing says 2 assigned spaces and then says 6 spots.)
Though it was also in a short sale last year, now the listing says “BANK WILL CONSIDER ALL OFFERS ABOVE $1.2 MILLION.”
Is this now a deal given its proximity to the lake?
Steve McEwen at @Properties still has the listing. See the pictures here.
461 W. Melrose: 7 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2 half baths, approximately 5,000 square feet
- Sold in July 2005 for $1.265 million
- Originally listed in June 2008 for $2.499 million
- Reduced and increased numerous times
- Currently listed as a “short sale” for $1.5 million
- Taxes of $16,045
- 6 car parking
- Elevator
- Central Air
Glad to see they changed teh HS from Northside Prep.
What’s the 5th level served by the elevator? The roof deck?
Has anybody looked at this from above? The property & house are shaped like a sliver of pumpkin pie.
E, how do you know it’s pumpkin???
What’s with the UFO ceiling in the living room?
I bid $1,200,000.01
Interesting. I’d look at it, but what’s with the shape?
Six car parking?????????????
anyone wonder why the parking is not being rented out?
“Has anybody looked at this from above? The property & house are shaped like a sliver of pumpkin pie.”
And you have *lovely* 4+1s nextdoor (ie, looming over your roofdeck, blotting out the pm sun) and directly across the street.
Not the nicest block in this area. Or even the nicest part of this (long) block.
“anyone wonder why the parking is not being rented out?”
Because at least three of them are on the front “lawn”?
Ahh the ol’ short sale where the ask price is more than the original sale price.
Sounds like an option-ARM or they HELOC’d it. Its too bad banks in Illinois are too lazy to enforce their rights and pursue debtors like this. If we’re a recourse state the banks should pursue people like this to the fullest extent. In fact laws should be amended to make mortgage debt non-disgorgable, just like student loans. So the banks can garnish their wages after any sort of bankruptcy filing.
And in non-recourse states, if they refuse to change the law to recourse they should have to pay taxes on any amount of debt the bank forgives.
Hong Kong is a recourse country and despite their RE bubbles it doesn’t impact the financial system because they are recourse, will pursue the debtor to the ends of the earth and require low LTVs (under 70%). Over there the rampant speculation from RE speculators doesn’t spill over to the wider economy. Its about time the US wisened up adopted similar protections.
“Sounds like an option-ARM or they HELOC’d it.”
Dude, they overpaid for a crappy 3-flat in a good(ish) locale and spent a bunch on turning it into a weird SFH. Most likely had a construction loan of some sort.
“So the banks can garnish their wages after any sort of bankruptcy filing.”
Not how it works with student loans. That’s a step beyond making mortgages like student loans.
Dude, you know not of what you speak. Student loans is some of the worst debt to have if you default. They follow you for life, there are fees after fees and the interest is compounding. They’re literally destroyed peoples lives. They can garnish your social security or child support for student loans. There are no consumer loans.
There is so much debt out there in society that it will never be repaid. And the economy is unable to improve or grow substanitally on its own until it’s either discharged, written off or paid in full. The only way to heal the economy is to discharge as much debt as we possibly can and then start anew.
“In fact laws should be amended to make mortgage debt non-disgorgable, just like student loans.”
Or maybe the banks should actually underwrite.
“Dude, you know not of what you speak. Student loans is some of the worst debt to have if you default. They follow you for life, there are fees after fees and the interest is compounding. They’re literally destroyed peoples lives. They can garnish your social security or child support for student loans.”
If these penalties can apply to a naive 18-yr old taking on student loan debt I fail to see how its fair that they won’t apply to a grand RE speculator like this person.
You want to make a million dollar gamble with someone else’s money? Well then you’re going to be financially ruined for life.
Its not a high stakes game without high stakes consequences. This way if they really were wealthy people just using the mortgage for a tax shield they wouldn’t have any problems making good on their loan. If they were a debt poseur they should be financially euthanized via the measures I outlined above.
“The only way to heal the economy is to discharge as much debt as we possibly can and then start anew.”
The DAY after you pay off your student loans, you WILL change your tune.
Altho, anyone who borrowed to go to some BS XXX Institute of YYY should get their debt cut in half.
Damn, I really like that kitchen. It’s IKEA-chic for sure, but it’s huge and bright and looks nice.
Bob apparently reads the WSJ (nice article too about HK and property).
^^^
Obviously I read the WSJ on occasion too.
Summary: HK.
– LTV should be 70%.
– No non-recourse loans.
– No or little funny stuff (documentation checks).
– More agressive Central bankers (quick to change property rules to prevent bubbles. eg. raise tax on sales, change LTV ratio
This would be a steal at 1.2!
You know what I find the weirdest thing about the place? The dining room. Quite tiny compared the house size. I’m assuming these people host dinner parties. Where do they sit?
oh yeah the JCC is on this block, prepare for a traffic nightmare every morning and afternoon as melrose is one lane, and packed full of range rovers and BMW suv’s, and god forbid if you get stuck behind a garbage truck on this street… aneurysm inducing!
“You know what I find the weirdest thing about the place?”
Not the parking lot in front and the weird lot shape with the 4+1 looming?
The lot is 35′ wide at the street and about 10′ wide at the back line, 165′ deep. The only way to get a car to the back is thru the +1 under the 4+1 to the west.
“This would be a steal at 1.2!”
Have you been inside, or is that based on the pix?
nb: more pix here: http://tours4.vht.com/Viewer/PhotoGallery.aspx?ListingID=1165990&Style=API “tour” is teh typical, stupid pix to muzak montage.
Nah, they bought the lot knowing what they were getting. I can’t figure why you’d do that gigantic remodel and not have room for a group larger than four to eat dinner.
“Not the parking lot in front and the weird lot shape with the 4+1 looming?”
“not have room for a group larger than four to eat dinner”
No money left to buy a big table? There’s a ton of deadspace b/t the living room and that table–there’s just the small couch in the bay. I expect you could fit an adequate table for 20 in the space.
the old posting has some interesting links including the one of the owner looking at new properties…ie the super delux lakeview penthouse that has been chattered about several times. it’s a small world after-all.
I would expect this to be sold by the time I finish typing this sentence. Great location. Good school. Fab kitchen.
#knm477 on March 2nd, 2010 at 2:54 pm
E, how do you know it’s pumpkin???
Because that’s the only pie I can cut as narrowly as this lot with precision.
With all the money they spent on the renovation, they couldn’t find the money to dig out the basement?? I don’t hate this place, but I think they’re going to have a hard time finding a buyer in this climate, particularly when there are so many other $1-2mil homes languishing on the market. And even if they’re being honest about the sq footage (I don’t think many realtors made it to the part in high school geometry where you learn to calculate the area of irregular objects) I can say from expirience that oddly-shaped rooms are more difficult to furnish and result in a decent amount of dead space.
You know what I find amusing, disturbing and eerily similar about this place?
I know of a small but well regarded block of these EXACT…to the letter exact… buildings in WNY. They were marketed to high end buyers but instead of being SFH, they were floorthru apartments that had been extensively modified from their original mansion lives to create four outstanding units in each building which sold before the renovation process was complete. The top floor terrace was divided into private areas with outdoor kitchens and fab entertainment areas.
Really something to see and the strangest thing is that each of them sold for nearly the same price as this SFH is now listed for. Strange in a RE market in a different location that this design, which is not a normal one is an exact replica of each other.
In all my years of dealing with older, in great condition properties never have I come across this happening.
Very nice place and I hope the new buyer will appreciate the work that went into the end result.
Weirding me out right now!
“Peg Bundy on March 3rd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
With all the money they spent on the renovation, they couldn’t find the money to dig out the basement?? ”
What’s it cost to dig out a basement, anyway?
My basement is short, and I’d love to add two feet to it, but am afraid to even call around for an estimate. Actually, who do you even call for basement excavating and deepening? And then there’s the footings that need to be deepened as well…
“What’s it cost to dig out a basement, anyway?
My basement is short, and I’d love to add two feet to it, but am afraid to even call around for an estimate. Actually, who do you even call for basement excavating and deepening? And then there’s the footings that need to be deepened as well…”
Frame or brick house, ls? If it’s frame, the way to go is to jackup the house and get an entirely new foundation (w/o necessarily raising the house any in the end), bc then you avoid the future problems of an old/new foundation.
If it’s brick, obv. that won’t work. The info I’ve gotten (considering doing this, but haven’t gotten to the point of estimate) is centered around 50-60k, +/-, depending on how much are you’re having excavated, etc.
As to who to do it, I think that a lot of general contractors will do the work, esp. if it’s part of an overall basement job, but I am leaning toward one of the several foundation repair companies–because, really, that’s what the hard part of it is, foundation “repair”–plus drain tile, new slab, and (if you’re going down two feet) new plumbing. Are you thinking about going with ejector pump and overhead drain to (basically) eliminate sewer backflow potential?
“I know of a small but well regarded block of these EXACT…to the letter exact… buildings in WNY.”
What’s extra funny is that this was apartments before being converted. And probably was apartments thru its 1st hundred years.
re: digging out basements
anon, my place is frame, circa 1890’s, and the existing basement is not so far below sidewalk level. It’s kind of weird construction in the basement. Looks like there were originally log posts, which were then replaced with concrete piers. So there’s a solid concrete perimeter wall, about 2 ft. high, then piers that hold up the house. Bottom line is anything over about $30k is way out of my budget, not to mention my resources. It just bugs me to have a basement that no one can use for much of anything. Might as well be on a slab…
“Looks like there were originally log posts, which were then replaced with concrete piers.”
Probably a rubble/rock foundation in there somewhere, too. Like I say, I haven’t gotten estimates yet, but know someone with a frame house who did the lift-and-excavate a few years a ago (as part of an expansion project, so they wouldn’t have a separate number).
When we bought, we looked at several houses w/ sub-6′ basement heights and didn’t like them b/c of the necessity of excavation to use them for much of anything.
Can’t hurt to get one or two of the foundation repair folks out and get an estimate tho–especially with the current state of things, $30k might get it done. I would be concerned about extra expense for the plumbing/possibly high water table–are all of the houses on your block shallow basemented? If so, I would bet that the sewer main is fairly shallow in the street and you might *have* to get an ejector system if you excavated.
The owner has now moved out and is trying to rent the place for $3800/month on Craigslist. The Ikea-ish finishes are already showing major signs of wear. Is the owner just trying to stash some cash before a foreclosure/bankruptcy kicks out an unsuspecting tenant? Is anyone who rents this place at $3800 an idiot for not smelling something fishy in Lakeview?
Check it out here: http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/apa/1829979786.html
or here for posterity:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/34082354/461-W-Melrose-Craigslist
“Is anyone who rents this place at $3800 an idiot for not smelling something fishy in Lakeview?”
The $3,800/mo rental market in Lakeview is infinitesimally small, even given this neighborhood is the second most populated in Chicago (after Austin).