Oriole Park Rehabbed Georgian: 7301 W. Balmoral
We return again to the Northwest side of the city for this 4-bedroom Georgian at 7301 W. Balmoral in Oriole Park which has a two-story addition that includes a master suite.
It’s been reduced $54,100 since December 2008.
Is this house an affordable city starter home?
Daniel Cartalucca at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See all of the pictures here.
7301 W. Balmoral: 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2.5 garage, 2600 square feet
- Sold in August 2001 for $190,000
- Originally listed in December 2008 for $479,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed for $424,900
- Taxes of $2703
- Central Air
- Skylights
It’s a nice, solid family home, medium-large, in good condition, and pretty attractive. But it’s in an out-of-the-way neighborhood, though it is a very nice neighborhood.
Nice job on the bathroom. Not such a nice job in the kitchen- if you’re going to go the expense of new cabinetry, why not get a built-in range? This could have been a wonderful kitchen for just a couple thousand dollars more, and more thought and planning.
a $424k starter home?
Blah. Boring. These finishes look like the ones in every BJB Partners lincoln park apartment building.
Lop off another 50k and it starts to look sellable.
Starter homes aren’t really 425k. Starter homes are in the 200-300 range.
They converted a closet to a shower??
Sonies, starter homes are less than 200-300 range. Start homes are for young families with a stay at home mom who cuts coupons from the newspaper and takes care of the kids. It’s difficult for a single breadwinner taking care of a family to pay for a $300k mortgage… starter home.
Weird facade with the “cyclops” second floor dormered window…
Other than that it’s a nice family home in a nice area. 3 full baths and 3 car garage are pluses. The location might be a little “out of the way” but it has superb transportation access with a short walk to the Harlem blue line stop.
I think it will fetch around $375K. I think this is a bit more than a “starter home.”
MMK,
I usually laugh at the people making comments on this site. Absolutely dynomite refrence to BJB finishes. Spot on. They do great work for rental, and if you’ve seen one you’ve seen ’em all. This kitchen looks like my first rental in Lincoln Park, at BJBs bldg on Sedgwick.
Everyone else, keep bickering about what price a “starter home” really is. I’m sure after a couple back-and-forths with name calling and criticizing professions, you’ll figure it out.
Aaron.. thanks for your presence… I now feel illuminated like the Buddha under the bodhi tree.
No worries Ze – although since I am involved in the brokerage side of real estate as a means of putting food on my table, the world religion refrence goes WAY over my head…
So AaronERG I take it the laughing Buddha and Lakshmi figurines have not been working so well lately. Perhaps adding some more garlands will do the trick?
Sorry this is not a 425k house. Sorry the commissions won’t be coming un until the sellers recognize that their house is worth less than zillow says. Can’t blame Buddha or Lakshmi for stubbornness or denial now can we?
Laugh at that 🙂
AaronERG,
Thanks for getting my reference! The bathrooms here are a little nicer than you’d find in an apartment, but at this price, I at least want a double sink in my master bath.
Schools in Oriole Park look pretty good ( 2008 – ranked 22 out of 50 in Top Elementary School in Illinois).
This is a very good area to live in if you want to live in the city and still have good public neighborhood schools to send your kid to. The high schools in the general area, Platt and Stienmetz, are top ranked.
Also, you can let your kids walk and ride their bicycles around here. You can give them a lot of freedom, along with city amenities such as old fashioned diner-type restaurants that you can buy a burger at for $3, lots of places to do shopping for household necessities, and people who know each other well. I visit friends in this fine area in summer and love the sight of all the little girls flying up and down the streets and alleys on their Huffy bikes, while neighbors look on. This area feels like good city neighborhoods used to when I was a kid growing up in one just like it, in another city that no longer has areas like this.
The downside is that it is very DULL and un-trendy, and has no lures for young, single people. You feel very “out of it” being single there. It is miles from really interesting shopping. It has no trendy restaurants or clubs. But those are things that middle-income people with 3 kids have no need of anyway.
There was a hollywood movie about how Steinmetz fudges test scores and encourages their kids to cheat. I don’t think that school can ever get out from under the reputational cloud that was cast around it from the movie Cheaters (which was based on a true story of several students at Steinmetz).
Maybe Platt but I’d never send my kids to Steinmetz. Not until they change the name of that school at least.
Bit o trivia: Hugh Hefner is a graduate of Steinmetz High School.
Laura, this place is a stone’s throw from Edison Park! have you ever been to the bars there? EPI? Moretti’s? There are a couple of nice restaurants and bars.
Thanks for posting on this area Sabrina.
I’ve actually toured this home during an open house and grew up not too far from here. The location is great: very close to Oriole Park school, the Park, blue line, metra, and I-90. Very quiet, but there’s things to do as someone mentioned in Edison Park and Norwood Park. Area is very safe too. A lot of police officers and firemen as neighbors. 🙂
This particular house is pretty bad though, despite the appealing size. It just looks like a very poor rehab job – hard to tell from pictures, but clear upon close inspection The kitchen cabinets upon are crooked and look partially new (?). The first floor bathroom had uneven tile work. The window sill paint was peeling. The finished basement had bad tile work and smelled of flooding. There is a fireplace in one of the bedrooms — a little random for me. The backyard is all deck – very little grass.
You can find a much better deal in the area for $300K to $399K. Or at least in my humble opinion.
A basement that floods is a deal-killer for most buyers. You can knock $75K off the price just for THAT! It is the worst thing in the world to have to live with, and you almost can’t get rid of it. Tip-offs include a sump pump, or fresh new epoxy paint all over the basement to conceal the water lines.
If the upgrades are that bad, another $25K. Some people won’t get it through their heads that buyers not only won’t pay for shoddy upgrades, but might want to deduct the cost of correcting them.
This place really isn’t that bad.
homedelete sounds a bit resentful. Judging by some of your snide remarks, i’m pegging you as either a shitty realtor with lackluster performance and a great deal of time your hands or some passive aggressive hack trying to be the next Ouzounian. Perhaps you and Bob here should consider a career change. Both of you, your midwestern passive aggressive humor had me cracking up for a hot second. . . oh, wait. I’m stoned. YOU’RE NOT FUNNY!
HEHE Sagganuts!! I feel the same way about the negative remarks here. Can’t we all just get along? As much as I love the knowledge I am gaining about the Chicago real estate market, this forum would be so much more informative without the negative and uncalled for comments.
Regarding shitty realtors, I have recently come across a few dozen myself…. but then we have to realize without their over inflated commissions (resulting in bad attitudes) there has to be a place for them to blow off some steam.
Seriously though, can we all dispense with the mindless chow chow and try to keep the chatter to relevent information which will assist us in finding a great place to buy? At present, I am living on a month to month basis with a patient condo owner while I pound the pavement looking for my first Chicago unit and frankly, all I want to know are the basics – the back and forths between brokers/realtors during their pissing contests do me no good in my search.
If you don’t like what I have to say then don’t read my posts. And fo f’ yourself! hahahahah!
“sagganuts on February 19th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
This place really isn’t that bad.
homedelete sounds a bit resentful. Judging by some of your snide remarks, i’m pegging you as either a shitty realtor with lackluster performance and a great deal of time your hands or some passive aggressive hack trying to be the next Ouzounian. Perhaps you and Bob here should consider a career change. Both of you, your midwestern passive aggressive humor had me cracking up for a hot second. . . oh, wait. I’m stoned. YOU’RE NOT FUNNY!
“
Sagga,
I dunno about HD, but I am very resentful that idiots that overpaid for real estate brought our economy to its knees. Now our government is trying to equalize outcomes and make those who made bad financial mistakes not live with the consequences of their actions. Resentful? Absolutely!
He saggannuts, I’m not a realtor nor do i know wtf Ouzounian is. I’m sorry you’re an FB; don’t blame me: I RENT.
…..”and FO f yourself?” LOL you seriously need to reel it in with the anger!!
Anyway, Bob although your reply was not addressed to me, shouldn’t you place your disdain at the economic/housing crisis not on “the idiots who overpaid” but rather on greedy ‘flippers’ who took reasonably priced properties, with no regard to what they were buying, who then attempted to rip off people who were serious about buying and LIVING in these units?
After those greedy ‘flippers’ (who are now in bankruptcy since very few can get a mortgage, or even pay the rent on their overpriced units) the blame should be placed on the banks/brokers/agents who persuaded the would be buyers that indeed it was possible for them to buy the moon AND the sun on their limited resources only for the sake of making a commision?
As hard as it is to make this comment, I am beyond happy that so many ‘investors’ and banks have been brought back down to reality and have lost all of their ill gotten assets. And the fact that many of those unscrupulous banks are gone….well, priceless!
I am not, however happy that the greed of a few asshats have afffected…no ruined the entire country’s economy to the extent it has.
I hope after a few years (and billions of our tax dollars) this practice of buying low and selling, well outrageously, is a dirty, disgusting thing of the past.
How many Chicago basements DIDN’T flood in last September’s record rains? It was my understanding that many basements that had never had water before got wet in that “100 year” event.
The go f’ yourself comment to sagganuts is just my style you know – no real anger. Too much Sopranos influence.
“How many Chicago basements DIDN’T flood in last September’s record rains? It was my understanding that many basements that had never had water before got wet in that “100 year” event.”
The September rain didn’t flood my northside, less-than-a-mile-to-the-river basement (not even a drop), which *had* flooded the previous July, when they failed to open the valve to the deep tunnel fast enough.
HEHEHE HD…understood!
Regarding flooded basements….electric sump pumps in addition to a top quality, water pressure powered back up sump pump is a requirement for any block constructed basement home. In addition a rubber based sealing system installed around the perimeter of your exterior guarantees no water logged basement.
Speaking from experience here as in my NY house it stayed dry when everyother home in the area was totally flooded due to a freak ice/snow storm followed by a record 6 or 7 day period of record tempature highs.
It takes more than sump pumps to prevent basement flooding in Chicago due to the interconnection of storm and sanitary sewers in most older neighborhoods. In a heavy rain stormwater can back up into the house through the sanitary sewer line. Standpipes can help but to positively prevent this you need a check valve on the sewer line and a collection system for house waste generated while the checkvalve is closed.
westloopelo,
Good points. However our government is not spending taxpayer dollars to bail out the flippers. The latest bill only helps homedebtors.
The flippers are going to pay a heavy price and not consume my taxpayer dollars in learning their mistakes.
“In a heavy rain stormwater can back up into the house through the sanitary sewer line.”
Yeah, westloopelo, you’re talking about an entirely different problem which is less common in Chicago–though not what I would call rare. Which is the more common issue is a ‘hood-by’hood issue. This is an are I would expect is more the stormwater back-up issue, but I’m not sure. The infiltration/out-right flooding issue is mostly (generally) along the Edens and the North Branch west of the North Shore Channel (someone correct me if I’m off on that).
And, notwithstanding the “100-year storm” designation that JPS rightly ascribed to the storm, it’s not less than 3 times in 8 years that it’s rained that much and had (about) that much street backup, at least on my block. How bad the flooding is depends more on the precise location of the heaviest rain and the existing saturation level of the ground/floodstage of the river before the rain. September was really bad b/c the rivers (Chicago and Des Plaines) were already pretty high, the ground was pretty water-logged and the heaviest spots were also the most vulnerable to flooding.
And the worst part is….when this happens the water that infiltrates is mixed with raw sewage…it’s not nice clean rainwater.
“the water that infiltrates is mixed with raw sewage”
How much is also a ‘hood-by’hood issue. All depends on the condition, and normal drainage, of your local sewer line. We (and all our neighbors) got a little black scum** but none of the really nasty stuff.
**Yes, I know that’s raw sewage, too. But it isn’t the same, and you know it, too.
I grew up in Edison Park, not too far from Oriole, and the big issue there was/is stormwater backing up through sanitary sewers. We always put standpipes in the basement floor drains but sometimes the sheer force of the stormwater backup left us with a wet basement anyway. We didn’t have the checkvalve system in the sewer line.
Thanks everyone for the explanation of the flooding issues…I didn’t realize it was such a problem for some neighborhoods. The thought of raw sewage in a basement….eeewwww!!
westloopelo, did you used to post here as forrealestate? If not, you have a doppelganger. Your posts are virtually identical in style, grammar, etc.
FYI- This area does not seem to have the sewage problems that others do. This is the third home in the Oriole Park Neighborhood that I have had for sale in the last 3 years. None of them had sewage issues. The neighborhood does have a high water table, so you do tend to get seepage into basements, from yards and driveways.(that is clean/ground water that comes in from the foundation footing or cracks in the wall) I think because this area is so high in comparison to the surrounding areas (Norridge, Dunning) that the water flows down hill.
This home did have recurring basement water when I listed it in December. I was able to convince the relocation company to install perimeter ground water drain tile in the basement and crawl space.($6500!)
I have not seen any water since it was installed in January. There is now drain tile and a sump pump. The feedback from people who have seen the home is they like the size, could use more yard. 4th bedroom on the main floor seems odd, has a fireplace and is off the kitchen. I personally would open the wall between the kitchen and this 4th bedroom and make a huge open kitchen/family room combo. And I would maybe turn the first floor full bath into a half bath and make a nice laundry setup right off the kitchen, where the claw foot tub is. But the claw foot tub would also be pretty great for kids to play in while parents are in the kitchen cooking or working at the planning desk.
If someone wanted more yard, they could take the deck apart and make a very small, abreviated step/patio, and open up a lot of grass. The addition(which essentially is another whole georgian) takes up a lot of the yard, but the deck eats much of what is left.
Google the listing and email me if you need any more info. The other homes sold, one was on Olcott, backing right up to the park, and one was on Oleander, at the south end of the park. This one seems to have a lot of showings, maybe we are still a little too high in price.