“Potential to be a huge money maker” in East Lincoln Park: 427 W. Grant Place
This 3-bedroom duplex up at The Portals at 427 W. Grant Place in East Lincoln Park came on the market in September 2014.
We’ve chattered about various Portal units over the last 7 years.
The complex was built in the 1970s and has about 50 3-bedroom duplex units. They have outdoor parking, washer/dryers in the units and central air.
According to the listing, this unit is also located in the Lincoln Elementary boundaries.
All three bedrooms are on the upper floors along with two full bathrooms.
There are also hardwood floors throughout the unit, including in the bedrooms.
The kitchen has maple cabinets, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances.
The listing says it has the “potential to be a huge money maker with a bit of vision.”
In 2010 and 2011, we chattered about some of these units but they were selling for under $400,000.
This unit came on the market in September 2014 at $499,900 and has reduced to $485,000.
Are The Portals still a deal?
Santiago Valdez at Re/Max Signature has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #D: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1670 square feet
- Sold in April 1988 for $71,000
- Sold in April 1991 for $185,000
- Sold in September 1995 for ? (county records say $571,000- but assuming it’s a typo)
- Sold in December 1998 for $267,000
- Sold in May 2003 for $380,000
- Sold in July 2011 for $342,000 (but also for $380,000- so I’m not sure which)
- Sold in July 2013 for $450,000
- Originally listed in September 2014 for $499,900
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $485,000
- Assessments of $342 a month (includes cable, water)
- Taxes of $5909
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Outdoor parking included
- Bedroom #1: 17×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 14×11 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 11×9 (second floor)
““potential to be a huge money maker with a bit of vision.””
Is the vision holding it as a rental, or buying up the whole complex?
“potential to be a huge money maker with a bit of vision.”
Either a huge money maker for a seller and a seller’s real estate agent, or something with the 80s skater brand? Clearly not a “huge” money maker for a buyer at this price, just a place to live or rent out for a reasonable return. What would the rent be here? Maybe $3400?
I’d be surprised if the 2013 buyer can even get the purchase price net of commissions back.
“I’d be surprised if the 2013 buyer can even get the purchase price net of commissions back.”
Yeah, looking tough to pull $479, at this point. And with transfer taxes and other closing costs, not happening.
“Maybe $3400?”
Which makes it a “huge” (in % terms, with leverage) money maker at about the 2011 price.
obtw, why’d they reverse the first pic?
“Either a huge money maker for a seller and a seller’s real estate agent, or something with the 80s skater brand?”
If there were a gator deck included, it would be a killer deal.
Eventually, this whole complex will be bought out and torn down to build townhomes or SFH. Not sure how long that will take to happen, but this just isn’t going to last in this neighborhood for that much longer especially considering how the price of land is increasing in the immediate area.
“this just isn’t going to last in this neighborhood for that much longer especially considering how the price of land is increasing”
It’s 13 standard lots. Seems like lots are going for ~$1.5 per, when in good locations. Maybe a bit of a premium for the size, but not much unless it’s re-zoned.
50 units, probably need to average at least $500k per (I’d think a fair amount higher, really) to get everyone on board, so seems that land prices are probably still have about 25% more to go.
It felt awfully witty in the moment, but in hindsight my “vision” comment above was in very poor taste.
There are a whole lot of shitty townhouses in the Lincoln Elementary School district that you can’t help but think they’d be more valuable if they were torn down and turned into 6000 sq ft SFHs, but people like me keep buying them and investing in them because for some of us they provide the right tradeoffs on price, location, sq ft, etc. So, they never seem to get torn down.
FWIW, I think this unit looks better than many based entirely on the listing / pictures. That said, this may be a fair price but I don’t think it’s a steal. I haven’t seen it in person (and I’m not terribly familiar with this complex), but the layout looks fairly constrained in a very typical TH way- LR on the first floor; kitchen and DR on the 2nd floor; 3 br / 2 ba on the 3rd floor. For the right family that could work, and with some investment, you could make it quite modern and attractive. But you probably don’t get much of that investment back in a place like this given all the other options for 3br places. Without another bedroom up, more sq ft, or something else that differentiates the place- like the TH complexes with play grounds in them, there’s always something else out there that is basically just as good.
This whole area will have more and more teardowns. The price of land is rising, its just a matter of time before these townhome complexes are bought out and taken down. The megamillionaires and billionaires will fully take over this part of LP.
This was just lowered to $469,000.