Pre-Foreclosure Duplex on the Market Over 2 Years: 1330 N. LaSalle in the Gold Coast
This 3-bedroom duplex at 1330 N. LaSalle in the Gold Coast has been on the market since October 2007.
It has now been reduced by $110,099 and the listing says it is in pre-foreclosure.
The unit isn’t small at 1900 square feet. All three bedrooms are generously sized and on the second floor.
The kitchen has been renovated with maple cabinets and granite counter tops.
There is central air, washer/dryer in the unit and a garage parking space.
The pictures show a large first floor walled in private patio adjacent to the living/dining area.
The listing does indicate, however, that there is a special assessment.
Is this a deal at this price?
Donald Marcus at Century 21 MB Real Estate has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #106: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1 car garage, 1900 square feet
- Sold in February 1992 for $215,000
- Sold in July 1998 for $253,000
- Sold in May 2000 for $340,000
- Lis pendens in February 2009
- Originally listed in October 2007 for $489,999
- Reduced numerous times
- Currently listed as a “pre-foreclosure” for $379,900
- Assessment of $393 a month
- Taxes of $5791
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Bedroom #1: 16×14
- Bedroom #2: 17×11
- Bedroom #3: 15×10
Interesting. Low assessments, sub $400K 3BR, in-unit W/D, good outdoor space, and Gold Coast location. I wonder how much the special assessment is. Overall not a bad place but something’s gotta be lurking that the RE agent conveniently left off….
this place has been for sale for 820 days. the special assessment must be astronomical.
This place looks great, for the price.
Nice place, although what does the description mean by “RESERVES $80,000” ?
1. Yuk.
2. Something’s going on. The owner stopped paying the mortgage AND the assessments. Everybody knows you don’t stop paying assessments or else you’ll get evicted.
3. The owner has lots of equity in the place. Weird, there’s some sort of back story on this.
4. Well, I just found the answer. Turns out the owners bought a new place up in the west RP in October 2008 with a 3.5% down FHA loan. They’ve were hoping to sell this place, use the significant equity and then use that as a down payment on the new place. Except they did every thing out of order. Those children NEED a yard, you know, it’s child abuse if the kids don’t have a yard.
5. I’d be dollars to doughnuts that they were going broke trying to pay for two mortgages and the special assessment was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. They got impatient and bought a house before selling the one they already have, and it’s costing them literally hundreds of thousands in equity. The pictures are old, I doubt they even live there anymore.
Where’s First Timer?? Where are you? See this story? This is a cautionary real estate tale of an impatient buyer. They were impatient and bought a new home before selling their other home. They had trouble selling the first home (this home) and stopped paying the mortgage and special assessments. Now they’ve got lawsuits and foreclosures, and, they’re in the process of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity. They have only a $150k mortgage on this place, but they have a 96.5% mortgage on their second home in the RP. This property is going into the toilet and the special assessment is scaring buyers away. The moral of this story is patience. Sell your first home before buying a second home. If you think there are real estate deals today, there will be even better real estate deals tomorrow.
What is the assessment? Sameone must know.
ouch… foreclosure with a $150k mortgage? Not selling for two years? My uninformed guess is the special assessment is a MONSTER and keeping buyers from wanting to deal with it.
I wonder if this is just a strategic default where the owners are just saying F’it. They got their new place, probably aren’t going anywhere anytime soon and tired of dealing with the albatross around their neck with this unit. I have seen a couple of situations now where condo owners are seriously considering going into default due to crappy development/special assessments just so they can move on.
One cannot stress how important it is to really assess the health of the HOA. I know I will probably never ever own another condo. The one thing I learned when owning a condo is that communism does not work.
Anon, reserves means the HOA has $80k in the bank.
If it were a strategic default they have terrible strategy because the homeowner’s assoc has a lawsuit, judgment for $8k, order of possession and citation to discover assets pending against the homeowner. Your supposed to always pay the assessments. Always.
@Russ Thanks!
“ouch… foreclosure with a $150k mortgage?”
Well, there is a $150k mortgage on it. But that is a 2d mortgage. It (apparently) refi’d the ’04 2d of $82k.
There is also a 1st for $341k. So, I don’t so much think they are walking away from any equity–looks like the ’07 list assumed bringing a few bucks to closing–and the special made a really bad situation horrible.
ps: The $341k mortgage has one of the names wrong in the index, but is recorded against the PIN.
Good deal if you can somehow get the bank or sellers to deal with the special assessment, what’s with the two beds in the master bedroom? lol
“what’s with the two beds in the master bedroom?”
Orthodox Jews, I’d speculate.
I looked into this property last year . . . the special assessment is $10K. The pictures are very old – the current condition of the property has surely scared a lot of people off. The hardwood floors on the main level are totally hacked and the carpets upstairs are trash – all the floors would need to be replaced before moving in. Also, the trees in the courtyard block out all the light in two of the bedrooms and the dining room/kitchen and there’s nothing that can be done about that. The interior square footage is more like 1550 – I believe 1900 includes the outdoor space.
All that said, I would live here. 3 brs all upstairs, 2.5 baths, outdoor space, indoor parking space included, 1 block off Wells. I think this is a very good deal in the mid-300s.
My understanding is that this property went to auction on Jan 21 and is now an REO, to be relisted on the market in a couple weeks by a new agent.
Even if the special assessment is $50,000, this price isn’t that out of line. There could be something wrong with this condo association though, which could be the bigger issue.
Ha! I’ve seen this place- they are orthodox Jews. AND, this place is gross.. lots of space, but you have to walk in through this courtyard that looks more like a prison yard, and the place is just dark and sort of sad looking…there is no room that you walk in and think- ‘nice’ or even ‘potential.’
Does this face LaSalle or the alley – Oh, never mind, I see SV in the background. To those of you who visited; did it get a lot of traffic noise? This building isn’t one of Booth Hansen’s better efforts.
I didn’t notice traffic noise to be especially bad, but traffic noise has never bothered me. I agree that this isn’t a great building . . . it feels motel-like from inside the courtyard.
So Orthodox Jews can’t sleep in the same bed? I had no idea!
Meh, I can’t really knock it though since they probably sleep a lot better than I do 8)
I’ve been watching this place on Ziprealty. Talk about chasing the market down.
Price Reduced: 01/07/08 — $524,900 to $509,000
Price Reduced: 01/23/08 — $509,000 to $499,999
Price Reduced: 04/11/08 — $499,999 to $494,999
Price Reduced: 04/24/08 — $494,999 to $489,999
Price Reduced: 06/19/08 — $489,999 to $479,900
Price Reduced: 06/27/08 — $479,900 to $474,900
Price Reduced: 08/15/08 — $474,900 to $464,900
Price Reduced: 10/05/08 — $464,900 to $419,900
Price Increased: 02/17/09 — $419,900 to $449,900
Price Reduced: 04/23/09 — $449,900 to $439,900
Price Reduced: 05/08/09 — $439,900 to $429,900
Price Reduced: 05/21/09 — $429,900 to $409,900
Price Reduced: 06/02/09 — $409,900 to $399,995
Price Reduced: 06/17/09 — $399,995 to $394,900
Price Increased: 09/01/09 — $394,900 to $394,900
Price Reduced: 10/29/09 — $394,900 to $389,900
Price Reduced: 11/14/09 — $389,900 to $384,900
Price Reduced: 01/05/10 — $384,900 to $379,900
It is in Gold Coast, but not in Ogden school district. It might have been a good choice for someone whose kids are already in Latin or some other private school.
“So Orthodox Jews can’t sleep in the same bed? I had no idea!”
They can’t *touch* for some period of each month(ish), iykwim. Because women have cooties, or something like that.
I had friends that lived in this complex. They sold about 2.5 years back. Yes, the complex does have a kinda dreery feeling to it. But the outdoor space is really nice and there are some pretty upgraded units. Obviously this is not one of those, but I think this is still a good deal for the price. Location is great.
Electric heat, $$$
“Electric heat, $$$”
Is it really cause my gas bill keeps going up 🙁 and electric has been the same for me.
i always wonder why nobody does electric heat anymore?
“my gas bill keeps going up”
Nuhn uh. Make sure your neighbors aren’t stealing–my bill is down 20%+ from last year even in months when I use more. And last year was less than the prior.
“Nuhn uh.”
oops, just realized i didnt factor in a pregnant wife and new kid.
i think i can remember setting the thermostat at 68 and using a blanket. (i miss those days)
now the thing is set at 74. i say let the kid toughen up we will do 70, and i lose that battle/argument in like a minute
“i think i can remember setting the thermostat at 68 and using a blanket. (i miss those days)
now the thing is set at 74. i say let the kid toughen up we will do 70, and i lose that battle/argument in like a minute”
Sounds like you need more insulation.
For some reason electric heat seems much drier than GFA,
“Sounds like you need more insulation.”
sounds more like the wife likes our son only to wear t-shirts in the house during the winter. come on seriously put a sweater on the kid and turn down the heat!
mix that with a old frame house and radiators that heat rooms we are not using=more $$$ out of grooves pocket.
“Groove77 on January 28th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
oops, just realized i didnt factor in a pregnant wife and new kid.”
I didn’t catch that your wife is pregnant earlier than this – congrats!
On the surface, this price sounded decent; but upon reading the comments here, I can see why this home would languish.
We put an offer in on this place on October 2008 for $350K with the intent to go up to $380K with 20% down. It was listed as a pending short sale at the time. The realtor was ticked off that we offered such a low amount and didn’t make any counteroffer. The place has a lot of potential. The street wasn’t loud and the outdoor space was nice. There was a huge garage space with ample storage. The floors needed to be sanded and refinished but that wouldn’t have been much of a problem. I’m glad the deal fell through because at the time I didn’t realize the place was outside the Ogden School District and I wound up buying the big unit at 1221 North Dearborn.
“For some reason electric heat seems much drier than GFA,”
It is. I have EH & its only really bothersome to me during the first arctic blast. But then again I don’t have allergies.
Humidifiers can do the trick but in these days of H1N1 I’d recommend air washers instead. And they’re pricey at $300-$400 per 700sf of living space. I always decide I’m going to get an air washer during the first arctic spell every winter then I procrastinate and then am not as bothered as much.
“I didn’t catch that your wife is pregnant earlier than this – congrats!”
no she is not (yet), i was referring to last year when she was pregnant need to keep the heat up and this year with the kid keeping the heat up.
but there has been talks of another soon 🙂 first we need to decided if we will stay or move and if we move to a pricey home then we will wait a while to squirt out another one (she hates when i say squirt out).
The thing is, there have been offers on this place. I made an offer on it over a year ago even *given* the special assessments, and they claimed to have another bidder as well. The offer was made with earnest money, with pre-approval, *at* what the sellers were asking, which was then $419k.
Either the sellers or the bank holding the mortgage are kidding themselves.
made_an_offer, lucky for you they were stupid enough to turn down your offer and save you from being the new underwater homedebtor.
made_an_offer, wow, fascinating. Do you know whether it was the bank or the owners who turned you down?
It’s a screwed up world where most of the foreclosures in the pipeline are being held off the market while they fester, mold, host crack parties, etc., and in the meantime good offers are being turned away in favor of vain attempts to chase the market down…
Anyone here remember the club “White Star”? Well that building has been abandoned for quite a while now and I think a pipe burst in the place over the winter because when we had that thaw last week there was water flowing out the garage door… Can we please raise that dump and put a nice useful thing there 🙂
“Anyone here remember the club “White Star”?”
yep it was like a Asian sanctuary or something and never like the Dj’s they had. (but that was in the early 2000’s)
is the place for sale or just sitting abandoned?
Well, I am the third person on this thread who put an offer in on this place – I made the offer about 6 months ago. It really felt like the seller’s agent was doing everything possible to kill the deal. After a very unpleasant negotiation, the seller accepted the offer at $380K – countersigned and all. Two months later, I *thought* we were still waiting for the bank(s) to accept/reject. Turns out the offer was never even submitted. They then submitted it, but the offer package was not complete because it didn’t include the seller’s tax returns. That’s when I bailed!
Abandoned as far as I can tell, great location don’t know why they haven’t demolished it though
Amazing, the shadow inventory is so huge yet impatient buyers continue to place multiple bids in on places that are, in one posters description, “(has a)courtyard that looks more like a prison yard, and the place is just dark and sort of sad looking…there is no room that you walk in and think- ‘nice’ or even ‘potential.’”
What in the world makes someone look at this and say “$380k sign me UP!!”
Patience my grasshopper, the shadow inventory is huge, and it doesn’t matter if the properties trickle out slowly or if the dam breaks and floods the market, the ‘deals’ will only continue to get better and better.
“#chi_dad on January 29th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Well, I am the third person on this thread who put an offer in on this place – I made the offer about 6 months ago. It really felt like the seller’s agent was doing everything possible to kill the deal. After a very unpleasant negotiation, the seller accepted the offer at $380K – countersigned and all. Two months later, I *thought* we were still waiting for the bank(s) to accept/reject. Turns out the offer was never even submitted. They then submitted it, but the offer package was not complete because it didn’t include the seller’s tax returns. That’s when I bailed!
“
This means there are many employed people that need a place to own who like a place, but find a bad seller, to boot may have saved themselves from a nightmare because the seller/agent whoever is greedy or stupid.
I’ve been watching this place for a while now. The fact remains it is sizable unit and aggressively priced for GC. Yeah, having a 6 lane highway (LaSalle) in your backyard sucks and the common area isn’t ideal but a GC location at that price is worth keeping an eye on. However, after reading the offers and nonesense that has gone on with this unit I can say I am very pleased I didn’t waste my time with it. The former agent was a completely worthless…and that was enough for me.
“Groove77 on January 28th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
no she is not (yet), i was referring to last year…
but there has been talks of another soon 🙂 first we need to decided if we will stay or move and if we move to a pricey home then we will wait a while to squirt out another one (she hates when i say squirt out)”
Ah, I misunderstood. Good luck! (And she’s right! God kicks a puppy when people refer to birth as “squirting out” a kid ;))
“And she’s right! God kicks a puppy when people refer to birth as “squirting out” a kid”
good stuff i will be using that phrase now 🙂
Back on the market for $349,900.
This owner is an idiot. They’re finally capitulating on price so close to the tax credit expiring that buyers likely can’t take advantage of it.
Redfin still shows this unit as off market, chi_dad.
They must have just pulled it from the MLS. I saw it yesterday and again this morning.
Here we go:
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1330-N-La-Salle-Dr-60610/unit-106/home/12961114