Seamless Indoor/Outdoor Living in Lakeview is Still Available 2 Months Later: 820 W. Wolfram
This 3-bedroom fee simple townhouse at 820 W. Wolfram in Lakeview came on the market in April 2018.
If it looks familiar, that’s because we chattered about it two months ago and in 2014 when it first came on the market after a complete renovation.
You can see the April 2018 chatter here.
The 2014 chatter is here.
If you recall, this 6-unit complex was built in 1979.
This unit is a front, street facing unit, which was remodeled with all modern finishes.
It now has a glass wall that opens to a protected, walled landscaped garden that faces the street.
The kitchen has white modern cabinets with Wolf, Bosch and Subzero appliances and “waterfall” countertops.
There are frosted sliding room doors and walls of marble.
The third bedroom is on the third floor with the other two bedrooms on the second floor.
This floor has walls of solid glass doors that open and close depending on how you want to define the space.
There’s no basement.
The townhouse has central air and a parking space which appears to be an outdoor space.
The listing makes a big deal out of the fact that this townhouse is “fee simple” which means there’s no assessments.
Since April, it has been reduced $20,000 and is back under $800,000 at $795,000.
What will it take to sell this property?
Brad Lippitz at Compass Real Estate still has the listing again. In 2014, he was also the owner. See the pictures here.
Or see it at the Open Houses on Saturday, June 9 from 12- 1:30 PM.
Unit #F: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, no square footage listed (but old listings show these townhouses as 1530 square feet)
- Sold in April 1990 for $360,000
- Sold in November 1993 for $197,000
- Sold in August 2013 for $80,000 (according to public records)
- Renovated
- Originally listed in June 2014 for $799,000
- Sold in August 2014 for $775,000
- Was originally listed in April 2018 at $815,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $795,000
- No assessments because it’s fee simple
- Taxes are now $11,220 (they were $6916 in 2014)
- Central Air
- Parking included
- Washer/dryer in the unit
- Bedroom #1: 17×15 (third floor)
- Bedroom #2: 12×11 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 12×11 (second floor)
- Terrace: 20×15
I can’t figure out the layout of this place.
I remember watching this place get built. I was friends with someone who lived next door and used to play there back in second grade (in 1979). The complex was ugly then and is still ugly. One thing I really dislike about this and many 1970s town homes like it is the lack of a real front entrance. All the entrances tend to be along the sides, on a narrow walkway. It means you always feel like you’re going into the home through its back door.
better sell this place quick before the weather turns again!
The problem with a lot of the Lincoln Park/Lakeview townhouses, which otherwise might seem like a nice concept, is that they were built in the ’70s and ’80s and are ugly. The living room and family room seem boxy and tiny to me, and the kitchen, however fancy the appliances, is small and unimpressive (I also just hate the style, which is likely more my thing).
I’d also love a floorplan, so as to see how the rooms fit together — bedrooms — seem to have 2 upstairs with a bathroom, master on the 3rd floor (it says, but place isn’t really a 3 floor, is it, which is why the main rooms seem to be in a garden apt). Other bedrooms on the second floor, so if they have a bathroom, and a master bathroom, no bathroom downstairs? What are the sliding doors by the family room (which I am calling the room with a couch near the street) for? Lights in the living room seem unpleasant.
I’m perhaps being too negative, and will say that it is something that could be more appealing if seen in person, and if the porch pit (from April) feels truly private and separated from others around you, that could be nice.
Dan #2, it does look like they are trying to make the kitchen/living room focus on the porch area so the back family room is the one on the street, where you’d ordinarily have the entrance, so makes sense you enter on the side. I bet that’s the sliding door area — the entryway.
I was so, so sick of condo living by the time I moved out of my last place (being on the board in a self-managed building will do that, and once you are you can’t get off) that I can see wanting a townhouse instead, but it seems to me that you can get a nicer condo for the price for the most part.
Still curious about how they handle things like tuckpointing.
this place isn’t exciting enough to chat about 3 times.
“built in the ’70s and ’80s and are ugly”
Low ceilings are the biggest issue, imo.
“the back family room”/”What are the sliding doors by the family room”
That’s on the middle floor, and is one of the bedrooms. Sliding door is so it can be a guest room, but open most of the time. The window is directly over the porch pit, and under the MBR window in the ‘mansard’ roof.
The room with the frosted sliding doors that is being used as a family room is the third bedroom — so not really a long term third bed for someone who values privacy and quiet.
Otherwise, I like it but this is a case of the current occupant’s stuff really making the place. Unless you are willing to invest or already own nice, modern and somewhat compact furnishings, you have to be prepared to spend some serious coin on such items.
Also – -just because it is purportedly fee simple does not mean there isn’t an association to handle not only things like tuckpointing, but to prevent someone from thinking they can knock down their unit and build anew as it most certainly shares demising structural walls with the adjacent unit.
I recently learned that townhomes across from New City, which are frequently marketed as “fee simple” are actually on a 99-year ground lease…I think with the CHA. Not an issue for any current or near future buyers, but also not actually fee simple.
During the last discussion of this place I proposed that there might be an association with rules or some kind of other system kind of like a neighborhood HOA in some places to demand that people adhere to certain requirements. Someone who lived in some other fee simple townhouse said that for hers, anyway, they didn’t have any such thing. Doesn’t mean this one does not, but I’d be curious how it works.
Seems pretty nice for a small family looking for first house with some luxory. Big difference between 700 and 800 grand though. 800 you are touching on stand alone house value (you will have to go farther north, but everything is a trade off). 700 with all of those nice finishes and cool porch = sold.