Selling 15 Months Later in Buena Park: 840 W. Belle Plaine
Many of you might remember this building at 840-842 W. Belle Plaine in the Buena Park neighborhood of Uptown from last year.
See our February and April 2009 chatter and pictures here and here.
842 W. Belle Plaine was a new construction conversion vintage building that sold out, at the height of the financial crisis mind you, within 90 days. Many of you thought the units showed well and had good vintage details including the crown molding.
This top floor unit has now come back on the market just 15 months later.
The 3-bedroom unit has 10 foot ceilings.
It still has millwork throughout the unit as well as crown molding.
The kitchen has cherry cabinets, stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops.
This unit also has a private 260 square foot roof deck for entertaining.
These sold quickly just a year ago when they were “new.”
And now?
Mario Greco at Prudential Rubloff has the listing. See the pictures and virtual tour here.
Unit #3E: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, no square footage listed
- Sold in May 2009 for $415,000
- Originally listed in July 2010 for $399,000 plus $30,000 for parking
- Currently listed for $399,000 plus $30,000 for parking
- Assessments of $126 a month
- Taxes are “new”
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Bedroom #1: 13×12
- Bedroom #2: 12×11
- Bedroom #3: 12×10
beautiful unit at a reasonable price – someone would be lucky to live here!!
Are condos in Buena Park *really* listing their parking separately? Or is this just about having in effectively listed at $429k, but still showing up in searches for units under $400k?
This owner is toast. The kind of toast not even a superstar Realtor(tm) can help.
@ anon
This ‘hood has a lot of parking lots with parking spaces that are used by individuals within various surrounding the buildings. They are sold and separately deeded in most cases. From the ariel shot on redfin I can’t for sure but the lot might be shared between several buildings.
Although looking at redfin the parking situation is listing in a much more confusing way that I am guessing it really is!!
1 Assigned Space
Off-Street
Side Apron
Underground/Covered
Deeded Sold Separately
On-Site
Attached Garage
1 Car Garage
Automatic Garage Door Opener(s)
Deeded Garage Parking Sold Separately
On-Site Garage
Shared Driveway
Side Driveway
Buena Park = Uptown
Its not the worst part of uptown but its not some “different” hood by any means
Great looking unit and nice space. However, I think you could get something comparable in Andersonville proper which is a nicer hood but not really that much further north than this.
According to the listing this is in “Lakeview.” Yeah it’s only a couple of blocks north of Irving Park, but it clearly ain’t in Lakeview.
I thought MG was above this kind of blatant deception.
Sean from the first post said he bought 3E so perhaps he’d like to chime in on his place?
We saw these places when they were listed and considered an offer on one, so I’m curious to hear from an owner how things have gone.
I think Buena Park is a fine area. This is a great unit but I don’t think much in that area is selling for upwards of $400k.
That’s a beautiful place. Stumbling distance to Nick’s Uptown, which probably isn’t the target bar for the target buyer of this place, but hey that’s a plus to me. Good proximity to public transit.
I’m surprised this area isn’t billed as “Graceland East”.
“This ‘hood has a lot of parking lots with parking spaces that are used by individuals within various surrounding the buildings. They are sold and separately deeded in most cases. ”
Sure, but the excuse/reason given for such pricing shenanigans is that “all the comps are doing it” and you can’t afford to list something that looks to be $30k high, even if the actual price is the same. If most other condos in the ‘hood aren’t listed the same way, that excuse/reason loses a lot of credibility.
To be precise, no 3/2’s have sold in Buena Park for over 400k in the last 12 months (according to Redfin). But, hey, there’s low volume everywhere.
The parking is garage parking in the building.
3/2’s aren’t selling b/c there just aren’t that many in that neighborhood that have the finishes. When you check comps, check the assoc. fees. What’s nice about this building is that since it’s a gut rehab, the fees will stay low for a while and you won’t have to do an ounce of work to the unit or the building.
I had a place up that way that I listed like that where the parking was additional. The parking was deeded separately. If the person buying didn’t want the parking, I would have definitely kept it and either rented or sold on its own. Would have been fairly easy to do considering the concentration of buildings and lack of parking available.
This owner is toast. The kind of toast not even a superstar Realtor(tm) can help.
Well the Chicago real estate market has indeed rebounded spectacularly since early 2009…oh wait that was equities.
Why in the heck did this person buy in early 09 only to sell this year. Looks like they misjudged their situation…big time. One can only wonder how many of today’s buyers will be in similar boats less than two years out.
“someone would be lucky to live here!!”
….until they got shot in gang crossfire
Buena Park is lovely. Almost 100% vintage buildings, close to the lake, easy transit, reasonable number of bars/cafes, etc. Buena Park is also part of Uptown. And has a bit of a gang problem.
As to the property itself: It’s nice, but nothing special. The “cram a kitchen in the middle of a vintage unit” mentality means that the layout is somewhat awkward. That back hallway is wasted space. If the kitchen had been kept at the rear of the unit, you’d have much more usable square footage.
“….until they got shot in gang crossfire”
Look at a map – this home is the same distance from where the heart of the gang violence is (Magnolia and Wilson, in Sheridan Park neighborhood) as the center of Andersonville, and yet no one berates people for considering Andersonville a safe, good neighborhood.
most of the original character is gone & the location is pretty high crime
Wonder why the quick sale…
Look at a map – this home is the same distance from where the heart of the gang violence is (Magnolia and Wilson, in Sheridan Park neighborhood) as the center of Andersonville, and yet no one berates people for considering Andersonville a safe, good neighborhood.
There tends to be a lot of gang activity on Broadway b/t Irving and Montrose. Different gang from the Magnolia/Wilson crew, and not as trigger happy, but a gang nonetheless.
Buena Park is nice. Yes it is a subset of Uptown but the association keeps the neighborhood in good order. Beautiful old SFH and decent condos. The problems don’t start until Montrose and northwards, getting serious around Wilson.
That’s a pretty quick move-in, move-out. I wonder if it’s related to a personal financial situation or a “what the fuck did I buy a 400k condo in Uptown for?!” kinda thing.
Obviously, the sellers are leaving b/c they’ve been robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight, can’t afford the parking situation, really want more vintage detail, are peeved that nobody told them this wasn’t really Lakeview and just can’t handle being the “only” ones who paid north of $400k for a condo not located within “dinner reservation beeper” distance of Kith & Kin. They are distraught so, if you are a “cash” buyer, please bring an offer of 40 cents on the dollar – they are dying to get out – and they’ll likely throw in the parking and their lifetime supply of mace.
“….the sellers are leaving b/c they’ve been robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight, can’t afford the parking situation, really want more vintage detail, are peeved that nobody told them this wasn’t really Lakeview and just can’t handle being the “only” ones who paid north of $400k for a condo not located within “dinner reservation beeper” distance of Kith & Kin. They are distraught so, if you are a “cash” buyer, please bring an offer of 40 cents on the dollar – they are dying to get out – and they’ll likely throw in the parking and their lifetime supply of mace.”
“I thought MG was above this kind of blatant deception.”
Finally, an agent who speaks the truth…from the heart…and who provides us a floorplan. Now if there would be an accurate measurement of the interior space, I would fly in, make an offer and fly home owning this bad boy!
Well, only if MG wrangles G out of CC posting retirement long enough for us to have happy hour at Manhandler or The Hole.
I do respect the seller’s agents that post on this board.
That being said: Is this property in Lakeview? And if it is not, then is it deceptive to put Lakeview in the listing description?
“That being said: Is this property in Lakeview? And if it is not, then is it deceptive to put Lakeview in the listing description?”
I believe we had this discussion the first time I posted about this property but I would have to go back and look at that thread to see what the conclusion was.
Off topic, but…
Is anyone familiar with this property: 747 N Sedgwick St #4RN
Listed as a 1/2 duplex, 1700 sq. ft. and price just dropped to $329,900 — pictures look nice, so what am I missing — this is well under the sq. ft. price for everything else in the area.
EJ that looks like a good deal, i mean you’re pretty close to the cabrini rowhomes (and chicago avenue), and i think the place is a walkup, but that block is really nice IMO go check the place out it has just about everything I would want
I checked the older threads. There was no conclusion. People did say Buena Park and close to Lakeview.
Point being that if the seller’s agent hasn’t changed the listing to not say Lakeview in the description now, then I highly doubt some postings on a blog will cause him/her to change his/her mind.
then again I have not do a street view…maybe he / she means that you can admire the lake view from the windows.
I lived in Buena Park for a few years and sold a condo there three years. It’s very different from what people think of as Uptown, but it is Uptown. Your real estate tax bill says “Lake View” but the neighborhood is not Lakeview.
Anyhow, some of the comments about crime in Buena Park posted here sound like they’re from people who’ve not been round this area recently. The schools are crap though.
The apartment I think is nicely done. I’d live there if I didn’t have kids.
Under contract
sold for $378. If that included the parking the seller took quite hit. If not, still lost more than rent, I’m sure, but not disastrous.
This sold for $375k and included parking. The parking was not separately deeded yet was advertised for an additional $30k. The original buyers all purchased parking for an extra 30k without realizing the parking was a limited common element and now, as they sell, will realize the parking stays with the unit anyway–ouch! ..me thinks there are going to be some upset owners in this building, except the one that got this for 375k with parking…
Actually they all purchased parking for 20k, according to Heitman (come back, Stevo!), although it’s probably more accurate to say they just paid $x for unit including parking. Remember, all these units sold at lightning speeds WELL into the RE crash (no one had any bubble delusions any more). They were priced VERY competitively, far better than the competition in the surrounding area. Even so, this sale makes it apparent that their values have continued to drop precipitously.
If Sabrina were looking for evidence of places that *seemed* like great deals, only to turn into dust later, this might be exhibit A. So, Tim, the current buyer isn’t upset now, but what about in a year or two?
No doubt, there are other (familiar) lessons here: be wary of new construction (as Stevo liked to say) or new rehabs (despite the fact that most seemed to agree this was very nicely done, great finishes, aggressively priced, etc), and clearly if you have to sell a condo a year or two after buying you’re almost certainly going to be in big trouble either way.
But I’m guessing our friend Sean was fairly certain at the time he wouldn’t be selling right away; unfortunately, things happen.
IF the prices listed by Sabrina are right (I didn’t confirm that they are), this place dropped ~10% in 18 months, despite seeming like a “ridiculous” deal at the time (expertly negotiated roof deck, granite, and all–read the previous chatter), an almost universally-praised development (even Bob thought it was fantastic! Laura, too), a superstar realtor, etc. Add in assessments, taxes, commission and other transaction fees, and you’re talking about a major loss, potentially even devastating for a first-time buyer (not likely so for Sean, at least hopefully not).
Caveat emptor indeed.
p.s. I still think these are gorgeous apartments!
Roma:
Thanks for the update on the closing price. So you lose $45k plus (more like $65k-$70k when you add in transfer tax, realtor fees etc.) What’s the big deal, right? You can go and buy another property even cheaper so it all works out in the end, right?
Those are the conclusions some have drawn on this blog. That the losses people are sustaining aren’t that big of a deal.
If you buy now- you’d better expect to stay there a long, long time. Because, yeah, many people thought these were priced right and a pretty good deal when they sold out in mid-2009.
Too bad prices continue to slide.
Since the parking was not deeded, I don’t know why seller/agent would list parking as an additional $30k as if a buyer had the option to purchase parking or not.
Tim, note 2nd thread comment, by anon.
Typical real-TORE response is that everyone else is doing it, so they have to, too.
This issue has been much-chattered in many posts, if you search.
Everyone can also reread the comments by the peanut gallery and superstar agent to see whether the point about >400k places in the neighborhood was borne out or not…:-)
Roma, I was thinking more in terms of how could the listing agent take an offer from a purchaser that opted not to purchase the parking…the listing stated deeded parking 30k…or take an offer that disclosed an additional amount of money for parking that was included with the unit as a limited common element anyway…and think he could get away with this…
Tim, you’re right. Listing sheet had parking as deeded and separate (meaning, not just in the description, where it said parking 30k extra). A quick search seems to suggest Tim is correct that parking is not, in fact, separately deeded here (doesn’t show up in ccrd).
Perhaps MG can explain?
“A quick search seems to suggest Tim is correct that parking is not, in fact, separately deeded here (doesn’t show up in ccrd). ”
It’s just a number, right? 30000 doesn’t really mean anything.