Selling the 3-Bedroom Rehabbed Loft Less Than 2 Years Later: 3900 N. Claremont in North Center
This 3-bedroom duplex in the St. Ben’s Loft at 3900 N. Claremont in North Center is back on the market just 21 months after it last sold.
It has been rehabbed, however, and now has a newer kitchen with what looks like a new kitchen island with a wine fridge, new granite counter tops and tile backsplash and possibly new appliances. The cabinets are either new (or painted)- you tell me.
The master bathroom has also been rehabbed with marble tile and a soaking tub.
It has 20 foot high ceilings in the living room.
The loft has timber ceilings and several walls of exposed brick.
Two of the bedrooms are on the main floor with the master bedroom on the second floor along with a den.
It has central air, washer/dryer in the unit and there’s parking available for $25,000 extra.
It is also in the coveted Bell school district.
During the boom, it was a given that if you updated the kitchen and baths you almost always got your money back in the resale.
Will the rehab matter in the sale price of this unit?
Leigh Marcus at @Properties has the listing. See the pictures here.
You can also see the video here.
Unit #103: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1800 square feet, duplex
- Sold in November 2006 for $455,000
- Sold in June 2010 for $385,000
- Currently listed for $395,000 (plus $25,000 for parking)
- Assessments of $383 a month
- Taxes of $7146
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Bedroom #1: 14×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 15×13 (main floor)
- Bedroom #3: 15×13 (main floor)
“Two of the bedrooms are on the main floor with the master bedroom on the second floor along with a den.”
Serious question for those with children..how important is it to have their bedroom on the same level as the parents? Do advances in baby monitors help mitigate this need?
“Serious question for those with children..how important is it to have their bedroom on the same level as the parents? Do advances in baby monitors help mitigate this need?”
No children yet, but buying my new condo with this in mind. In my opinion, very important. I don’t want to have to climb up and down stairs all day long with the baby in hand. And, the monitors are only effective when the parents are awake.
“And, the monitors are only effective when the parents are awake.”
haha. You expect to sleep thru screaming baby?
“I don’t want to have to climb up and down stairs all day long with the baby in hand.”
Do you expect to be going up to your bedroom a lot during the day? Here, the main living space is on the same floor as the kids’ bedrooms would be–seems okay for daytime purposes. And certainly better (imo) for day to day living than those layouts that have master on main floor and 2d +3d on another floor.
Couple other observations:
1. That’s not a video; it’s a slideshow. Just because you upload a slideshow to Youtube doesn’t mean you have a video.
2. What’s with that purple bedroom? It appears windowless??
3. Cabinets at different levels? Just looks cluttered in there. I prefer clean lines.
4. The bathroom reminds me of a sports bar with TVs that are angled down at the viewer. Awkward for a bathroom.
“haha. You expect to sleep thru screaming baby?”
That’s my point. When the baby is screaming, you’re going to get out of bed. What purpose does the monitor serve? The monitor can provide a heads up when you’re awake… but after that, the baby is going to force you out of bed.
Ah… overlooked the master being upstairs. Better layout this way.
I still don’t understand the appeal of this neighborhood, let alone living in a glorified apartment building. You may as well go a bit further north and get a single family home as you’re already in a no-man’s land.
“Serious question for those with children..how important is it to have their bedroom on the same level as the parents?”
I think more of an issue at toddler and young kid age, who may or may have some anxiety about being far away. So may parents. Babies you can stick anywhere. What are they going to do?
“That’s not a video; it’s a slideshow. Just because you upload a slideshow to Youtube doesn’t mean you have a video.”
Yes! I’m also annoyed by virtual tours that you can’t change from auto slide show, almost always with k burns effects, when all I want is to look at the photos.
I wouldn’t want to put a kid in a ground floor bedroom, with me in the upstairs bedroom. I worry too much and I don’t like the idea that I might not be able to hear someone opening the downstairs window and taking the kid. I watch the news too much I suppose.
“What purpose does the monitor serve?”
Really?
the issue with having kids on the same floor isn’t going up and down the stairs with the kid, it’s the distance you have to travel in the middle of the night when the baby starts crying. Even toddlers can wake up multiple times during the night, if they’re teething or sick, and it’s rather to unpleasant at 3:30 a.m. to walk up and down stairs to a different part of the house multiple times on a weeknight. Just walk to the next room over, give them the bottle or pick them up, and go back to bed. The other issue for older kids is that they sneak out in the middle of the night if they’re room is in the basement or whatnot. It happens, I know.
“I still don’t understand the appeal of this neighborhood, let alone living in a glorified apartment building.”
Those who live in University Village shouldn’t cast stones.
““What purpose does the monitor serve?”
Really?”
In context… what purpose does it serve at 2am? You’re not watching it, you’re sleeping. If the baby starts crying, you’re getting your butt out of bed and going to the baby’s room. And, let’s not forget, humans procreated and lived long lives for many, many years without baby monitors.
btw, you can pretty much see the whole place if you walk/drive by on Byron at night and the blinds are open.
You don’t need a baby monitor in the middle of the night YOu will hear a baby crying in the middle of the night no matter where the baby is.
“In context… what purpose does it serve at 2am? You’re not watching it”
Oh, *video* monitor. Why would I want a stupid *video* monitor? Never even considered that option. Seems useless, any time of day, unless you have a kid with a specific (dunno what) issue that you want to watch.
I was thinking *strictly* audio–which is useful at 2 am, unless you have paper thin walls. I can sleep thru screaming from another room done without audio amplification.
“YOu will hear a baby crying in the middle of the night no matter where the baby is.”
If you live in a basement studio in uptown.
You’ll be able to sleep thru the second baby, HD, in your palatial Riverwoods digs.
“What purpose does the monitor serve?”
My understanding from the two parent’s i’ve talked to about it is that at certain points in your offspring’s development, the monitor lets you distingush between “junior is just being grumpy” and “OMG the room is on fire”.
Of course a techie like me will have the place wired so that we can watch the kid from any TV, post videos to FB and Youtube and if there isn’t “an app for that” for the smartphone, there will be soon enough.
when is the last time the news reported something like that?
“I wouldn’t want to put a kid in a ground floor bedroom, with me in the upstairs bedroom. I worry too much and I don’t like the idea that I might not be able to hear someone opening the downstairs window and taking the kid. I watch the news too much I suppose.”
“when is the last time the news reported something like that?”
I think HD just read about something like that happening on his OIPmail.
“when is the last time the news reported something like that?”
Elizabeth Smart, certainly, so less than 10 years ago.
Never forget, jenny’s told us she’s never having kids, so it’s rather academic. (tho, of course, she’s free to change her mind)
“Those who live in University Village shouldn’t cast stones.”
I live in UV because the commute to my job takes almost no time. There would be a considerable commute downtown from this neighborhood. Why not live further north and get a single family home? I certainly wouldn’t live in UV if commute time didn’t matter to me.
“I still don’t understand the appeal of this neighborhood, let alone living in a glorified apartment building. You may as well go a bit further north and get a single family home as you’re already in a no-man’s land.”
I agree.
“when is the last time the news reported something like that?”
There was that father in a suburb who was charged with his daughter’s murder a few years back, but it turned out a creep opened the window and took the kid out of the house. No one could believe the father didn’t hear anything.
“Of course a techie like me will have the place wired so that we can watch the kid from any TV, post videos to FB and Youtube and if there isn’t “an app for that” for the smartphone, there will be soon enough.”
The apps already exist so you can monitor junior from your phone, ipad etc….
I miss the days where everyone had intercoms in their homes. I remember randomly buzzing my parents in the middle of the night with the intercom and thinking the intercom technology was awesome.
“There would be a considerable commute downtown from this neighborhood.”
What’s your definition of considerable? It’s less than a 10-minute walk to the Irving Park stop and about a 20-minute ride downtown. Rather typical of most northside commutes.
“There would be a considerable commute downtown from this neighborhood.”
This particular property is on the western edge of north center which is a bit far from the El. So it isn’t exactly the poster child property for north center commuting. That said, Irving Park to Madison on the Brown Line clocks in at around 25 minutes. Factor in 7 minutes of walking on either end and you have less than a 40 minute commute.
The only suburbanites that can beat that commute are those lucky enough to live and work very near the metra. I have a friend that lives within 10 minutes of the metra in Evanston with a VERY short ride downtown. But factor in 15 minutes of walking from the metra station to her office in the central loop and the advantage of the quick ride falls away and her commute ends up over 45 minutes.
Not to mention North Center is close to quality restaurants and bars in both LV/LP and Lincoln Square with taxis and El convenient to downtown. If you really see no benefit to NC over the suburbs, you are ignoring some glaring differences. Not even close.
“It’s less than a 10-minute walk to the Irving Park stop and about a 20-minute ride downtown.”
That’s a little optimistic.
jenny drives to River North someplace. So it’d be a ~20 minute drive from here (barring rain or snow)–maybe double what she has now.
On monitors: whether they are necessary at night is highly dependent on the parent. We have a lot of white noise at night and the sound of our kid crying a few rooms down is pretty faint from our bedroom. I sleep through it about half of the time but my wife is instantly up.
Or maybe I’m just a terrible parent…
“If you really see no benefit to NC over the suburbs”
I think Jenny meant Peterson Park or similar city ‘hoods, wher one could buy a nice *house* for the same $400k. No one really brought up the ‘burbs.
and, btw, curse you for making me do that.
My commute is about 20 minutes door to door. 40 minutes would be way too much for me. Yes. I did mean Peterson Park/Sauganash/etc and not the burbs. Although, that area doesn’t have nice restaurants with walking distance.
Jenny – you drive? That sort of changes the calculus. I was using waling/public transportation as a metric. You can easily get downtown in 20 minutes from this spot.
As riveting as the baby monitor discussion is, I don’t really care for this place. Don’t see it going for more than $340,000. That master bed is tiny and the kitchen is ugly.
“No one really brought up the ‘burbs. and, btw, curse you for making me do that.”
Ah…you are correct. Apologies for stirring the burb/city pot.
OMG!!!
so yesterday was the 2 bathrooms in the 1 bedroom and today’s issue is having to walk up and down stairs. tomorrow will be an issue of the entry door being in the middle or off-center?
please oh please make it stop, i really want to have faith in the human race but the de-evolution is getting borderline ridiculous now.
oh and BTW,
no matter how low your baby monitor is set and how tired you are you still will hear them, so will your neighbors.
babies you can put any where and they will stay, its the age between 15 months and 28 that they are dangerous explorers, and even then the worry is not when they are sleeping its the toddler drunk walk before the go to sleep when the do dangerous things which even a bad parent will be around to stop.
and cant you get a house for 400k just across western, and wouldn’t that be better for a family with kids than this?
Re monitors:
Research has shown mother (especially breastfeeding ones) are very sensitive to a baby’s cry and instantly wake up (assuming reasonable distance and noise levels). This is not the case for fathers. Apparently if the mothers try cry it out or share the nighttime feeding and tending to the child with the father, their sensitivity reduces over time. Therefore, it is more important to have the audio if the dad is getting up at night to tend to the baby.
Besides the above reason, our nanny uses the monitor when the baby naps and she is eating food at kitchen as she might not hear the baby otherwise. Note that during the day the ambient noise is higher than the night time.
In our case, I did really get a monitor until the baby was 4 month old and the reason I got it was to check that the nanny puts the baby in the crib instead of holding him while he napped as our baby had gotten used to napping on us. So in this special case video was useful.
@ Groove, are you PMSing darling? You are too sensitive these days? ; )
The neighbor that has his 2/2 under contract in less than a month. Is the extra bedroom really (along with the 41% higher assessments and 61% higher taxes) really worth $95k ? And since the parking is an extra $25k, this place is really $420k.
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3900-N-Claremont-Ave-60618/unit-102/home/12795077
“@ Groove, are you PMSing darling? You are too sensitive these days? ; )”
nope just losing faith in the human race thats all.
“Besides the above reason, our nanny uses the monitor when the baby naps and she is eating food at kitchen as she might not hear the baby otherwise”
yep rich white people problems
groove do you get dressed up in spandex when you ride the cruiser bike?
“groove do you get dressed up in spandex when you ride the cruiser bike?”
gotta be as aero as you can be at all times, i even shave the legs for rides on the cruiser.
hardcore, nice.
“hardcore, nice.”
i keep it real, even on the cruiser you will catch me eating some GU to take it to the next level.
funny you bring it up as the wife and i were going to ride to dinner tonight on the cruisers but, rain is in the forecast so we are taking the mountain bikes to race home before the heavy stuff falls.
haha GU! delish
what happened to the fixie?
“what happened to the fixie?”
sold it on craigslist, it was fun to build but useless to use for me. learned how not to set a headset.
“What’s your definition of considerable? It’s less than a 10-minute walk to the Irving Park stop.”
That’s about a half mile assuming a casual walking pace. I’m thinking that a 5 minute/quarter mile distance from my front door to the bus/train stop is the max I’d ever want. I could see walking 10 or 15 minutes to a Metra stop from a SFH in Evanst/S Shore, but not so much in the city, and certainly not from anything other than a SFH in the city.
“I’m thinking that a 5 minute/quarter mile distance from my front door to the bus/train stop is the max I’d ever want.”
And how far from the el would you want to be (in terms of noise etc.)?
“And how far from the el would you want to be (in terms of noise etc.)?”
he did say quarter mile. Unless it’s possible to have a quarter mile walk to the El yet live more than a quarter mile from it.
you could have qtr mile walk and be right on el.
Hey DZ, do you have any opinion on the Congress Theatre vs neighborhood quarrel ?
Maybe Clio is right… the market is getting hotter… just received this..
“Please cross your fingers. I should have the offer on your place today.
I will advise shortly.”
???
“I’m thinking that a 5 minute/quarter mile distance from my front door to the bus/train stop is the max I’d ever want.”
dooode your commenting on access to trains has been revoked when you stated that of your 4-5 rides on a train have you clueless of available stations.
also take train access off your unicorn criteria, and subsequent lists or standard statments/arguments
“do you have any opinion on the Congress Theatre vs neighborhood quarrel ?”
Nothing v informed. I’ve read the news and run into a couple of parents who live closer to there who have concerns. Even if the theater were doing what it could reasonably be expected to do, I still wouldn’t want to live close to it or any similar establishment, but I don’t have a view beyond that. The indoor farmers market is nice.
I’m generally a little wary (perhaps overly so) of the area starting at the theater and between milwaukee/western. I think it’s a lot better but there used to be a lot of activity on some of those streets (shakespeare, charleston) and congress pizzeria over there.
“dooode your commenting on access to trains has been revoked when you stated that of your 4-5 rides on a train have you clueless of available stations.”
Excellent. Another person commenting about commutes who drives in the city. Yeah!
Funny that we’ve talked so much about the bedroom situation and not about the “historical” value of this building and why it may be appealing to a certain “niche” market. This is one of several buildings throughout Chicagoland that once upon a time were affiliated with the local movie industry. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a good idea to have very small children living here (because among other things they wouldn’t know much about movie history) but try getting in touch with your inner “Artist” and imagine your little “Uggi” scampering up and down those stairs…
“dooode your commenting on access to trains has been revoked when you stated that of your 4-5 rides on a train have you clueless of available stations.”
True, I should have said “…5 minute/quarter mile distance from my front door to the bus stop.”
“True, I should have said “…5 minute/quarter mile distance from my front door to the bus stop.””
i am only giving you a hard time because you are the biggest whiner next to DZ about walkability/commute to a train stop.
I drive everywhere in the city and love it (only bike or walk to oak park) yet i am the one saying you dont need a car in RN, LV or LP
“i am only giving you a hard time because you are the biggest whiner next to DZ about walkability/commute to a train stop.”
Shhhhhh. I was trying to deflect onto anonny. Seriously, I’m much more reasonable, I’d readily put up with 0.4 to the el (0.25-0.3 is ideal), and probably up to 0.5 if the walk was reasonably nice, even to non-blue line.
So, DZ, your target area in Logan Square is fairly small, isn’t it? Fullerton to Diversey/Kennedy and Kedzie to Western? And I’m assuming you’d want to be at least 1-2 blocks away from the Kennedy. So maybe 1/2 square mile altogether, right?
“Shhhhhh. I was trying to deflect onto anonny. Seriously, I’m much more reasonable, I’d readily put up with 0.4 to the el (0.25-0.3 is ideal), and probably up to 0.5 if the walk was reasonably nice, even to non-blue line.”
its all in good fun 🙂 but yes a .75 mile walk with a nice route is greater than a .25 walk only on western/ashland
same can be said i would rather ride the brown line for 30 minutes and walk for 15 min than take the red for 15 and walk 5
but again i dont work in the loop so trains are irrelevant to me.
“So, DZ, your target area in Logan Square is fairly small, isn’t it? Fullerton to Diversey/Kennedy and Kedzie to Western? And I’m assuming you’d want to be at least 1-2 blocks away from the Kennedy. So maybe 1/2 square mile altogether, right?”
Yeah, if I were to stay in Logan, that’s more or less right. Prob more like 3 blocks from Kennedy. Prob want to be above milwaukee. Not sure it’s an absolute statement but don’t like the section n of logan and e of california, partly b/c kennedy but they also don’t seem that nice. Don’t want to be on major street (except blvd). I’d best stop before inviting further comparisons to anonny.
“Yeah, if I were to stay in Logan, that’s more or less right.”
DZ, are you going to let them in on your plans to move to Columbia for the $30 hookers?
DZ, Did you see the laughable price on the place at Fairfield and Altgeld? Don’t care how nicely they restored it, the people are delusional.
What thread have you put your criteria in? If you want a teardown, I’ll sell you my place! 🙂
“for the $30 hookers”
I think they’ll all calling themselves escorts and charging $800 now.
“Did you see the laughable price on the place at Fairfield and Altgeld? Don’t care how nicely they restored it, the people are delusional.
What thread have you put your criteria in? If you want a teardown, I’ll sell you my place!”
Yeah, I was talking with a couple people about it over the weekend. Even though these folks are rooting for high prices in the neighborhood, they thought the list was kinda nuts. I think (not positive) the sellers may have done a good bit of the work themselves, so I’d also check on how well it was done. I don’t think I’ve ever put out my full criteria for fear of mockery. Do you have a double lot? That’d be awesome.
Lost ability to sleep soundly upon parenthood. You wake up and hear the baby crying; you don’t need a monitor unless you’re way far away (outside?) and sleep quality deteriorates because of new-parent hyper-alertness. You need bedrooms on one floor once the kiddie can climb out of crib and wander at night to your room (avoid stairs!); you can’t lock kiddies in their rooms. Once they’re middle-schoolers and older, you want to hear them go to bed and sleep, and to make sure they’re not wandering around or even leaving house after you retire to your room. To heck with parental privacy.
Regarding this unit, I’d be concerned about sound transmission between floors too.
I know a family of four who live in a similar unit in the same building. Their loft is very nice. Kids are school age and they wanted to be in Bell.
I saw the place the last time it was for sale two years ago – some high end improvements have been made – it was laughable before…10 foot curved walls obstructing the entire the cheapo kitchen , plastic shower liners in the bathrooms, etc.
dz, no double lot, but the very old lady across the street has one… Oh, wait, that was kinda wicked, wasn’t it? She’s a sweet old lady, and I’ll be sad when she’s gone, because she is our Neighborhood Watch. But her house will definitely be a teardown when she’s gone. We do have some very good realtors working that really know this area, if you need someone. I don’t know if Sabrina would frown on my shilling for a friend or not.
I guess they took some more pictures…looks great to me.
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3900-N-Claremont-Ave-60618/unit-103G8/home/12794165