Should You De-List and Wait Until Spring? A 4-Bedroom in Budlong Woods: 2933 W. Gregory
This 4-bedroom single family home in the Budlong Woods neighborhood of Lincoln Square came on the market in August 2016.
(Yes- I know the picture is bad. I think this is my worst picture taking foray in years! And that says something because you all know how my photography skills are. Ha! Oh well- work with me…)
Built in 1965, it is on a larger than normal Chicago lot measuring 45×125.
The listing says it has been “newly rehabbed.”
It has a “custom kitchen” with granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances and wood cabinets.
The bedroom layout is the preferred choice for most buyers, with all 4 bedrooms on the second floor, which also has the washer/dryer.
It has a full basement, but it’s unclear if it has been finished or not.
The house has 3 full baths and 2 half baths.
It has central air, an attached 1-car garage, and 3 fireplaces.
This house recently sold in June 2016 for just $550,000. It is currently listed at $739,900.
If you don’t want to buy it, you can rent it for $2950 a month.
If you’ve got a property to sell, what are the pros and cons to being listed through the slow holiday season?
Should you de-list and wait until spring?
Peter Kassis at Kassis Realty Group has the listing. See the pictures here.
2933 W. Gregory: 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 half baths, no square footage listed
- Sold in May 2004 for $520,000
- Sold in November 2010 for $455,000
- Sold in June 2016 for $550,000
- Originally listed in August 2016 for $739,999
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $739,900
- Or- you can rent it for $2950 a month
- Taxes of $9871
- Central Air
- 3 fireplaces
- 1 car attached garage
- Bedroom #1: 18×15 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 16×11 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 15×11 (second floor)
- Bedroom #4: 12×11 (second floor)
- Full basement
While I am writing up my response to the question Sabrina is asking could somebody please comment on the photos?
Sabrina: (Yes- I know the picture is bad. I think this is my worst picture taking foray in years!
Realtor who took the listing photos: Hold my beer and watch this
Something seems fishy here. This listing is a joke.
This definitely makes my top 10 “Worst Real Estate Photos” list. The lack of care, attention, and incredible amount of technical mishap — which almost feels intentional in some cases — that was put into these photos is staggering. Just when I think things can’t get any worse I come upon picture 14, and I’m left speechless. I will never understand how realtors can get away with this.
I know people are offended by a lot of things these days, but this offends me. I actually sympathize with the seller. If it didn’t look like a hungover REO agent stumbled through with his iphone, the home would look considerably more high end than it appears to be.
My *hope* is that these photos are “for placement only” – probably taken by the owners themselves and given to the realtor just so they can list it fast until a professional can come in. If not, God help us all.
I’m going to get to Sabrina’s question in a bit but in the meantime this has a very strange listing history. It shows as on the market with the same agent and essentially the same listing at $729,900 from 9/9/2014 – 8/2/2016 at which time it came back with the current listing. Yet the county records show a sale in June as Sabrina indicated above?!?!?!?!? Is it possible that that sale is erroneously recorded?
So the rehab was prior to the last “sale” and no takers on this anywhere near this price in 2 years. Draw your own conclusions.
To answer Sabrina’s question. At this time of year there are obviously fewer buyers in the market but there are also fewer properties on the market so less competition. It turns out that the buyers drop off more than the listings do so the months of supply goes up. So it is harder to sell and price realization tends to be weaker (based upon the seasonal factors used by Case Shiller). In low inventory areas though this may no longer be the case because if inventory goes from a 2 month supply during the summer to a 3 month supply now that’s not really a problem.
There are a lot of other considerations that go into the decision also. How badly does the seller need to sell? What kind of action are you getting on the property, what do the MLS statistics tell you about the interest in the property, what kind of feedback are you getting from showings?
So if you are getting good action with good feedback and the seller needs to sell sooner rather than later you stay on the market. If you are getting no action with terrible feedback you will probably get no better results in the spring and a different conversation needs to happen but taking it off the market for a couple of months could allow you to revisit the whole listing strategy with new data and some time to let the seller rethink their position. If you are getting decent feedback but somewhat low activity and the seller can wait then taking it off the market until spring could make sense.
LOL thanks for the laugh this morning Sabrina! I especially like the part about how bad your pictures are then look at the listing… whoooo wee! Hey at least there’s no poo in the loo
What awful Realtor(tm) photos! Love the amazing use of the iphone for pics. My personal fav is of the deck taken through the screen door! Why use instagram filters when instead you can just use real life filters!
I think that the ’10 ‘seller’ and the ’16 ‘buyer’ are related. This one bears a closer look at the history, for anyone considering it.
You are correct. The 04 buyer had a last name of XXX, which is the same as the 10 seller and the 16 buyer. In fact XXX is both the 04 buyer and the 16 buyer. I also noticed earlier that the 2010 transaction, which was a short sale, was dual agency. Short sale rules expressly prohibit related parties from being on both sides of the transaction. Dual agency is permitted but related buyers and sellers not. But dual agency does facilitate nefarious dealings and I’ve seen weird stuff before that ended up in penalties. Very suspicious.
Money Laundering!
This place is one block west of my house (and, kind of interestingly, abuts alderman O’Connor’s backyard). Unusual to see any decent listings in this subset of Budlong that aren’t listed by Barbara O’Connor herself. Aside from that, something does seem really fishy about it, like Gary said. There’s another place at Gregory and Fransico that’s been on the market for a couple years. Anything over $700k doesn’t move very well but anything under that doesn’t seem to last long. All oversized lots. And no alleys. And attached garages. Weird little pocket but great for families.
Yes, they should relist in the spring. In Spring 2017 the real estate market will be booming and they can easily get an appreciation of 38%.
Americans are in the mood for buying a home.
God ain’t making no land anymore.