The 1890 Rowhouse Under $10,000: 3939 W. Erie in West Garfield Park
If you’re a first time home buyer, you could buy this 3-bedroom 1890 vintage rowhouse at 3939 W. Erie in West Garfield Park, get an $8,000 tax credit and buy it for almost nothing.
Is the bank giving this property away?
Yes- it needs work. And yes, it’s small. It has no parking or central air.
Ayoub Rabah at Great Street Properties has the listing. See the pictures here.
3939 W. Erie: 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, no square footage listed
- Sold in July 1995 for $5,699
- Bank-owned in May 1997
- Sold in January 1998 for $60,000
- Sold in February 2001 for $55,000
- Sold in October 2006 for $96,000
- Bank-owned December 2008
- Originally listed in January 2009 for $29,900
- Reduced several times
- Currently listed for $9,900
- Taxes of $2,045
- No central air
- No parking
- Bedroom #1: 12×12
- Bedroom #2: 11×10
- Bedroom #3: 10×10
The work the rowhouse needs is nothing compared to the work the surrounding neighborhood needs.
Still, this is a deal for someone, maybe a landlord, because if you make it habitable and reasonably attractive, you could probably rent it out for $400 in those parts. Maybe $500.
I take it the pink house next to it is a distressed sale also. How is this area?
Really bad area. I would buy it and section 8 it.
If you were to rehab it and make it habitable it would probably rent on the open market for $700 or $800; if it were section 8 it would probably be $800 or $900, maybe $1000. It’s a 3 bedroom house which means that a single mother with up to four kids could live here (2 kids per bedroom in bunks). But I wouldn’t advise anyone to rent it in any way other than Section 8. How are you going to collect rent if your tenant is late? you want to show up in that neighborhood and knock on the door?
The area is fine…as long as you have an AK-47.
How easy/hard is it to become a section 8 tenant? From what I hear the inspections are extremely strict. If the tenants wreck the place does Hud (or whoever handles section 8) reimburse the landlord for repairs?
Who reimburses the landlord for repairs? Hahahhaha! according to CHAC (The housing agency responsible for SEction 8 in Chicago) the tenants can do no wrong. I have a client who inherited a unit; decided to rent it out section 8. While moving in the tenant decides to drag her exercise equipment up the stairs and causes $5,000 damages to the stairwell and staircase. Do you think CHAC paid for that? Tenant also installed her own unauthorized dishwasher which frequently overflowed into the basement. Landlord tried to complain to tenant; Tenant called CHAC and complained, CHAC sent out an inspector who found water leaking and flooding. CHAC abated section 8 payments until the water damage and leaking issue was repaired! Landlord says BUT SHE CAUSED THE FLOODING! CHAC said it doesn’t matter, you need to resolve these issues before we’ll send your check.
“If the tenants wreck the place does Hud (or whoever handles section 8) reimburse the landlord for repairs?”
wait you mean making money off poor people is harder than you thought?! man that sucks.
Garfield park is one of the worst areas in the entire city. Do NOT under any circumstances even drive through this area of town. Especially on a hot summer day (long story).
I accidentally drove through this area a few years ago (stupid google maps) and I got pulled over within minutes. The copper was like “What the hell are you doing here?” I said “I’m just trying to get to Oak Park”
The copper thought we were trying to buy drugs!
Sonies,
I actually think it would be better for society if liberal whites were forced to drive through parts like this on hot summer days. It would be an eye opening experience for them about the effects of their political persuasions and that the world isn’t exactly like Bill Maher would like them to believe.
“I actually think it would be better for society if liberal whites were forced to drive through parts like this on hot summer days. It would be an eye opening experience for them about the effects of their political persuasions and that the world isn’t exactly like Bill Maher would like them to believe.”
Lol that would be hilarious and awesome! Yeah, but seriously, stay away from this neighborhood. I’d rather drive through the heart of Englewood than this part of town… seriously!
If you’re an aspiring landlord and comfortable with the neighborhood, this could be your start.
As for the neighborhood, I wouldn’t be concerned to drive through this neighborhood. I’m lilly white and used to drive and even bicycle through the neighborhood often.
If you look like a victim, then you’ll probably become one.
Brad- how is renting to section 8 tenants profiting off the poor when welfare housing is funded by our tax dollars? Not to sound like a greedy republican, but I think it’s more the poor profiting off the working middle class. I don’t see anything wrong with someone trying to earn some of their tax dollars back.
YOU FIRST!
“#ME on April 6th, 2009 at 8:59 am
If you’re an aspiring landlord and comfortable with the neighborhood, this could be your start.
As for the neighborhood, I wouldn’t be concerned to drive through this neighborhood. I’m lilly white and used to drive and even bicycle through the neighborhood often.
If you look like a victim, then you’ll probably become one.”
ME- About six months ago a landlord went into the ghetto to collect rent and ask his tenants to stop selling drugs in the building. The tenants babys daddy set that poor landlord on fire and he died from the burns. Are you sure you want to hop on your bike and go collect rent from those kind of people??
ME sounds like a hipster. And Brad sounds like he’s never had to drive through this area or areas like these. Its all society keepin’ em down ain’t it Bradley? LOL!
Bob:
Please drop it.
lauren:
Where did that happen? I searched for it, but can’t find it anywhere. Do tell.
anon(tfo), or shall I call you JoeZ (your writing style is similar to his), no.
This site features real estate. And this featured piece of real estate happens to be in the ghetto. A very seedy, dangerous part of town. There is a reason it is listed for 10k and the bank is giving it away. There is also a reason why there are homes in Detroit listed for similar amounts.
A new aspiring landlord may think they are getting a ‘deal’ via buying this place for 10k, but I think it is incumbent on all of us familiar with areas like these and the poeple that reside there to provide examples of our experiences in areas like these and to inform any potential investor what might be in store for them.
You do not dictate content or control this board so give it up.
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/aug/24/local/chi-burned-landlord_25aug25
Eventhough it didn’t happen in this ghetto we are chattering about, I still think it’s unrealistic to think that you can hop on your scooter and go collect rent from these kind of people
I think the sectin 8 rent might be more like 1400 per month. I haven’t rented any units to section 8 tenants in a long time, so i may be out of touch here, but i was stunned how much the gov’t will pay for rent.
“You do not dictate content or control this board so give it up.”
I don’t think I do, Bob, but I was asking nicely. And I was talking about the insulting other posters who disagree with you, but I guess you enjoy it too much. Fine, whatever.
Lauren: Thanks!
I don’t presume to think this neighborhood is safe by any means, but I never said I was on my bike out collecting rent. That’s an asinine presumption on your end. My bike riding consisted of riding through mainly on major and secondary streets generally on Saturday/Sundays mornings on my way to downtown Chicago from Oak Park.
As for driving, if you’re scared to drive through a neighborhood such as this, you’re a complete wuss (not that there is anything wrong with that). 2 tons of steel with 150 hp is no match for a person on foot? Or if the bad guy/girl has a car, you should know where to encounter/not encounter these types.
If a person is looking to rent this property, then I presume they have been to the location and are implicitly willing to risk the location versus the income. Many here are being way too presumptuous regarding people they surely know nothing about.
And Bob – whatever your definition of hispter is, I probably am not.
Wow, that article is incredibly sad. No good deed…
I was riding my motorcycle late one night last Spring, and decided to go West along Chicago Ave. as far as I could go. I’m a big guy (6’4″, 230 lbs), riding a freaking loud-ass, old mean motorcycle, with a full-face helmet, armored gloves/jacket/pants/boots etc., all decked out, and was almost jumped in this neighborhood. I was at a stoplight and some guys started yelling at me and making moves to try and knock me off the bike. I ran the red light and got the HELL out of that area.
Never again will I go into or through this neighborhood. Ever ever ever.
What will probably happen is a local familiar with the community will buy it and lease to people in the community. I’d imagine it would be incredibly hard to be a non-resident/local landlord in situations like this but not nearly as hard as someone living here with experience renting these sort of properties.
Also remember if you are in cahoots with your alderman you wouldn’t have CHAC putting you on the defensive it would probably work the other way around.
A long, long time ago, I was one of the police personnel responsible for this neighborhood. As many here have deduced, it is very close to being the worst of the worst areas in the city.
One slight dispute though. They don’t kill white people in that neighborhood, or at least not unless you run over a 4 year old with your car. Whites go there to buy drugs, in my day largely north of Chicago Avenueand south of the Eisenhower xpressway along the parallel streets. But in a sense, the drug dealing was everywhere for miles. One giant open air drug market, with internal gang violence and domestic violence every second of every day.
They don’t kill whites because whites are such a good part of the market there. They don’t want to scare their customers away.
In the later part of the 90s there was a night of revelry where a rather large group of local youths set upon white people in cars going home from a bulls game. It was playoffs or something like that, and there was a bit of a traffic jam. The youths set upon the whites and robbed them.
Within 2 or 3 days, quite a few of the youths turned up in local emergency rooms with gunshot wounds to the legs.
There was hope for awhile that the eastern end of the neighborhood, around Kedzie was turning around. My guess is that it will over time, but it ain’t close to being a “safe” area yet. Pulaski and Erie ain’t even within sprinting distance of anything “safe”.
I drive Oak Park to downtown via Chicago, Division, or Augusta regularly, and don’t find the ride to be frightening, but follow the sage advice of “windows closed, alert, non-agressive driver”. I’ve never had to run a red-light, but I do watch out for teens who like to walk into street (“playing chicken?”)seemingly into car traffic.
Re: Section 8. You are able to screen and be selective about tenants if you personally occupy your 6-flat or smaller multi-family investment building. If you don’t occupy building, you can be cited for “discrimination” if a prospective tenant so desires to file a complaint, so you need to quantify your tenant requirements. Many landlords use a credit check requirement to qualify tenants, making tenant pay charge, as a screening tool. Most Section 8 tenants won’t have a good credit record, and you should expect your Section 8 tenants to be delinquent in rent payments, whether late payment or no payment at all. Section 8 pays rent per sliding scale, and tenant pays 25% (as I recall) of tenant’s income as tenant’s contribution to rent. In practice, generally a Section 8 landlord receives the government payment but not the tenant payment, and is subject to tenant complaints which can jeopardize the gov payment as well. Section 8 buildings therefore are often troubled buildings.
Don’t think that alderperson has much influence regarding Section 8 administration. If you participate in Section 8, you need to understand that it’s a tenant-focussed program which sly landlords “game” and responsible landlords tend to avoid.
Just to steer conversation back too the unit for a second… take a look at the bathroom picture… can anyone read what the note says? “Please don’t take a dump here,” or something similar?
There’s about 10 lines of handwritten note there… someone actually spend 10 minutes writing that… stupid stuff like that always piques my interest…
Someone notify the “It’s Lovely! I’ll Take It” blog: http://lovelylisting.blogspot.com/
Notice the taxes? — $2045 for a property worth
That sign probably just indicates that the plumbin has been winterized so do not use.
To those of you that don’t know or want to feel idealistic about moving into these warzones, I agree that this is an atrocious part of town where bad things happen all times of the day & night. Make no mistake, this is inner city. The only way it could change is by the “power in numbers” theory. This may sound unpolitically correct, but if a bunch of yuppies or hipsters moved here en masse and occupied several buildings on 1 side of this street of rowhouses, so on and so on, this would be the beginnings of an enclave where the new residents would start to balance out the thugs & perhaps lead to more progress. It’s common sense really. You have to ask yourself if you are there to save the world or there to invest in affordable property.
JP’s got a point. Heck, you’re probably at least as likely to be robbed in better neighborhoods that are close to crappy neighborhoods as you are here.
That being said, the New Breed and the Four Corner Hustlers have been regularly shooting at each other around Chicago and Pulaski for quite some time now, so your odds of catching a stray bullet are considerably higher around here. This is currently one of the worst parts of the 11th District (and there’s really no “good” area of the 11th).
This unit is PRICED TO SELL (crack from)!
Uhm I guess from the general opinion of folks on this blog, we won’t expect to see any Cubs “W” flags flying around this hood anytime soon.
sonies: awesome
joking aside there is alot of biasness and fervent stereotyping of people and neighborhoods on this site. Alot of you need to check your white privilege at the door, it wasn’t all that long ago that your immigrant ancestors were being shown the ‘love’ by nativist ‘high society’.
You don’t have to “look like a victim” to get caught in the crossfire.When the gangboys start firing at each other, it’s too bad if you’re in the way.
Like, they didn’t MEAN to kill you, they weren’t even looking at you, but you’re still dead or in a wheelchair for life.
Friend of mine in another city, former slumowner who unloaded his buildlings in bulk just to get out from under it all, said that you can make a lot of money owning property like this but you will sure as hell earn every dime.
[Comment removed by the editor.]
Editor’s Note: Can we PLEASE keep it on the topic of real estate? Not every person wants to live in every neighborhood. We get it. But let’s talk about the properties in those neighborhoods, which IS relevant. 25 years ago many people would have laughed at you at the thought of buying property in Wicker Park. Who’s laughing now?
“almost the majority of households” should’ve definitely read “definite majority of households”
Bob,
Your immigrant ancestors might have understood education; however, based on your ignorant post you obviously do not. Your last post comes off as ignorant, bias, and insecure. More than anything it just lessens your point. Maybe if you took a sociology course or any course for that matter you’d learn critical thinking skills and the ability to not make sweeping generalizations. As you stated, this board is about real estate, keep it that way. Otherwise feel free to post on that numerous other boards that focus on general society, etc.
Bob, I’m assuming you don’t ever plan to run for office in Cook County. …
“Never again will I go into or through this neighborhood. Ever ever ever.” Stephen, you’re such a puss. I opened up an account just to tell you that. However, since I took the time to open up an account, I’m going to post a couple more thoughts:
Lauren and others who act like the poor people in this neighborhood are monsters sound irrationally frightened and fairly pathetic. The people who live in this neighborhood are poor, and poor people are certainly more likely to commit violent crimes than rich people, but that doesn’t make them monsters. Many of these posts suggest that when you drive in this neighborhood, the animals come out of their cages and immediately attack the cars (especially if the cars are owned by white people). That’s just silly. The people are poor, but get a grip.
One final observation that has been lost on some of the clueless people who have posted about the “monsters” who live in this neighborhood: Slimy real estate brokers, agents, etc., many of whom post on this webiste, have done much more damage to our country than the poor people who live in the Garfield area of Chicago.
As for the property, it’s a dump, but for $10K, it could end up being a good investment. Hats off to the editor for featuring it on the site. It’s a good site. Keep up the good work.
“Friend of mine in another city, former slumowner who unloaded his buildlings in bulk just to get out from under it all, said that you can make a lot of money owning property like this but you will sure as hell earn every dime.”
Which is why rent to price ratios aren’t consistent across neighborhoods, which is why the Lincoln Park rent to price ratio will not conform to that of say, Garfield Park.
You-know-I’m-sayin?
“You-know-I’m-sayin?”
Master of the obvious. Price to rent ratios are greater in Garfield Park than Lincoln Park. Any other words of wisdom for us today?
“Lauren and others who act like the poor people in this neighborhood are monsters sound irrationally frightened and fairly pathetic. The people who live in this neighborhood are poor, and poor people are certainly more likely to commit violent crimes than rich people, but that doesn’t make them monsters. ”
It isn’t the poor people us white people are concerned with, its the gang bangers and drug dealers that frighten us… which exist in large numbers in this particular neighborhood.
Just close your eyes when you go into the neighborhood; the crime and blight doesn’t really exist – it’s only in your imagination.
Like ME, I’ve traversed this neighborhood many times via bike during the day and via car at many hours. During the day, it’s not that bad. At night it’s a different story, but like any other neighborhood, there are hotspots of potential trouble.
As far as the property in question, I personally can’t imagine being the landlord of such a place, but one could certainly make it cashflow with effort.
John: nice post. My guess? Many here have never even been within spitting distance of Garfield Park, and have conjured up boogeyman based on Fox News crime story B-roll.
I was mistaken, it’s Pulaski and Congress where all the shooting’s been going on. However, this intersection is still quite busy.
Having lived on the West Side, I can definitely say that there tends to be a much higher percentage of individuals who display behaviors many find anti social. More people using car horns as doorbells late at night, more people who yell as normal conversational volume, more cars with twin 15″ subwoofers setting off car alarms and rattling windows, more crappy, unlicensed drivers, more people hanging out in front of liquor stores drinking, more people throwing dice on the street, more domestic disturbances, open-air drug markets, and probably a few other things I can’t think of at the moment.
Is everyone like that? No, but a much greater percentage are like that in Garfield Park than in Lincoln Square.
“Master of the obvious. Price to rent ratios are greater in Garfield Park than Lincoln Park. Any other words of wisdom for us today?”
Total straw man, too, since I don’t recall anyone ever suggesting anything different. No different than the SHill always proclaiming that “LP will not decline as far as other areas.”
MOTO, indeed.
Sabrina,
Thanks for posting this. When places are being given away like this, I often wonder if anyone out there could convince some of their friends and family to start buying them up on a particular block over a period of a few years, then all move in at the same time and create a sort of overnight, noticeable improvement of their properties on the block. I realize there are several reasons why this doesn’t happen (hard to find people willing to buy and sit on property for a while, oddly high property taxes eating away at your savings, etc.). With that said, I’m amazed at how real estate professionals and reporters will herald a bad neighborhood as the next big thing just because a few people in a concentrated area started cleaning things up, and I like to think it might be much easier than we realize to get some kind of critical mass and get other people buying and improving property in the area. If these places had a little more architectural charm, I’d say they might be good candidates. But I think there’s more potential for something a little close to the conservatory. I’d love to see more posts about these “almost free” properties.
BTW: Isn’t the tax credit a percentage of the purchase price? I don’t think someone could get an 8K credit for buying this place for 10K.
Its 10% of the purchase price or $8k whichever is less, so if you bought this place for 10k, you’d get a 1k tax credit.
Danny, you are one of my people.
When in law enforcement I used to advocate something like that. Basically, if you could get a mix of police, educators, artists and yuppies to concentrate on buying in a VERY concentrated area of, say, 2 blocks by 2 blocks, I think the critical mass could engender rapid and beneficial changes.
Of course, I’d advocate for areas along the lakefront long before things out at Pulaski and Erie.
Getting local law enforcement in the mix is part of the key, but you need to get good people who won’t wreck a good thing. Basically, you would need to tell people to immediately start calling 911/311 for EVERYTHING they see in the area.
Now that I’m a bit more moneyed, I may try and organize this once things feel like they are done crashing.
homedelete on April 7th, 2009 at 6:58 am
“You-know-I’m-sayin?”
Master of the obvious. Price to rent ratios are greater in Garfield Park than Lincoln Park. Any other words of wisdom for us today?
————-
LOL considering I have to explain the most obvious financial concepts to you (ie., you don’t understand that you don’t pay down a 2% loan or escrow taxes… or how to make more than $100k or how to live without a roommate)
BTW, you have it backwards, price to rent ratios are lower in GP than LP. But of course you knew that.
Let me guess MADFLY, you earned your degree at Nouveau Riche Real Estate Investment College?
http://nruniversity.com/
Less than half a mile from this place:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1514949,w-woman-slain-garfield-park-040709.article
If they’re willing to do that to an 83yr old woman, think of what they’d be willing to do to you?
Jesus. That poor woman. I definitely don’t think this is the area for anyone to be buying $1 houses and taking back the night. (And yes, I have driven through it and ridden the train through it.)
Someone notify me when they start giving stuff away in Rogers Park. And JP, let me know when you’ve got your posse together. Surely there have to be enough people reading this blog to form some kind of overnight gentrification force.
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/depaul.neighborhood.attack.2.979560.html
If the monsters in this neighborhood are willing to come out and attack a young woman at 6 a.m., imagine what they’d do to you if you drove throught the neighborhood at night?! I would never live in this neighborhood!
“But… but… one day at high noon I biked through here and I didn’t get shot”, says the ignoramus.
Listen guys, I wouldn’t have said this is a terrible neighborhood unless I have been there myself. And I have. And you couldn’t pay me to live there.