The 3-Bedroom Bank Owned House That Just Won’t Sell: 3853 N. Keeler In Old Irving Park
Not everything is selling quickly. Case in point is this 3-bedroom single family home at 3853 N. Keeler in Old Irving Park.
It became bank owned in April 2012 and has been on and off the market since last August.
The house was built in 2006 on an extra large 62×124 lot.
It has a separate 3-car garage and central air.
From the listing pictures, the kitchen appears intact with stainless steel appliances and cherry cabinets.
It has some unique features including a 2-story atrium.
The house has been reduced $50,000 since last August to $729,900.
It is now listed $320,100 under the 2006 purchase price.
At what price will this house finally sell?
Angel Aguilar at Re/Max Fidelity has the listing. See the pictures here.
3853 N. Keeler: 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, no square footage listed, 3 car garage
- Former house sold at $390,000
- Sold in June 2006 for $1.05 million
- Lis pendens foreclosure filed in July 2010
- Bank owned in April 2012
- Originally listed in August 2012 for $779,900
- Reduced
- Withdrawn in January 2013
- Re-listed in March 2013 for $729,900
- Taxes of $9025
- Central Air
- Bedroom #1: 19×13 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 12×11 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 12×12 (second floor)
- Family room: 36×16 (lower level)
- Office: 15×15 (lower level)
Seems to be an attractive enough house & location… I like the prairie school details with all the modern amenities. Don’t know that much about the neighborhood, but it’s walking distance to Smoque, which is a big plus in my book! Also, since it’s close to the expressway, Metra and the L seems like it’d be a good option if one spouse works in the suburbs while the other is downtown.
There’s a buyer for every property, especially one this nice…….but at the right price. Barring such issues as a toxic waste dump nearby or some other special problem, the only reason a property “just won’t sell” is because of the price, especially in a market with such constricted supply as this one
Just drop the price until someone bites. Simple.
Anyone know what this could rent for?
Kitchen is weird (like the counter and cabinet choices tho); bathrooms are *barely* acceptable at the price; garage is awesome. $635k.
About the kitchen… I thought the exact same. What the hell were they thinking?? At 700k I want a darn nice kitchen and that looks just “off.”
Anon, for such an awesome garage, a Redfin realtor commented about razing and rebuilding it as well as the deck to regain yard space. Sure sounds odd to me….
Is the buyer who is looking for something that looks like that on the *outside* looking for something that looks like that on the *inside*? It’s like someone took the principles of cheap-ass mid-aughts condo renovation and applied them to a home, yielding a soulless, characterless mess.
I can’t believe someone paid a million bucks for this thing. Low $600s…it’s going to cost a lot to undo all the bad decisions.
Benjamon, I wouldn’t put a lot of weight on Redfin Realtor comments. They sometimes put comments for one listing onto another listing they saw that same day. see
http://www.chicagonow.com/adventures-house-hunting/2012/11/voted-most-likely-to-become-a-realtor/
I toured this house on the OIP house walk a few years ago. Its actually nicer than it looks in the pictures. Upon entry there are high vaulted ceiling and the bedrooms are actually off a sort-of catwalk looking down onto the first floor. The sitting area is a little nook carved out of the bedrooms on the catwalk (for lack of a better word). The tour didn’t go downstairs and I don’t remember if we were allow upstairs either. It’s actually a pretty cool house that should sell rather quickly in the $600’s but for the ugly kitchens and bathrooms. Everybody in this neighborhood has more formal looking kitchens to compliment the old victorian and arts and crafts homes so the comtemporary kitchen is out of place. I’m surpirsed the lot is only 124 feel long, because the lots behind it (on kedvale) are 175 feet long. I actually have gossip on the former owners that I won’t dare relate here because it’s not at all related to ‘real estate’ other than the house ended up in foreclosure.
OK, the ‘gossip’ I heard was actually 3rd hand from somebody who knows somebody who knows the backstory on the previous owner, and it’s not really juicy at all. The house is in foreclosure, that’s about it, which is apparently obviously to everyone now that it’s listed on Redfin. Sorry to disappoint!
Not surprising that it’s actually nicer than these typically pathetic pictures make it seem. For folks looking to spend under $700k, who want a nice sized, fairly charming SFH, but who must live in the city (rather than going another 10 minutes up to Evanston or 15 up to central Wilmette), this seems like a decent deal in the low to mid $600k’s. Though I imagine a lot of prospective (two-kid) SFH buyers want a 4th bed for guests (I know I would, were we to live so far from hotel options, which describes most SFH hoods).
“Sure sounds odd to me”
If you look at an aerial, there’s almost no backyard, so your open space is almost entirely the driveway. Would sway me, but I can understand it, I guess. Garage has a newer roof, too (silvered).
Good lord, this once beautiful prairie style home has been raped of all its vintage goodness and replaced with dogshit menards finishes
that should be ‘would NOT’
Lack of a 4th bedroom is annoying, but apparently there is a “library” on the 2nd floor that you could use for guests, though I’m assuming it has no closet, since it’s not a BR.
Icarus, I agree. I always take their comments with a grain of salt. Is someone who is likely to buy this house going to spend the money to tear off/down a deck and garage that are perfectly good as-is? I doubt it….which is why I mentioned the comment. Seems like a pointless one.
A lot of recent sales in OIP are like 60% of 2006 value, 60% of 1,050,000 is 630k…seems closer to fair value…
“(rather than going another 10 minutes up to Evanston ”
10 minutes, no way, not even in no traffic. You can make it to the whole foods off peterson in 10 minutes with no traffic. OFten it takes 10 minutes just to get out of the neighborhood in the morning. Keeler and AVondale are realy busy and backed up. It takes 3-5 cycles of teh light just to cross irving up one block north of this property in teh morning b/c its so backed up on the onramp (oh how I miss the on ramps!)
Willamette is a 20 min drive in no traffic if you live next to 94 but that’s about it.
“10 minutes, no way, not even in no traffic”
He’s anchoring to central loop, and comparing getting to here v. getting to E’ton/Wilmette. Not that I agree with his estimates, either way (15 & 20 more, driving, 20 & 25 more, comparing metra to blue line, assuming Loop, rather than train station, start).
I agree with Laura. Now that its bank owned and presumably they collected whatever they could via the MI, I would think they would either engage a realtor to figure out the appropriate starting price or keep dropping the asking price until someone puts in an offer.
3 car garages with driveways are hard to find in the city so there’s no way I’d give up the drive way or tear down the garage unless it were falling apart. But then I’d just invite Groove and tfo over to build me a new one.
Between the deck and the small yard, you can make it work.
“Good lord, this once beautiful prairie style home has been raped of all its vintage goodness and replaced with dogshit menards finishes”
It was built in 2006, or so says the listing.
“It was built in 2006, or so says the listing.”
Yea , but if you look at the tax info it says 1918 and then you look back at the picture of the house and realize its a brick bungalow with a 2006 pop top.
I lived around there when they were “rehabbing” the place. Basically they took a large-ish bungalow and stripped it until all that remained were the exterior walls. The “rehab” occurred around those pre-existing walls, but it was pretty much new construction. Someone told me they did that for some sort of tax break, but I really have no idea.
OH yeah it totally is an old bungalow with an entirely new 2nd floor, still looks pretty good though
it’s not a bad place. it would be a mil in lakeview.
“it’s not a bad place. it would be a mil in lakeview”
Well, yah, it’s two buildable lots. A 62’x124′ *parking lot* in LV (on a comparable sort fo sidestreet) is basically a mil.
Most lots in OIP are double lots. Most are extra long too: 150 and up to 175. Some lots are extra wide and extra long. ‘dem seem pretty big lots!
“Most lots in OIP are double lots.”
Okay, so you were hypothesizing that this house, on a 25′ lot in LV, with the awesome garage facing the alley, would be a million? Quite likely so, but then it’s not really the same house.
yeah it’s way more than a mil. that’s why it’s a steal in old Irving.
No use even discussing what it would cost in Lakeview.
Apparently, no one cares. They care what it ought to cost in a much different neighborhood, one far from the lake and the “action”.
in that area I want original details of which that house has none. I like the 635 estimate since it is good sized.
also: pre-crash OIP prices were nuts!
Anon OIP, I’m with you. I want and old house with original details. This house looks horrible to me. But there are many people who don’t mind remuddling, many who prefer it in fact. One of those people put a contract on this house, it remains to be seen how much it sold for. I think your estimate of $635k is probably correct. Might have been more if the lot had been full-depth.
This house is under the contract.