The Bank Owned New Construction Home: 3726 N. Hermitage in Lakeview
This 5-bedroom single family home at 3726 N. Hermitage in Lakeview was built in 2007 but never sold from the developer.
It is now bank owned.
First listed in January 2007, it was de-listed in October 2008 only to come back on the market, from the bank, about a month ago.
It has been sitting empty for 17 months after it was de-listed.
The house was listed on the city’s list of vacant buildings in August 2009 where the description said:
“BUILDING IS OPEN / UNSECURE – DEADBILT IS MISSING AND KNOB DOES NOT LOCK. ANYONE CAN WALK IN; THIS IS COMMON KNOWLEDGE IN THE AREA.”
See the pictures of the interior of the house from the city’s vacant building website here.
The city’s permit information also shows that several permits were issued at the end of March 2010 on the property.
One permit was to remove/replace drywall.
You can check out the permits on the City’s website here (put in the address).
The listing says the basement has been completely refinished and there’s not much left to be done with the rest of the house.
It has hardwood floors and, from the pictures, the kitchen is intact, complete with stainless steel appliances.
Is this a deal for this neighborhood with this square footage?
Ian Halpin at Jameson has the listing. See the pictures here.
3726 N. Hermitage: 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2.5 car garage
- Old house sold in September 2005 for $620,000
- Originally listed in January 2007 for $1.475 million
- Lis pendens filed in August 2008
- De-listed in October 2008
- Bank owned in January 2010
- Originally listed in April 2010 for $980,000
- Currently listed for $980,000
- Taxes of $8465
- Central Air
Some of the pictures on the city’s website show the nice features of this home better than the realtor’s pictures (e.g. stairs, etc.). When it says basement has been redone I hope that means all that mold was fixed. That is scary. I hope they fixed it well.
Look at all that mold! Wouldn’t touch this with a million foot pole.
so what you get is a 980k unfinished and damaged home, that is unlocked and open to the public?
and its be sitting since it was built?
wow would you want to take a chance with your hard earned 980k?
or for HD, take a chance with the banks 980k (assuming 100% financed)
This home with a 5/1 ARM and 20% down and a 3.75% interest rate is only $4,336.24 a month (plus taxes). Figure after tax benefits, $5,000 a month. Using a 45% DTI the required income is only $11,111.11 gross a month. I too can live in a brick SFH in Lakeview!!…only one problem….
Can anybody here want to lend me $196,000 for a down payment? I’m good for the money, I swear 😉
HD, you poor fool, you know that millions of people in Chicago make eleven thousand dollars a month, right?
Hey Sabrina, did you notice that Freddie Mac lost $6.7 billion in the first quarter of 2010 and will be asking Congress for another $10.6 billion bailout?
Millions of people?
Really?
Do you have any stats for that?
HD, I think Tipster meant that billions of people make over $11k a month in Chicago, not millions. I’d be shocked if this place sold for anything less than the original 1.475 million asking price.
I just want to comment that this seems to mark a new level of info on properties, from various (public) sources – huzzah!
CC is not only the place to find the most interesting properties, but also the skinny on them…
You’d think that a bank would spend $50 on a lock and key system to prevent idiot kids and bums from partying in their “million” dollar house… fuckin morons
And holy cow look at that mold, there must have been 4 feet of water in this place to get that kind of level of mold… yeah stay far far far away from this one unless you feel like owning something worth 90% less than what you pay for it down the road
Any mold experts in the CC house?
That looks like a lot of mold all over the basement, pictures were from 08/2009 so could a years worth of water do that much damage? I cant tell the water line height from the image? anyone else see one?
I’ve been down the mold road a couple times. You don’t need a year’s worth of water to do that kind of damage– I’ve seen that happen after just one flood.
Don’t need 4 ft of water either. Even if you get just a few inches, the walls soak it up like a sponge, and you can get something like this within just a few days.
It does look bad, but it’s not something that would cause a 90% decrease in value. If it’s just in the basement, probably was just a few thousand to fix. The disclosure, that’s another issue. . .
As far as this place. . . nice neighborhood, and if it were a couple blocks E in Blaine, maybe. Price seems out of line given that it’s in Hamilton, and given the state of the building. . . but I notice there are some pretty recent comps with surprisingly high closing prices on the Hamilton side (3633 n hermitage & 3650 n paulina).
Curious who the builder was as it does look like there was some higher quality elements to the construction. . .
a couple weeks ago wife and I poked around this place and It looked a lot less finished than the pictures indicate. Is someone doing work on it? when I saw it the floorboards were buckled and I imaginne there is a lovely indoor swimming pool, er flooded basement.
““BUILDING IS OPEN / UNSECURE – DEADBILT IS MISSING AND KNOB DOES NOT LOCK. ANYONE CAN WALK IN; THIS IS COMMON KNOWLEDGE IN THE AREA.””
LMAO! They better hope Tyrone Biggums doesn’t read the paper.
The key on mold remediation is getting it done by a licensed contractor with the right certifications, and having lots of DOCUMENTATION including photos and/or videos of exactly what was done and how. Without the certs and documentation (i.e. cheaping out on the job) it is very difficult to convince potential buyers to take a second look. With the right docs, properly remediated mold isn’t a huge deterrent to a sale. It is however a major expense.
JPS I don’t disagree. . . but would add that you shouldn’t go with the “best” contractor without shopping it around, either.
Last remediation I had done was completed beautifully by a licensed contractor. . . who charged almost 60% less than my highest bid.
I’m used to contractors coming in at different prices, but the size of this spread in estimates led me to believe that there’s some fear tactic funny business going on the remediation biz.
Square D, there are some nice comps lately for Hamilton and there is a lot of current backlash against blaine as far as overcrowding and some principal issues. And, with recent good buzz coming from Hamilton, people are moving into the district with the school in mind now. The guy who developed this property has another one up the street, same side, that is finished, but is also now bank owned. He was a boom developer who put up 5 places at once, now all bank owned. I’m a few blocks over from this one and have been in it. It is truly a disaster and the bank is high if they think anyone will pay anything close to this price for it.
Trudi – the one up the street is in waayyy better condition but it is obvious they ran out of money very close to the end, some very odd finish choices in the basement. I didn’t see a listing fro is though does anyone know if it sold?
I was in the other house when it was listed by Remax. And, yes that one is indeed nicer and finshed. Agreed about some odd finishings. as far as i know it has not sold, but there seems to be some strange limbo going on with it. There is a for sale sign, but it is not listed anywhere. Sabrina-Any ideas on what happened with that property?
Trudi, I wasn’t suggesting Hamilton is bad– it’s good way better than my public school “option.”
Just saying it doesn’t command the irrational premiums you see in the tip top schools. . . $1m for something unfinished and possibly flawed kind of premium.
(Though it would be great to see Hamilton improve like that, given that SF’s are still selling in the $500k range too.)
Thanks for the info on the “disaster”. . .
Final thought: Is this how you know you’re in a really nice neighborhood in Chicago– nobody bothers boarding up or locking the foreclosures? “Community space”?
It’s actually in violation of the Chicago Municipal Code to leave vacant residential structures unsecured. They must be secured, a sign must be posted stating who the owner is, and, there must be something like $500k of insurance on the structure with the City as a named insured.
And that’s my useful contribution to Cribchatter today!
SquareD:
“Last remediation I had done was completed beautifully by a licensed contractor. . . who charged almost 60% less than my highest bid.”
Would you mind providing the contact info for your contractor?
I am considering buying a property in Albany Park. It’s a top floor condo. There was significant water damage due to old tuckpointing in the roof’s firewall and if I buy it, the onus will be on me to fix it. It’s in foreclosure. The condo board speculated that the former owner collected insurance money for the repairs and then disappeared. I want to make sure it’s done right to avoid a mould / roach / electrical wiring hazard.
Thank you!
Yeah, there is no doubt that some mold remediation companies exploit the fear factor more than others, who do an equally good job for much less.
“Last remediation I had done was completed beautifully by a licensed contractor. . . who charged almost 60% less than my highest bid.
I’m used to contractors coming in at different prices, but the size of this spread in estimates led me to believe that there’s some fear tactic funny business going on the remediation biz.”
I just ran into another problem with that Albany Park condo. My insurance agent at Farmers said they can’t write a policy on it in its current condition. This is a total catch-22. I wouldn’t want to hire workmen to repair it without being insured.
If anyone has any ideas please let me know! At this point I might just have to forget about the whole thing 🙁
Since this is the most recent bank-owned post, it’s the best place for this link about a house repo guy in the far NW suburbs:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/business/07evict.html?pagewanted=1&hp
Milkster,
I wish i could help ya but i never dealt with mold, or not being able to get homeowners insurance. I will ask around and see what i can dig up.
I posted a link for the mold referral but it won’t go through. . . either cc doesn’t like the url or Sabrina doesn’t like my mold guy!
Anyhow, without the url it’s All PRO Inc. ph: (630) 585-9524.
Does sound like you may have bigger issues than mold, tho, eh?
Awwww…Groove and SquareD – Thank you so much for your kind help! I truly appreciate it very much. You can feel free to e-mail me directly if you like at oakstbeachgrrl@yahoo.com
I’m going to go ahead and submit a bid today contingent on my approval of a home inspection report. I’m doing a ton of due diligence and “CYA”. If my bid is accepted, I would get an estimate on the repairs before I put the earnest money down. If I can’t get the place insured it’s all a moot point. But then again, if no one insures it it’s probably a mega-bad idea in the first place.
Not to be completely naive, but is this legal? Is this part of the buyer beware “as is” claus? All the bank has to do is replace some electrical outlets and drywall in order to make it ready to sell. There is not need to do any mold remediation? Does the realtor have to disclose this? Does the bank? Just wondering if anyone knows.