To Sell, Do You Need to Paint Your Kitchen Cabinets? 333 N. Canal in the Near West Side
This 3-bedroom in Riverbend at 333 N. Canal on the Near West Side came on the market in May 2018.
Riverbend was built in 2002 and has 149 units and parking.
It used to have unobstructed views directly down the Chicago River but the development of Wolf Point with apartments and office space, has impacted some of those views, but not completely.
This 3-bedroom has 2603 square feet with a balcony overlooking the River.
In 2018, it did not sell.
It had a kitchen with what look like dark cherry wood cabinets and blond wood floors.
You can see what it looked like here.
These were finishes that were common during the boom years of 2000-2008.
But while they were “in” then, they are “out” now. Chip and Joanna Gaines are NOT putting in cherry cabinets.
In November 2018, this listing was removed but it came back on in early January, at the same list price, but with new finishes.
It now had “brand new gray hardwood floors” and a “freshly painted crisp kitchen.”
What color were the kitchen cabinets? Gray!
It appears the granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances are the same.
This week in Crain’s, real estate reporter Dennis Rodkin covered a new company in Chicago called Renovation Sells which handles refreshment of properties so they sell.
About $25,000 later, the look of the condo’s kitchen and master bath had up-to-the-minute looks: tonal gray cabinets and floor, and pendant lights. The cash outlay “paid for itself and more,” said Skafidas, a banking executive who took a job relocation to San Diego.
The condo was under contract 15 days after he put it on the market in September, “when the market was visibly softening,” he said. The sale closed in October at $665,000, well above the sum of the $594,000 Skafidas paid for the condo in early 2017 and the roughly $25,000 spent on refreshing it to put it on the market.”
This 3-bedroom in Riverbend was relisted on January 7 at the same price it had been listed at in November 2018 but with its new finishes.
It was under contract just 6 days later.
Should everyone repaint their cabinets white or gray and go with gray floors?
See more transformations with just minor renovations on the Renovation Sells website here.
Jennifer Mills at Jameson Sotheby’s has the listing. You can see the renovated pictures here.
Unit #2104: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2603 square feet
- Sold in April 2002 for $766,000
- Sold in July 2003 for $815,000 (included the parking)
- Originally listed in May 2018 for $1.175 million
- Reduced
- Was listed in July 2018 for $1,124,900
- Withdrawn in November 2018 still listed at $1,124,900
- Re-listed on January 7, 2019 after minor renovations for $1,124,900
- Under Contract on January 13, 2019
- Assessments of $1,510 a month (includes a/c, gas, doorman, cable, exercise room, exterior maintenance, lawn care, scavenger, snow removal)
- Taxes of $16,694
- Central Air
- Washer/dryer in the unit
- Parking is $40,000 extra
- Bedroom #1: 18×17
- Bedroom #2: 12×10
- Bedroom #3: 10×13
- Den: 11×12
- Walk-in-closet: 12×7
I nearly always prefer cherry over paint, but those particular cabinets were almost painfully glossy. The newly finished ones are quite dull however. It’s pretty much a wash, certainly nothing I’d pay extra for, nor would the old cabinets have been a deal breaker.
I feel so bad for the people who bought units here 10 years ago when it was new. They had beautiful unobstructed river views. Now their apartments look right into another building. That has to really hurt values.
I realize that’s always a risk one takes when buying in a high rise. My grandparent’s 20th floor unit in on the Upper East Side of Manhattan had beautiful views of Queensborough Bridge when they moved in back in 1977. By the late 1980s, you couldn’t see the bridge at all (their roof deck was still great, though).
The stupid thing my grandparents did back in 1977 was decide to rent rather than buy. You can imagine what property values on the Upper East Side did between 1977 and 1990. But they were always renters and couldn’t grasp the idea of home ownership. They’re both long dead, of course, but before he died at age 91 in 1996, my grandpa said he regretted not having bought a unit back in 1977 (they’d moved from west side to east side due to all the crime near 81st and Broadway – funny to think now when that area is so hot).
the look of the condo’s kitchen and master bath had up-to-the-minute looks: tonal gray cabinets and floor,
I thought gray cabs were out and “tuxedo” kitchens or unpainted wood were the up to the minute thing now.
So hard to keep up!
This place looks great and fortunately retained some views. One thing I like about lighter floors, it sort of hides the “choppy” look on non-old growth hardwood floors. For some reason, both very dark and very light floors make it less obvious than the standard “blonde” finish.
Looks like the flooring boards in the original pics are all about a foot long. Nice!
You don’t need to update to sell if you price appropriately, but I think it makes a big difference much of the time. My neighbor had trouble selling and then updated and sold fast, only cosmetic changes. When I sold I did cosmetic changes (painted cabinets white (they were maple), changed some light fixtures) and sold quickly. I’d redone the master bathroom some while I owned it, for me. Another former neighbor has been trying to sell and having no luck (off the market now). Some things are marketing issues, but it’s also that he has not updated at all. He’s going to end up selling for substantially less than the other neighbor whose place is smaller, since people in that price range are picky.
I don’t think it has to be cutting edge at all, it’s just better not to scream 2005 or 1999 or whatever.
So old-fogey Gen Xer alert, but I do think people are getting increasingly picky. Don’t know if it’s because of prices, or because Millennials want more of everything right away than Gen X did or what, but there’s the idea that if it’s out of style it’s not acceptable (which strikes me as weird when people also claim housing prices are unaffordable).
The place I own now (which was redone mid 2000s) has cherry cabinets. I like them since I prefer wood cabinets and the granite is a far better color than in my last place which was 1999 builder standard and the same as every condo built around the same time in the same part of the neighborhood. Since the new one is a “no plans to sell” place, I will update many things in due time, but seen no urgent necessity to do so, and so far have only painted and made plans to restore the fireplace to a more period appropriate one (I was up for doing way more immediate updating, but fell in love with this one which didn’t need it).
Nice comment, Stephanie. I’m a Gen Xer, born in 1971. My wife and I bought our first condo in 1997, a 2-bedroom in a Lincoln Park high rise. Sold in 2002 for a very nice profit, and have been on the North Shore since, raising our two kids.
Anyway, I say all that because I’m with you on home decorating. What may look dated and hokey to a Millennial might be just fine for me and my wife. We still have fond memories of the hardwood flooring and window shades we installed in our condo in 1997, and when we saw photos of the same unit online when it was for sale again a few years ago, it still had our decor and still looked good.
“So old-fogey Gen Xer alert, but I do think people are getting increasingly picky.”
The difference between GenXers and Millennials is this:
GenXers got out of college and rented dumpy apartments near Wrigley Field with crappy cabinets and went to the laundry room in the scary basement, cobwebs and all. When they bought a condo, they actually IMPROVED their living situation. Suddenly, they had granite counter tops, nice cabinets, stainless steel appliances, new painted walls, washer/dryer in the unit.
It was nirvana!
For GenX, the only way to “upgrade” your situation and not be lame at age 30, was to buy a condo.
But flash forward to 2019. Millennials get out of college and are now renting in new construction buildings or “renovated” vintage and older Class B buildings. If they can afford it, they are renting in the luxury building across the street from Wrigley Field with amazing amenities and the “in” kitchens, floors and bathrooms.
Here’s some marketing pictures of what it all looks like.
https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/3/29/17177254/addison-clark-residences-wrigley-field-apartments
(They are giving away 2 months free rent for leases of 13 to 24 months, by the way.)
If you rent something like this for 5 years, do you want to go put down thousands of dollars on a condo with a 20+ year old kitchen, black appliances, old floors and outdated bathrooms?
No- you do not. Most condos, other than the new luxury ones they’ve built in the last few years, are WAY behind the apartment buildings in both finishes but also amenities.
This is the problem for the condo market. Many millennials may NEVER buy a condo because they are now inferior AND you don’t even get the tax write-off anymore.
Sellers have to give the Millennial buyers a good reason to actually buy. And that likely means they have to make it “new” and pretty.
Sabrina, that is exactly what is going on. GenXer as well and followed that same exact path. In college, my dorm room might as well been a low security prison cell. My apartments after college and even grad school were nothing to write home about. They were truly “vintage” as in old and crusty. Laundry in basement. No AC. Drafty windows. Creaky floors. Scorched laminate counter tops. Crappy plywood cabinets.
When we bought first condo it was a massive upgrade.
Nowadays, these kids have dorm rooms that are nice apartments. Their apartments after graduation are nicer than many condos.
It is a tough sell to get them to buy a place that isn’t objectively nicer than what they are renting as buying is supposed to be an upgrade in lifestyle.
“Nowadays, these kids have dorm rooms that are nice apartments.”
*this*
Who, over the age of 35, knew *anyone* who, while in college (not grad school), lived in an apartment that could have remotely been called luxe? The ratio of “potential condemnation” to merely nice had to be at least 10:1.
Now we’re 20 years deep into a boom of luxury student housing, such that everyone sees the nice apartments, and most want that lifestyle when they can afford it.
“Who, over the age of 35, knew *anyone* who, while in college (not grad school), lived in an apartment that could have remotely been called luxe? The ratio of “potential condemnation” to merely nice had to be at least 10:1.”
This sounds a bit like “When I was young I walked uphill in the snow to get to school, both ways!”
College dorms were dumps, mine was newer and slightly better than the dorms in state schools, but nothing like you see today. This is a good thing, there’s really no reason dorms should have been so dumpy, other than as an excuse to overcharge students and then funnel that money to professors and their pet research and sabbatical projects.
“and most want that lifestyle when they can afford it.”
This is the problem. Kids are broke and in debt these days when they graduate school, and wages are stagnant for many new grads in entry level positions. It’s not necessarily wise to spend $2,000+ a month on luxe housing, while paying back student loans, saving for a housing downpayment, and drinking and eating away the rest of your disposable income. Some people has a sense of thrift (And at the risk of sounding like I too walk uphill both ways) these kids these days all live paycheck to paycheck and then complain they don’t have any money.
“When we bought first condo it was a massive upgrade.”
this is true, and it was a good bargain relative to what we would have to pay to have a dog friendly place
I should have written afford as “afford”.
Student Apartment used to mean the housing equivalent of fit for human consumption meat. Now it’s basically as lux as anything but the tippy top of rental apartments. Which is very weird to me.
“Some people has a sense of thrift (And at the risk of sounding like I too walk uphill both ways) these kids these days all live paycheck to paycheck and then complain they don’t have any money.”
Your sense of thrift is almost to the level of expecting a hill to pop up in from of you in the middle of Kansas, tho. But I don’t disagree with the premise.
Nice shot of the 150 N. Riverside building in the listing.
I literally lived in a van-down-by-the-river at college age, which I suppose helps me endure the fact that I have formica kitchen counters.
My older kid is a freshman in college now and his dorm room is a dump. So not all of them live in luxury.
“his dorm room is a dump”
Right. But by the time he graduates, even if he doesn’t live in one of them, he will know people who live in one of the lux student apartment complexes.
“The difference between GenXers and Millennials is this. . . ”
—————————–
I am reminded of the old joke about the difference between Heaven and Hell.
In Heaven:
The bureaucrats are German,
The police are British,
The lovers are Italian, and
The chefs are French.
In Hell:
The bureaucrats are Italian,
The police are French,
The lovers are German, and
The chefs are British.
No, it’s:
Heaven is where:
the cooks are French,
the police are British,
the mechanics are German,
the lovers are Italian, and
everything is organized by the Swiss.
Hell is where:
the cooks are British,
the police are German,
the mechanics are French,
the lovers are Swiss, and
everything is organized by the Italians.
French cops? Who’s worried by that?
I’ve heard the second version, but as several European friends have pointed out, German/Swiss is kinda redundant
“German/Swiss is kinda redundant”
Maybe, but how are French cops hell? Need a fifth.
reminds me of this that I saw a few days ago lol, wierd how that works eh
In the European Automotive version of Heaven, the:??
French design the suspensions;?
British design the bodies;?
Germans design the electricals;?
Italians design the engines;
And Swedes design the safety systems.??
In the European Automotive version of Hell, the;??
French design the safety systems;?
British design the electricals;?
Germans design the bodies;?
Italians design the suspensions;
And? Swedes design the engines.
Closed $1,060,000
“Maybe, but how are French cops hell?”
———————
Show me a cop who needs to bring out beauty and nourish the soul with his police work and I’ll show you Hell.
House went for a million after going for $815K 15 years ago? Break even at best. Probably escaped with their lives.