Vintage Beauty in Lakeview Still Available and Reduced $15K: 817 W. George
We last chattered about this “true” vintage top floor 2-bedroom at 817 W. George in Lakeview in April 2010.
See our April 2010 chatter and pictures here.
Since then, it has been reduced nearly $15,000.
There is no cookie-cutter here.
The home has nearly all of its vintage features intact but has been updated with modern amenities.
The kitchen has been opened to the family/dining room. It sports white cabinets and a 6-burner Viking stove and stainless steel refrigerator.
The dining room has been converted into a family room in the rear of the unit and still sports the original dining room hutch and beamed ceilings.
There is also stained glass in the living room, a fireplace and the original pier mirror in the foyer.
The unit has an in-unit washer/dryer and central air. There is no parking but it is available in the neighborhood and the Diversey Brown Line stop is just minutes away.
Ed Jelinek at Coldwell Banker still has the listing. See more pictures here.
Unit #3W: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, no square footage listed
- Sold in August 2001 for $315,000
- Sold in April 2005 for $366,000
- Originally listed in February 2010 for $375,000
- Reduced
- Was listed in April 2010 for $349,900
- Reduced
- Currently listed for $335,000
- Assessments of $345 a month (includes heat)
- Taxes of $4301
- Central Air
- In-unit Washer/Dryer
- No parking
- Bedroom #1: 11×12
- Bedroom #2: 9×11
- Family/dining room: 11×17
So why hasnt this sold yet? oh wait i know its not a bland crapbox new construction 2/2 that big ten grads are required to buy.
Is there really a need for 2 full baths in a 2br place?
the no parking does suck!
but this is a wonderful unit i love it, and would buy it over most of the 2br condos on CC.
taxes seem high?
Agree – very lovely.
“Is there really a need for 2 full baths in a 2br place?”
yes absolutely, this is a 100% must have from now on for myself and my wife, I will never ever go back to a 1 bathroom place EVER again
1.5bath is fine, 2 is ideal
Agreed with barry on the baths. 1 is my current situation and it isn’t great.
One other downside: for such a small building and unit, the assessments seem high. I’m guessing the building has needed work and they are having to build up their reserves or something. Gut feel is that is roughly twice what it should be in a well maintained building.
The assessment includes heat — I wouldn’t call it “high”
JPS: that explains it. I might even call that a deal, depending on the method of heating…
Those built in’s are lust-worthy. . .
Groove, I can understand the hate on a 2/1 for being a 2/1, if you hate 2/1s. . . but this is not a new construction mccrapbox.
Top floor is a nice feature too especially in a building like this.
But given what rents are in lakeview, I can’t imagine why you’d buy this instead of renting something similar (or nicer), and the comments above re: # of bath’s is a big part of why (i.e. not a family, or marriage-friendly building).
Agree assessments are not bad since they include heat, but I think they may have trouble coming close to the ’01 price without more space, another bath, or parking.
The real question is: What would this rent for?
“Top floor is a nice feature too especially in a building like this. ”
IMO Top floor units do have a negative unless its in an elevator building
But on the HUGE positive at least you don’t have to listen to people stomping above you, and you’ll get a lot of exercise humping those stairs!
“Groove, I can understand the hate on a 2/1 for being a 2/1, if you hate 2/1s. . . but this is not a new construction mccrapbox”
there is no hate at all on this place i love it. on the 2/1 in a place this size a 2/1.5 would be highly acceptable and its current 2/1 layout is ok with me.
I guess i grew up when people had 5br and one bath to share, so sharing a bath is ok with me.
We actually share a bath now, but if a Indian food emergency hits while she is using it i do have the full bath in the basement.
I was just in Ottawa visiting old family friends last week. They custom-built an enormous businessman-baroque mansion in the sticks about an hour from the city in the early 90s when everything was priced high.
Then the Canadian real estate market crashed for years. Nothing was moving. They rented the house out to a high-profile attorney and his family while they in turn rented in the city. When they reclaimed the house 5 years later it was a mess. The wife said she cried as she cleaned clumps of dog hair out of everything including their oven. The neighbors told them the kids would skateboard in the house. The attorney’s wife would parade around in fur coats, but I guess that was just proof that pretty on the outside doesn’t always mean clean on the inside.
They had to spend about 50K making the house liveable again and they moved back in with the intention of staying. And then one day someone randomly driving by fell in love with the house. By that point our friends had no intention of selling, but they were made an offer they couldn’t refuse, so they did.
They ended up holding the house for about 20 years, but in the end everything worked out and they even made a profit. (Prices in Canada are unbelievably high at the moment, btw.)
UGH! Sorry. I’m tired. I meant to post that last comment under the piece on 530 N LSD. (Sorry.)
Oh, this is so lovely. I am very suprised that this hasn’t yet sold. There are loads of uninspired 2 bedrooms in the general area, and I can’t imagine most being anywhere nearly as nice as this one. The no parking situation does stink, but if it’s available nearby, I would think the character of this place would more than make up for the slight inconvenience. The vintage details are wonderful and would appeal to anybody with a keen eye for design. I would love to design this space!
Unit, seems like a nice value at the price. The 2/1 might be a deal breaker for some but I imagine this will get some movement very shortly, especially in this market.
Love the pier mirror/built-ins/beamed ceilings/etc. However, if I had done the renovation, I probably would have skipped the (oversized) six-burner stove and the (oversized) viking fridge, and instead carved a little space out of the kitchen plus a little out of the family room/dining room for a second bath. Even a half bath would probably have paid off better than the ultra-high-end appliances.
I love those high-end appliances in the kitchen. To me (just my personal opinion, Madeline, please don’t attack me) they are one of the things that makes this place different from all the “mccrap boxes” (thank you, Groove and Square D, for the new term of art!). Lack of a bathroom would not bother me as I live alone, but it hurts on resale.
I would never attack anyone for liking high end appliances!
#3E in this building sold in Sept 2009 for $340K:
http://chicago.blockshopper.com/property/14292260401005/817_w_george_street_unit_3e/
I deleted some inappropriate comments on this thread (you know what they were.)
I think talking about crime in a neighborhood IS appropriate but not in the context in which these comments were written.
“there is no hate at all on this place i love it.”
Sorry bud, wasn’t paying attention. . . I should not try to work and cc. . .
“i do have the full bath in the basement”
That’s what saved me for years in my 1 BA rental. . . the escape hatch to the “basement en suite”.
“I think talking about crime in a IS appropriate but not in the context in which these comments were written.”
Well said and well done Sabrina.
““Top floor is a nice feature too especially in a building like this. ”
IMO Top floor units do have a negative unless its in an elevator building
But on the HUGE positive at least you don’t have to listen to people stomping above you, and you’ll get a lot of exercise humping those stairs!”
Nice photos.
no worries squareD, but 97% of my CC’ing is done while working on something, sitting in a meeting, waiting for something running, etc.
the one rule of living with a one bathroom is never lock the door when taking a bath or shower.
Speaking of McCrapBox, check out this complaint..
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33451644/Bryton-Southport-Crap
“JPS on April 6th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
This will sell for close to ask even without 2nd bath or parking, because as Question noted there are few places in prime Chicago neighborhoods that have been nicely updated while still retaining their vintage details.”
This was when the ask was $349,900 and now going lower. The problem with this and every place like it, is that the rental equivalent is much cheaper. Plug some numbers into the NYT rent/buy calculator and there is no way to make this purchase worth the ask price. Even if you skew everything towards buying being the better option, it still never pans out over 30 years. That is unless you make the home price rise by 6% a year, and I don’t think we’re headed back to that anytime soon.
Sold recently for $325. Still probably over rental equivalent, but not the most egregious case by any stretch.