Will Granite and Stainless Steel Close the Deal on the Crow’s Nest? 351 W. Dickens in Lincoln Park
We last chattered about this 2-bedroom vintage unit with a crow’s nest at 351 W. Dickens in Lincoln Park in November 2012.
See our prior chatter here.
Back in November, when it was listed at $499,000, you all thought the lack of updates in the kitchen would prevent a sale. It had maple cabinets, white appliances and older non-granite counter tops.
You can see the old kitchen here.
All of the Redfin agent comments in the old listing basically said, “needs some updating.”
The listing was withdrawn briefly but has now been re-listed saying “back on the market with updates.”
What that entails appears to be some new hardware on the kitchen cabinets (are the cabinets the old ones?), new granite counter tops, an undermount sink and stainless steel appliances.
The rest of the unit looks pretty much the same.
If you recall, it is a top floor unit in a non-elevator building with exposed brick and 16 foot ceilings.
And in a first for Lincoln Park, there’s also that crow’s nest.
The listing says the bathrooms were rehabbed in 2005.
It has 2 fireplaces and a private rooftop deck.
There is central air and washer/dryer in the unit but no deeded parking.
With the kitchen updates, it has come on the market $20,000 higher than last year.
Will the granite and stainless steel sway a buyer?
Gabi Gates at Baird & Warner still has the listing. See the pictures here. (the B&W listing, oddly, doesn’t include the pictures of the updated kitchen.)
Unit #4E: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1800 square feet
- Sold in October 1990 for $225,000
- Sold in August 1995 for $290,750
- Sold in January 1997 for $285,500
- Originally listed in October 2012 at $499,000
- Raised
- Currently listed at $519,000
- Assessments of $215 a month
- Taxes of $7921
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- No parking- on street or nearby garage parking
- 2 fireplaces
- Private rooftop deck
- Bedroom #1: 19×11
- Bedroom #2: 13×13
I don’t think that will work. Spend 10k on a low grade Kitchen reno and then list 20k higher. I would’ve purchased darker cabinets to make them look more expensive, maybe 2k on a higher grade appliance package and put laminate flooring in the master bedroom. Are the sellers being too firm with the asking price or are buyers just not interested in this place?
I am almost positive that the sister unit sold for $499k. It had much nicer finishes as I recall.But this is still prime location, I imagine it will sell soon.
It looks like they refaced the cabinets and added hardware. Whatever they invested, they probably should have just reduced their asking price and brought that money to the table. While the SFH market might be heating up and improving, at least in prime and projected to gentrify areas, the condo/TH market isn’t there yet. I think that might be next year’s subject matter discussion if CC is still around.
I was going to say the same as Icarus about refacing for the cabinets but there used to be drawers next to the fridge and now it is a cabinet. If they spent money on all new cabinets, I think they could have made much better choices. As Icarus said, save the Reno costs and just sold for less so someone could make thier own decisions or just replace the appliances and granite and let someone decide whether to deal with cabinets in the future so they didn’t feel they had to raise the price.
As it is, this strategy is a bust I think. The new kitchen probably would have helped at the $499k price point but now I think most buyers will wish for different choices and be turned off by the higher price.
If no one wanted it at $499 as is, why is it worth $499k PLUS the upgrades. They were needed to be included at the old price. 🙁
I don’t think people want to do the updates themselves, they would rather pay an extra 20k on their mortgage instead of dealing with contractors, etc. before they move in to a place
The kitchen updates help a lilttle bit (those alone won’t sell the place, but will allow some buyers to accept the kitchen and weigh the merits of the rest of the place, whereas the previous state of the kitchen likely set the tone for the rest of the showing). The central air and in-unit w/d, and certainly the private roof deck, make this (well-located) unit the sort of place that’s worth buying, rather than renting (mainly because of the extreme rarity of such units for rent). But, as noted in the prior chatter, the paramount issue with this place is the parking. For two bedroom buyers in the $500k (give or take $50k) range, if the parking is going to be “rental nearby” or the like, then the unit itself is going to have to be really exceptional (higher end kitchen/baths, great condition (no charred fireplace bricks), elegant details, maybe an elevator, etc. (Places like the Marlborough come to mind (fronting Lakeview), where residents can rent spaces in one of the neighboring buildings.) This could be a cool place, but they’re looking at a very small set of would be buyers. It’s going to come down to the right folks being blown away by the roof deck, with the thoughts of the gatherings they’ll host this summer, that will get it done, likely in the mid-400’s.
Its one thing if you have parking right behind your unit in a 4 story non-elevator building, but can you imagine something as simple as grocery shopping when your car is “nearby” and then going up 4 flights of stairs in addition to that? In January?
I’ve been seeing several properties in my area come on the market for MUCH more than they sold for a year ago. I am very curious to see if they will be able to get anywhere close to asking. Selfishly, I hope not since I don’t want my property valuation for real estate taxes to go up.
The crow’s nest in this place is cool. I like odd things though. For $500k I would want deeded parking. For that matter, I wouldn’t even look at a place in any price range if it didn’t at least have rental parking in the building.
Agree with Jenny. A half million dollars and no parking? Pass.
I’ve been seeing several properties in my area come on the market for MUCH more than they sold for a year ago.
Definitely. However, the “price change” email alerts I get from various realty sites are still all changes in one direction (down). People are still way too optimistic about their listing price.
can always order from peapod….then grocery shopping not a problem.
Oh yeah paying 50% more for my groceries is a smart use of money…. Not to mention I don’t want some random idiot picking out my produce
“paying 50% more for my groceries is a smart use of money”
Or, “spending 2 hours a week shopping to save $50 is a waste of my time”.
Never took you for an extreme couponer, sonies.
If Peapod groceries were delivered by robots, I would order. I hate making small talk with the delivery guy and then tipping him. I try to order all non-perishables from Amazon. I force myself to go to the grocery store for fruit and cheese. I figure it’s better than having someone’s big feet traipsing about my house and wiping the sweat off of his forehead with his forearm. Yuck.
IT actually takes me longer to find stuff on peapod than it does in the store… i’m in and out of the Jewel in 30 minutes with 2 weeks full of food. Good luck getting that done the first visit to peapod
This place is pretty nice in terms of the layout, high ceilings, etc. 1800 sq. feet is not small plus the roof top deck is the shit. I think this is reasonably priced. Love east Lincoln Park.
Jenny, I have my groceries brought home from Dominick’s and a nice, clean, polite man sets them down just inside the door as I tell him to, then leaves quickly. He RUNS up with my stuff, and then RUNS back down.
It beats having to own a car, and it REALLY beats having to haul my own groceries up stairs.