You Can Get a 2/2 in Lincoln Square for just $250,000: 4438 N. Damen
This 2-bedroom in The Robey at 4438 N. Damen in Lincoln Square came on the market in mid-February, went under contract, but has returned to the market.
It has east and west views with the east views looking down the courtyard.
The unit has cherry floors, exposed brick, high ceilings and a unique wall of east facing windows in the hallway.
This complex was converted to condos in 2008 so the finishes are pretty new.
The kitchen has dark wood cabinets, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances.
There’s also an HD projection television in the living room.
This property has the features buyers look for including a balcony, central air and washer/dryer in the unit.
There’s no parking with the building but you can rent it in the garage across the street.
You are just a few blocks to the Damen or Montrose brown line stops and the shops and restaurants of Lincoln Square or on Montrose.
Is this a perfect starter condo?
Given the listing history, seems like you’d better act fast if you’re interested.
Matthew Shrake at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #4W: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, no square footage listed
- Sold in June 2008 for $293,000
- Lis pendens foreclosure filed in January 2015
- Originally listed in mid-February 2016
- Under contract
- Re-listed in March 2016 for $250,000
- Assessments of $245 a month
- Taxes of $3436
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Rental parking available across the street for $110 to $125 a month
- Bedroom #1: 11×10
- Bedroom #2: 9×9
- Living room: 15×12
- Kitchen: 10×9
I like it at $225k
Its a bit tiny, I would have sacrificed the 2nd bath for more living space. Why in a small apartment does one need 2 full baths?
Also the parking, yes it can be rented but not guaranteed. but would one need a car here anyways?
My wife and I live in the Robey, and it’s a fantastic building. The 2nd bathroom, even if you don’t think you need it, is what will ensure your resale value stays high, especially as recent sales and current inventory have most 2/2 condos around $300k. I can’t recommend this condo building higher!
Pretty small overall, I agree it looks better at a lower price. I am surprised it ever sold at 293K some time after the peak. This is a good location with two, soon to be three when the 11 comes back, buslines nearby as well as the Brown Line. Unless you drive every day you might be able to get by without the parking cost.
What a beautiful old building, in a great neighborhood. I love Lincoln Square.
The building’s exterior has so much charm that I was salivating with anticipation of equally charming traditional interiors with all the trimmings you expect in a 20s-vintage courtyard. You know, cove moldings and swirl plaster walls and pretty millwork and all that.
Alas, the place has been gut-dehabbed with exposed brick and and an open floor plan and ugly boxed-in F/A furnace ducts. All the barrenness of a loft with none of the beauty, interest, or sense of space a real loft has. Shame.
“HD projection television”
Sold.
“Is this a perfect starter condo?”
Why not skip the whole condo thing and get this;
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3501-N-Orange-Ave-60634/home/13543789
You lose a half bath, but gain a bedroom. you get adult sized living space. It includes 3 parking spaces in the price in your own garage on the property, plus ample street parking for about 50 guests. you dont get a 5×3 balcony you get a full yard. intead of a courtyard you get a huge park across the street!
you also get a basement.
I know where i would put my money
“Why in a small apartment does one need 2 full baths?”
What? You have not heard of Jenny’s disaster scenario of everyone gets diarrhea together?
Or if you really want starter, save 100k and get this;
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3819-N-Odell-Ave-60634/home/13544297
and its walking distance to all the shopping you will ever need. you do have to like blue, but you get to play where’s waldo trying to find a TV.
Groove, but you don’t live in a cool and hip neighborhood.
“Groove, but you don’t live in a cool and hip neighborhood.”
Technically it is a HIP neighborhood
Dunning ain’t hip thats immigrant housing zone IIRC
Groove you made some good points. There are a lot of decent houses in other neighborhoods. It is all a personal choice. This condo is for someone who is single or double income no kids. If you are married and have kids then there are affordable neighborhoods like Norwood Park, Portage Park, Dunning, Rogers Park, etc…
Nice place. I’d take for a little over 200k and then sell my car.
Groove, I would sacrifice slightly larger rooms for a full 2nd bath any day, even for a larger 2bd/1bth in general. The freedom to not have to share a bathroom with a roommate or significant-other cannot be overlooked. I do not want to subject my gf to those potentially explosive nights.
To be fair, I have seen something like Jenny’s simultaneous diarrhea scenario (JSDS) happen before. It was back in my early twenties when I lived with two other roommates in a 3bd/1bth. I was luckily spared from whatever virus they had, but did everything I could to avoid using the bathroom for a good three days while my other roommates destroyed it. I would go to the nearby starbucks just to use their bathroom, or the Golden Nugget (no pun intended) on Clark if it was late. I spared myself the awkwardness of asking them to sanitize the bathroom and ended up cleaning it myself after a few days. Never again, Groove & Miumiu. Never again.
Only problem with that house you posted is that it’s in BFE.
I’d be “done” with Dunning after my first commute to work downtown.
“Dunning ain’t hip thats immigrant housing zone IIRC”
Like i stated it is a HIP neighborhood. its right by the Harlem Irving Plaza better know as H.I.P by people who leave the bubble of their river west hi-rise.
Dunning is a solid middle class good family hood that is finally become diverse. (used to be only polish and italian)
“Groove, I would sacrifice slightly larger rooms for a full 2nd bath any day”
I am scared for the future of our society. (thats even after ben carson finally stepped down)
with this need for a functioning bathroom for each person inhabiting the home. the removal of a functioning dining room in favor of a 20×15 master bedrom with walk in closet and a 15×10 master bathroom. also the need to put a microwave over the range. the build a house so big you eat up the whole backyard so you now have to put a gator deck on the garage.
and since i am ranting, what the heck is with these oversized kitchens. and its mostly huge fat arses that cant cook anyways but some how need a double oven to stare at while the eat a little debbie brownie that they bought a truck load from costco. and they have a 6 burner range that they only use 2 burners to cook mac-n-cheese on one and fry a darn prepackaged hamburger patty.
until recent, I have always lived in a 1 bathroom place. i grew up that way and it wasnt a problem. lived a bit over 10 years at our previous place that had one bathroom and we all had no problems. Always had small kitchens but we some how are able to cover all parties and holidays, even with my huge family, without ever skipping a beat.
is the same as all these 3 row SUV’s that i never see more than one person in. all these so called AWD/4×4 “off-road” suv’s that have never been off road (the potholes on webster dont count) and the AWD is used what like 3 times this winter if that.
and seriously what is with this trend of people buying full on climb mount everst gear just to walk a block to get a $5 cup of burnt tasting starbucks coffee. really its not that cold out and you are not descending K2
BTW your dog is not the same a kid, dont say it or thing it. its a dang dog, yes there are some kids that some think should be put down but legally you cant. you can a dog. and little spot doesnt laugh at your silly joke like a kid does even if you think it understands you.
dont get me started on these things you call millennials….
Also: get off my lawn!
“Groove you made some good points. There are a lot of decent houses in other neighborhoods. It is all a personal choice. This condo is for someone who is single or double income no kids.”
Agreed, it is personal choice. I am just trying to point out some choices one may not know about.
Personally my choice when i was single and DINK was to rent an apartment and not buy an apartment. Our personal choice when we were DINK’s was to buy a SFH. Never need the cache of living in a cool hood, what ever hood i lived in became hip by proximity to my awesomeness. also found i had way more disposable income by not living in a trendy hood, which in turn gave me more cache by being the dude who would valet everywhere i went.
Lets take this condo to the blue house for 100k less. Personally i would take the house even if i worked in the loop. with my savings i will drive to work everyday, what is a monthly spot $250 a month?
So even after the 30 year life of the loan the savings in interest plus the savings of 100k purchase price, i will still come out ahead. plus i will get to work faster and in the comfort and solitude of my own transportation.
yeah, blah blah, car cost. well you would own a car at the condo too, plus pay $125 a month for parking across the street. gas is equivalent in my eyes to a ventra card.
but like nimesh said, its persoanl pref.
Dogs aren’t kids, they beat the crap out of kids. If having kids means being relegated to living by the HIP that is like prison lite to me. But to each their own.
When I bought my condo in 2003, I wanted to live in Lincoln Square but was priced out. I wanted a condo because I didn’t think I could handle home maintenance and didn’t appreciate the benefits of having a basement, a garage and other things that come with a house versus a condo.
I also made the mistake of letting Chitowngal talk me out of lowballing a condo that had been on the market for almost 50 days and keeping the parking.
“with this need for a functioning bathroom for each person inhabiting the home.”
I just read an article by a woman who has been married for 25 years and she said the key to a successful marriage was having his and her bathrooms (i.e. NOT sharing.)
Back in the 1970s, they built the houses with 1 bath. But not everyone even had a television in that era (hard to believe, but true.)
But America is richer now. We have Home Depot. There’s no reason to have 1-bathroom in a house anymore. It’s really not about cost.
I agree with Laura: a beautiful old building with so much potential, but the “rehabbers” ruined the interior, mostly due to going cheap. Exposed brick looks horrible in this kind of apartment, but hey let’s not bother repairing the wonderful old plaster walls, or even drywalling. Where they did drywall, no need to spend money on actually framing the windows — except where there is exposed brick, in which case the framing looks tacky and out-of-place. Open-plan, check. And what kind of planning wastes all those windows on a hallway?
“There’s no reason to have 1-bathroom in a house anymore. It’s really not about cost.”
The reason is this place is tiny to start, a second bath is eating up square footage. it is not needed, as you can tell by the placement of the tv over the dining table.
“I wanted a condo because I didn’t think I could handle home maintenance”
If your not handy nor have the time paying someone else to do it is cheap. Life got busy for me for a bit so i didnt have time to go all the way to beverly each week to cut my uncles grass. and when i did get to swing by it was raining.
Well for $45 a month ! hired a landscaper to do the edging, cut the grass, trim the hedges and bushes, do a fall and spring clean up, and take care of the gutters. you do pay extra for the spring and fall plus gutters, but its dirt cheap. same for snow removal i pay the the neighbors teenage kids to shovel his place. Now when i swing by i just either spend time with him or fix something on the inside.
The only diff in maintenance between a condo and a SFH is the exterior and ground maintenance. You still need to cover the interior maintenance, and that the most expensive and less rewarding. well okay shoveling snow sucks more than anything.
“If having kids means being relegated to living by the HIP that is like prison lite to me.”
trust me SidV when you have kids and when they turn 3, we will see your 2/2 condo in the west loop listed with the obligatory baby crib picture and you will move back to the suburb you came from. That was Wheaton correct?
Wheaton, WTH? If you were trying to pick the lamest burb to insult you did a good job though! Nope, pretty much a city dweller for life here, almost exclusively in the past and most likely in the future.
When I was growing up in a blue-collar suburban neighborhood, we had the mist enviable, upscale house on the block. Why? Because in addition to the full bath on the second floor, we had a powder room in the basement! We were the envy of all our neighbors…at least until they scraped up the money to put a full or half bath in their own basements.
Of course I got my come-uppance eventually, when I was in the home of some truly affluent friends. Not only did their house have the obligatory bath-and-a-half, but the parents had their own private bath! This was in the 60’s, when “master suites” were truly a luxury and not just something to be expected, even in small condos.
” If you were trying to pick the lamest burb to insult you did a good job though!”
honestly i could have named any suburb and it would all be the same.
“Dunning is a solid middle class good family hood that is finally become diverse. (used to be only polish and italian)”
It used to be Irish and Italian. Today the kids are gone, the old folks are dying off, it’s Polish and Hispanic immigrant and it’s going to end up like Riis Park, eventually.