Your 1100 Sq. Ft. Terrace Still Awaits in River North: 200 W. Grand
We last chattered about this 2-bedroom at 200 W. Grand in River North with its own private 1100 square foot terrace in June 2011.
See our prior chatter here.
It’s still available and has been reduced $20,000.
In June, many of you thought it was simply overpriced- terrace or not.
If you recall, the terrace wasn’t a slab of concrete but was actually professinally landscaped and had sprinklers and a soundsystem.
The building was constructed in 2003/2004 so the unit has the other finishes typical for this time period including granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances in the kitchen.
The unit has central air and a full-size stackable washer/dryer.
It is now listed $72,500 under the 2007 purchase price.
Is the $500,000 smaller 2/2 going to be a thing of the past- even in River North?
Scott Berg at Berg Properties still has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #603: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1250 square feet, 1100 square foot terrace
- Sold in June 2004 for $486,000 (included the parking)
- Sold in November 2007 for $601,500 (included the parking)
- Originally listed in April 2011 for $559,000 (included the parking)
- Reduced
- Was listed in June 2011 for $549,000 (includes the parking)
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $499,000 (plus $30,000 for parking= $529,000)
- Assessments of $783 a month (includes heat, a/c, gas, doorman, cable)
- Taxes of $3693
- Central Air
- In-unit washer/dryer
- Bedroom #1: 13×12
- Bedroom #2: 13×10
Sonies – on the prior chatter you we speculating about your property taxes. What happened?
Still like the place and think that it will find a happy buyer. I’d value the terrace at around $50k premium to a non- terrace two bedroom. Anyone know what that means in ths building?
Love the parking trick. You are not fooling anyone! The reality is that this buyer should have splurged or negotiated for two spaces to go with his premium priced terrace unit. I think that would help the place sell. A couple that will spend extra for this place will likely be a two earner and potentially a two car family aka…they have a date night image car to go with the everyday practical auto.
This is getting to look like a better deal. The terrace is pretty unique, and the assessments and taxes are quite reasonable. Speaking for myself, I’d sacrifice the large terrace to be on a higher floor with a great view, but I can see the attraction of this place (bedrooms are too small, however).
This is what happens when people use an MLS-listing-only realtor like Berg and then take horrible point and shoot pictures of their place.
“Sonies – on the prior chatter you we speculating about your property taxes. What happened?”
I’m going with 4.25% increase.
Oh–that’s *before* accounting for his now available HO exemption. Should be down slightly, overall.
JP3 – I posted in the last thread that the last 2/2 I found in the building sold for 400, but that was back in December.
@Bradford – agreed. Amazing how sellers skimp one of the most important elements of drawing a potential buyer in to your home..THE PHOTOGRAPHS. Even an amateur with a wide angle lens could do more justice to this home than the idiot who photographed it with his/her pocket camera.
my taxes went down $295 for the year (from the homeowners exemption), so about a 5% decrease
I can’t imagine anyone wanting to live in this location for anything more than 4 years, how tiring the neighborhood and concrete and cars would get. Therefore, rent in River North in this submarket (200 west).
The photos probably didn’t start off quite as bad… Any modern point and shoot is probably 8 or 10 megapixels so you end up with a photo that is 4000×3000 or more. Then you have an idiot upload it to the MLS which only accepts photos that are 600×500 (all numbers made up, by the way) and what-do-you-know the crappy resize algorithm turns them blurry and pixelated on top of being amateurish in the first place.
If someone knew what they were doing they could get perfectly fine listing photos from their iPhone.
“I can’t imagine anyone wanting to live in this location for anything more than 4 years, how tiring the neighborhood and concrete and cars would get. ”
hah prepare to get flamed!
The problem with those pics isn’t the resize algorithm, it’s using the awful flash on a point and shoot. Add a user who frames and composes a shot poorly, and you have bad photos. A bad shot like these looked just as bad when they were taken– just at 10 megapixels. No shot will look pro with a built-in flash on a point and shoot.
Turn the flash off, put the camera on a cheap tripod, and use the camera’s timer.
“Amazing how sellers skimp one of the most important elements of drawing a potential buyer in to your home..THE PHOTOGRAPHS. Even an amateur with a wide angle lens could do more justice to this home than the idiot who photographed it with his/her pocket camera.”
The seller is cheap! They’re also using scam brokerage Berg Properties, which doesn’t do any work they just list on the MLS for a fee.
“scam brokerage”
Um, how is it a scam? They lie about what they charge or the service offered?
If you know something, spill. If no spill, then no truth.
I agree anyone living here would get tired of the concrete. I worked around the corner from this place for two years. There is not a blade of grass to be seen for blocks. I don’t know where the nearest park is. If you have kids, there’s no playgrounds I can think of.
I think I’d take this place over yesterday’s 2/2 with a terrace for $100k more.
I’m surprised this hasn’t sold. The terrace is really unique for the area.
It will only take one more nearly retired govt worker from out-of-town who wants to impress his grad school children to get this sold.
There is a really nice park with a great playground at Kingsbury and Ontario – about half a mile away from this condo.
I would prefer to be closer to a good park, but half a mile isn’t terrible.
“I can’t imagine anyone wanting to live in this location for anything more than 4 years, how tiring the neighborhood and concrete and cars would get.”
True, true and true. I lived in RN for 5 years before bailing to Lakeview. So much happier now. You forgot to mention the elevators, cramped units, and the wildings and criminal element that has made RN kind of a mess this year. The neighborhood’s defenders, not surprisingly, are mostly underwater condo owners who are stuck. As a neighborhood for an “in town”, it’s probably alright, but wait for the 2/2s to get down to around $200k. They’re on their way there already.
“It will only take one more nearly retired govt worker from out-of-town who wants to impress his grad school children to get this sold.”
who you are thinking of doesn’t live in this building, they are a block west
Tipster,
Are you a parent? A half a mile is a long, long way to walk with a toddler to the park. Yes, I realize there are strollers for a reason. But still, when they have a breakdown at the park, and you have a 15-minute walk to get home, it can be tough.
“I can’t imagine anyone wanting to live in this location for anything more than 4 years, how tiring the neighborhood and concrete and cars would get.”
I lived in the neighborhood for several years too and every time I go back to visit friends I’m glad I moved. The streets are congested and there are tourists everywhere. It’s not a bad place to be if you just moved to the city though (good public transportation, might be able to walk to work or have quick commute, lots of supermarkets and shopping nearby).
Dan#2-
It takes you 15 minutes to take a screaming kid in a stroller 4 blocks? Four blocks is nothing to get to a nice park.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
yeah, let the little monster scream. builds up their lung capacity.
“The streets are congested and there are tourists everywhere.”
I live in RN, closer to Kingsbury, and the streets west of Clark are not that congested. Sure, Ohio gets jammed with people heading towards Mich Ave but all the western parts if erie, superior, huron, etc. are not bad at all. Regarding tourists, again, the eastern part of RN (more like the mag mile area) are jammed with them but once you venture a little west theres not too many.
” the wildings and criminal element that has made RN kind of a mess this year.”
I guess I’ve been lucky enough to not witness any of this “criminal element” first hand.
a few morons got mugged at state and chicago therefore RN = unsafe and full of criminals using cribchatter logic
I went to many parties in this unit from 2005 to 2007 and enjoyed every minute of drinking and socializing on that terrace. Yes, the unit is pretty small on the inside but the terrace is going to easily be worth the tradeoff for somebody. That said, it will be a lot more difficult to sell this place in the winter.
The more concerning issues for this building are the overall build quality and the state of the association. If I were buying in this building, I would definitely do my homework on reserves, specials, etc.
chi_dad did you talk about what big swingin’ dicks y’all were during the boom because you were owners and how the world was your oyster? how ’bout them oysters?
Bob – you’re an ass. I didn’t live there, you moron, and I am doing just fine post-boom. In fact, I didn’t buy during the boom – I rented because I knew prices weren’t sustainable.
I can only guess that you left your miserable job at 3:00 yesterday, and already had 8 PBR’s down at Rossi’s when you posted that inane comment from your refurb’ed Palm Treo.