Your Own Church Still Awaits: 2558 W. Cortez in West Town
We last chattered about this church being used as a single family home at 2558 W. Cortez in West Town in October of 2009.
See our October 2009 chatter here.
It is still available and has now been reduced $220,000.
The church has 3 bedrooms and 1 bath in 4000 square feet. The current listing says it has “parking onsite”.
It is on an oversized lot of 55×125.
With 39 foot ceilings it has the original windows, wood floors throughout, and a bi-level bell tower.
However, like many churches built in this early time period in Chicago’s history, it does not have central air.
Who has the vision for this unique property?
Thyra Decicco at @Properties now has the listing. See the pictures here.
2558 W. Cortez: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 4000 square feet
- Sold in January 1994 for $172,500
- Originally listed in June 2009 for $970,000
- Reduced
- Was listed in October 2009 at $890,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed for $749,900
- Taxes of $3359
- No central air
- 2 car parking onsite
- Bedroom #1: 14×12
- Bedroom #2: 12×12
- Bedroom #3: 10×10
- Living room: 65×47
- Kitchen: 10×24
That is still too high a price to live in what I am guessing is considered by many potential buyers as “the hood.” How is this area?
BTW Agent alert. Show a floorplan! Especially with a really unique statement about how it is currently 4000 feet but could be 7000. Show us how! What gets expanded a basement????
It’s *maybe* worth $500k. Unless the nightclub idea from the prior thread would work.
I’ve always dreamed of a church/school renovation so I drove past this place. That picture of the church must have been either (1) digitally enhanced or (2) taken on the sunniest day EVER. The neighborhood is quite bad – lots of section 8 housing right around there. Even if you are safe in your church (praying to the false premise that people won’t vandalize a church), good luck with a car parked in the open there… That said, it would be a unique opp, but not at this price because you’ll have to pour money into this to make it decent.
At this price I wonder if a non-profit or a business will snap it up, great natural light… would be nice work digs for an architect, maybe?
or heck, you could run a meth lab out of there.
the taxes don’t make any sense (unless the city doesn’t realize that it is not being used as a church). Given the lot size and size of the building should be at least 15k.
also, the square footage doesn’t seem to add up at all – the building seems to occupy most of the 55 x125 lot and has at least 2 stories but is listed at only 4000 square feet.
ok, one more thing – what are the utility costs for a place of that size?
I’ll shut up now.
“also, the square footage doesn’t seem to add up at all – the building seems to occupy most of the 55 x125 lot and has at least 2 stories but is listed at only 4000 square feet.”
1. Not based on the aeriel view it doesn’t occupy most of the lot.
2. The second “floor” is basically a balcony around the perimeter, not a full second floor.
“Given the lot size and size of the building should be at least 15k. ”
1. Land is *radically* under assessed in the city.
2. What’s an un-updated 3/1 SFH “worth” in this ‘hood? Maybe $300k? Seems like the implied assessed value is about that.
3. $15k in the city implies an assessor’s MV of about $1-1.2mm. No way that’s the right assessor’s value for this place.
4. IF someone pays $700k for it, the taxes *will* go up dramatically.
This is perfect for someone who clings to Guns & God!
(They’ll need both on this block)
Everybody knows you don’t buy west of Western, silly.
I was out this way Friday. I saw one of those flashing blue lights at Augusta.
COOL, COOL place with a ton of potential for a spectacular SFH. We toured this right before I went back to NYC and had my floor plan dude come up with doable (for a ton of $$$) plan utilizing all of our ideas. The thing about old buildings like this (schoolhouses of the late 1800’s are the same) is that they are built like no other buildings. VERY solid and sturdy places.
I was surprised that the building was in relatively sound condition. Other than replacing the entire roof, not much else was required to keep it a stable place for the next 10-30 years. While it was in passable condition, of course the buyer would want to replace all plumbing and electrical and I would want to do this in the initial remodel. Adding AC would also be a herculean effort and most likely there would be exposed duct work ala the loft style so popular in Chicago.
One of our ideas was to do glass bridge(s) from the outer level surround to a raised platform in the center of the place to be used as a master bedroom/sitting area that would overlook the lower living areas.
We had a few other ideas that I squashed as I was spending too much time thinking about it and at that point I had already stopped buying anything. For an architect or a Construction company owner, this would ba feasible place for their own use as the $$$ that would be required to transform it into a spectactular place would never be able to be recovered.
That said, priced at $750k now + the required million needed for the renovation we had planned, it would be a great project to undertake.
LOL @ all of the banter on the last prior thread.
Groove, the ‘hot’ comment was in reference to a comment you made about being able to ‘score’ more dudes than I would be able to from a prior comment. Had a good laugh at that one!!
During the move I was away from CC for awhile and didn’t see the suggestions for a meetup at ZED. I would still be willing to show up for a meet if anyone else would care to. I am taking 2 weeks off to drive and check up on a bungalow project in Denver and would stop in Chicago for it if one could be set up in Sept. Just got a new car and I want to take it for a good long ride. NYC to Denver and back should get that out of my system.
Anyone else still interested in doing a meet and greet?
If this was down near Smith Park it would be a lot more attractive.
wonder how much it would cost to tuck point this behemoth…. good gravy!
“Anyone else still interested in doing a meet and greet?”
I’m game.
I always liked the idea of buying a church for residential purposes, but I was always concerned about resale appeal. For what it’s worth, maybe it’s time for the sellers to bury St. Joe in the backyard.
YES on the meet and greet.
To the question of whether this photo was digitally enhanced- you give too much credit to Crib Chatter! What kind of an operation do you think we run here? ha! ha!
So the answer is “no”. That is the actual church on a “regular” day. It WAS lovely that day, however.
wait a minute – sabrina, you actually go and take the pcitures yourself?!! wow – I didn’t realize that. maybe you have found another calling!!!
“wait a minute – sabrina, you actually go and take the pcitures yourself?!! wow – I didn’t realize that. maybe you have found another calling!!!”
Every time the market worsens, fewer agents answer my e-mails so, yes, in order to have pictures on this site, I go out and take many of them myself. Recently, the market has worsened again so I am taking more and more.
It’s in the seller’s best interest to let me use their professionally taken ones, since, despite your comment clio, I basically stink at it and it will show better with the professional picture. But, alas, many agents don’t want their listings on this site with the tough market.
But this church picture did turn out well.
I think it is an impractical but extremely cool space, minus the out of place Japanese panels. I wonder why the didn’t stage it better. Give me $2,000 and two days and I could make it into a jaw dropper.
“Every time the market worsens, fewer agents answer my e-mails”
Further proof that realtards don’t want to make money… you think the worse the market gets the more desparate people would get…
“But, alas, many agents don’t want their listings on this site with the tough market.”
As hard as it is to reveal this, I think…no I know you are wrong as to why agents don’t want to cooperate with you and your site.
I recently spoke at length with a well known and fairly successful Chicago agent regarding one of your recent properties I was interested in touring and perhaps purchasing for use as my base residence in Chicago.
The unit I occupied during my previous stay sold recently and I wanted to have a Chicago residence as we are planning on returning to the city in the late fall. Two of my crew really loved the city and plan on resuming their work there. Whether or not I will be involved to the extent I was before remains to be seen, but I will provide the financing to get them stated in their offshoot branch of the company.
Anyway, the topic of CC came up because of the article that featured you and your site. This agent relayed to me how many agents don’t place any value in the site due to the mostly unwarranted and highly negative comments made by some of the regular posters.
They feel there is little to no useful information to be had here. Instead of providing any useful and valuable information, especially to new to the market buyers, all they get are commments unneccessarily trashing the listings, areas of the city and even the negative banter back and forth between the regulars. All of these factors add up to agents refusing to have anything to do with this great site.
I do see their point as I too would be very hesitant to have any of our rehabbed properties featured due to the harshness displayed. As proud as I am of the work we do and as confident as I am of the quality and value the buyers would be getting for their money, I don’t care to read the negative comments that always come up. As we discussed, the majority of the negative comments are just not needed and they serve no real purpose. I take back my offer to claim any of my properties if they ever do make their way onto this site.
While I see the point that this agent was attempting to convey and in part agreed with it, I offered nothing but supportive comments of the work you and your site do. Is this place for everyone? No, esp to those not experienced in buying or selling and these agents realize that. One of the stories relayed told of a couple that backed out of a contract due to the comments posted here. Feeling they had to cancel the contract was a huge disappointment for the couple as they really did love the place. It was also a loss of commission for the agent (a better one who does their work well) and believe me, that story was spread throughout the cities agencies. It ended up being a huge negative for CC…one that will never be forgotten.
Sorry to have to relay this conversation to you all, esp to you Sabrina, but maybe we can take this as a lesson to really think and even do some further research on the featured properties BEFORE the negative comments are posted.
As much as I enjoy reading here and as much as I have learned about the Chicago market, the comments do go far overboard and do not help anyone in a real search for a home to buy. Although the number of listings here is but a tiny portion of what is available at any one time, the collective nature of the comments made solely for trashing purposes would make me rethink whether or not I wanted to buy in Chicago.
sorry, westloopelo, i have to disagree.
I find the site extremely helpful. The negative information is especially helpful to me, a buyer because sometimes this information is just not readily available or easily accessible. As someone who buys a lot of property but doesn’t know the intimate details of every neighborhood in Chicago, I find the site to be very helpful. Of course, you have to separate the truth from opinion, but the back and forth banter can also be entertaining. If someone backs out of a contract because of the site, that is great because it probably disseminated some important information/fact that the potential buyers did not yet know (thereby saving them headaches down the road).
kudos to sabrina and this site!!
clio,
I did not state I found the site to be without merit or value. I was merely passing along a conversation I had with a well known broker and nothing more.
I am where you are at…I am a serious RE investor and have been all my life. I have also bought a significant amount of property in Chicago. The info from here was of importance to me.
But alas, we ARE totally different from inexperienced buyers and the comments here are sometimes unwarranted…a fact that might not be distinguishable to those new to the market.
As a realtor, unless you think not providing permission to repost photos will deter Sabrina from posting your properties, or somehow otherwise limit the visibility of such postings, why wouldn’t you allow the photos (which presumably show your property in the best light) to be posted here and come on here to defend your property. Some realtors do this very well, some do it very poorly.
Most realtors will not come here to defend their properties as they realize this audience is not seriously considering purchasing at this time. I’d say one out of a thousand posts here (a generous figure) are made by those in the market ready to buy with a mortgage lined up.
And a realtor should not have to defend their property as the majority of these comments are not valid.
I do belive Sabrina has to obtain permission to feature a property here does she not? I recall her saying that she has reconsidered featuring a place due to objections by the seller or the agent involved.
As it should be.
“I do belive Sabrina has to obtain permission to feature a property here does she not?”
I thought she could feature whatever she wants whether the realtors like it or not (whether she factors their opinions into account is another question). Issue is permission for posting the listing photos.
“I’d say one out of a thousand posts here (a generous figure) are made by those in the market ready to buy with a mortgage lined up.”
I don’t know if that is right or not, but I think the more relevant metric is how many serious buyers of a given property are posting OR READING posts here. The realtors can also get some advertising for themselves from being active on here. I have a positive impression of some from reading their posts.
“I have a positive impression of some from reading their posts.”
And a *negative* impression of others?
“I’d say one out of a thousand posts here (a generous figure) are made by those in the market ready to buy with a mortgage lined up.”
I’ve been following this site for a while. I don’t know . . . two years, year and half? And I have purchased a new home in the last 6 months. It seems from comments I’ve read that a few other posters have as well.
I’ll also note that I’ve gone to look at a few properties that I first saw on cribchatter. I’ve also started conversations with people at open houses that told me they too had learned about the property on cribchatter.
While I agree that many of the posts here are uninformed and unduly negative, I disagree that has anything to do with this site per se. Sabrina does a great job. It’s not her fault that there are a lot of morons and grumps in the world.
“And a *negative* impression of others?”
Trying to focus on the positive…
I will say that I don’t think it would be easy to see your property being (fairly or unfairly) bashed and respond professionally.
skeptic: “At this price I wonder if a non-profit or a business will snap it up, great natural light… would be nice work digs for an architect, maybe?
or heck, you could run a meth lab out of there.”
I would start my own religion/cult, and as the high priest I would rake in all of the tax exemptions for clergy and church property.
I do agree with what you state in your last post DZ.
I too have come away from this site with both positive (Gary Lucido) and negative (Guess who) reactions to RE agents.
I do commend those who are brave enough to step forward and post here, esp if they do so in defense of their listings after negative comments have been posted.
I also agree that if done correctly, the RE agents/brokers could use this forum as a sort of advertisement for their company.
All I know is if one of my places were to be featured here and the negative criticisms were unfounded and without merit, I would have a hard time remaining in a positive professional mood.
Again though, let me state that I do think Sabrina does a fantastic job with this site and when used correctly there is a good amount of information that could be taken away from it…it is more the negativity of posts that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Agents just hate anything that doesn’t operate in their little ridiculous world, I have seen it several times talking to agents at open houses. No wonder they would hate CC as well. Note that Redfin isn’t allowed to link to any blog posts about specific properties. Agents don’t want anyone discussing the property anywhere unless they were paid to discuss it in a positive/journalistic manner.
I read this forum because I’ve been able to learn a great deal about buying (and selling) real estate in Chicago. Having done it elsewhere, in a different city/state, much of what I’ve gleaned from here has been invaluable. But, I’m also able to dig through the chaff to find the wheat.
My realtor and I had much the same discussion as WLE describes above. Agents are either afraid of the site or dismiss it as full of crazies.
‘Million’ dollar homes like these are nearly as ubiquitous as cinder block three flats. Next.
Sorry wrong thread!
I do commend those who are brave enough to step forward and post here, esp if they do so in defense of their listings after negative comments have been posted
Westloopelo – I encouraged my own residence to be featured on this site. It was a loft featured back in May when it first hit the market. I’m not sure if my agent was fully in favor of the feature but he took it in stride. Although he did not post directly with his name I suspect that he may have posted a few “corrections” to the responses thru friends or other agents in his office.
I thought that it was an exercise of great value and helped me to get the reaction of some “experts” and plain old regular folk that are on the site. No one bashed the listing too bad but they did bring up some points. This helped me direct my agent on how to respond if that same question or point came up during a showing.
Sabrina – Awesome site! I think that some postings are better than others but all are interesting.
As a casual visitor to the site if you can not figure out that half the responses are comedic and useless while the other half have some serious education value then perhaps you have trouble reading people and situations and should not take any statement made on a public blog to heart.
I’d love to know what post or group of posts actually took out a contract. That would be really cool to research. See if you can figure out the property so that we can all revisit the thread. My guess is that they were already having buyers remorse or found something at inspection that was suspect and then found the CC post to put them over the top!
jp3,
dude if your place was the one with the claw foot tub, i shall bow down to anything you say for now on.
i actually think it would be a good thing to have our place featured on this site. it’s kind of like ‘how can you get better if you don’t know what you’re doing wrong?’
obviously some of those things like close to the EL, lot size, etc. are things you cant change. but at least you know deterrents and can adjust or compensate in another area accordingly.
again though, its hard for ppl to hear anything except rainbows & sunshine.
In regards to the success of the site:
I have heard from agents that about 50% love CC and 50% dread seeing their listings on it. Many agents “get it”- like Gary Lucido who posts here and doesn’t mind his listings appearing here. Others are, I hate to say it, literally afraid of the internet.
Like any real estate blog, there are a lot of negative comments so sellers have to have strong skin and take the good with the bad.
But there is a lot of good with having a property featured here. I have heard from sellers and agents that they have (1) painted because of comments (2) gotten rid of furniture and/or (3) reduced the price.
I have also heard from many buyers that they have purchased properties after seeing them on CC- so there are plenty of buyers reading this site. It also is helpful to homebuyers moving here from somewhere else who are unfamiliar with Chicago’s neighborhoods and schools. I have learned a great deal, myself, about the grade schools.
It’s very difficult to sell in this market and I think many agents know their properties are overpriced and fear having them on CC only to have comments like, “this is $100k overpriced.” Also, if they have less than great pictures, they are scared at what might be said about them.
Thanks to everyone who supports the site and sends me tips and suggestions. I read every e-mail. And, no, I don’t have to have permission from an agent to post on a property. I request permission simply to use the pictures. But, like I said, I can tell when the market is turning negative again because more agents are reluctant to let me use them. This has happened 2 or 3 times over the last 3 years. When I see a change in this behavior- I’ll let you know (as that means we’re closer to the bottom.)
Thanks!
Sabrina
Thank You Sabrina for clarifying the whole situation!
It was very hard for me to reveal what I did in my original thread…I hate saying negative things about most everything in my life and this was especially hard as it does provide me with a wealth of information about what is happening in the Chicago market.
I did start reading the ‘other’ site when I first moved here, but the whole thing just creeped me out for some reason and now I do not visit at all. It seems so biased in the skewed coverage and I guess that is to be expected from having paid sponsors which one needs to rely on to remain active.
Thanks again for giving everyone interested in this business a place in which to learn, comment, whine, and most fun of all…fight over the newest toys on Christmas (listings and opinions) like we were siblings.
Fantastic site!!! and the only RE based one (other than Curbed NYC) that I refer many the people to that I come across during my work related encounters…. or just during the casual conversations I have daily.
Fantastic
**should read ‘….the many people that I come across….’ in the last paragraph
@CK: There’s a blue light camera at Belmont and Clark…do you fear for your life there too?
Just noting it. Hardly afraid son.