Some forward progress but not where we want to be

Apparently, Dark Vader went to Michigan

I got a few things done over the weekend, including a plaster repair project that had been outstanding
for a long time.  So next weekend I get to paint. I tried to do the basement access thing but botched it.  It isn't a project one can really do during nap time.  So maybe when the weather gets better in the spring.

Speaking of which, we had a rare 70 degree Sunday in October.  Our weekends are generally sleeping as late as our kids will let us, then doing something with them so they get worn out enough to take a long nap.  Then when they awake, we try to wear them out again so they go to bed and either sleep through the night in their own bed or at least give us a good head start to Slumberland. 

We went to the last Farmer's Market at Jefferson Park on Sunday.  Our thing is to get some crepes and then let the kids play on the playground.  It's not really relaxing for us though because we still have to watch that the kids don't get hurt and play nicely with other kids.

On Friday Nightingale officially sold her south loop condo.  It was a long, arduous journey if you count last year's efforts.  We put it on the market early August and it went under contract within a week.  Everything seemed to go along fine until two weeks before the closing.  I'm not gonna go into the painful details but essentially it fell out of contract and we had to put it back on the market. 

Luckily, a cash buyer showed up and it went back under contract quickly.  Because it was a cash buyer we could close quickly which helped but we still got stuck with an extra month of mortgage.  Then a week before closing another issue came up, we resolved it but it was a costly solution.

I hate lawyers. I hate realtors and I hate the Fucking Mortgage industry.  If any kind of apocalypse crops up, I really hope those three groups don't survive. 

But at least it is off the books and we will hopefully stop being screwed at tax time.

For grins and giggles, I paid off my car a few months early.  While I had been making larger than required payments from day one (I usually round up to a whole number) there was never any immediate need to pay it off faster than the 60-month terms because my interest rate was something like 2.7%.  Even when my job went away earlier this year and my income stopped flowing, I was so far ahead that I didn't have to make a payment for two months if I didn't want.

We are looking into paying off Nightingale car next.  We didn't get enough back (and certainly didn't make any money) to pay it off in one shot but we can make a big enough dent that we would be within striking range of paying it off in a short amount of time. 

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Change the locks? I didn't

My former Condo Association President Kesha emailed me asking if I knew anything about the lockbox on the gate.  She had already asked me about my realtor removing the For Sale sign from the fence.  Realtors tend to leave their signs up as long as possible for advertising purposes. I sent a note to Gary and Marco asking them if they would like the sign back before it gets tossed in the trash which I understand they did, so if they had a lockbox they would have likely retrieved it as well.

So I sent a note to my contact at Chicago Apartment Finders and to My Former Property Manager just framing it as "hey I sold my condo so I don't care what you do but if that lock box costs what I think it does, you might want to come fetch it before the CA cuts it off the fence."  I of course used nicer language and emoticons.

My Former Property Manager, upon hearing the news that I sold the condo, congratulated me and said he would take care of the lockbox.  No acknowledgement that I managed to sell 1) without his special brand of help and 2) at a higher price than he believed I could achieve (I'm confident he looked it up as he knew my property had been listed and at what price).  

Note:  I wanted to post this Dilbert Cartoon which aptly describes Former Property Manager business model.  Alas there is no way to download it and the image-by-url feature is blocked for copyright purposes. 

I should point out that I am very lucky he was so recalcitrant in his stance in using an Exclusive Rental Agreement contract.  Had he offered an Non-Exclusive Agreement like Chicago Apartment Finders I probably would have just let him find me a new tenant and I'd still be a Reluctant Landlord right now. 

Former Property Manager said that the new owner would likely change the locks.  Well I certainly didn't.  I certainly intended to but that task slipped away from me, both in terms of cost and time.  And I suppose I was hedging my bets that since the former owners bought in Saganash they really didn't need anything from my bachelor pad.

Some Staging is just Overkill

Can you tell the difference between these two photos?  It will probably take you less than a minute to figure out that the second one is missing the storage bench.  Other than that, does the deck really look any different? As in twice a large or prettier or anything that would make you want to buy the second place over the first?

Of course not, because it is the same place.  One of the realtors I know gave me a free consult on getting our condo ready to be put on the market (again).  He suggested for the deck shot to remove everything except the grill.  I get that he's trying to optimize every shot and if you have the option, sure remove the bench.

I'll give him some credit, it was just a suggestion not an imperative.  Many of the realtors I've encountered act as if the only reason your place isn't selling is because you didn't take their staging advice to the letter.

Open House Sunday: Oak Park edition

There weren’t many new listings or Open Houses in the city that we were interested in, so this week we decided to check out some OH in OP. Oak Park is one of those suburbs that most of the people I make fun of for thinking Chicago ends at Lincoln Park have at least heard of. My friend JoshV just bought a home in OP and his theory is that OP is has a younger turnover because generally people buy in OP while they raise their children and then sell their homes as soon as the last kid is finished with high school so they can escape the high taxes.

Besides high taxes, OP has a no parking on residential streets rule in place. Therefore, any home we might buy not only has to have a garage, but an extra parking pad or drive way would be awesome for when Nightingale’s dad comes to visit with his F-150.


House No 1: Albany Park
4447 N Christiana
5 bd/3 ba $389000

Actually, we did have one city house to check out, a few blocks from our current place. It is a very nice rehab that has a lot going for it. The first floor has an awesome open floor plan from the Kitchen to the Great Room (dining room, living room and front room.) There’s also a little alcove with a desk which would be perfect for Nightingale. There’s also a bedroom on this level which would be a nice office or den.

What is the difference between an office and a den anyway?

This was definitely designed for entertaining. I think the only reason we aren’t snapping this up is we have made the decision to move out of our particular section of Irving/Albany Park.

Note:  House has been on the market for 24 days and had an initial price adjustment from $420K to $389K in the first week. This makes me think it was more of a listing correction than an organic price drop.


House No 2: Oak Park
805 N Cuyler, Oak Park
4 bd/ 2.1 ba $299900

Based on the listing sheet, the current owners updated things like roof, water heater and windows, which is good. The bad news is the kitchen and bathrooms need updating pronto. Also, the basement failed to pass the Can Icarus Stand in it Without Having to Slouch test.

About the only thing we liked was Its nice big yard, with a 2 car garage and extra-large parking pad for 3 cars.

It originally listed for $309K and has been on the market for 118 days.

House Hunting via the Open House route

So another Sunday spent enjoying the great weather and realtor spins on the market. Because we are house hunting, a regular feature on Mysteries of Life will be our experiences viewing Open Houses (OH) or Listings viewed with an agent. I may change up some details to mask the date of the visit and/or protect the identity of the agent.

Also, because agents use all kind of tricks to make a house appear new on the market even though it's been re-listed and de-listed to death, I'm going to include address, price and links to the properties. The links may disappear or the price might change so this is just a snapshot of what they were when we looked at them.

 

House No 1: Irving Park

4253 N St Louis Ave,
4 bd/3.1 ba $409,000.

While we're not likely to stay in our current area, every now and again I like to look at what is on sale in our neighborhood. The first agent was a lovely lady who took me for a tour of the house. At most of the Open Houses I’ve attended the format falls into one of two buckets. Either the agent lets you wander through the place unsupervised and will answer any questions when you are finished or they follow you around without being on top of you. This was a rare guided tour where she took the time to point out some features and try and explain what the builders were thinking.

Alas the house has some External and Functional Obsolescence working against it. For one thing, it was across the street from a school. This can be a minor problem if you have people visiting you during the day and they have to park a street away because you cannot park in front of a school during school hours. It can be more of a problem if your street is the side that is optimal for parents to drop their germy, projectile-barfing poopsacks off at school.

The house did not have a basement but it did have three floors of living space. The master suite on the top had a bathroom door that would prevent having a king or perhaps even a queen sized bed in the room. This can be resolved, as the agent pointed out, by re-working the door hinge so that the door swings open into the bathroom …odd that they did it this way in the first place.

The agent probably doesn’t realize that I do my homework. For instance, I know that the builders bought the house for $80K and while they deserve to make a profit on their work, they probably didn’t put $300K into this house. Yeah they might have put higher end finishes and more expensive cabinetry and the spa showers and lighting looked impressive.

Drywall costs the same whether you buy it for a house in Irving Park or Lincoln Park and with a contractors discount plus a good efficient crew; your costs should be relatively the same from house to house. The two big variables are how cheap you can acquire the initial property and how much you want to spend on items like bathroom vanities, lighting fixtures, cabinets and appliances. Also, I’m guessing most builders have more than one rehab going at a time so they might be able to get a slight bulk discount on items so that coincidentally that new construction in LP looks a lot like the rehab in Irving park.

Rehabbers tried to do the same thing to another house up the street. They also initially priced it at $409K and have been chasing the market ever since. This is a $325K house.

 

House No 2:  OIP

3902 N Central Park Ave,
3 Bd/3.1 ba  $600,000.

This is a home I would like to live in and have my grandchildren visit. In fact, when I first started looking at Real Estate Porn researching the market, this was the type of home in the exact neighborhood I wanted.  Unfortunately, it is $200K over our price range.

Shouldn't always listen to Realtors

But does it have Central Air?

During the early years of my house hunting research, there have been a few houses that I liked enough to consider buying but were way out of my price range.

Even with an FHA loan maximum of $417K (and 3.5% down) these homes were still out of reach.  The interest rates were somewhere between 5.5 and 6% which, factoring in salary and other variables, put my comfort level at around $375K.

There's this house on Tripp which once listed at $499000 and then dropped to $439K after 509 Days on the Market (DOM), it finally sold for $375K. 

And this one on Berteau listed for $474,900 when I happened up it in late fall of 2008.  It ended up selling for $410K in October of 2009.

And this one on Kilpatrick was originally listed for $519,900 and ended selling also in October of 2009.

And the realtor that showed me the home, hoping to become my buyer agent, said that the seller would never, never, NEVER come down to my price range, yet in each case, they pretty much did or came very close. 

Of course it isn't that cut and dry. It was the beginning of the bust and while it was bad, no one really knew or admitted just how bad it was going to get. Interest rates were good but not nearly as low as they are today. Interest rates are now below 4% which means I would be hating that I couldn't refi my 5.5 - 6% loan.

I didn't realize how hard it would be to sell my 2/1 condo or get financing if I didn't. I suppose I'm lucky that I didn't get those houses because the time wasn't right, tough circumstances have occurred and my needs have shifted.

In 2008-2009 I wanted to live within walking distance of the Irving Park or Jefferson Park Blue Line Station. I really wanted to live in Old Irving Park because I really thought I could somehow get a Queen Anne Style Victorian for bargain basement price.

Now that requirement has been supplanted by access to the expressway. My job turned from Heaven to Hell and I had to leave in for brighter pastures in Suburbia and an increase in pay that would have taken 2-3 more years at the law firm to achieve. Fiancé 1.0 bailed and was replaced with SigOther 2.0 who happily became Wife Final Edition.

Now that I've done more research and investigating, I know that fixer-uppers need to be closer to Move-in-Ready than simply Move-in-Condition. All in all, the realtor probably did me a solid by not helping me chase that pipe dream.

Open House Sunday

Our Forever House should definitely have one of these

Like many of our Sundays lately, Nightingale and I visited some Open Houses this weekend.  We are meticulously scouring the Real Estate listings looking for a home that meets the majority of our Unicorn Criteria since once we purchase a house, we are likely to be stuck with it for a long time.


We were ambitious because there were six OH on our list.  I thought about checking out a 7th that was in OIP but decided against it because while I'd love to see what a $900K home looks like, it doesn't seem like its a good idea to waste our time or the seller's time.  Because agents use all kind of tricks to make a house appear new on the market even though it's been re-listed and de-listed to death, I'm going to include address, price and links to the properties.  The links may disappear or the price might change so this is just a snapshot of what they were a few days ago.


House No 1:  Old Irving Park (OIP)
4122 N Kostner Ave
4 bd/2 bath, $375,000


The first house we looked at pleasantly surprised us. It was a home in Old Irving Park, though it wasn't one of the fancy Queen Annes or large Victorians that reside south of Irving Park Rd. It was also listed with Burt Fujishima, whose name I've seen at a variety of hard-to-sell-yet-eventually-do listings, so I was hopeful to see what he does that other agents don't.

It surprised us because while the outside was fugly lacked curb appeal, the inside was actually quite charming.  Lot's of original woodwork and hardwood floors throughout.  It had nice deck and a well manicured garden on a double lot all for $375K.  Compare that to my favorite doublelot in Jefferson Park that only has 1.5 bathrooms and is $100K more. 

The downside is that the kitchen and bathrooms need updating.  Major Updating.  As in drag the bathroom kicking and screaming into the 21st Century updating.  It's also about 200 yards from the expressway overpass which means pollution does seep into your yard.  As for Agent Burt, I'd say his m.o. is he doesn't bother the buyer while they are looking. 


House No 2: Sauganash
5942 N Kostner, Chicago
4 bd/1.1 bath. $400,000


This house was located in Sauganash or Forest Glen, depending on who you ask.  It also had a kick ass deck but no garage.  There was space to build one and since it was a corner lot, we could have it face either alley.  The kitchen would need updating and the bathrooms were just blah.  The basement was not big enough to finish and turn into a rec room -- it would more likely be just storage and laundry.

Both houses were priced adequately for their neighborhoods...if this were 2008 and the start of the bust.  The prices, while competitive, do not reflect the cost to the buyer to implement the necessary updates. 


House No 3: Edgebrook Glen (barely)
5651 N Parkside, Chicago
4 bd/2 ba, $319,999


Was a little bungalow on the border of Jefferson Park/Edgebrook Glen.  It was a complete gut rehab and thank goodness it is $1 under $320 or else we might be in a bidding war.  The agent apparently arrived late and had just turned on the A/C which gave us a good opportunity to see just how hot the upstairs bedrooms can get. 

We decided to skip House No 4, 5512 W Pensacola because it is an octagonal bungalow and we pretty much knew it wasn't really the home for us.  It just fell out of contract so that means the sellers probably feel that their $349,900 price is about right.  We used the opportunity to grab a quick bit at Central Kitchen and Tap because we were in that lull between Open House timeslots. 


House No 5:  Portage Park
5408 W Windsor,  Chicago.
4 bd/2.1 ba for $349,900.


This is a house that intrigued Nightingale because it has a big backyard and an awesome looking kitchen.  It had a problem with its garage - there wasn't any though the listing agent swore it was possible to put one in.  Yes, you could build a garage.  However, access to that garage would be tricky since you ahve to go through about three neighbors' yards in this landlocked property.  

The realtor was a handful as well.  She wanted to know who our realtor was, what brokerage she was with and if we had seen her other listing that allegedly closed within days of going on the market.  We also got into a slight debate whether the subject house was Jefferson Park or Portage Park. 


House No 6:  Forest Park - The Suburbs (barely)
118 Elgin Ave, Forest Park.
4 bd/2 bath   $385,000.


While we haven't completely ruled out the suburbs, Nightingale's new job does make it less feasible.  I saw this one because Forest Park is one of those close enough to the city suburbs and the house had a wrap-around porch which Nightingale loves.  The agent was lovely and offered to help us out if our search continued in Forest Park.

This house had a nicely put together backyard with a 3 car garage and a patio with firepit that I loved.  The kitchen was a good size.  The basement was very clean and the floor appeared to be recently painted.  It too would only be a storage area.  Alas the rooms were rather small and awkwardly shaped and didn't allow for a king size bed in the master.  Removing any walls to expand a room would eliminate the upstairs stackable laundry that someone had the foresight to install. 

Shifting Paradigms

When I attempted to sell my 2/1 condo in spring of 2010, there came a point when my agent hinted that a significant price drop might get the job done. While we had some showings, the Home Buyer Tax Credit was going to expire soon.  When we initially discussed putting my place on the market, I explained that I knew I wasn't going to make any money off my place.

My goal was simply not to bring any money to the table to cover transaction costs or mortgage shortfall. Bonus if I actually walked away with a little something to add to the down payment fund.  I believed I communicated that and my realtor was fine with that goal.  The paradigm was Price It Right and It Will Sell.

My realtor couldn't tell me exactly how low we could price it so that I wouldn't have to bring money to the table over transaction costs and or sales price. In fact he could only give me a rough estimate and was reluctant to do any work to refine that estimate. Apparently a top seller who has been in the business for years couldn't crunch some numbers to give his client the information necessary to make the best decision possible.

He did argue that even if I had to bring a small amount of money to the table out of my down payment savings, it would be a good thing to be free of the condo and could quickly start saving again.  That would have also meant moving into Nightingale's cramped 1 bedroom condo in the south loop.

If he had said something like "if you lower your price to X and we get an offer around that amount, you'd end up bringing approximately $2K to the table," I might have actually considered it. But again he couldn't be bothered because I was being unreasonable not lowering my price enough to get the sale done.  Of course tweaking his commision was probably not an option either.

I never had to formally make that decision because no official offers came my way. The Paradigm switched overnight to Do Not Put Your Home on the Market If you Cannot Afford to Sell It.   My Realtor basically abandoned me when I couldn't lower my price any further. 

Nightingale moved in here and we rented her condo at a slight loss. Looking back, it was the right decision because we have more space here.

If I tried the same thing today, based on the comps, I'd probably have to bring more to the table. How much more? Again, impossible to say. Best guess is in 2010 I might have had to bring no less than a couple grand but no more than 10K to the table.  Today I'd probably be lucky to get away with only bringing 10K to the table.

Let me know if you have any questions...

As a byproduct of following the real estate market since 2008, I know a lot of realtors.  Some I know through friends and other social outlets.  Some i met at open houses and they latch on to me. Often, I get an email from one like this one:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Icarus:

 I saw your note in Crib Chatter that you're thinking of finding something in the near-northwest suburbs. Like one of these?

Let me know if you have any questions, comments or updates to your requirements.

Sincerely,

ChiTownGal

She sent me a link to her ConnectMLS report which had about 40 listings of various types of houses.  All realtors these days have this package, some software developer made off well packaging and selling this to brokerage firms once the industry finally conceded that typical buyer/sellers are using the internet more than agents to buy houses.

For the purposes of full disclosure, ChiTownGal is the realtor who found me my current abode.  Unlike many realtors who disppear once the commision check clears, ChiTownGal has stayed in touch over the years.

Okay, you asked.  So in letter form, I sent the following back.


Comments:

1) I get these Powered by ConnectMLS reports from every realtor I've ever met since the dawn of time. [At any given time I'm also "stalked" by any realtor I've met at an open house, party or even on the running path, but that's another discussion.] I'm also signed up on ZipRealty, Redfin and use a few other sites to do my searching. Since the MLS became available to ordinary buyers it is rare that a realtor trumps me on a home that is out there.

2) Some of my criteria just isn't codeable and no agent is going to weed through listing descriptions to find me the perfect house -- that's my job.

3) No Agent is gonna review my notes on 40 plus properties. I've made comments like "wow, love this house let's go see it" and "I'll buy it today" and yet no response.

4) take MLS #07912198 this is a fugly looking house. There is no way i would buy it. I wouldn't even live there for free or if you paid me (okay, slight exaggeration). But if I check not interested, it will still come up in the next email when they delist and relist or drop the price $1. There needs to be a Never Show Me This House Again option.

Question:

Perhaps this downtime in the Real Estate Market is a good time for all the realtors to come together and fix some of the things broken in the system.

regards,

Icarus