Robert Darrow, @properties

Archive for the ‘Photographs’ Category

Your Guide enjoyed a fun-filled evening on Thursday night at the @properties Holiday Extravaganza at the Winter Fest at Navy Pier.  Some highlight photos below.  Unlike other cruel @agents, Your Guide does NOT have compromising photographs of co-workers falling down the inflatable slide.  In skirts.  Or kilts.

Miss Kim and above referenced Kilt-wearing Hawk Durham.

Mister Steve and Kim holding court.

Photographic proof that Your Guide can and will do somewhat athletic endeavors. Occasionally.

During conversation with a client over the Holiday Weekend, the topic of Old Chicago Firehouses came up.  And not for the first time.  In the past, a handful of buyer clients have mentioned their dream of snapping up a historic old property such as an Old Chicago Firehouse to lovingly renovate and turn into their dream two-story loft. 

Often with a fire pole.  Your Guide does not understand the fascination with fire poles.  At my age, I am more fascinated with elevators (or firemen.)  There only so many years of stair climbing left in my knees. 

In the past, in the course of trying to burst these dreams as gently as possible, I have done some preliminary research on Chicago Firehouses.  Generally, they have not been as prevalent as my clients would like.  The City of Chicago is not frequently motivated to dispose of real estate.  In Chicago’s past, fire protection duties were provided by private contractors.  Upon the call of “Fire!” competing fire companies would all race to the scene of a disaster and the first company on scene was in charge of putting out the fire.  

But those days are long gone.  Most of the private fire protection companies were taken over by the City of Chicago before the middle of the last century.  Overlapping firehouses were sold off many decades ago.  Though many firehouses in Chicago are in desperate need of a renovation, the City usually keeps the fire house in the same location.

This makes the fabled Old Chicago Fire House a bit of a legend.  Even when one of these old Fire Houses was found, it often commanded the value of the land PLUS a generous premium because of the novel nature of the property.  In years past, the best price we could find was $350,000, and could easily command much more.

This example in Ravenswood, along Ravenswood Street, was listed for $1,275,000 back in 2006.  Already renovated, the building features a wine cellar, two bedrooms, two baths, and of course an amazing first floor perfect for entertaining with wide-open vistas.

More typical, this example on the border between Old Town and Lincoln Park featured 7 rooms, 3 beds and 2 baths.  A rooftop family room, wide open space on the first floor and a roof deck made this firehouse a great place for entertaining.  Not quite as traditional in style (a bit ugly?) the building sold for $552,000 in 2005.

But most surprisingly, when rummaging through the local MLS data today, I found the Old Chicago Fire House deal of the decade:  $90,000 for this building located at 3700 West Huron on Chicago’s West Side.  Not converted into a home, this building was used as a church for the past 37 years.  The first floor is still open raw space.  Upstairs, a 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment is cobbled together, but not in any sort of livable condition.

So for you buyers out there that are still chasing the dream, and your Unicorn isn’t in your stable yet, give Your Guide a call!  We might be able to make one of those dreams come true.

Your Guide was tasked with selling this house in Lincoln Square about a year and a half ago.  The home itself was unremarkable, but the land was extraordinary by Chicago standards.  The lot was so spacious that it could support a house of 5,000 square feet or more. 

Well, the new house is finished and on the market.  It’s 6 bedrooms with four full and two half baths.  Currently on the market for $1,749,900.  Nice!

These photos popped up while Your Guide was doing a Market Analysis for a listing appointment today.  I’ll be visiting clients to discuss their combined one bedroom plus next-door-studio unit later today.

In these photos you can see the Realtor who has this unit listed took photos some time ago.  It is NEVER a good idea to leave old photos in your marketing as they can get stale.  And as this photo clearly demonstrates that there is SNOW on the ground, this listing is getting to be a year old since we haven’t experienced our first snowfall here in Chicago.  Yet.  (Close, though.)

Since digital photos are (1) limitless and (2) free, you can bet that any agent worth his commission really would pay attention and come back out to the property to re-take photos.  I might have even walked across the street for this particular picture as the building entryway is rather gracious from a little farther away.

This one’s just simply bad.  Fussing with the exposure can lead to some pretty good results when taking photos of a dark room with very bright windows.

Even better:  Hire a professional photographer to take photos of multiple exposures, and use HDR to blend the different photos together so that BOTH the room, and the super-exposed windows show up perfectly!

Tuesdays are for Broker Open House tours in Chicago.  On Broker Tour, agents host open house for other real estate pro’s to come out and preview property in the hopes that one of the attendees has a client that might like to see – and buy – the property for sale.

More often, it’s a chance to get out and socialize.  And get some free lunch.

To attract as many attendees as possible, it’s best to provide some sort of food.  Sandwiches.  Cookies.  Pizza.

Cupcakes

It’s always fun to play “Hey, what do they have?”  Oddly, my brother-in-law had the same coat of armor in his old apartment.  They’re practically the same.  I wonder who mass-produced these items for the “Frat Boy’s First Apartment” demographic?

Your Guide finds himself pressed for time on Monday evening before Boystown Pool League.  So will resort to posting some photos from the Halloween Parade last Saturday night in Lakeview.  (Hopefully a photo is worth a thousand words…)

With the insanity that’s a typical Chicago Halloween combined with the date falling perfectly on the weekend, the city should be pretty well bedlam.

North Halsted Halloween Parade

Kicks off an hour earlier this year – 6:00 pm at the corner of Halsted and Belmont and marching north to Broadway.

The parade caps off a full-day of Lake View activities, including activities at Agassiz School (10 a.m.), Center on Halsted (1 p.m.), Equality Illinois offices (3 p.m.), trick or treating with Northalsted businesses (3 p.m.–5 p.m.), and the Chicago Canine Rescue group (4-6 p.m.). All the activities are conveniently accessed from the Belmont ‘L’ CTA stop.

From Craigslist today comes this Posideon-eque kitchen in the Gold Coast.  In a twist of irony, Your Guide lived in this building on LaSalle Street back when Mr. Steve worked as regional manager for CAMCO, a property management company that sold off all its Chicago properties in the 1990’s.

Hold on, Ethel, she’s going over!

The management company for this property owns thousands of units throughout Chicago, and this building has several dozen units that this kitchen is a pretty good representation of.  You might think hiring a pro-photographer might be a worthwhile investment?

I think it’s time to have “the talk” with the sellers of this condo in Lincoln Park about the perils of overly personal paint colors.

Oh, and, just so we’re clear:  I am NOT taking my buyer to see this condo on Saturday.  There’s plenty of other stuff on the market that’s freshly painted, with marble, granite, stainless, wood floors and neutral carpet.  What color IS that carpet, anyways?

Your guide is launching a specialty website for Townhomes here in Chicago in the hopes of becoming the Townhome King of Chicago.  And no, it seems I can’t be www.townhomeking.com – some other dude beat me to it.  But nonetheless, we perservere and are proud to launch (with a few bugs):

www.townhomeshop.com

www.townhomeshopchicago.com!

It’s 95% there.  And the remainder should be up and running within a week.

And so in honor of Townhomes, let’s launch Townhome week (or at least several days) with some Townhome topics near and dear to my heart.

Attractive to buyers moving in both directions

Today, townhomes are attractive to a variety of residents in Chicago and are a popular choice for buyers. Townhomes offer the benefit of being popular for both “move-up” and “downsizing” buyers. Established townhome communities often have residents from both ends of the spectrum as residents.

Empty nesters can be found down-sizing into townhomes when they find they no longer need the space of their suburban family home. Maintenance free living often appeals to residents making this lifestyle choice. The luxury of handing off maintenance chores, snow shoveling, and landscaping is alluring to downsizing buyers.

Young couples often select a townhome as an affordable alternative to a single family home in the Suburbs. Hip urban dwellers are often not yet ready to make the move out to the sleepy confines of far-flung regions of Chicagoland. Yet young couples who are combining households do find the need for additional space, storage for expanding family belongings, and parking for twice as many cars as when they were single and fancy-free. With the steady improvement in Chicago’s public school system, neighborhoods with solid schools are exploding with families who remain longer and with older children than seen in decades. A popular joke among Realtors is that you can save “a quarter-million per kid” by selecting a townhome within a great school’s boundaries compared to enrolling in one of Chicago’s expensive private schools.

Even in tawny neighborhoods like the Gold Coast and Lincoln Park, townhome living is a cost effective alternative to a single family house. In neighborhoods where the cost of a luxury house can easily exceed $1.5-million, townhomes exist to bridge the gap between condo living and the high cost of a stand-alone house. Lincoln Park’s newest community – Hartland Park – features some townhomes that boast five bedrooms, five full plus two half baths, and pricing that can crest $1-million.

Efficient floor plans

In every neighborhood – from budget to primo – a townhome is invariably a cost effective alternative to a single family home. In some neighborhoods, the townhomes offer greater living space than the houses that surround them even though the townhomes occupy less space. Efficiency of the floor plan is the key to this benefit.

Examples of this scenario can be found where newer townhomes fill in around vintage houses from the 1920’s and 1930’s. A typical Chicago frame Victorian features around 800 square feet per floor for a total of 1,600 square feet of living space above ground. Some of these homes have bedrooms located off the living room and the dining room. If there are bedrooms on a second floor, those rooms are often under a peaked roofline with limited headroom. They would have had only one bath at the time of construction. A newer bathroom will always add cost to the purchase price of the house. At some point, most basements were also converted to living space providing an additional 600 to 800 square feet. But most modest house basements don’t have full-height ceilings, so the space is not as useful.

Conversely, modern townhomes neighboring these houses often feature spacious rooms and modern layouts sprawling over three of even four floors. In a modern townhouse, a garage is often attached alleviating the need to trudge across a yard to the house during Chicago’s notoriously frigid winters. If a garage is attached, the third bed – or den – is located on the first floor. The main living space in a modern townhome is most often upstairs one level affording some privacy, and generous room sizes. Bedrooms are located one more floor up, and the newest designs often feature an attached master bath to the bedroom along with a convenient hallway bath for the second bed and for guests.

The latest amenity to be added to the townhome genre is a fourth floor family room with walk out deck on the rooftop. Sizes range from modest to spacious, and nearly all offer easy access to outdoor space with roof deck and panoramic views.

Ownership

Townhomes are typically owned in one of three ways.

Fee Simple

In a fee simple townhome, you own the land beneath and the sky above your townhome. There should be a party wall agreement between you and your neighbors that spells out how to care for the part of your townhome that touches your neighbor’s. There will also be an easement allowing access for everyone to use a sidewalk and a parking space. This form of ownership is most closely like owning a house, and carries similar responsibilities. You will care for the inside and the outside of the home, including the windows, the roof and mechanical systems. You will also care for landscaping and you will probably shovel your own snow. It’s likely you won’t have to pay any assessments. If you and your neighbors decide to hire someone to come and shovel the sidewalks or mow the lawn, you might draw up a simple agreement to share these expenses. You will have home owners insurance that covers the structure in addition to the contents and liability.

Fee Simple with Home Owners Association (HOA)

Some townhome communities offer the benefits of Fee Simple ownership, but are formed with an HOA to formalize the sharing of common expenses and to put in place an association to care for the property and any common areas. You’ll probably own your home as if it were a house along with the land it sits on. But there will be an assessment to cover common expenses such as landscaping, water and sewer, trash removal, and perhaps even a manager if the property is large enough. Assessments will be lower in a Fee Simple HOA townhome because you will have your own insurance and the Association won’t take care of the actual structure. You will care for the inside and the outside of the home, including the windows, the roof and mechanical systems.

Condominium

Condominium ownership differs from Fee Simple ownership in that you will own the unit in which you reside, but the land and other common areas are owned by everyone in the association. An important distinction about condominiums is that the building exterior and the party walls are common property rather than individually owned. In a condominium the Condo Association takes care of the exterior maintenance, the roof, sometimes the windows, in addition to paying for the common utilities like water, sewer, trash, snow removal and landscaping. This is very convenient for the residents as the association takes care of the building and the common systems. But it’s more expensive. The association also pays for insurance on the structure against damage or destruction from fire, or water, or other unforeseen circumstance. The association also carries liability insurance for residents and guests on the common areas.

Some townhomes are built in such a way that one part of a townhome sits on top of another townhome with some overlap. Others feature typical townhome floor plans but have one common garage beneath that resembles an underground garage. In buildings such as these, it’s nearly impossible to set up a fee-simple arrangement because clear lot dimensions and descriptions can’t be determined. These buildings will nearly always be condominium townhomes.