Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Best single family home deal in Old Irving Park

4043 N Kenneth in Old Irving Park is a great value at the asking price of $450,000 considering all the important updates. Trust me, I'm a professional.



My wife and I checked out this single family home for sale in Old Irving Park last Sunday. It looked like a nice deal online and we were not disappointed.


It's a tough gig to get a real solid, updated move-in family home in Old Irving Park for under $500K... that's not up against the highway of course. A middle residential block location well off the busier streets is very desirable.

We generally like mid-century modern designed homes but both of us recognized the charm of this place. Every room was bright and functional. The kitchen extension was terrific. We loved the space. The asking price of this true four bedroom house would allow us to make further improvements... such as adding a large bath for the two bedrooms on the top floor. The lack of a top floor bathroom is really the only minus to this home at it's asking price. If there were a master-type bath up there, asking would be closer to $489K.



The top two reasons to leave our tricked out duplex? Yard and garage!




For some reason, we don't give Old Irving Park the regular looks that I do Sauganash or even the North Shore in Wilmette. Old Irving Park would make the most sense for my career (easy drive to all the neighborhoods I work in) and it's pretty easy on my wife's commute to Lincoln Park (and soon, she may be taking the train downtown). The amosphere is just not quite doing it for us yet... to jump to the single family home, we may need a little more leafy, winding road seclusion that I feel in the above mentioned areas. The schools are a little bit of an issue for us as well (depending on purchase price of the home, we'd go private in this location).





5 comments:

Unknown said...

Eric,

As you know, you are talking a whole different ball game when you compare Irving Park to Wilmette. Don't rush to move up to the North Shore too quickly, the taxes (again as you know) are killer. Plus those leafy, winding secluded roads are going to cost you a pretty penny; good luck finding anything under 500K, in move in condition, by the train station.

Finally, the funniest part about the North Shore, is that for all the property taxes that you pay, they still require you to purchase a beach pass every year. (For every member of your family - OUCH!)

Eric Rojas said...

Danny, just wrote a response about the reason I brought up the two very different situations and it got zapped somehow!

Anyway, I have a good handful of homes in Wilmette about a mile west of Metra and well East of the Edens that I rally liked that closed under $500K.

I will write a post about them.

E

Michael Messinger said...

I saw this house a few weeks ago and have to chime in. On the plus side, the owner invested wisely in upgrades and enhancements, neither sparing any expense, nor going incredibly high end. However, I told the agent that the asking price is a bit high for today's economy. My guess is this house won't sell for over $395K.

Eric Rojas said...

Sorry Michael,

No sub $400K for this place. This house has been swamped with showings at the price... and it's February... house buyers tend to warm up a little later.

Standard lot, lots of living space, big eat-in kitchen structual improvements, nice lot location, not to mention super sunny and pleasant.... not easy to find a solid move-in house here under $400K. this will sell higher in the market.
I have no personal interest in the home selling, just think it can be a pretty nice deal for a good location and solid home without a lot of headaches.

Anonymous said...

Hi - I live in Old Irving Park. It's not perfect and still has a ways to go, but the people are tremendous and we have a real sense of community. Check out our association at www.oldirvingpark.com. Also, our neighborhood school, Belding Elementary, is really good and getting better every year. You would be wrong not to seriously consider it if you were to move to our neighborhood.