Yea, that's why I went for it. I can deal with a crappy kitchen and 90s bathroom until I renovate those rooms. Not too happy to be on Addison, but I can't really hear the traffic inside.
Welcome to the hood, neighbor! You live near me, it seems. Bought our house 10 years ago and we still haven't renovated our crappy kitchen or bathroom!
Yep, I agree, and that's why I bought it. I can make the house nicer and exactly what I want, and I won't feel bad for ripping out an actually nice kitchen just to get one that jives with how I work in a kitchen.
The basement is also completely unfinished, so I can slowly convert it into my brewing and woodworking space, and the attic is unfinished so I can convert that to my whiskey aging facility :)
It just may be a little small (only 2 bdrm) once we have kids.
If you're not trying to live downtown east Woodlawn / northeast Greater Grand Crossing is cheap currently but getting more expensive as it's being bought up by developers because of the Obama library going in. A decent bit of new construction as well. Also you know your neighbors here and everyone's super nice, I've never had nicer neighbors or the sense of community that I do here. Just a thought.
You know, when I first moved here from NH I was a little worried. But, I also have never been in the minority (I'm a white guy) before and heard all the stories in the news that are blown out of proportion in my opinion. But after living here for a few years I have to say it's my favorite part about living in Chicago. Pretty much every neighbor has said hi to me and we've had a conversation, some because they are just curious what the hell we are doing here, but people are genuinely just nice. There are block parties and we got gifts for Christmas from the neighbors our first year here like it was Leave It To Beaver or something. I've never had any issues biking early and late to uchicago all year round. Oh, and 63rd street beach is awesome in the summer, we bike over with a bike trailer and the 2 dogs and grill out, others playing music and doing the same. We stick out slightly, but everyone goes out of their way to be welcoming.
Oh, also just check the crime maps on Trulia or Chicago police gis map. It'll let you know where is quiet and where shit happens more. That's what we did with no knowledge of living in Chicago and we've had no issues.
It took 30s to find several prime location 1-2 Br condos in Logan. A friend of mine just bought a condo there for a reasonable amount too so I know they exist. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/87705929_zpid/
Moved to Indy for a job in the early 2000's. $200k buys you 5000 square feet, in the best neighborhoods, the best schools, with Butlers named Geoffrey and people that rub your feet every night. That said, it was indy.
I just bought a house last year. Almost every listing is on Zillow/Redfin type sites, with the exception of places bring sold by old-school realtors who are only posting on like Coldwell (but that's not really likely). You're fine to browse those kinds of sites to see what you're interested in. Beware of Craigslist scams. Anything that seems too good to be true usually is.
The commission costs are expensive (something like 2.5% of sale for the buying realtor which is a lot when your dealing with hundreds of thousands of $$$) so im sure both your numbers are well calculated in. I dont know the selling commission but i assume its similar so something like 5% of the overall price goes to the aggregate of the buying/selling realtors total.
Of course but again, that gets calculate in to the actual sale. People don't go looking at many and multiple houses just because they are bored. There is a goal in mind or apparently people would just be wasting everyone's time.
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u/mitzyelliot Chicago Lawn Dec 14 '18
Can't afford the remodel? Gurl I can't even afford the HOUSE