Sale of the Week

Wilmette Home of Arrested Trader Sells

List Price: $1,269,000
Sale Price: $1,275,000
The Property: A Wilmette home that the commodities trader Jay Nolan forfeited to the U.S. government last December has been sold.

The story began to unfold last November when federal authorities arrested Nolan on charges of mail fraud. The feds claimed that Nolan’s Lodge Diversified Fund LP had lost most of its assets three years earlier, but that Nolan had hidden those losses from investors while continuing to take a 2 percent monthly management fee from them.

Authorities also claimed that in October 2009, when Lodge reported to one investor that the fund had a value of $6.3 million, it actually was worth less than $200,000. Nolan said that he was innocent of the charges. The case is still pending.

The 11-room brick Georgian house that Nolan forfeited was built in 1923 on a street in that eastern part of Wilmette that is still paved with bricks and ends at a golf course. According to the listing sheet, the interior has “intricate millwork,” a gourmet eat-in kitchen with an island, a steam shower in the master bath, and a finished lower level. There are three bedrooms on the second floor and two on the third.

According to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, Nolan bought the home in 1999 for $800,000; the listing sheet says the house had recently been rehabbed. The selling agent, Kathleen McIntyre of Coldwell Banker, declined to comment on the house. Neither the buyers, Keith and Karen Cyrus, nor their agent, Carol Grant of Koenig & Strey Real Living, responded to a request for comment. The sale closed May 27th.

Price Points: The facts that the house sold quickly—the deal closed just five weeks after the place went on the market—and for more than its asking price suggest that the house was offered at a bargain price. Because McIntyre wouldn’t talk to me, I haven’t been able to determine whether the house was appraised for more than the sale price, but its size and location suggest that it could have gone for more, even in this down market.

Listing Agent: Kathleen McIntyre of Coldwell Banker; 847-293-8536

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