Sep 29, 2008
Sale of the Week
Queen Anne Reigns in Lakewood-Balmoral
List Price: $1,187,000
Sale Price: $1,200,000
The Property: Those prices above are not transposed. This house really did accomplish something we don’t see much of anymore, selling for more than the asking price. Not only that, but the sellers’ real-estate agent, Kathy Murphy, says she had two decent offers (i.e., not lowballers) within three days of putting the house on the market. It’s 2003 all over again.
One look at the regal 114-year-old house helps explain the quick sale. It’s a well-cared-for home, with a genial front porch and all sorts of carpentry detailing, on one of the wonderful blocks of old homes east of Andersonville in Chicago’s Lakewood-Balmoral neighborhood. This house was built in 1894, designed by Julius Huber, the architect of several homes that are now landmarks on the North and South Sides. It stayed in the hands of its first owners until 1905, when it was sold to a family that kept the house for three generations. In 1992, that family sold it to Charles Morris, one of the sellers in the latest transaction.
“It needed a total rehab then,” says Morris. “We did it in two rounds. The first we did almost right away, and then we did another round in 1996.” Having paid $320,000 for the place, they spent a combined total of about $190,000 on the renovations, he says. That included entirely rebuilding the home’s plumbing; stripping the exterior siding down to the sheathing and starting over; hand-stripping layers of black paint from the interior woodwork; installing a new kitchen; and adding an octagonal sunroom that complements the original octagonal bay that contains the living room. In the yard, they created a sumptuous garden that includes a koi pond.
The sellers, Morris and his partner Dan Thomas, have moved to Florida. Morris has retired from his job at USG, and Thomas worked a transfer with his employer, HSBC. Their new home is in Sarasota. “We’re in a neighborhood that’s similar to Lakewood-Balmoral,” Morris says. “Very friendly, diverse, and eclectic.”
Price Points: Morris and Thomas listed the house for sale on July 28th with Kathy Murphy of Baird & Warner; three days later they had a contract to sell it. The deal closed September 19th. The new owners, only the home’s fourth, are not yet identified in public records.
Listing Agent: Kathy Murphy of Baird & Warner, 773-697-5584; kathy.murphy@bairdwarner.com
Posted at 09:28 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink
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Reader Comments:
"....selling for more than the asking price... ...says she had two decent offers (i.e., not lowballers) within three days of putting the house on the market. It’s 2003 all over again."
either that, or the house was priced correctly. unlike the other 99% of the houses in the market.
I hope that saying we are back to 2004 prices it is understood that is not a good thing. A similar home on 5200 block of Magnolia in 2003 sold for just under 1 million...The home in this article should have been listed for more....so therefore it was extremely well priced for the area meaning low even in this market.
This agent was very smart and so were the sellers..Let us hope sellers continue to look aT reality and get this market moving...Congrats to the agent...GREAT WORK.....