Garrett Kelleher, the head of the development firm behind the now-defunct Chicago Spire, has quietly put his Astor Street mansion on the market. The asking price is $16 million, according to his agent, Janet Murphy of Baird & Warner..." /> Garrett Kelleher, the head of the development firm behind the now-defunct Chicago Spire, has quietly put his Astor Street mansion on the market. The asking price is $16 million, according to his agent, Janet Murphy of Baird & Warner..." /> Garrett Kelleher, the head of the development firm behind the now-defunct Chicago Spire, has quietly put his Astor Street mansion on the market. The asking price is $16 million, according to his agent, Janet Murphy of Baird & Warner..." />

Gut Check, in West Andersonville

List Price: $739,000
The Property: In March 2010, the developer Sa Schloff bought somebody else’s botched attempt to turn a two-flat into a single-family home. The first floor had been gutted, the second was a mess, and the work needed to make the place habitable would be extensive…

Winnetka’s Row of Woe

The December 21st sale of a bank-owned 18-room home in Winnetka for $2.375 million wrapped up the four-year saga of a row of four newly built mansions that all went at big discounts. If sold at their original asking prices, the four would have gone for a combined total of $18.49 million; instead, they were sold for 43 percent of that: $8.025 million…

From Two-Flat to Single-Family in Wicker Park

List Price: $1,699,000
The Property: The couple who converted this circa 1889 two-flat in Wicker Park into a single-family home were transferred out of the country shortly after the rehab was finished. The home they left behind has a handsome Victorian brick exterior wrapped around a spacious and sunny renovated interior that retains a few nice vintage details…

How to Buy a Foreclosure, Part 2: A Specialized Retirement Account

If your own housing is secure—knock on wood—you may have been watching all these bargain-priced foreclosures from the sidelines, thinking that because you’re not in the market for a new home, you couldn’t take advantage of an appealing investment opportunity. What you may not have known is that there’s a type of IRA that lets you use your retirement funds to buy, rehab, and rent investment property, including foreclosures…