House Offer Number 3

If you’re just dropping in: we close on a house this Friday and this week I’m recapping each of the five properties we made an offer on. For other Chicago house hunt posts, check out Offers Number 1 and Number 2.

Offer Number 3: Garage By No Bars

Location: North Park.

North Park is just north of Albany Park, with the Chicago River demarcating the two areas. It’s a nice neighborhood with reasonably-priced single-family homes and historic charm. It’s primarily residential, without many shops and restaurants, and it can be a hike to the train depending on where you’re located.

The “by no bars” part of our nickname for this house is because North Park is dry. There are no bars, and the few restaurants in the area don’t serve alcohol. As we understand it, we have Mayor Daley’s 1990s vote-dry campaign to blame. Some neighborhood groups are working to overturn the ban: godspeed!

Why We Made an Offer: This house was solid and filled with light. The owner’s renovations weren’t my style, but they were done well because he expected to be in the home long-term. He had paid for the un-fun, expensive major repairs: new roof, new wiring, and new copper pipes.

To explain the “garage” part of our nickname: the owner had built a truly enormous garage. At least 18 feet high on the inside, custom oversized door, extra deep. I have no idea what he did in there, but we could have parked five Subaru Foresters. Check out this satellite view to compare it with the two garages on either side! You could see it from space.

Listing Price: $340k (Redfin link to listing)

Our Offer: $320k. We could have moved into a clean, functional home on a nice street and made it ours over time… but nothing about this house sparked our excitement, and the location was a compromise. It wasn’t a must-have home, so we didn’t offer top dollar.

When the seller’s agent put out a call for “best and final” offers, we chose not to raise ours — especially because a more exciting house had come on the market. See you tomorrow for Offer Number 4!