I will soon be a home owner....

[Dante]

scary.

Just went under contract this past weekend for a sweet two-bedroom condo.  Huge kitchen, master bedroom is 20x15 with a fireplace, another fireplace in the living room.  We got them to "throw in" the parking spot, which is chicago runs $25-$30k

    I guess they were motivated to sell...

here's a picture of the kitchen:

hmm....how do you upload pics...anyway, it was a short negotiating process.

Saturday:
10:30am -My fiance and I see the condo
11 AM - We put in an offer, but because like 8 other people were scheduled to see it later that afternoon and on Sunday, we told them the offer was only good for 2 hours.  
Noon - Seller's agent calls back
12:15 - After a long 15 minutes of negotiating, we reach an agreement.  
12:15+ - I run home and write a $10,000 check, then meet the sellers and our real estate agents in a nearby Barnes and Noble.

Bill

[JACO]

Congratulations man! Now you can stop wasting your money on rent; ).

Real estate is the best investment you will ever make, so I wish you luck with your squeeze in the new place. Where in Chicago, and how much does a sweet 2BR condo run?

[Dante]

it's up in lakeview...sort of near Wrigley field, but not too close where crowds will be an issue.  Right near several Red Line stops on the L, plus right near the lake (and lake shore drive).

We ended up paying $317,500.  That includes a parking spot.  Most of the other ones we looked at were going to end up being between 290,000 and 325,000, but NOT including parking, which would run 25-30,000.

Everything we looked at was either up in the Gold Coast (right north of the loop) or up in lakeview (popular area).  We could have gotten cheaper in some areas further out, but we're only going to be here 5-6 years, so we didn't want to wait for the area to develop.  another are may have been a better investment, but we wanted convience too...plus this will appreciate nicely with 2 fireplaces and huge rooms...it used to be a separate studio and 1 BR, but the previous owners bought bought both and knocked the middle wall out, which is why the master bedroom (the old studio) is so big...

[nataz]

lakeview is a nice area. Congrats on what seems like a really good deal.

[rvs]

Nice going Bill, congrats

You can upload pics by uploading them to some random website and linking to them. If you can't get it done, mail them to MoreFling@Morphling.de and I'll find some space for them on my site.

[Phantom Tape Worm]

Congrats Dante!  It's always great to see fellow TMDers moving up in the world.

If you have any questions about the process and what's left to be done just ask.

[raye]

Congrats Dante. Sounds posh as hell. The house and the car is good for moving you up on my "To rob list"!

[Dante]

Here's some pictures of the new place if anyone's interested...

Bill

[Saucemaster]

Eww, gross, children.

No, seriously though, nice place.  The kitchen in particular is beautiful, and I love exposed brick walls.  Congratulations!

[Dante]

Eww, gross, children.

No, seriously though, nice place.  The kitchen in particular is beautiful, and I love exposed brick walls.  Congratulations!

I should point out all the baby stuff is the property of the current homeowner (we haven't closed yet).  We took these pictures during the inspection.  the attractive blonde girl in the last picture is my fiance.  We aren't going to be having kids for at LEAST 3-4 more years...

the kitchen was one of the key selling points for us, we think it's awesome.  As well as the fact that it's only a 2-story building with about 14-16 units.

[Dante]

we closed today...now I am poorer yet richer, all at the same time   

[Outlaw]

congratulations!

[Bram]

What, exactly, is a condo? I've heard it's short for condominium, but what makes it different from an apartment?

Congrats by the way! I need to be looking into stuff like that in the near future, too. Also: where the hell are those pics?

[Komatteru]

What, exactly, is a condo? I've heard it's short for condominium, but what makes it different from an apartment?

You purchase a condo.  You own it, but live within a community and usually have rules and such to follow.  Some communities have more harsh rules than others, but there are restrictions on what you can do to your place, such as how many flowers you can plant outside and such (my uncle's condo has forbidden planting stuff in the front yard, for some strange reason).  You usually need permission to make major changes to the inside as well.  There's also a service fee you have to pay each month (the higher the rate, the more exclusive the place is, in general).  They do all the yard work for you and usually have maintenence men for you when stuff breaks.   A lot this depends on what community the condo is in, but they're all similar.  So, the short answer is that a condo is a house (much bigger than an apartment in general) that you own (and not rent), but you have the same sorts of restrictions you do with an apartment.

[Dante]

What, exactly, is a condo? I've heard it's short for condominium, but what makes it different from an apartment?

Congrats by the way! I need to be looking into stuff like that in the near future, too. Also: where the hell are those pics?

Jdizzle explained it well - but in the US, things call "apartments" are typically only rented.  Once you buy, it's probably a condo, townhouse, etc....

[Bram]

Ah, OK. Thanks!

See, over here, JDizzle would have perfectly described most Dutch 'appartementen'. We simply call condo's 'bought apartments' and apartments 'rental apartments'. The setup for the bought ones is almost identical to your condos, usually, with a fixed service fee and an formal/informal (depending on the building, I guess) organisation of home-owners.

I'd still like to see the pics :) What's the approximate area (in square feet or whatever) for your condo? What would you say is average for US condo's?

[Dante]

Ah, OK. Thanks!

See, over here, JDizzle would have perfectly described most Dutch 'appartementen'. We simply call condo's 'bought apartments' and apartments 'rental apartments'. The setup for the bought ones is almost identical to your condos, usually, with a fixed service fee and an formal/informal (depending on the building, I guess) organisation of home-owners.

I'd still like to see the pics What's the approximate area (in square feet or whatever) for your condo? What would you say is average for US condo's?

It's a little over 1000 square feet and a free parking space (which normally is $25,000 extra in Chicago).  "Average" for a condo would really depend on the area you're in.  Even in Chicago, depending which part of the city, the sizes vary quite a lot.  I would say for the area we are in (near north side of Chicago), our size is about average for a 2-bedroom condo.  What attracted us to this one is the nice living room/kitchen area - very open space with tons of counter space AND everything is top of the line - new built-in microwave, oven/range, stainless steel fridge, marble counters.

Also, the building is only a 2-story building, which we preferred over a larger one (we live in a 30-story building now).  We don't have a lot of the amenities (that we don't use) that would drive the monthly assessments up.  our monthly assessments are around $200/months, which is REALLy low for this part of the city.  A lot of buildings have swimming pools, exercise rooms, hot tubs, doormen (usually a staff of 3-5 people), etc, which drives the assessment into the $600 - $1000/month range.  The building I live in now has a pool and hot tub.  I've lived here 4-5 years and gone into each one like twice (both times getting kicked out of the hot tub because I was getting frisky with my girlfriend at the time   ) 

I'll have to find some of the digital pics....I'll probably wait until we move in and things get settled so it looks respectable..

[Bram]

What surprises me, is how relatively expensive it is. I'm not saying it's not a good deal, but I´ve always heard house prices were relatively low in the USA compared to The Netherlands.

There has been a recent boom in the prices of apartments over the last few years, but even so a luxurous apartment in one of Holland's major cities (I chose Amsterdam) with the specs you gave would cost about 275,000 USD (plus possibly 15,000 - 25,000 USD for a parking spot). So that means that either:

- houses in the USA are not cheaper than houses over here after all
- condos in the USA are more expensive compared to regular houses than over here
- Chicago (or large cities in general) are much more expensive than smaller cities

I wonder which is the case. This is kinda crushing my dream of moving to New York

[Jacob Orlove]

- Chicago (or large cities in general) are much more expensive than smaller cities

That one is definitely true. Housing prices may be lower on average in the US, but we have some of the most expensive housing markets in the world. New York is probably more expensive than most of Europe, unfortunately.

[jpmeyer]

- Chicago (or large cities in general) are much more expensive than smaller cities

That one is definitely true. Housing prices may be lower on average in the US, but we have some of the most expensive housing markets in the world. New York is probably more expensive than most of Europe, unfortunately.

Graduate student on-campus housing at NYU costs $1,100 a month, and you get to share a studio with two other people :/

Suffice to say, I'm almost certainly going to have to live in Brooklyn or Harlem for the next two years.

[rvs]

Graduate student on-campus housing at NYU costs $1,100 a month, and you get to share a studio with two other people :/

WTF! That is insane. Does anyone actually pay that much?!

[Dante]

Graduate student on-campus housing at NYU costs $1,100 a month, and you get to share a studio with two other people :/

WTF! That is insane. Does anyone actually pay that much?!

Yes, you have to or else you have to live in Hoboken New Jersey (across the river) or Brooklyn.  Anything close to Manhatten is going to be expensive.  Two friends of mine from college (we graduated in 99) split a studio around NYU and they were paying around $2600, so it looks like things have gone up....

[BigMac]

seems like that rent is higher than my monthly payment for my appartment.
Gratz on the condo and its a good investment. Its one of the best investments you can do besides magic cards.