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I don't know how many 100+ year old are really on the market in LaGrange/LaGrange Park, Western Springs, Hinsdale/Clarendon Hills at even given point in time. Far more likely to see home of much more recent vintage. Among those homes there is real mixed bag of what sorts of "charm" is present / possible under past 'remuddling'.
There are some ranches and split levels as "new" as the 1980s that really won't have much charm at all but neither will they be in dire need of repairs if they were moderately well maintained, which is often the case.
Even among the older homes there are all kinds of charming place that are not going to blow a six-figure hole in a remodeling budget and can be had well under $800k if one is willing to accept compromises such as less than ideal location.
It is foolish to get hung up on homes over $1M if your budget really tops out lower than that. The fact is many, many, many people live in homes well below the listed the median in the desirable towns along the BNSF and they do not suffer in any way having less than stellar finishes in their home. Remember back when Martha Stewart was promoting her own "crafty" world of DIY stuff and faux painting? That is how smart people leave their money in the bank and not lining the pockets of contractors that charge exorbitant fees to the clueless.
It is also NUTS to suggest that there is some abundance of buyers that purchase homes around $500k and sink $200k into them. That rarely if ever happens.
Heck,the reality is far more people purchase a home that some delusion folks would tear down and with just a little bit of sprucing up get a starter home in a desirable town. Some folks do eventually spend a large sum expanding / renovating such homes. Other do eventually tear down those homes themselves, but frankly unless one has the ability to finance such an endeavor without traditional lending institutions such things are quite rare on all but the most highly sought after lots.
The harsh financial reality is that even when one starts out shopping the "pinpointed (ultra desirable) spots" most sane people experience some kind of clarity and realize having access to the same top performing schools, terrific commuting options, nice venues for dining / entertainment and other community-wide resources it is flat out stupid to overspend to be in a specific block. Further history shows that over time the composition of those "pinpointed (ultra desirable) spots" shift -- you might very well end up having not some "king of finance" as your neighbor but instead a busted-out family facing foreclosure. Even if the next-door neighbors when you move into this hypothetical "pinpointed (ultra desirable) spots" are the rainmaker partners at some connected law firm or CEOs of a Fortune 100 firm there is nothing to say that kind of success will stay with the neighbors for the length of your ownership of a home. I have seen more than my share of law firms go through ugly downsizings and even CEOs get unceremoniously dumped after a few quarters of dismal results. If you think these kind of people automatically make great neighbors you've never lived near 'em -- drug addled, entitled types are bad enough when they are at least paying the gardeners to get the place looking nice but when the bottom falls out and they send their layabout kids out with a weed-whipper it knocks a whole lot of curb appeal off in short order. And if you are the type that is angling for a country club membership based on your "pinpointed (ultra desirable) spots" and similar imagined perks of a "posh" address you are even more out of touch -- the "selection" of who is in and who is not has much more to do with perceptions of who'll pay full boat to carry along the pennypinching retirees that give such places their unmistakable "Judge Smails" pettiness. While I generally defend folks that incorrectly assume nice towns are filled with bigoted materialistic creeps I have to say that the way to really narrow in on such overly status conscious poseurs is to target "pinpointed (ultra desirable) spots".
There are loads and loads of decent people that live in remarkably non-nondescript homes, drive downright beat-up cars, and volunteer for a every kind of worthy charity / highly value a quality education living not in the "pinpointed (ultra desirable) spots" of towns along the BNSF but THROUGHOUT the towns and THAT is what truly makes them nice places to consider calling home.
Chet, I agree with much/all of what you say and you helped us when we moved here… But you have to admit though within that .5 mile radius of town cores such as Hinsdale, Western Springs, La Grange it gets VERY VERY expensive – you are lucky to find a nice house (3,500Sqft+) at 500K in amazing shape and with all the elements Dandi mentioned… At least that was our experience here cause we wanted the same thing. The 1M experience was definitely more a Hinsdale reality check for us. We found we could nail all her points (very similar t ours) but cost was 700+. And this was only about a year ago…
I also am not trying to say anything bad about people. I do apologize if it came off that way.
Dandi - you recently visited/shopped. Am I way off when you looked in the super core close homes?
I felt like there were some very nice houses in the historic district of La Grange in the $600k-$750k range. We very nearly bought an old victorian that was under $600k, but decided that it was more project that we were willing to take on. But it was a large house.
I have seen many people buy a $500k house and end up putting in $200k of renovations over the years, however. It happens when people like their neighborhood, but decide to do things like additions. It's very common in my neighborhood to see a formerly 1800 square foot house that has been transformed in to a 3000+ square foot house with a two-story addition. Sometimes the additions are larger than the original house, which can have some strange frankenstein-esque consequences (see below example... That's an ATTACHED garage all the way at the back of the photo).
Keep in mind that managing renovations is almost a full time job even if you have a general contractor. I do not even have renovations with my two flat and just dealing with repairs here and then are some cosmetic issues and its a great deal of time like a part time job. You really want to oversee contractors closely to make sure they are doing what you want.
It is one thing to put on additions / do costly upgrades OVER TIME and quite another to state that EVERY home at $500k is going to NEED six-figures worth of repairs / updates.
That just is NOT the case!
I completely understand that many of the more affordable homes that one is likely to encounter in a nicer area are NOT going to be the "dream home" that one hopes for IF they are also just a short walk from all the amenities of well developed town but it is silly to say that more affordable homes are uniformly some hideous money pit. Many smart shoppers willing accept some COMPROMISES to get closer to the desirable amenities near the core of towns along the BNSF. The same is certainly true in towns along the UP-W line like Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn and Wheaton, as well as towns like Park Ridge or Arlington Heights along the UP-NW line and the North Shore towns along the UP-N line -- one can literally spend a few hundred thousand more to be a few blocks closer to the core or the lake. If that is what is driving one's purchase AND ONE UNDERSTANDS ALL THE PITFALLS then I can't really fault that choice but to go to an extreme and say that all of the other folks that like in these towns well outside the "most desirable blocks" (which is of course the MAJORITY of the town...) are not worth considering is LUDICROUS...
There are now some "first wave" type teardowns / retro style homes from the 90s that have things like older "soilid surface" countertops in the kitchen / bath that look very dated. If you can just switch out the Corian for a more modern material or stone it MIGHT look lots better but some of these homes also have dated choices in cabinetry / flooring / fixtures. Could you spend six figures putting in a ton of stylish new choices? Of course anyone can spend money for those things (I have had foolish renters upgrade lights and leave them behind...) BUT you certainly DO NOT NEED TO rip out stuff willy nilly as things like Corian will probably still be serviceable until our sun goes super-nova... AND BELIEVE ME lots of smart people do ABSOLUTELY settle for a home that has a dated kitchen/ bath / basement if the location is top notch AND an inspection report comes back "clean"...
If the folks that buy that place are 'down to earth' and save up enough to eventually redo the place when the littlest is no longer in "use crayon and steakknifes as art utensils" stage may be they will pump six figures into a kitchen and bath that are 'au current' but I have seen PLENTY of those folks also decide to sell / move up IF the market is favorable.
In a way I know EXACTLY what LK is saying about folks with "the perfect location" sometimes doing renovations that dwarf the original home -- folks sometimes get to a point in their lives where they don't want to trade their great neighbors / kids' friends / block parties BUT in my experience this not a smart financial decision as when it comes to sell those "out of scale" renovations (together with taste choices that may have been made when the kids were still wearing acid-washed jeans) is going to mean that new buyers are not going to see this as something worth feeling good about...
Last edited by chet everett; 12-16-2014 at 02:58 PM..
Chet - I am trying to say the same thing as you... You are 100% correct. I may just not have stated it as well as you just did...
We had to do exactly as you said to pick and choose best elements and compromise to get that location. My only point was to say to get everything (not being architect like LK with hookups to every construction trade at discounted rates) it costs a lot...
Chet - I am trying to say the same thing as you... You are 100% correct. I may just not have stated it as well as you just did...
We had to do exactly as you said to pick and choose best elements and compromise to get that location. My only point was to say to get everything (not being architect like LK with hookups to every construction trade at discounted rates) it costs a lot...
Tone is so hard to figure out -- what is meant as a light ribbing sometimes comes across as to strident.
I know LK, despite have the professional credentials to tackle major renovations, preferred homes that would be a constant "work in progress"/
The more time that MOST shoppers (that have not won Lotto) spend weighing the options the more then identify what is really and truly a "must have" vs what just ain't worth getting worked up over...
I think the OP is more and more getting a sense for WHY so many folks do choose the nicer towns when relocation brings them here -- commute is big part of the puzzle but so are the seemingly small details -- everything from having a place where you can get some exercise during our often long winters, to having a nice enough mix of local dining spots so one can enjoy some often needed breaks from the routine of meal planning...
My only point was to say to get everything (not being architect like LK with hookups to every construction trade at discounted rates) it costs a lot...
I've got nothing. My firm work was mainly high-rises in Asia and office complexes in Silicon Valley… Not a lot of local residential contractor hookups from that, though I could probably get an engineer to design a reinforced concrete structural system for your new class A office high-rise in the Loop for a reasonable fee. I'm stuck with referrals from neighbors and Angie's List like everyone else.
I know LK, despite have the professional credentials to tackle major renovations, preferred homes that would be a constant "work in progress"
My thing was that I didn't want to pay for a lot of expensive upgrades that weren't really my taste. I am very picky, and would prefer to pick my own finishes. The idea of finding a house that was "just perfect" wasn't really something achievable, even if we increased our budget.
I've got nothing. My firm work was mainly high-rises in Asia and office complexes in Silicon Valley… Not a lot of local residential contractor hookups from that, though I could probably get an engineer to design a reinforced concrete structural system for your new class A office high-rise in the Loop for a reasonable fee. I'm stuck with referrals from neighbors and Angie's List like everyone else.
If some of the teardowns keep getting bigger and bigger maybe they will need welded steel framing and footings driven into the bedrock... As long as they point a faux Victorian facade on the street level it'll get green-lighted by the Glen Ellyn ZBA..
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Hey that cool...
As long as they point a faux Victorian facade on the street level it'll get green-lighted by the Glen Ellyn ZBA.. 
