We buy houses in the city of Chicago.

The property types we see most

Chicago bungalows. Roughly 80,000 of them, mostly built between 1910 and 1940, concentrated in the belt that runs through Portage Park, Jefferson Park, Garfield Ridge, Ashburn, and Chatham. The usual list is a roof at the end of its life, original knob and tube in a portion of the house, a one and a half story attic that was finished at some point, and a kitchen and bath nobody has touched since the Bears were good.

Two flats and three flats. The workhorse of Chicago's neighborhoods. Frequently tenant occupied, frequently with a basement or attic unit that exists but is not legal, and frequently impossible for a retail buyer to finance for exactly that reason. We buy them occupied and we buy them with the unit.

Greystones and workers cottages. Beautiful and expensive to fix. Masonry, tuckpointing, and lintels are real money, and a retail buyer's inspector will find all of it.

Condos. Where the killer is rarely the unit. It is a special assessment, a low reserve balance, an association in litigation, or a rental cap that makes the building unfinanceable. We read the 22.1 disclosure and underwrite it instead of walking.

What is specific to closing inside the city

The City of Chicago will not issue a transfer stamp until the water account is certified, and that certification takes time to obtain. Ordering it late is one of the most common reasons a Chicago closing slips a week. We order it early, every time.

City transfer tax is $3.75 per $500 of price on the buyer plus a $1.50 per $500 CTA portion on the seller, on top of the Cook County and State of Illinois stamps. On the houses we buy we cover the seller side. It is worth knowing the number exists, because it is one of the line items that quietly erodes a listing's net proceeds. Work out your stamps

Cook County property taxes are billed a year in arrears and reassessed on a triennial cycle by township. A reassessment year can move a buyer's expected payment enough to change what they can afford, which is another reason retail deals in the city fall apart late.

Neighborhoods we buy in

All of them. This is a partial list of where we have looked at property recently.

• Portage Park
• Jefferson Park
• Albany Park
• Irving Park
• Avondale
• Logan Square
• Hermosa
• Belmont Cragin
• Dunning
• Norwood Park
• Edison Park
• Garfield Ridge
• Clearing
• West Lawn
• Gage Park
• Brighton Park
• McKinley Park
• Bridgeport
• Back of the Yards
• Englewood
• Auburn Gresham
• Chatham
• Avalon Park
• South Shore
• Woodlawn
• Greater Grand Crossing
• Roseland
• Pullman
• Beverly
• Morgan Park
• Mount Greenwood
• Ashburn
• Austin
• Humboldt Park
• West Town
• Pilsen
• Little Village
• Uptown
• Edgewater
• Rogers Park
• North Center
• Lincoln Square
• Portage Park