Neeral and Anu are two medical professionals who met twelve years ago. They were set up by a mutual friend. At the time, Anu was living in Boston and Neeral lived in Chicago. They got married two years ago.
For the last five years, the couple has lived in Boston, but they moved back to Chicago. Right now Neeral and Anu are living in a rental unit, but they’re anxious to have House Hunters’ help to find their first home. Anu and Neeral have a $700,000 budget, but Anu wants to stay under it as much as possible.
Wish Lists
They want an updated home. It needs to have a modern aesthetic with an open floor plan, a walk-in closet, a large master bedroom and large guestrooms. The house needs a rooftop deck or a yard for their dog and cat. Anu and Neeral’s preferred living area is in Wicker Park or West Town. The home needs to have a “wow” factor.
Anu’s: Anu wants a refurbished home. He needs his place to have history and character. He also doesn’t like garden level, duplex down homes.
Neeral’s: Neeral wants a new construction home.
House #1, $715,000
This West Town home was built in 2018. It’s very modern, and it also happens to be a down duplex. It has a $196 a month HOA. The home comes with the quirky feature of entranceway stairs that light up. This home has eye-catching high ceilings–they’re 14 ft. The home has a frost glass feature that blocks off some sunlight, but also gives Neeral and Anu privacy.
This home has a huge master suite with a walk-in closet and large bathroom. The kitchen comes with the cool feature of hidden appliances, which gives the home a more organized and spacious look. The biggest issue with this place is the lack of outdoor space, but it is located close to a park.
House #2, $710,000
This home is located in the Wicker Park area. It’s a 2017 built five unit, new construction home. It’s a duplex with three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The home comes with an HOA of $230/mo. This home also comes with high ceilings, an open concept, and lots of natural light. It has huge windows, a small deck on the upper and mid-level.
The place aso has huge windows and a wine fridge in the kitchens. It includes a huge master bedroom, but small guest rooms. The master bathroom is also large but the other bathrooms are kind of basic: they lack a wow factor.
House #3, $669,000
This home is located a little further than their target area. It’s a Logan Square duplex that was built in 2014. The place has over 2000 sq ft, three bedrooms, and two bathrooms. The guestrooms are decent sizes, but the master bedroom is the smallest of the three houses that they’ve seen.
Neeral and Anu finally get some outdoor potential in this place with a huge deck.
Decision Time: All the homes were very modern, but a little too similar to really see major distinctions. House #1 had lovely high ceilings and other sleek modern features, but had no outdoor space. House #2 had a lot of space that could give be useful in the future. It also lacked outdoor space and not much guest space. House #3 had a gorgeous deck, and it was the place most in their price range, but it lacked some wow factor.
Anu and Neeral picked…House #2.
Their realtor got the price down from $710,000 to $660,000, which was a very impressive price reduction.
Anu and Neeral plan to balance both of their styles by buying refurbished furniture to give the place more character. They also added some greenery for their pets.
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