Quote:
Originally Posted by lucgreek
Yep, Loyola.
Most buildings near Loyola are either apartments or multiple unit buildings (2 or 3 flats). Houses north of Loyola (East of Sheridan) are amazing and have been in families for generations. They refuse to sell them at all (and the houses are worth $$$). Houses west of campus are also pretty expensive. A group would need to put down over half a million just to acquire one property (but to really do it right, you'd want to buy two properties next to each other and create a bigger house). Then the property would need to be remodeled. The remodel would be expensive since the buildings are so old. You could try to build new, but that means you spent over half a million for a plot of land. Now you have to demo the property and build from scratch, costing quite a bit of $$$.
Let's not forget the permits and the block clubs in the area raising hell about a fraternity or sorority house existing, causing issues in the area and the alderman getting involved. It could turn very messy, very fast (especially since ADG hasn't exactly been a good neighbor).
For a group of 90+ sorority women to have one 2 or 3 flat that might house 6-12 women, it's not exactly that appealing (especially when a quarter of the chapter would be breaking fire codes by being in the building).
OR the group could use the half a million to buy cheap land at ISU or SIU and build a bigger, better house for your other group.
It's a very hard sell for groups to invest in housing in bigger cities. I can't even imagine the costs for getting a house in San Francisco.
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I was thinking more along the lines of lodge-style housing (which, admittedly, has its own set of challenges). A group could pick up a large single-family house right now for less than a million, and sleep 8-10. I don't know if there's any appeal in that, especially as they wouldn't have enough room for the whole chapter, but there are plenty of full buildings for sale right now.
Then again, at least in my day, most of the fraternities in the Chicago area just had unofficial houses that some guys would rent every year and pass down.
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