I would do it today, but block out February. 

This one is a different ball game for me because it is located one block from the University of Illinois and is used as a rental for college students.

This one is a different ball game for me because it is located one block from the University of Illinois and is used as a rental for college students.

Either way, with a building of this size (4-5000 ft2 total) built in that era, you should have a poured reinforced concrete basement, not block.

There are at least 4 remodeled buildings within a block, another 5 that are under construction now and 2 more that will start renovation in the next year.

As you said, within a few blocks you can see a difference of 3 or 4k in property taxes due to cities/school districts on a property worth 400k.

One word of advice for Philly that I imagine carries over elsewhere- it is incredibly block to block here.

My question is this, this house is neighbored by a small church on its right, a semi vacant parking lot on its left, the backside of a charter middle school that is the entire block directly in front of the house.

You can see values change by 20-30k depending on which block you are on.What I would do is look for closed houses within the last yr. either on your block or extremely close to you, the same sqft within 20%, same lot dimensions, and you can use houses with a bed difference to give yourself a good range of the values you could expect to see.Hope this can help you with your decision.Dan Powers - Real Estate Agent

The five-bedroom, six-bathroom townhouse includes a two-car garage nestled beside a private deck, all just a few blocks from Boston Common and the Boston Public Garden, places I frequented during my wild and crazy college days.