Looking At Properties, Part One

As I mentioned, we recently went out to the Mount Carroll area to look at some other properties in the area for comparison purposes. We wanted to have a good handle on the real estate market in the area, make sure there weren't other properties that would work even better for our purposes, and just get a better feel for the area in general. Amy from Isenhart Realty was kind enough to take us around to look at six different properties (three in Mount Carroll, three in neighboring Savanna).

Property number one is currently in use as an antique store.


"15,000+- SQ. FT. HISTORIC BRICK COMMERCIAL BUILDING IN DOWNTOWN MT. CARROLL HAS BEEN FRESHLY PAINTED. SURVEY ON PARAGON. FEATURES BARREL ROOF & IS LOCATED ON THE BLUFF OF THE WAUKARUSA RIVER ON 5 PARCELS. CURRENTLY USED AS ANTIQUE SHOP. POTENTIAL USES INCLUDE ANTIQUE MALL, RESTAURANT, OR LIGHT INDUSTRIAL. MAIN FLOOR HAS 6,600 SQ. FT.; WALKOUT LOWER LEVEL HAS GARAGE AND 6,600 SQ. FT.; AND ATTIC HAS 2,000 SQ. FT. ACCESS TO BASEMENT AT GROUND LEVEL. BUILDING IN VERY GOOD CONDITION. 3-PHASE 220 ELECTRIC."

It is in Mount Carroll, right behind the Raven's Grin Inn, so it automatically gets bonus points for being in our prime location. We were hoping to have the bar/restaurant downstairs and enough space upstairs for apartment living - at least for us, ideally with one or two other rental units too. Listed at $118,000 and boasting 15,200 square feet, it definitely had the size we were looking for. Unfortunately for us, almost all of that size was on the main floor. It is an amazing building - it just keeps going and going and going. It is crammed full of antiques so it was really hard to stop and take some time to try and visualize how we would even use the space for our purposes.

It had an equally huge walk-out basement with some yard space, and it was right up against a small river, so it was very pretty. It could make for some really nice outdoor parties / eating space.

This is the view from the front of the building; parking lot to the left, river to the right, and Raven's Grin Inn straight ahead.

The basement would need a lot of work to make it useable for anything other than storage though; it was huge and tall, but it was just an unfinished basement.

The attic was the biggest drawback for us. It had huge steel contraptions holding it up and there was just no way we'd be able to work apartment space in there.

It's possible that we could make living space on the ground floor along with the restaurant, or even make our living space in the basement, but overall the buildout would likely require way too much work to be useable for us since we'd need to build both the apartment space AND the restaurant space.