Before we talk list price, I ask every West Loop seller one question: is your parking space deeded, or do you just have the right to use it?
About half the time, the answer is "I'm not sure." That's fine. It's much better to find out now than in week three of attorney review.
Here's why it matters. Take the timber loft conversions along Washington Boulevard and Carpenter Street. In some of these buildings, each space has its own PIN and its own property tax bill. In others, the association assigns the space as a limited common element, and it moves with the unit through the declaration. A few buildings lease spaces month to month, or the spaces belong to a separate garage entirely.
Those are three different assets. Buyers pay different amounts for each one.
A deeded space with its own PIN is real property. It gets its own line in the contract, and the lender and the appraiser both see it. Within a few blocks of the Morgan stop, I've watched buyers treat a deeded space as worth tens of thousands of dollars by itself. A leased space is a convenience. It can disappear when the lease does, and smart buyers know that.
Do this before you list. Pull the closing package from when you bought and check your tax bill for a second PIN. Ask your management company what the declaration says about parking. If your space is leased, get the current terms and the waitlist situation in writing. It takes an afternoon and it can save you a renegotiation.
This is where I disagree with some agents. I don't like advertising the space as a separate add-on with its own price, something like "unit $525,000, parking $40,000 optional." It sounds flexible. In practice it hands the buyer an easy first move. They offer on the unit, pass on the space, and now you own a parking spot in a building you're moving out of. Selling it to a neighbor later takes time and rarely gets you what you hoped. Build it into the price, list both PINs in the contract, and negotiate the whole thing as one deal.
Investors see this differently, and I understand why. If you're buying to rent, a deeded space can be leased to someone else in the building, and that's real monthly income. First-time buyers should ask the question the seller should have answered already: what exactly am I buying with that space?
And if a listing just says "parking included," ask which kind.