The three clicks is a promise. First, open a Chicago-based Place Report; Property Finder will open automatically. (For example, open Near West Side community area.)

1. In the Property Finder filters, select the “Developable lots” filter. 
2. In the “Listing status” filter, tick the checkboxes for each of the property types you want to find. 
3. Select the “Apply filters” button. 

In a moment, Chicago Cityscape will show you a map and data table of developable lots for sale in Chicago. The information shown to you will also include a calculation of how many homes each property allows based on its current zoning district. 

These filters combined can find excellent new construction and redevelopment opportunities. For example, we found a one-story commercial building for sale in the West Loop which is zoned to allow seven apartments or condos. 

You might be wondering, what’s a developable lot? Our definition of developable lots comprises properties that meet all of these criteria:

• Low-intensity land use (parking lots, one-story commercial buildings, side yard, vacant lots, car repair and gas stations)
• In a zoning district with an FAR of 2.0 or higher, which means that a building on the property can have a floor area of two times, or more, the lot area. Or is in an RM-5, RM-5.5, RM-6, or RM-6.5 zoning district.
• Within a transit-served location (meaning within 1/2 mile of a CTA or Metra rail station, or within 1/4 mile of a CTA bus route that has higher-frequency service in the middle of the day). 

Chicago Cityscape updates properties for sale once a day; the criteria listed above are updated as needed or as properties change. 

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The vast majority of property sales and transactions are required to be submitted – by the sales participants or their agents – to the Illinois Department of Revenue's MyDec database, where Chicago Cityscape sources its Cook County property sales data. 

Occasionally, some transactions are not submitted to MyDec. Chicago Cityscape has a way to warn its members when that may have happened using our new recordings database. 

Currently, Property Reports highlight the date of the last sale (using information provided to MyDec). What's new is that when we have a record of a recording that is of a deed type, Property Report will highlight that fact and advise you to look in the list of recordings for a deed recording that has a price associated with it. 

The screenshot below, of a property that didn't have a MyDec submission, better explains what Chicago Cityscape members should be on the lookout for.

Chicago Cityscape added a new filter in Property Finder and Property Sales Browser that filters out sales that are likely not arms length transactions. We are excited to offer this to our members who are brokers and appraisers as this will make it easier to identify incomparable sales. 

To find arms-length transactions we are using most of the filters that the Cook County Assessor's Office uses. Our filter uses the following flags to identify if a property is not arms length:

• sale price of $10,000 or less
• uses a quit claim deed, executor deed, or beneficial interest instrument
• has no instrument type specified
• has a value for any of nine Line 10 items in the PTAX-203 form

In one of our tests we found that 17 percent of property sales in the Near West Side community area had one or more of the flags and were not considered to be an arms length transaction. 

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