Sunday, November 11, 2007

Sunday Chicago Open House stories...

I have a rare Sunday "off" and I'm spending it watching my Packers (8-1) blow up the Vikings. But, I couldn't resist taking a peek at an open house in Ravenswood just down my block.

The place is a new conversion duplex down in a two flat building. I own a duplex-down, so I want to check out the competition along with previewing as many places as possible for clients. So in my Sunday best jeans and fleece, I made my way down the block.

When walking in, I always identity myself as a broker and I 'd like to check the place out. Now, after stating I'm a broker (and the agent there has met me before) you figure the agent would not have to point to the living room and tell me it was "the living room". I reckon you don't have to be in real estate to know it's the living room.

Annoyances aside, I proceed to take a look. Again, three bedroom, three bathroom, living room, family room, garage parking, nice kitchen with good sized deck adjacent.

Not a bad place, however there were some minuses here and questionable paint and layout choices. It has some nice formal room designations, but may not be open enough for some people.

However, with a $499K price-tag, it is a good alternative for a family looking to stay in Ravenswood. A move-in condition house, way outdated, will start at $600K in the neighborhood.

To get updated open house listings for any type of place you are looking for, please email or call me anytime. If we can't go out on showings, taking a look at some open houses is the next best thing.

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