chicago: The Divorce...The House...The Mess - 03/02/10 02:39 PM
The story book romance, climaxes in a fairy tale wedding.  The happy couple purchases their dream to begin their life together.  Slowly at first the realities of life begin to tarnish the blissful future Sally & Joey Newlywed envisioned.  What once looked like happily ever after has become the war of the Roses.
 A slowing economy, a job loss, and a toxic home life have led to the nuclear option…The Divorce.  Attorneys on both sides of the table begin the process.  Marital assets are total and values assigned.  The debate continues.  The biggest asset Sally & Joey’s dream house is the … (2 comments)

chicago: It Was a Silent Night - 12/22/09 01:17 AM
The Battlefields of Flanders gave new meaning to the word war.  Thousands of German, French and British soldiers engaged in trench warfare.  Man's newest killing machine, the machine gun, turning the trenches into a slaughter house of human flesh.  Cold, wet, and, hungry both sides committed to their cause, fighting for what they saw was a justice.
Suddenly tiny lights began to flicker; the French and British troops struggled to figure out the source of the light.  Was it a new weapon, some unknown force about to be unleashed?  Was the living nightmare about to become a living hell?
From the … (1 comments)

chicago: Notes from Summer School....What Jimmy Buffett Taught Me about Marketing - 08/10/09 10:12 AM
Saturday night I went to summer school, not your typical summer school, but summer school as in Jimmy Buffett's 2009 summer concert SummerZcool.
Never in my wildest imagination did I think I would leave that event with a better understanding of marketing.  That assumption couldn't be further from the truth.  Buffett has an amazing ability to connect with his audience.  Most of 30 or 40 thousand parrot heads have as much in common with Jimmy and his Coral Reefers as I do with the man on the moon.  However Buffett connected with everybody.  How did he do this....He Kept it Local.
… (11 comments)

chicago: The Lord Loveth the Cheerful Giver...He Must Hate the Taxpayer! - 08/01/09 09:44 PM
This afternoon as I was talking to a friend the subject of taxes came up.  In case you haven't heard Chicago and Cook County, IL have the highest sales tax rates in the country.  I like most people don't pay much attention to the sales taxes most of us pay.  However after today's conversation I decided to look at the reciept for my purchases this afternoon.
A quick trip to CVS to purchase a 2 Liter of Diet Coke, some Bud Light (it is the weekend), a bag of chips, and a smaller bag of chips for my buddy is resulted in … (3 comments)

chicago: One Bourbon, One Scotch, & One Beer.....And A First Time Home Buyer - 07/22/09 03:50 AM
Just as I was thinking, I haven't written a Blog in a while, my trusty Blackberry gives me the familiar chirp of a text message.  Much too my surprise it is a message from a friend...."Can I buy you a drink or several tomorrow night or the next".  Heck we are in the midst of a recession and I have a friend offering to buy me a drink or, as he put it several, George Thorogood quickly comes to mind.  I quick reply yep what's up?
Then to my horror I get "I am buying a house".  My first thought is … (4 comments)

chicago: Yo Cupcake!........Are you a Stalker or Just Kinda Creepy! - 06/25/09 07:35 AM
The other day a buddy of mine sent me one of the best blog posts in the history real estate blogging http://www.1000wattconsulting.com/blog/2008/01/i-am-not-a-lead.html (Thanks Marc for helping me find the post).  In my opinion it sums up the Realtor/Client relationship in the web 2.0 environment we are now living in now, and quite frankly leaving quickly.
It wasn't long ago that we thought our fancy auto responders and drip campaigns where the silver bullet of customer acquisition (Guilty as charged your Honor).  Auto responders, drip campaigns, pictures of our dogs, and an alphabet soup of letters that would make a scrabble champion cry, … (36 comments)

chicago: Hey Realtor....Your Website May Be A Waste of Time - 06/18/09 06:47 AM
I have recently been doing a lot of thinking about web sites.
As a Realtor and more importantly a real estate practitioner, I am starting to wonder the strategy of putting so much time, effort, and money into my web site.  The facts say that I/We need to have a web presence.  But why?  What is the purpose of a web site?  My thinking used to be to provide the consumer with information, provide the consumer with the ability to search for property, provide me with a way to capture that consumer.
The reality of the situation is there are a … (97 comments)

chicago: Disruptive Innovation - 05/14/09 05:20 PM
I recently came across the term "Disruptive Innovation".  The term was coined by Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen, and describes a process in which a new concept, idea, product, or service takes root at the low end of a market or industry and then relentlessly moves up the preverbal food chain and displaces the market or industry establishment.
Thinking about our industry, its past, and its future, I began to realize we are now in the midst of what could be the greatest time of "Disruptive Innovation".  Looking to the past, I think the dawn of Realty Executives and Re/Max was a … (2 comments)

chicago: To Sign or Not to Sign? A Chicago Story - 05/01/09 12:51 PM
To sign or not to sign?  That seems to be the latest controversy within the Chicago Real Estate Community.  Apparently the City of Chicago has had on its books an ordinance that prohibits advertising signs on public property.  Public property certainly includes sidewalks and the like.  As Spring approaches the City has indicated that they are going to place added emphasis on the enforcement of the ordinance.
This seems to have a number of my colleagues in a tizzy.
Although I can image that open house signs bring in some traffic I find it very hard to believe the numbers are … (1 comments)

chicago: 50% Of Home Owners with Loan Modification are Delinquent Again? - 12/09/08 06:17 AM
As I crawled out of bed this morning and turned on the news I was amazed to here that "50% of all home owners with loan modification agreements are delinquent".  Assuming the report is true, I was wondering what this tells us about the current situation in which we find ourselves.
I can only assume that the majority of the delinquencies are home owners who purchased with little down, had very high loan to value ratios, and qualified for loans under the very loose underwriting guidelines in vogue a few years back.  I heard an industry insider speak a couple of … (5 comments)

 

Jeff Castner

Jeff Castner

Chicago, IL

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