The Heave Ho and Chicago Realtor

Staccato.

That describes yesterday and much of the last week. It was busy in spurts, with the busy-ness of the business of the Chicago real estate market erupting in spurts. Kind of like the teletype machine back in the day I wrote for the United Press International broadcast desk in Chicago when a big story hit the wires.

Chickety-chickety-chickety-chick went the clatter of the key strokes as the fall of the Berlin Wall was spelled out or as Nelson Mandela walked out of his Robben Island cell to freedom.

Not that any of my tasks in the last week were on the monumental scale of those occurrences, but helping clients to find their new  Chicago condo or single family home is fairly consequential on the most personal of levels. At the end of the day it's about coming home, a somewhat singular American metaphor and reality.

Anyway, amid the staccato-rhythmed Chicago real estate market of the past week I spoke with a fellow Realtor who is in an interesting family way. I don't mean that she is pregnant but that she has one listing whose seller is the sister and one listing whose seller is the brother. Her familial clients being slightly more functional than my own (the siblings actually speak to each other), my colleague wondered in the course of her clients' hypothetical conversations if she's about to get the simultaneous heave-ho.

Any Realtor who has ever listed a property has experienced the heave-ho. It's not something we talk about when we go to a listing appointment and we are painting a picture of our majesty as mavens of the Chicago real estate market. But any honest Realtor will tell you things did not work out with at least one client. It may have been an unlocked back door or lights left on or something equally mundane. In the current market, though, it's more about inactivity whether in actual showings or offers received.

Folks who list their homes have one characteristic in common - they all want to sell. The same is true among the Realtors they choose - they all want to sell the homes they list. Where the meat grinder revs up its terrifying yowl of pulverization is when this simple goal is not met. The home remains unsold. And like any sweetly sick pop or country song of unrequited love, there's gotta be somebody to blame whether it is in a week, a month, three months or more.

And the one with red and white circle on his forehead? The Realtor.

And so it goes, whether right or wrong, the Realtor takes the fall and someone new is called in to take care of the job. Or so they said when they spoke with the seller in their listing appointment and painted a scene of majesty related to what they would do and how they would do it.

Or so they said. What I have noticed in the current market (and by current I go back a good year and a half), one of the chief determinants related to market traction is pricing. The other determinant is the Broker with whom you list and the marketing plan they delineate and adhere to.

Price it right and you enhance your likelihood of selling. Price it wrong, not even Harry Houdini is going to make your mounting market time disappear and a prospective buyer show up with the waving of a wand.

In terms of the colleague from yesterday who represents a brother and sister selling their respective Chicago condos, only time will tell whether she hangs around or is hung out to dry. Maybe she will have the same outcome as I had on two listings where the sellers identified that they were going to head in a different direction and my last showings resulted in a contracts that closed.

You may ask, "So what did you do differently?" To which my response is, "It was the same way I marketed it the whole time. This is just how long it took."

How long it will take today is two hours as I host in less then an hour my open house of a gorgeous Gold Coast condo with a luxurious new gourmet kitchen. The address is 1224 N Dearborn and it boasts nearly 2000 square feet where typical condo square footage is typically much less. In the neighborhood? Drop by.

And if you have any questions about other listings in Chicago or the North Shore, don't hesitate to call me for consultation. With nearly ten years as one of the most trusted and respected Chicago Realtors, I assure you that you will come to regard my insights with the same degree of faith as my many other clients who turn to me and return to me.

My direct line is 773.848.9241.