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Meeting Moses at an East Village Coffee Shop (When He Gets an Emailed Offer)

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Real Estate Agent with @properties

Sleek silver Vespa in front of East Village bistro.Moses tooled up to an East Village coffee shop earlier today on his new sleek silver Vespa.

It had been a while since I had seen the old guy, but I'm never surprised by what he does or how he does it. Today being a slight slice of Spring on what this year has been an ever-elongating wintry landscape he opted to go, as he referred to it, as "topless." So there he was in front of the Mercury coffee shop on Chicago Avenue just east of Ashland beaming like a goofy sophomore who was taking the prom queen to the dance. 

We in Chicago tend to get a bit short of breath with each whisper of spring and mi amigoMoses, possibly as a testament to his youthful spirit, is no different as he showed off his new ultra-efficient two-wheeler before temperatures headed south again. You see though April is a slight stone's throw from where we stand there's still snow on the ground on the north side of my Edgewater home and we can see our breath when we exhale. 

Moses sips his latte"Wow," I said and simultaneously wondered to myself whether Moses, a Chicago real estate pro like myself, would go to showings on the bike. No sooner had I mused this than he broke out his technological toolbox and I knew that this toga donning nutsicle didn't need the shell of a car or or the trappings of a truck to sell real estate.

From the newest Blackberry (with 10 email capacity and "tethering" ability to enable full wireless internet performance in addition to serving as a mobile phone), Bluetooth (for handsfree conversing), digital camera, an unabiding knowledge of the market and an undeniable "can do" attitude, Moses cut quite the 21st Century figure on the Chicago real estate landscape. Had I not known him so well or been so severely self-confident myself I might have been intimidated.

Instead I was impressed.

Moses fields a phone call with his blue toothSo we sat down to a mid-sized latte to talk the Chicago real estate market and what's going on with buyers, sellers, and fence sitters. Then the conversation took a turn.

That's when his phone nibbled the air with its gentle timbling.

Trying not to eavesdrop but straining to hear what I could I detected a muffled tone seeping past Moses' Bluetooth that an offer had been sent via pdf. Having been the recipient of several and various offers of late I simply hoped that the paper on which the offer had been written had not been used in vain.

Moses, ever the picture of cool conducted himself as if the caller was right there in front of him, nodding his head and squinting his eyes when needed. He purred his voice back to the caller that he would get back to him if the offer was sufficient.

Having hung up the call he winked at me over the hood of his 17 inch HP lap top. "Give me a second so I might discern if my friend and I sip from the same cup of tea."

Moments after firing up this generation's version of the teletype machine I witnessed a momentary flaring of temper as my good friend lifted his arms skyward as if to ask for divine intervention to offset what his eyes beheld.

Momentarily enraged in front of the pdf of lowball offerNo sooner than it appeared had the anger dissipated and he regained his game face. He nodded at me and chuckled, "It appears that the caller's tea cup is dangling in a different plane of reality."

Not being all-too-versed in Heidegger I allowed the silence between us to exist until he wished to puncture it.

And so each of us quietly returned to our delicious caffeinated beverages until he allowed that the offer orbited at 85% of asking price.

He went on to say that the roughly 85% offer was made on a listing price that he, his client, and the overall East Village market deemed to be a fair value price.

He didn't seemed insulted. Nor did he appear perturbed. Instead, if I was to characterize his demeanor, it would be that he was stoically fatigued.

Now I don't mean to say that Moses seemed ready to take a John McCain-type middle of the day nap - but as he spider-mirrored his finger tips together he chewed out the words that he couldn't wait for good sense and reason to reappear in the Chicago real estate market.

"What's next?," I asked him.

"It's up to my client - but in all likelihood we'll meet their salaciousness with silence. That or a take it or leave it number well beyond their starting point."

We sat again in silence, possibly the same silence that would serve as his client's response to this exquisitely low offer, and I wondered what was behind the buyer's starting point.

  • Did he think that he'd buy the place with such a scathingly low offer?
  • Did he think by starting so low that he'd be able to buy the middle?
  • Was he thinking at all?

I am proud to endorse Barack Obama!A few more minutes passed, the level of caffeine lowered while our degrees of personal caffeination increased when the phone rang again. This time it was my 10 email capable wireless internet tethering Blackberry that I had patched into my own laptop.

"Hi, Tom McCarey," I crooned into the phone. It was an agent I didn't know wanting to schedule a showing of one of my condo listings at the last minute. Knowing that my clients were out of town and that they kept the place ready to show at a moment's notice I told her I would meet her in front of the property.

I wanted to grill her - how long has your client been looking, how many places have you seen, how many places have you seen today, what's the timeline, the motivation, is your client thinking there's a "deal" or is your client reasonable.

Sure, it could be the same thing Moses and I had spent the last half hour mulling over. But then again, you never know who you might meet.

By the way, Sunday's opens include:

856 N Paulina from 11a-1p (East Village condo) and 2214 W Cullom from 2p-4p (Lincoln Square new construction single family home).

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