I received a phone call this morning from an agent to whom I submitted an offer to buy a Chicago condo yesterday. What he had to say took me by surprise.
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You see, here’s what happened. Dave and Colleen are a really nice couple heading to Chicago from D.C. so she can attend a graduate program in Hyde Park. I met them through another really nice couple from D.C. who also came to the University of Chicago a few years back. The few years back couple, Jon and Heidi - I helped them find a place in Bucktown and they are nice enough to share my info with friends who gravitate to Chicago every 10 or so months.
Anyway, Dave and Colleen have been looking online and have a good grasp of the Chicago real estate market and, after visiting a few times, knew more or less where they wanted to live. This weekend was to be the culmination of online ruminations and on the ground ambulations. So all day Friday we set ‘em up and knocked ‘em down, looking at one after another.
Finally we settled on a few contenders and slated a couple of Saturday morning showings to round out the vision quest. I left them after our 11am showing Saturday to show my Lincoln Square single family home at 2454 Berteau and then I headed to show nine places to Steve and Megan and their three kids in Hinsdale, LaGrange and Clarendon Hills.
Weathering a rainstorm and enough lockboxes to blister your fingers for a month of Sundays in the suburbs I headed back to my office in Lincoln Park to reconvene with Colleen and Dave and write up an offer on one of the Lakeview residences we had viewed (and that they liked). And so we pulled up tax records and comps from both three and six months back to derive a reasonable direction as far as the number we would affix to our initial offer.
The point of making an offer, for the most part, is not to start with your best and highest. Bearing this in mind and the statistics reflecting the specific commodity we were pursuing, we settled on a reasonable starting number. Thinking the comps I had run were pertinent to our cause, I included them in the packet of info I then sent via email to the listing agent.
The agent called later in the evening, wanting to know where my clients would go. I responded that they were reasonable but that we had based our offer on discernible facts and would be interested to hear back from his client.
So earlier this morning as the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune laid unfolded full of gossip, hearsay, and subjective facts and as I readied myself for the first of two open houses (including my beautiful listing at 726 Addison) I heard back from the listing agent and was informed that…
After presenting my offer to the seller the listing agent learned that his client was inclined to counter at full price. While such responses are not uncommon the fact is that non responses tend to occur in more robust markets where getting a mortgage doesn’t involve DNA samples and credit scores approximating three nearly perfect bowled games. They also don’t tend to be spat out in response to cash offers with less than 30 day closes (which verily describes our offer).
The listing agent told me he then had his “come to Jesus” conversation with his client to figure out just what his motivation is, was or would be. If you’ve read my past blogs you know that my business mission does not involve gratuitous pokes in the eye but is more steeped in fair value. At the end of the day my role is to secure for my clients a fair value deal, and that is what we sought here.
But at the end of this particular seller’s day his goal was somewhat different. And so, akin to the kid who ends the game by taking the ball home in a pout, the seller decided to simply cancel his listing after weathering it on the market for more than four months with an agent who conducted countless showings.
And so it goes. And so my clients, having returned to D.C. are left to find another piece of the Chicago real estate pie to charm and entertain them. The good news is that we have a few in mind. The question is whether we will find a seller willing to engage in a fair value transaction. One thing is certain, I will do my part to ensure that my clients have the best and most informed counsel to facilitate the desired transaction.
Anyway, I thought you might find this little corner of the Chicago real estate market a bit entertaining. But as entertaining as it might be, wait until the next one! Not sure what it will entail, but it will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Until the next time from The Real Estate Lounge Chicago.
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