Monday, December 13, 2010

Back in the Steel Town Hay Days

my old Pittsburgh home
I visited Pittsburgh for the first time in 28 years last weekend and circled a few old haunts. The picture above was my first apartment out of college. North Side, circa 1920.

$142.50 per month ($4.75 per day) covered the rent in 1982 which included, of course, my starving artist discount. Ah... Perrysville Avenue, how I so do not miss thee....


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Geno Petro





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(iPhone photo by Geno Petro)

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Chicago's Top 10 Real Estate Deals

This magnificent residence at 199 E Lake Shore is my top real estate 'pick of the month' in Chicago.  Follow this link to view all my December 2010 choices.


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Geno Petro





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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

A Cold Chicago November


Cicero church twin steeples
Cicero

Chicago gargoyle statue
Chicago


Have a Happy (Photo)Shopping Season!
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Geno Petro





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(iPhone photos by Geno Petro)

Saturday, November 20, 2010

A Little Sweat Equity, Please...

Geno Petro wall painting

No, I'm not tagging a building.  I'm re-painting my dining room from OMG, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing Red  to WTF, Victorian Green. What up with paint samples? They always look different once they're on the wall; darker and much harsher in true daylight (I guess it's just how they roll). The phenom is similar to what I hear occurs on Matchmaker.com. Sure am glad I re-married before Web 2.0 and Photoshop.

Anyway, a new color for a new Chicago Real Estate year. Just keeping the Forest Glen house fresh and showable in case we get the urge to shuffle off to Buffalo Grove for good. *COL!
Not sure painting does much for home equity these days but there is only so much dancing one guy can do. And ....it, no duh, makes the missus happy. Speaking of  showing houses and dancing etc, check out my latest post (along with all my BHB archived contributions) on Bloodhound Blog:


'Wheeere's Johnny?'


*(Crying Out Loud!)

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Geno Petro





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sneak photo by Mona Petro

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Memoirs of a Big, Fat Liar

lightning strike

Lightning In A Bottle
  
Actually, a bunch of big fat liars. I'll include myself in the group for this exercise (as an embedded observer, of course) although I can state here comfortably--eyeball to eyeball, without flinching and safely nested behind the double locked doors of my home office library--that my truthfulness in business dealings consistently falls within the soupy gray boundries of acceptable sales chatter. In other words, I try not to exaggerate or overblow my Real Estate accomplishments when things fall nicely into my lap nor do I whine and moan (or shriek like a little girl...anymore) at the first sign of a market correction or the foreshadow of a lenghty Listing stint.

   The truth is, the Listing Agent who has the signed Exclusive Agreement when the actual Buyer walks through the door is the hero. Period. Don't let them (us) tell you otherwise. We all know this. I once lost a deal (and one of my best friends) early on in my career two days after such an Agreement expired. I had a lot of activity on the property--many showings, loads of interest--but on day 90, my just-married buddy decided that the unsold property was hurting our friendship and yanked the house from me. He fired me over the phone from Vegas--on his honeymoon. (I'd love to report here how that marriage ended up but that would be gloating now, wouldn't it?)

   The new Agent was literally taking down my sign and putting his own up when the eventual Buyer came tooling along with his wife. They wrote a deal without representation (a 'double bubble' for the Agent) and Closed in 30 days. That my friends is what we Realtors call, 'lightning in a bottle.' And I've been the recipient of such happenstance, as well. I've just learned not to gloat over it when it occurs nor do I stand outside in the the middle of a thunderstorm (or worse yet, a drought), arms raised to the heavens with coke bottles in each hand, waiting for it to strike again. I have other stupid things I do...

Promising The Moon 

...And this is one of them. Not so much anymore but still...I want to be liked. Deep down, I don't want to be the person to break the bad news...
   "You see, Mr and Mrs Climbladder, your house is very beautiful. It's just 1.2 million dollar beautiful... not 1.7 million dollar beautiful. If it were 1.7 million dollar beautiful it would most likely be surrounded by several other 1.7 million dollar beautiful homes in a 1.7 million dollar neighborhood."

   blah blah blah.

   "Yes, I know it was featured in the local newspaper but no one is reading that particular issue anymore...except of course, you."

   blah blah blabbity blah!

   "And yes, I see you spent a couple hundred thou on the bathrooms and kitchen and I'm sure you have enjoyed them but Buyers expect such finishes at this price point. Like I said, it's beautiful...it's just not 1.7 million dollar beautiful."

   blah?  

"Yes, Mr and Mrs Climbladder...I'm afraid so....blah."

   The point is I try not to promise the moon unless I promise a Price Reduction to go along with it. I'm very nice about it, though.

The Sunday Papers

I once heard renowned newscaster, Sam Donaldson, state in an interview, "I don't go to the casinos because winning a hundred dollars means nothing to me but losing a hundred dollars really pisses me off." I concur. I also feel the same about newspaper advertising. IMO, it only brands the company name...it doesn't sell houses. Not here in Chicago, anyway. To spend money foolishly on a longshot bet is one thing, but to advocate such a strategy as a Marketing Plan is cretinous. (You can look it up if you like but it basically means stupid.)

   Marketing in this day and age goes well beyond ink on paper advertising. If it is disposable then it will be disposed of. Print advertising is untrackable, expensive, and passive. I'd rather pay-per-click any (every) day of the week though the cost of doing business is equivalent. At least I know my hard earned money isn't wrapped around a dead fish in the garbage.

   I am confident that Internet Channels, Digital Open Houses, and other technologies along these lines are the way of the future in Real Estate. And even as I restructure my own business model for the next five years I'll still make it a point to tip the paperboy every month when he knocks on our front door. (Besides being an enterprising young kid in the image of you know who, he's the best hacker I know.)

Ladybug In A Juice glass

   I won't promise 'lightning in a bottle' to a potential client but I will pledge to use my resources (spend my own money) in the most efficient manner I see fit. Let's face it, the Listing Agent is in the hole the minute he walks out the door with the Exclusive and only collects when the property actually sells--correction: ...when the property actually sells under his watch. Phone calls from Vegas are never good under any circumstance, I've found.

I'll try not to promise the Moon no matter how much I allow myself to be manipulated by the situation (potential paycheck). And that is why we do it, you know. We Realtors are, ironically, the easiest people to manipuate because we count the money before it's printed. We may say we don't but most of us secretly do. After all, we have BMWs and college to pay for. (It also stokes our Ego when we nail a Sold placard across the For Sale sign. I usually wait until rush hour so everyone stalled in traffic can watch me perform the ritual. It usually takes a good half hour depending on whether or not I have to find and unbury St. Joseph.)

I may be big, and I may or may not be fat (depending on the season or what I'm wearing), but a Big, Fat, Liar I am not. Not all three. I won't promise 'lightning in a bottle' but I will do my best to catch a ladybug in a juiceglass. Oh yeah....and work for free until I get the place sold, just like every other self-respecting Realtor.


Geno Petro





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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

OMG...

storm clouds
... I am heartly sorry for having offended Thee...and BTW, plz dont
let that big ass tree fall on my BMW.

Amen.


Yours truly,


Geno Petro





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(iPhone photo by Geno Petro)

Monday, October 25, 2010

Andersonville Sidewalk Stroll

Clark St in Andersonville

A crisp Autumn day in Chicago's famous Swedish neighborhood, Andersonville; and a stroll down Clark Street. If you find yourself searching for Real Estate in this beautiful Edgewater area, be sure to stop by here and here.  Private showings are arranged with 24 hour notice.


And as always, click  HERE  for free registration and 24 hour access to the Chicago MLS.  Search Chicagoland like a Realtor.


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Geno Petro





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(iPhone photo by Geno Petro)



Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Fallingwater Road Trip



Falling Water exterior
Fallingwater side view

Falling Water terrace
Fallingwater terrace
                                        

Falling Water back view
Fallingwater back view

While rolling with the wifey through the autumnal hollows of southwestern Pennsylvania this week I decided to steer the Bimmer in the direction of Mill Run, one of several Frank Lloyd Wright sanctuaries due north of the Mason-Dixon line. Home to Fallingwater (and just a few miles, as the crow flies, from Kentucky Knob), this picturesque nook of cantilevered countryside is visual poetry; flagstone, rich woods, angular beats and eye strokes.  Legend goes that Wright mentally tarried for months (the house had been commissioned a year earlier by an increasingly impatient E. J. Kaufmann) over the masterpiece before actually sitting down and drawing the entire elevation, from memory, in a single afternoon. Whether fact, fiction, or folly, the structure remains a horizontal essay in 20th Century architecture. And besides all that, I like it a lot.



And as always, click  HERE  for free registration and 24 hour access to the Chicago MLS.  Search Chicagoland like a Realtor.


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Geno Petro





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(iPhone photos by Geno Petro)


Wednesday, October 06, 2010

My Great Outdoors


451 W Huron Penthouse
451 W Huron Penthouse Terrace

818 N Dearborn Courtyard
818 N Dearborn Courtyard

1823 W Wellington rooftop deck
1823 W Wellington Rooftop Deck
                                                  


5320 N Kenmore Patio
5320 N Kenmore Patio


1402 W Foster deck
1402 W Foster Deck
                                                               


2333 N Bosworth garage deck
2333 N Bosworth Garage Deck




And as always, click  HERE  for free registration and 24 hour access to the Chicago MLS.  Search Chicagoland like a Realtor.


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Geno Petro





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Monday, September 20, 2010

Old Style Chicago

Ollie's Bar in chicago Edgewater neighborhood

A Chicago corner bar---in the Charles Bukowski tradition.

I've never actually stepped foot inside the neighborhhood dive on Berwyn Avenue, tucked back between the greystone grid of Winthrop and Kenmore, but I have glanced into it's perpetually open front door over the years. There's something sickeningly sweet, from the sidewalk, about the waft of stale beer and cigarette smoke as you pass by at seven in the morning; sepia visions of a washed out Faye Dunaway in a gin soaked camisole slipping off a barstool...

Inside.  No music plays here. Not even of the Tom Waits ilk. Serious, silent drinking only.

Turn a corner into the side alley and witness a punch drunk Mickey Rourke putting up dukes against the watered down Stallone (brother Frank) amidst the dumpsters---an EL train Red Line rumble beneath the ancient iron bound trussel. And although Bukowski was more of a seedy L.A. sort of sop, I'm sure the man could have waxed his own poetic word about Ollie's in Edgewater Beach.

But this is mere conjecture. Like I said, I've never actually stepped foot...inside, or slipped under...it's belly.

G


And as always, click  HERE  for free registration and 24 hour access to the Chicago MLS.  Search Chicagoland like a Realtor.


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Geno Petro





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(iPhone photo by Geno Petro)

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

1823 Wellington -- Single Family Luxury

1823 W Wellington



And as always, click  HERE  for free registration and 24 hour access to the Chicago MLS.  Search it like a Realtor.


(Oh, and if your phone has some smarts, then you can follow me on it as well.)

Geno Petro





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Monday, September 13, 2010

Cabrini Green...on the down low

Cabrini Green Neighborhood tagCabrini Green Neighborhood demolition


It's all comin' down baby. Here's to a better housing future for everyone involved; Realtors, devlopers, and tenants. The Near North Side of Chicago is rockin' and rollin' along with new construction activity in 2010. Gotta tear it down to build it up.


And as always, click  HERE  for free registration and 24 hour access to the Chicago MLS.  Search it like a Realtor.


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Geno Petro





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(iPhone photos by Geno Petro)

Monday, August 30, 2010

Manny's in Chicago!



Hip Hip Hooray! 

(B-ball was getting a little boring around this town lately.)


And as always, click  HERE  for free registration and 24 hour access to the Chicago MLS.  Search it like a Realtor.


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Geno Petro





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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

So...it's come to this...


Click below for inquiries and access to FHA approved condos in Chicago.  So much for the ahem....'Upper Bracket' market but hey, it's all good. It's still America and needless to say, there's a lot to choose from in the housing market.


https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/condlook.cfm



And as always, click  HERE  for free registration and 24 hour access to the Chicago MLS. Search it like a Realtor.




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Geno Petro





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Friday, August 20, 2010

Metracide: the last stop



I often wondered  how and why so many people die in Metra commuter train accidents each year in Chicagoland.  As the video shows, a million tons of rumbling steel is kind of hard to miss...unless of course, the act is willful intent. Sadly, two more people were killed (in separate incidents) by Metra trains this week. In early May, Metra CEO Phil Pagano, took his own life by stepping in front of a train in Barrington. Personally,  I think I'd prefer to drink myself to death in a row boat off Bora Bora. Just sayin'...

And as always, click  HERE  for free registration and 24 hour access to the Chicago MLS. Search it like a Realtor.




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Geno Petro





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Sunday, August 15, 2010

Chicago's Home Weblog has a new look


And as always, click  HERE  for free registration and 24 hour access to the Chicago MLS.  Search it like a Realtor.




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Geno Petro





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Forest Glen Historical Neighborhood






Some walk around photos of the Carpenter-Builder vernacular of the late 19th Century in Chicago's Forest Glen neighborhood.  My own home (below) was built at the end of this period and although a circa 2000 gut rehab, it is architecturally similar to the example above. Both original frame  homes had adjacent horse stables on their grounds and once provided into-town transport for a Chicago-to-Milwaukee train depot stop. The tracks, still in use today, are currently shared by Metra, Amtrak, and various freight train roll bys. In other words, the presence of trains is pretty much a part of the background noise around here. Personally, I love it (but my wife still requires the aid of ear plugs, an eye mask, and the occasional diphenhydramine nightcap).



And as always, click  HERE  for free registration and 24 hour access to the Chicago MLS.


Geno Petro





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