Autumn in Chicago R.F.D.

Check out the pumpks and foliage in Forest Glen.

Geno Petro




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AMERICA'S HOME GRANT

Hey Chicago Real Estate Buyers, TAKE NOTICE...More $$$ for you AND Existing Homeowners!!!!

NEWS FROM BANK OF AMERICA:

My good friend Ed Hahn, Mortgage Loan Officer at Bank of America, just informed me about a new incentive program called America's Home Grant for Buyers AND existing Homeowners which could potentially yield a buyer $2,500 for a purchase and $1,250 for an existing homeowner on a refinance.

(He might not be the handsomest of the Hahn brothers but he can sure get a loan done.)

Qualification is based on either being a low income borrower or buying a property in qualifying census tracts in Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, McHenry and Will counties. This money is non-repayable and is yet another incentive for buyers to move forward and purchase this year.



Geno Petro




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Chicago Bungalow Beauty

The circa 1920's checkerboard brick bungalow has for generations been a resale staple of the Chicago Real Estate scene. This particular example, just around the corner from my own house, is one of my faves---especially in the Autumn. They just don't make windows like this anymore.



Geno Petro




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HaLOLween Chicago!

Every hound in Forest Glen lifts it's leg on these four pumpkin heads during their daily strolls including...

ahem,

'You Know Who'

No, not me....!!! THEM ....!!!




ps...I also just updated my Geno From Chicago 'Best Of' Archives from around the internet.


Geno Petro




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Forest Glen October

My Scary Forest Glen 'Hood...

Prime Chicago Real Estate on the Great Northwest Side


Boo on you,

Geno Petro




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'Take you down...to Chinatown'

Little did I know, when I stumbled into the Nam Bac Hang herbal medicine store in Chinatown yesterday, that I would soon thereafter comprehend the true meaning of 'PROMOTES DETOXIFICATION.' When I embarked on this brief occidental Chicago Southside journey all I had in mind was a box of herbal tea and a plate of chow mein. No jing luo meridians. No happy endings. Just some some tea and some chow, that's all.

OMG. The neck bone's connected to the knee bone...and an hour later. OMG. (did I just say that?)

Anyway, I don't know if it was the 1400 mgs of Senna, the Chinese rhubarb, or the licorice root but let me just say...O.M.G.


living the clean life,


Geno Petro




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Clark & Halsted Chicago

In a single autumnal sweep, the Summer of 2009 slips into the late September shadows, the White Sox (as well as others) become mathematically eliminated, and the old equine guard at Arlington shutters its racetrack grandstands until the next maiden season.

Here I stand above the crossroads of Clark and Halsted on Chicago's North Side observing The Plan---perhaps even as Burnham envisioned it over a full century ago. Look closely and you'll see the Clark Street Dog looming directly below. Ten blocks ahead and to the left marks the site of the St. Valentines Day Massacre---and to the right, The Biograph Theater where John Dillenger stole his last Midwestern breath.

I love the eclectic windy cityscape from this high Lakeview angle. It makes me consider how history might have played out differently if Dillenger would have simply turned left onto Clark and Bugsy Moran's crew, right onto Halsted, on those respective blood red letter days in Chicago history. After all, the road less traveled by makes all the difference from what I've read.

And I'm sure to be discussing this and other bits of Chi Town Real Estate fodder as I head back east to my college reunion this weekend. I'm excited to re-connect with all the other Slippery Rock Theater/Literature majors who, likewise over a thirty year period, never found a way to turn a real buck with their Liberal Arts degree(s).

Geno Petro




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Chicago Squeeze Play

It's the Two Six signature: innocent enough looking little bunny with a floppy ear, upside down Latin King crown (just to piss them off) and the star of David dotting the i of the Six. They started out as a baseball team in the 1960's on 26th Street but became a legitimate Southside Chicago street gang after sweeping the Cubs one weekend in intra-league play. (lol) Most recently they are known for shooting first and inquiring later. It's a Chicago Real Estate territory thing, I hear.

Anyway, I shot (okay, photographed) this tagged garage door in an East Village alley while showing Condos the other day. My client thought it was cute. I asked him if he was ever in a gang, reminding him that the Jewish Defense League didn't count. After a long pause, we decided to cross Ashland and look in Bucktown instead.


Geno Petro




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My Chicago Smarter Agent Text Code!

Here's the latest real estate dealio, as they say on my corner:

Clients, past present, and future: Simply text my broker code, G23 and enter 87778 to download the entire Chicago Multiple Listing Service (MLS) application right to your cell phones – stored and ready to go via Smarter Agent!

Click the link below for more info:

http://www.smarteragent.com/page_shell.php?thepage=cvideosa&page=10095100011000110001

Geno Petro




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Chicago Wrecking Crew

Look closely at the first few frames.

Lincoln Park, A Cafe Latte Society

I'm not sure I even need to comment on the above photo but I will since I nearly got clipped by a CTA bus as I dashed through the intersection of Diversey and Sheffield in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago to get the shot. I'll provide the parameters. You can draw your own double latte conclusions (hint...it is not a Volvo XC 90 dealership);

* Lincoln Park

* Athletic Club

* Parking lot

* Kid's Club morning programs

* Moms/Housewives

* Kids

* Volvos

* Starbuck's across the street

Again, I'm just the 3G messenger. And yes, I do make a Chicago Real Estate living providing shelter to the safety minded residents of this upscale lakefront community, so please, accept my fun poking as good natured commentary. It's just that it gets a little, I don't know, Stepford around here sometimes. That's all I'm saying.

Geno Petro




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"Chicago to Vegas and Back"....

or

...."From Sh*t to Sugar Back to Sh*t Again"
(quicker than you can blink an eye)



^ Of course, there are those who barely escape Sin City with the shirts on their backs. This humble couple was not praying but rather, passed out in front of 'Slots-A-Fun,' their bankroll, I suspect, greatly diminished. Thus, (just as in the Chicago real estate market) there are those who LOSE...





^ Likewise, there are those who WIN....




^ There are those who OBSERVE...

^ Those who make a lot of NOISE...

^ And then...there are those lucky enough not to have to pawn the good luggage for airfare back HOME....


Cha-ching,


Geno Petro




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Chicago Trash Talk

But, is it Art?

Approximately 11,000 Chicago City workers (including the trash dudes at this Lincoln Park location) slept in last Monday in celebration of our city's newly enacted Furlough Day cooperative. An estimated $8 million is expected to be saved this year as a result of three such days throughout the year. BTW, same deal for Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.

(I like the Starbuck's cup next to bag of dogshit)

Geno Petro




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...I'm just saying.

Geno Petro




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Hey Chicago Real Estate Peeps

Be a 'Friend' and visit my Facebook page. I post a mini-blog several times a week via Twitter and iPhone so check it out. It's not all about real estate but it's definitely Chicago. You just need to Add me to your Friends List and we'll be Kool and the Gang.



Geno Petro




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The Promo Sapien

The Promo Sapien is a direct descendant of the more popular and easily recognizable species known as the Homo Sapien--latin meaning: "wise or knowing man {or woman}." The PS, while similar in many ways to the HS, is generally a more smiley yet slightly condescending sort of creature who, in recent years, migrated en masse to the real estate business and enjoyed fleeting success until Global Warming and Web 2.0 set in and all the remaining unlicensed regular Sapiens learned how to find properties on their own on Zillow. They usually can be spotted these days in Starbucks with Blackberry in hand and Bluetooth in ear somewhere between the moms and the toddlers. At least, that's where you can usually find me.

This social glacier calving, as it were, spawned yet another subspecies, the Self-Promo Sapien--Chicago meaning: "any Realtor who constantly professes his or her superiority over any other qualified but less self-promoting PS as well as all HSes in general--and can be found on most any page of Chicago Agent Magazine (or any other industry ledger that will publish a 'Feature Article' if enough accompanying ad space is purchased), sic." And again, that's where you might one day find me as well, if someone can ever convince me it's worth the advertising ruble.

But for now I think not. The truth is, if no one else is offering up the accolades, I don't feel the need to make that superlative declaration myself. Now I will publish all compliments and 'attaboys' in my sidebar on the right; verbatim, referenced of course, and unsolicited all-- but I am not inclined to utter the words of praise myself, to be set apart from and above, all other PSes and SPSes with a Blackberry and an earpiece. Besides, the best Realtors in this town have already switched over to iPhone...



Geno Petro




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My Favorite Color

...until they invent something darker.



Geno Petro




follow me on twitter@genopetro