How the Housing Market in Chicagoland Affects Seniors

It has been a familiar route for so many homeowners over the years: build equity in the property where you lived for so many years, then sell it for a handsome profit so you can move into that lovely retirement community you had your eye on for so long.

But what if the family homestead does not sell?

Without deep pockets to otherwise fund the right to take up occupancy in that senior lifestyle home, the average senior homeowner cannot make that move.

A high-profile case in point is The Clare at Water Tower, a seniors-only project that launched in 2008. It has unfortunately been forced to file bankruptcy recently, due to lagging sales. The folks who have already moved into the complex will be able to continue in residence, although they will apparently have many empty units around them while waiting for yet more buyers to step up and move in.
It is partly an issue of being able to sell the family home, but likely it is also a matter of having to let go of all that loss in equity in the family home. Any home can be sold in this market (Chicagoland), as long as it is priced according to what the buyers are willing to pay for it. Nonetheless, it is hard to swallow such large equity losses, when the seniors reflect on what their home was worth some 2, 3, 4, or 5 years ago.
It makes the decision a bit harder, perhaps, but it can be done.

It's Tuesday. Do You Know Where Your Realtor Is?

Every week of the year, Chicagoland real estate agents are invited to make their listed properties available for viewing to all other agents. It's essential an open house for agents. In my geographic area (Chicago, and north suburbs), this weekly open house is either on a Tuesday morning, or Wednesday morning (depending on which community the property is in, dictated by the local multiple listing service).

We call this the "brokers' tour". This tour serves many purposes, the most obvious is to promote the listing agent's property to other agents. How better to explain the benefits and amenities of a home than to have the area agents come in to see it with their own eyes? The mood is relaxed. Sometimes the listing agent will promise snacks or even a full-blown lunch to draw more agents into their property for a visit. It's a good time to take in the property, ask the listing agent questions, and perhaps catch some conversation with other agent colleagues who are visiting when you are.

Another reason that agents get into their cars and "tour" around to visit other listings is to check out the competition for their own listings, or a listing that will be coming onto the market in the near future. It's imperative that a seller's agent have personal knowledge of what the competing properties are all about.

And finally, it's all about staying current with the local real estate market. I once had a friend comment to me that the weekly brokers' tour must truly be a waste of time. I responded that there was no way I could be a good agent for my clients if I was not aware of what homes are looking like and selling for in my own area. It's like trying to sell jewelry without ever setting foot in the jewelry store, ever. You just can't do it.

So imagine my distress this morning when I could not gain access to my own MLS service in order to research which listings were going to be available for touring today. Phone calls to the tech help desk didn't get a solution to the problem, only access to the "MLS-lite" version that does not even give me the brokers tour search capacity. Sigh. The internet is great when it works!