Realtor Promises Buyers Change is Coming

One of Chicago's top real estate agents refused to disappoint his clients. The buyers were not interested in restoring an older home or dealing with the quirks associated with vintage properties in Chicago. They wanted something new, so their agent took them to a property near the el with city views. And then he offset his clients fearful looks with a surprising billboard validating his assertions about change.
Garfield Park
Jan. 2015

Buyer Sees the Light

After ten grueling minutes slogging through a dilapidated Pilsen foreclosure wondering why his realtor brought him to such a place, the exasperated buyer finally saw the light. And the rat holes. And the dusty stack of unpaid bills. And, the exit.
Pilsen

Swingers Abandon Property

Apparently too much swinging can eventually lead to the same financial calamities that have affected other foreclosed homes. Potential buyers and even their realtors are now asked to sign a swinging waiver before entering a property that clarifies that any swinging they may do is at their own risk.
Sauganash

Daughter's Pitiful Look Shows Well

In an effort to add some emotional value to their overpriced Albany Park two flat, the sellers asked their eight year old daughter to scribble sentimental notes on the wall and remain in mourning when potential buyers wanted to look in her room. The sellers did offer to leave their daughter if the buyers paid more for their furnishings.
Albany Park

Anti-Smoking VHS Bootlegger Foreclosed On

A notorious northside VHS video pirate who would place subliminal anti-smoking messages in his bootlegs was unable to compete with the booming LaserDisc market and has become another victim of the Chicago real estate crisis, losing his Edgewater Victorian mansion to foreclosure.
EDGEWATER

Mayor Proposes Foreclosure Target Shooting

As the city of Chicago continues to search for creative ways to bring more revenue into city coffers, one new suggestion has been allowed a trial period: Foreclosure target shooting. The program is already receiving backing from the NRA who applauded the decision stating, "'bout time those liberals understood the value of a gun." And one outspoken alderman remarked, "you know we got so many guns in this city here, and da feds won't let us ban 'em, and we got all these empty buildings, so why don't we just put 'em all together and make a few bucks."
Ukrainian Village

Physical Therapist Redesigns Bathroom

After her client refused to do exercises to rehabilitate his torn rotator cuff, a local Chicago physical therapist decided her client could practice his arm stretches somewhere more comfortable. After seeing positive results, she is currently raising the height of all the light switches and has suspended his living room couch from the ceiling.
Logan Square

Penitentiary Chic Replaces Travertine Oasis

In an effort to woo sophisticated urban buyers sympathetic to the plight of marginalized prisoners, home sellers have begun to discard their glass mosaics and tumbled travertines for an aesthetic one Chicago realtor described as, "artist loft meets abandoned cellar with a sprinkle of post-millennial apocalypse".
Andersonville

Wife's Visualization Not Always an Asset

She has spent the last two months helping her husband understand how dilapidated foreclosed kitchens can transform into their dream kombucha brewing pizza baking oasis, and gone through elaborate pantomime to demonstrate how an outdated smoke stained living room can become the mid-century masterpiece they have dreamed so long about.

Now, this rabid visualizer is having to confront her own lethal skills, which she carefully whispered to her sympathetic buyer's agent, "I saw us getting ready for work in the morning. He was on the toilet and I was brushing my teeth, when I looked up in the mirror and our eyes made contact, the Tom's organic mint sprayed across the vanity. It was frightening. We have to go."
Lincoln Square

Bank Steals Tenant's Stolen Stove

The former owner of this Pilsen brick two flat, affectionately know as "the landlord", had purchased a used stove from a nearby shop specializing in used stoves that purchases their stoves from gentlemen who arrive at their store early in the morning accompanied by a shopping cart and a refreshing beverage.

When the previous owner of the building was unable to pay his mortgage due to the over borrowing of additional money against his property, his tenant, allegedly an artist, decided that she would be the caretaker of the stove, even going so far as to claim it as her very own. Now, the bank, who will not give the artist a loan, but was more than willing to loan to the previous owner, has taken ownership of the stove. As of this writing, there were gentleman, transported by a simple four wheeled vehicle, enjoying a cloaked beverage while inspecting the property.
Pilsen

Limbless Man Asked to Protect Floppy Disks

The owner of this West Town multi-unit was unable to continue occupying his near West Side building due to an unfortunate circumstance which consisted of his inability to stop thinking about how much easier life would be in Arizona. Upon absconding from his Chicago brick pit, he asked his good friend, whom he'd met in a World Market, if he would watch over his valuable Commodore 64 computer and stack of confidential floppy disks.
West Town

Progressive Parents Ban Cell Phones

In an effort save their family from the ills of a cell phone addicted society, one Albany Park couple has installed a pay phone, which was explained to the potential buyers of their organically decorated three flat as "necessary to combat the destruction of our culture, and besides, after paying for Montessori, Whole Foods delivery and our Audi Diesel, who afford those crazy phone bills. Hey, could I borrow your phone to check my email for a minute?"
Albany Park

New Year Vow Shields TV from Cruel World

In an effort to protect the only possession he owns outright, the seller of this Edgewater vintage single family home promised his 61" plasma television that it would no longer be forced to witness the stream of buyers that have spent the past year walking in front of it, grumbling about how they refused to pay 2006 prices for a neglected home that hasn't been updated since the first Mayor Daley was in office.
Edgewater

Cable Keeps Clothes Dry & Supports Building

A Wicker Park family faced a dilemma with their two flat: they wanted to Go Green for their lovely son yet not spend money. So instead of replacing their broken dryer or destroying their crumbling rear porch, they devised a solution to make natural fabric dryers and indoor zipliners jealous. Surprisingly, the family has abandoned the property.
Wicker Park

Seller Blames Virgin on His Short Sale

A despondent seller of a Bridgeport two flat, and former patron of St. Mary's Church, blamed the misguided advice he received from Mother Mary on the excessive home equity loans he took out on his family's historic compound that have led to his unwanted short sale situation.
BRIDGEPORT

Upset Tenant Posts Subliminal Messages

Obviously upset about the pending sale of her current Lincoln Square residence, a disgruntled tenant let it be known that danger lurked in the pipes below. In a re-assuring effort, the seller's realtor drank a glass of water from the kitchen tap. She has not been seen since.
Lincoln Square

Bank Asks Cat to Guard Historic Fireplace

After allowing tens of thousands of properties in the Chicago area to remain improperly secured, the nation's banks have decided they should start protecting the valuable items that remain inside the foreclosed dwellings. In this bank owned Edgewater two flat, security was lovingly provided by a feral cat, most likely belonging to the former owner who abandoned her for a quaint beach home in Honduras that she bought with her over-mortgaged home equity loan.
Edgewater

Campaigns Keep Calling Abandoned House

On the holiest political day of the year, even the ghostly victims (perpetrators) of the foreclosure crisis were not immune from last minute campaign pitches clamoring against the Marxist Muslim or the Machiavellian Mormon. But the empty Victorian sat silently, adorned by hacked off copper pipes and faded Tribunes screaming something about some brothers in a meltdown, The Lehmans.
Logan Square

Sheepish Buyer Admits He Likes It

After weeks of walking through vintage two flats with their ornate wood trim, and perfectly worn hardwood floors, and then a new round of searching 1920's bungalows with their huge barren attics and stained glass windows, this home buyer looked up and meekly blurted, "that, over there, maybe we should just see that thing. It, it, uh, might be kind of cool."
Ukrainian Village

Greek Goddess of Foreclosure Turns to Stone

In yet another positive sign that the Chicago housing market is beginning to rebound, housing analysts have cited the recent Andersonville appearance of the Greek Goddess of Foreclosure as a positive indicator of growth. One well known analyst from LaSalle Street summed up his findings to NPR, "Before, she was, you know, moving, laughing, mocking the homes she appeared in front of, but now, she has returned to stone and is beginning to wither just like she did back in the early 1940's. This is good news for the economy. You can count on it."
ANDERSONVILLE