Anyone know what the deal is with "press releases" of sorts for real estate listings. See this link for an example.

It just seems....odd.

I had to look at this one twice. Wasn't certain if the is a company named "Old Mutual"....or if the sellers are just old and therefore selling their home.

Dressing this listing up as "news" appears to give it better placement at the web site you linked to.

Kinda cute. Props to the realtor for trying to create "buzz" but I don't think it will help sell a $435,000 home in today's market.

But what the hey? Worth a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I did note that the listed selling price is $15K less than the 2002 purchase price.

That shouldn't be "news" to anyone.

I know the sellers. They are moving within the neighborhood. Just one of those things where you find the perfect house to move into and now need to get rid of the old one...

Are the sellers old?

a few years younger than you, I guess.

Why? are you worried the home would have 'old person' smell?

DTM, they are moving or they have moved? This house has been on the market for a long time; this re-listing is only a price drop. And the pictures have always shown the house as empty.

I swung by it after church on Sunday and peeked in the windows. It looks nice but the taxes....wow.

Taxes are less than my estate.

I believe they have already moved and are trying to get rid of this, their previous home.

That is THE house my wife and I looked at last November during our first trip up here to look around! Although the house was nice, the floors on the 1st level were very uneven (wavey), the moldings weren't done very well, the rooms were small, and the basement is unfinished with what I would guess to be only a 6 foot ceiling, if that (I'm 5'10" and had to lean a few times). The garage was in ok shape. There is some rotten wood on the siding of the house as well. It has a lot of charm to it, but I walked away thinking there are problems lurking, expensive problems.

But, our problem was that we couldn't get a response. We saw it on realtor.com from our home in NC, called to discuss it with the realtor, was waiting to hear back from her, and never did. 3 weeks later, we were sitting in it's driveway in our rental car, and called her from the blackberry. We met, looked over the house, and the last we heard was the realtor was going to talk to the owners about a lease with option to buy and get back to us. Again, we've never heard back. Good thing though, as we found a MUCH nicer house down the street that has worked out perfectly. We weren't sure if our stay here in Chicago was going to be permanent, or a temporary thing (2-3 years tops). With falling values, and our luck of selling our home in NC within 48 hours at asking price, we weren't comfortable with rolling the dice again. All the costs tied into buying/selling, matched by our estimated time spent here, just didn't make sense. We were more than willing to pay the expenses (including mortgage), but just didn't want the added weight of ownership in this environment at the moment, hence the "option to buy". Things clear up, values stabilize, and our future looks to be a little longer than 24-36 months...buy it! But, if nobody was going to call me back, then my dollars were going elsewhere.

In my opinion, it's a sub $400k house, by a decent margin. It's not a bad house by any means. But it's not a $400k+ house by any means either. I think it would probably sell if it were around $375k-$385k.

Thanks for the description, NC. I knew the house was built in 1901 and when I saw the (stone) foundation I figured that the basement was going to be short and probably damp.

With an, IMO, un-finishable basement and those taxes, I would peg the price a bit lower than $375K.

zillow says house is $500+k

Zillow's "zEstimate" prices are not very accurate. I have found them to be way too high.

Perhaps in a more stable market they might have some semblance of accuracy but in today's market? I wouldn't trust the Zillow estimate. At all.

Would this advertising count too?

Al Capone's place

Ha ha, that looks like a way cool place. I wonder if there is any loot stashed in a vault or behind a fake wall or something like that.

Even an old Tommy Gun would rock.

Wifey walked thru the open house at this place. She had to duck in the basement and she's about average female height. This is a tough sell.

The "value" is the location only, in my opinion. And that limits a customer base to those who work downtown Chicago and want to be as close to the train station as possible. The house itself is severely limited by that basement. Did your wife note the wavey floors, especially around the kitchen area?

quote:

...that limits a customer base...

Real Estate isn't about quantity, but quality. There's an old saying in the biz: You only need one buyer.

Well, a full year after we walked the house during our first trip up here, the sign went down two weeks ago (no 'sold' period) and someone moved in a few days later. Anyone know if it sold, or finally being offered in the rental pool?

You might only need one buyer, Ted, but with a decreased pool of potentials you'd have to work that much harder to find that buyer. The law of averages, my friend

It was a relatively creative way to list a house, but I agree with ByTheNumbers that it won't help sell at that price.

It's not listed on Realtor.com and a general web search on Lycos didn't pull anything up.