July 15, 2007. Sunday. Today we arrived in Chicago, Illinois. It was another beautiful, sunny day. We drove the streets around the Ukrainian Village and Lincoln Park neighborhoods. The area was buzzing with activity. We had planned to meet Gino Petro (Chicago’s Home Weblog) and Jeff Kerr (ChitownLiving). But first we thought we’d take in an Open House.
We found one in Ukrainian Village. Hmm… what if we Zillowed the house and went in with our laptops to guestion the agent? Sounded like a good idea— to test Zillow as a buyer tool. The house we found was listed at $499,000, but the zestimate had it pegged at $449,000. Not bad. Maybe we could use the difference to our advantage.
The agent’s assistant was a bit taken aback when we approached with camera, microphone and computer. She consented to show us the house (which was very nice with an upgraded kitchen and appliances). We asked her if she knew of Zillow. She did not. We explained to her that it was a valuation site which estimated home values based on public data. She seemed surprised when we showed her the zestimate. She was at a loss to explain the difference. She said she would visit Zillow. We thanked her and went outside to wait for consumers to come by.
We interviewed several visitors to the Open House. None had heard of Zillow but all were intriqued by the possibilty of using zestimates to negotiate lower prices. Funny, we found ourselves promoting Zillow to buyers.
When we asked how the folks knew about the Open House, several said Dreamtown, which they said was a Chigaco search engine. Funny, we never heard of it. We checked it out and found that it was actually a brokerage made to look like a search engine. Clever.
After the Open House experiment, we went to visit real estate agent and blogger Gino Petro, who was holding his own Open House— at HIS condo. He took us for a tour of his crib in Lakeview (gorgeous). He had advertisied it on Craigslist. To entice visitors, he offered a free bottle of wine. It worked.
Gino also showed us his blogging throne:
We discovered that Gino was once a stage actor. He also plays the guitar, which he gladly demonstrated for us. And here’s an interesting tidbit. Gino told us he was the recipient of one of Zillow’s goodie bags (they have a point woman in Chicago) which contained $500 in free ads and some pens. It seems Gino rated as an influencer in the Chicago market— one of the fringe benefits of blogging.
Since Gino had some more visitors, we took some pics and said our goodbyes.
We set out to get some lunch before meeting Jeff Kerr. We struck up a conversation with a local resident, who happened to be a published author and French Literature professor. He recommended Capri. The food there was delicious.
As we were eating, we noticed the crowds thicken on the street. It was the fans who had attended the Cubs game at Wrigley Field. We noticed no one was smiling or animated, suggesting that the Cubbies had lost the game. We were surprised to learn the Cubs won. Interesting. Maybe the fans were so used to their team losing, they instintively wore those game faces.
Jeff Kerr signs in
Jeff met us outside the restaurant. We showed him the RV and put him in the hotseat for an interview. As we were talking, a meter maid walked by. I immediately jumped up and ran outside to feed the meter. Jeff chuckled at my panic and said it was Sunday and there was no need for concern. As he was explaining the city parking regs, he looked out the window at his own car parked across the street and noticed what looked like a parking ticket. He rushed out to check and sure enough, Jeff had been bagged. Rudy and I started to laugh and told Jeff not to worry– we told him to send the ticket to Brad Inman. Sorry Brad.
As it was getting late, we got a few last pics and headed out of town.
Thanks to Gino & Jeff for welcoming us to their windy city.
Joe, Jeff & Rudy
We started the long drive to St. Paul. We stopped at a rest stop and called it a night.
Rest stop nightcap.
Seems harmless
Enter at your own risk
As we walked away, she continued to mumble, “I’m serious, no pictures” . Anywho…..
Marcus, Joe, Erik
Columbia Restaurant
Realty pondering
What’s a Realtor to order?
Everyone’s doing it
HMS moving up
