After a bit of controversy, the City's new 2012 city sticker was released and it sure is dull. Oh well, what do you expect when you take a job designed for 3rd graders and turn it over to a bunch of Chicago politicians. Am sure taht the next we hear is that this design cost the city's taxpayers sever hundred thousand dollars for outside design consultant, who also happen to be close relatives of the Clerk. This is Chicago after all.
So you have heard all the buzz about Twitter and other social media companies (there are many!!!) but you just haven't found a reason to jump in yet. You are not alone. Even though Twitter seems to be omnipresent among the sub-30 demographic, there remain many who have yet to jump into the social conversation. Not to worry. All is not lost. There is no such thing as being late to the game. The conversation starts when you join. Just as you would have no hesitation in joining in with friends talking about a topic of interest, the same goes for Twitter. The conversation starts when YOU join. There is no concern for what came before. With that said, IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO PARTICIPATE!!! iMove has some Twitter pros and we are here to share our tips. Join Twitter and give us a follow and we will be pleased to welcome you to our conversation and to throw out a few helpful hints as well. To get you started, here is a basic Twitter guide for business: Saw this article in the Edgeville Buzz blog. Should be a great new attraction for the Andersonville, Edgewater and Uptown communities.
iMove is pleased to welcome our new agents Xavier Bishop, Shawn Donahue, Thomas Kossnar, Francis Koukounaras, Ginger Plesha, Brendan Ross, and Renata Siedlik to the iMove Team. Also, we are pleased to welcome back Michael Brown who left us briefly to explore other ventures but quickly came back to work with us. We are glad to have him back. We look forward to working with all of our new agents. We hope that you can soon meet them the next time you are in the market for real estate services. Got a hankering for a good Chicago dog? Tried Huey's lately? My co-working, Manuel and I were out talking with Andersonville landlords last wee about the Chicago apartments that they had for rent and after some great results we decided to reward ourselves with a good dog from Huey's. If you live in Andersonville you definitelly know this place. The dog pictured came loaded with the traditional Chicago fixins, plus a load of fries and all the soda I could drink for only $5 - what a deal! Stop in to see for yourself the next time you are in Andersonville. Address: 1507 West Balmoral (between Clark and Ashland.) iMove Chicago participated in the Loyola Student Housing Fair yesterday and we can say without equivocation that it was a resounding success. We had a great time talking with students about the Chicago apartment options in Andersonville, Rogers Park, Uptown, Evanston near the Loyola Lake Shore Campus and in the Golf Coast, Streeterville, Loop, Downtown, and South Loop areas near the Lake Shore Drive Campus. The turn out at the student housing fair was great. We spoke with over 150 students and are anxious to get started on their custom housing search. If you missed the fair and still need housing services, please feel free to contact an iMove Chicago agent or visit our site at iMoveChicago.com. We look forward to hearing from you and perhaps we will have the opportunity to talk with you soon about your Chicago apartments rental search. What? Yes, you read it right. Certified funds may no longer be an acceptable mean of funding a purchase. Last week, I represented a client at the purchase of an Andersonville condo (they got a great deal by the way - but that's for another post). As I have done over a hundred times before, I instructed my client that he should bring the necessary "cash to close" in the form of a certified check payable to themselves (not to "cash" as a check written as such could be lost and the funds gone). My client followed my instruction and came to closing with the requisite funds in the form of a Bank of America certified check written to himself. All was good, or so we thought. After signing the mountain of documents required to purchase a property in the progressive age, we sat back and waited for the title closer to do her job. We were all stunned when she took one look at our check and said "no"....."not acceptable." Huh??? She went on to explain that due to the advent of "phone deposits" (i.e. take a picture of a check and deposit it to your bank account), the title company could no longer accept certified checks because the client or some other nefarious and ill purposed individual could possibly have taken a phone snap shot of the closing check and thus have deposited the funds prior to our client having tendered same to the tile company. Wow! After scrambling to cancel the check and securing a last minute wire transfer, we closed the deal. Afterwards, I called around to a few colleagues and discovered that in fact almost all title companies are now following a similar policy. Take note. Its a new world out there folks.
Today it happened again. A tenant who viewed a ver nice condo rental unit in Andersonville on Thursday and seemed to be committed to renting decided to "sleep on it" and make a decision over the weekend. Guess what? The unit was rented by the time she came in to our office to apply today. This scenario is playing out much more frequently than we have ever encountered in the past. No, we don't have a bunch of government surveys and statistics to confirm our hunch. What we do have is day to day evidence of the fact that apartments in Chicago are renting far quicker than they ever have in the past. One agent in our office also experienced a bidding wat on Friday over a Gold Coast studio apartment. The rent started at $1,000 but settled out at over $1,200. We have never heard of that happening before. We have recently had many clients facing multiple, competing applications on apartments in Chicago. The trend doesn't seem to be limited to the popular neighborhoods of Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Downtown, Loop. Rather, we are seeing first hand evidence of a very tight rental market throughout Chicago, in communities like Andersonville, Edgewater, Rogers Park, Uptown, Albany Park, Evanston, Roscoe Village, and Wrigleyville.
We can only speculate as to the reasons underlying this trend. Perhaps, give that the housing market remains in the doldrums, more folks are staying put. People who have lost homes to foreclosure are also returning to the rental market. Builders and developers have all but stopped new construction. Many units caught up in the mortgage foreclosure mess are sitting idle and vacant as cases work their way through the legal system. All of these factors seem to be contributing to the tightening rental market. The end result is that competition for value priced units seems to be at an all time high. We are about to enter the spring rental market and this will reveal whether the trend continues. What we are observing is that rents for many large rental companies are on the increase, reflecting what these apartment owners must be seeing in terms of vacancy rates. Stay tuned, it looks to be a rough ride. We can now confirm that Bucky Gear officially has a new home. The Andersonville clothing store will be taking up residence in the storefront previously occupied by the Monkey Gallery at 5238 North Clark Street in Andersonville. According to store owner Timothy "Bucky" Adams, the move is expected to take place during the last week of February and the new store, after some remodeling, will be expected to open during the second week of March. Stay tuned for an official opening date. We are glad to see that this Andersonville business is staying in the neighborhood. iMove Chicago agents were instrumental in facilitating the relocation of Buck Gear. Call on us if you are looking to relocate your business or residence to Andersonville, Rogers ark, Edgewater or Uptown. |
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