For any questions, please call 312 599-1300 or click the “About” tab at the top left of the page and select one of our agents for their contact information. Or, for ease, please fill out the “Questions about Chicago Real Estate” immediately to your right or at the bottom of the page if reading this on a phone and we will get back to you. Thank You!
This Webpage is a summary of our 2021 Outlook and 312 Estates Marketing Plan for success of our clients:
Our goal in posting this webpage is to:
- Inform you of what we believe are the current Chicago real estate trends moving into 2021 and
- Alert potential 2021 spring sellers to call us sooner rather than later. 2020 did not follow the traditional real estate market cycles. We lost the spring market. However, we saw many buyer surges in the market. We see this coming again in 2021. We believe the faster we can identify people looking to sell either in the short term or this summer, developing a marketing platform now will allow us to market when we have the next buyer surge. In August of 2020, we had a major buyer surge. Sellers who were on the market when the surge began benefited financially. Simple supply and demand economics took over because there was not any supply in the market to hit the demand. Many agents who use the basic photography services were waiting 3+ weeks to take photos. When the supply hit the market, sellers lost the supply shortage benefit. Our goal in giving you this information now is to encourage you to discuss with us a marketing plan now so we can have our marketing in place when the next buyer surge occurs. We can also advertise on TAN (Top Agent Network ~ off-market database) and the other off-market database as to not miss the current batch of buyers. The beauty about the off-market database is the seller does not loose market time.
Chicago 2021 Real Estate Market Outlook:
In our opinion, information being publicized now is misleading. Especially for Chicago’s northside neighborhoods, including: West Loop, Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, Bucktown, Lakeview, Lincoln Square, and Andersonville. The media has and is currently stating the Chicago market is strong with rising average prices. We do not believe this to be correct. Especially in the Chicago’s northside top neighborhoods.
This misstatement in our opinion is because the numerator is overstated, and the denominator is understated in this calculation average home sale calculation. We believe this because the number of home sales below $500,000 in the Chicago’s top neighborhoods is far below a normal year. This is primarily due to the first-time home buyers never entering the market in 2020 as first-time home buyers were encouraged to rent. The reason for this is landlords due to Covid restrictions could not show homes while a tenant resided in the residence. Many landlords to avoid vacancies made deals with current tenants to stay in the lease for an additional year. Thus, this typical large population of first-time home buyers never entered the market in 2020.
We project this first-time home buyer group will enter the 2021 market. This will benefit the market under $500,000 which has been slow this year. The trickle up effect benefits the $500,000+ market. Sellers of homes typical move up in price. Thus, when sellers can sell their $500,000 home, typically the seller is now a home buyer at $750,000+. Then these $750,000+ sellers can buy their $1,250,000+ homes. This first-time home buyer class should improve the 2021 market and it is our expectation that it will also quell some of the current city-flight to the burbs.
The suburbs are currently having one of its best years. Prices are rising quickly. Our expectation is we should see this trend wane. The strong improvement of north side city schools and the increase in taxes and strong suburban market, the cost benefit of moving to the suburbs will become less desirable.
Off-Market Databases and 2021 low interest rate expectations:
Buyers looking to get a mortgage entering the 2021 market are going to be greeted with record low interest rates. Historically low rates increase the affordability of homes. With these low interest rates, we are seeing a great number of both residential home buyers and investors entering the market. This is true even during this typically slow holiday time of the year. Home sellers are seeing a benefit as much of the supply has been removed from the market due to going under contract or sellers deciding to go off-market for the holidays. Thus, for sellers try to sell, they currently have a favorable economic Supply / Demand curve dynamic.
However, Buyers are not totally out of luck. Buyers with access to the off-market databases are finding a new supply of homes. Properties going under contract from the off-market databases are becoming increasingly popular. If you would like to search the off-market database for the mls, Click Here. You will have to provide your information to allow us to provide you with access. 312 Estates has had multiple buyers purchase from the off-market this fall. Our sellers have benefit too. Here are two homes we sold this fall from the off-market databases and two we just put on TAN.
www.1346addisonPH.com Sold: Southport Corridor Penthouse for $1.15
www.5407glenwood.com Sold: Andersonville 2-flat $875,000
www.336Goethe.com Available: Old Town Single Family $999,000
www.1346addison.com Available: Southport Corridor 2 bedroom $550,000
TAN Off-Market Database:
The TAN database was originally designed to give top agents a place to market not yet listed homes and investment properties. The original hope was this off-market database would be a paid for exclusive listing site so top agents could exclusively market this to buyers. Today TAN is still an exclusive database for top agents but has also become an effective tool used to post details, photos, and prices of listings to come of which sellers are willing to show now.
TAN has been a competitive advantage for us over non-TAN agents. Public sites such as Zillow, Redfin, and Realtor.com only display homes on the mls. Many sellers like using TAN because it eliminates buyers coming from these public sites. Why you may ask; scheduling showings off Zillow and Redfin is so easy that many people forget they even made the showing and then never show up. Nothing makes sellers more upset than when they clean their home for 2 hours for a showing and then the buyer does not show up. Buyers coming from the off-market databases have a buyer’s agent. Thus, the likelihood of a no-show or a let’s see this home for fun buyer does not occur. Buyers coming with agents from the off-market database are simply higher quality buyers for sellers to prepare their home for. Plus, when using TAN, it does not build up market time.
For buyers in the current market, it is not uncommon to show 4 to 5 homes all being on the off-market databases. Buyers always like seeing properties not on the public market. For sellers deciding to market in the 2021 spring market, the off-market databases maximize market availability now, without using mls and therefore Redfin and Zillow market time. Thus, if the home does not sell on the off-market database, the seller starts with a market time of zero when the home is first posted on the mls in the coveted spring market selling time.
Implementing a Selling Strategy for this Market:
If you are aware of an individual who is considering selling now or in 2021, We would be honored if you passed along this webpage and our information. In short, because of the low interest rates and the projected increase in total number of buyers looking for properties, below is a strategy we have been successfully implementing:
- Determine client’s needs (exit price, desired closing date, time needed for house preparation (bring in our designer to provide a list of essential this to do, determine if flare is needed, or bring our stager), property availability for showing, etc.).
- Put together Marketing (Photos, floor plan, website, video, brochure, SEO key words, axillary site marketing links, individual website isp tracking, realtor code tracking, etc.).
Here are some examples of our marketing end product:
www.747Clark.com Boutique Condo $1.375
www.2250Roscoe.com Penthouse $1.25
www.3750Greenview.com Single Family $3.3
www.3900Seeley.com Single Family $1.9
www.1424School.com Penthouse $748k
- Depending on how fast client needs to sell, market the property on TAN and other private listing sites to take advantage of the current buyers in the marketplace without losing market time.
- Develop a target date for publicly listing the property on the mls and other sites such as Zillow, Redfin, etc., and develop a marketing strategy for the open week (open house, bulk marketing with isp tracking, etc.).
For any questions, please call. Or, for ease, you can also fill out the “Questions about Chicago Real Estate” form at the top right of this page or at the bottom of the page if reading on a phone. We are very interested in connecting with you to discuss the personal interaction we bring to the buying and selling process. We are honored for the opportunity to work with you.
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