six plates spinning . logistics of the chicago real estate market
Have you ever cooked a meal? I’m not talking about smearing a layer of almond butter on gluten-free bread to be greeted by a ample amount of organic jam and blasted into the furnace of your hunger as soon as it is made. I am talking about a meal with a simmering pot on the back burner, a salad prepped on the butcher block, a pork loin in the oven and a little sumpin-sumpin sauteeing on the front burner.
That’s what I am talking about. A meal, not a snack.
Among the other notable and varied talents of my beautiful wife Nicole is her capacity to manifest creativity as she wields her wand to whip up meals that bring together any number of different elements all toward the end of delight and deliciousness.
It happened last Sunday as we entertained a cluster of family and friends to watch one of the best Super Bowl games that I can recall. For my part I reverted to my role as the Big Dipper, prepping the peanut oil to a hearty 400 degree zeal to convert a namless turkey into a crispy delicacy just a little toward the fat side of the menu after 45 minutes immersed in burbling hot oil.
Nicole on the other hand, working with a measured grace as I was showing a West Loop condo at 10, two River North Condos from 11-noon, two second showings of East Village condos, and a drop by showing of my Andersonville condo on the way to my Edgewater home, was lining up a remarkable salad with feta, olives, organic greens and peppers, a cajun-inspired sauteed shrimp course, properly breathing red and white wines, fresh bread and a few other things that slip my mind as I trend toward an ancillary food coma just thinking about the weighed down table. All of it was capped off by freshly brewed coffee from beans from local roaster metropolis and angel food cake with ice cream and fresh strawberries.
For most of my adult life I have regarded this daily multi-tasking as akin to the stick-spinner on Bozo’s Circus. You remember the guy? Comes out in a striped sport coat like he’s getting ready to meld his voice with another three members of this or that barber’s quarter? He has six or so three foot sticks and he puts a plate on each one, centered just right to spin madly but stay aloft while the mini-orchestra plucks its strings to some bright melody that can veer into darkness at any moment.
When my wife is investing her heart into the meals that she shares with us, it is like the stick-spinning guy keeping the plates aloft with a maddening sense of grace and balance.
The same thing goes for the jam-packed schedule of representing buyers and sellers in the mine field of Chicago real estate. As with anything there is a method to the madness as I establish the schedule with my buying clients, show my listings to prospective buyers, keep tabs on upcoming events, solicit new business, run analyses to maintain accurate snapshots of the market, submit offers and negotiate deals on both the buy-side and sell-side.
Meaning what? Yesterday I met with clients who came about from a phone call from San Francisco on one of my exempt single family listings of a custom built single family home in North Center. In the course of our half-hour conversation we clicked and he, Chris, asked me to represent him and his girlfriend in their relocation from the West Coast.
I picked them up yesterday morning at the Park Hyatt and we wheeled around for five hours yesterday (with another seven planned today). As we incinerated turkey sandwiches at a charming place in Roscoe Village he and Gabrielle commented that I had not updated the blog in a while.
True that. Seems like one of the plates hit the ground. And yet with this morning’s effort I hope to set the plate straight, aloft and spinning to join the other spinners that include…
- seeing another eight of so places including two for the second time with Chris and Gabrielle
- have photos taken of Sarah and Richard’s delightful East Village single family home at 5.30
- meet with Ryan and Heidi tomorrow morning at 9 to look at Lakeview condos
- arrange Bryan and Maggie’s inspection of Edgewater new construction
- get together with with Karina to view two Lincoln Park lofts at 2.40
- and in the midst of all that show my Lakeview condo listing twice, show my North Park two flat after noon, show my West Loop developer’s unit after 3p and possibly submit an offer or two with one or all of my buying clients.
And then what? Be ready for the madness of the next day while emphatically telling Nicole that I love her.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment