Single Family Homes

We Made the Offer - He Made Up His Mind - Trying to Buy a Chicago Condo

My clients asked me what to expect as we submitted our offer to buy a Chicago condo. But there’s no way I figured a seller would act like a petulant child and simply cancel his listing. I guess he wasn’t serious about selling his condo for what current market conditions indicate it is now worth. Oh well, my clients and I have other pieces of the Chicago real estate pie to consider.


The Big Truth about Jumbo Loans in Chicago Real Estate Market

“Chicago isn’t considered a “high cost” real estate market? Tell that to home buyers looking in any of the neighborhoods where I concentrate my business,” says Chicago real estate professional Tom McCarey. HUD didn’t classify Chicago as “high cost,” costing the city and its home buyers the opportunity to have access to more jumbo loan providers. The result? Higher interest rates and fewer options.


The Green Grass of Wrigley Field (as the Cubs Keep Their Winning Ways)

Few things in life offer the serenity of an afternoon Cubs game on a sunny summer day (especially when they win in extra innings). With the grass and ivy vying for greater green and the Cubs atop the majors and winning like they haven’t in years, Chicago real estate professional and life-long Cubs fan Tom McCarey is thinking very positive thoughts!


Contemporary Condo in Chicago’s East Village Neighborhood - Video of 1934 Thomas

The Chicago real estate market cannot be fit into one description. Things are selling in certain neighborhoods while other areas are not as active. In the meantime many buyers seem to view sellers as desperate sorts who will sell for any number. This is not the case.


Newly Listed (& videotaped) Luxury Single Family in Chicago’s East Village

Top Chicago realtor Tom McCarey unveils new video tour of luxury single family listing in Chicago’s East Village neighborhood. Gorgeous 4 bed/3 full and 2 half bath home at corner of Wolcott & Race is spacious, gorgeous, and priced under $1,000,000. Penthouse deck offers views of Chicago skyline.


Baby Steps and First-Time Buyers of Chicago Real Estate

My younger son Lucas is taking his first steps toward becoming bi-pedal.
And though I don’t remember my own progress toward becoming ambulatory a few decades back, I imagine my tentativeness then rivaled his now.
Urging him forward one step at a time I can’t help but imagine the primal terror he might feel as he stands, [...]


Peeking at Spring in Chicago with Tom McCarey (and Trusted Resources)

As I selected the outfits my sons would don today I mused back to the tail-end of my childhood when “Garanimals” were introduced.
Garanimals, for those not in the know, was and is a children’s clothing line providing tops and bottoms each emblazoned with animal tags designed to make matching little one’s outfits a bit easier. [...]


By All Means a Bio - This is a Snap Shot of Being Tom McCarey

The first week has come and gone and I am glad to be a part of the @properties’ brokerage. Something about making a move that gets my blood moving and makes me feel a little bit more alive. It also grants me a wonderful chance to take a little of this and ditch a little [...]


Change Becomes Me - Joining Chicago’s @properties Real Estate Brokerage

Change.
It comes in a pile of coins.
Or it’s expressed on the calendar four times a year with the shifting of the seasons.
Or it happens at odd, possibly unexpected times in one’s professional life.
Kind of like an old school coffee percolator, the idea of a change was brewing for me a bit before the change came [...]


Hope Defines Me - Meeting Barack on a Sunday Afternoon

Lucas turned one last week. And the change is colossal.
He always was a bright child - but now I will wake in the morning to find him transliterating speeches of the aspiring presidential candidates into both Latin and Greek. Nonplussed by criticism of some naysayers that these so-called “dead” languages are pointless, Lucas laughs and utters [...]