“But it’s important to me that I live in a safe neighborhood. I work odd hours; come home in the dark,” insisted Michelle. “Who needs to worry about that?”
Michelle was half of a couple, fairly new to town, each in a medical line of work. As their respective hospitals were in different directions from downtown, they wanted a location to split the distance. The other half was Sheldon. Friends called them “the he-Shell and the she-Shell”, they’d explained. Quite hard to pronounce but easy to remember, anyway.
“It’s a license violation for me to talk about neighborhoods”. This was R.M.’s stock answer to a frequent question, asked in a variety of ways, sometimes accompanied by knowing nods and winks in his direction. And the answer was true, too. Comparing the relative safety of neighborhoods was a no-no. As a licensee of the state, he was required to maintain professional standards of real estate practice and keep those standards updated by attending continuing education classes.
“I understand you need to feel safe. How about a building with attached parking? You drive into your garage, you are inside and home. You could also go to the local precinct station and talk to the captain. Base your decision on facts about the area.” R.M. suggested.
“Attached usually costs more, doesn’t it?”
“More upfront but your peace of mind is worth something too, as you say. When you think it through, it’s more an issue about building security than about neighborhood.” Most buildings downtown were apartment style with a common, locked entrance to the units. Some of the newer conversions and new construction also added street level retail or commercial space open to the public. Those also had a separate, secure street level entrance to the units. Pricier places boasted a doorman or concierge adding the aura of class, if not necessarily increased security.
R.M. was giving them his “50 cent tour”. He offered this to anyone who didn’t know the city very well or where the condos were located. While it was typically true that a customer was going to buy only one unit in one development, he knew that it was important to get a handle on the whole area first. When eventually deciding on one place over another, it would be done in the light of that whole big picture. He pointed out some rentals along the way.
“The other thing you might consider is a short term rental, say 6 months. If you’re really not sure about where you want to settle, this would give you some time to get to know the city, find out where you want to be, take the pressure off making a decision right away.”
“But then we would have to move twice in six months!” The she-Shell protested. It had come to R.M.’s notice over the course of his many transactions that there was many a motive in the old house-hunting business. He chuckled.
“There was this Irishman who came last year from Boston and took my advice to rent first. ‘Course, he didn’t have that much to move—still single—but he ended up buying downtown, after a brief hankering after a single family house with a large deck in the north shore, and into a building where he had noticed a lot of lovely ladies. He didn’t mind the extra move at all.”
“So this isn’t like Chicago so much, with towers lining the lakeshore? The he-Shell changed the subject away from hankering men.
“Well, we have our own version of the Gold Coast here with lots of high-rises along a stretch of the lake, downtown and northward. But that’s not the only place there are condos in town. When I first started to specialize in condos, you could list the downtown condo developments on one page. Now?…the boom gave us all told about a hundred developments and over 5000 units.”
“Not so many as Chicago but not too shabby.” The she-Shell was vested in preferring Chicago, her home town. “Are they all alike? I mean, are there a lot of choices as to styles?”
“To make it simpler, for myself as well as my customers, I grouped developments and neighborhoods together and then mapped them. We’ll be going through them all: Gold Coast, Third Ward, Walkers Point, East Pointe, Theater Business, Brewers Hill. All the developments are plotted on the map I gave you. The lowest numbers within each area are the oldest developments. You’ll notice some have more numbers than others. East Pointe, for instance, has more developments tucked in here and there but fewer total units. It’s just the opposite in the Gold Coast; it has fewer but taller buildings and so a higher density of condo dwellers. It’s important to figure out what kind of area you prefer. You can imagine I’ve been very busy making additions to the map since I started in the 90’s.”
“Why does so much of downtown look like a vacant field, like over there?” The he-Shell pointed, as they pulled into the Theater-Business district.
“When they tore down a freeway spur a few years ago to open up the land below for development, this land was dubbed the Park East. Development was underway: hotels, pricey condos, condos in hotels, that sort of thing. A lot of it is stalled out now. Credit markets drying up, developers not getting financed, the economy mostly. But there is still great hope that things will improve, eventually. Other areas don’t look this way, you’ll see.”
“But you’ll show us all the different styles available?” Michelle was expecting high-rises.
“You’ll see lots of different building styles as we go. Already mentioned the apartment style. The high-rises are mainly by the lake. But there are many condos along the river as well. There are private entry townhomes and retail and warehouse conversions. You’ll see the gamut from new urban to older Victorians. Downtown really covers only a few square miles, so it’s not far to travel but there’s a lot to take in. You’ll begin to realize that you’ve seen some buildings several times because we’ll be circling around and back-tracking a bit as we go. If there’s anything that catches your eye, just sing out and I’ll try and pull over to give you a better look.”