Searching Chicago properties by price cut seems to be all the rage these days. As pointed out by YoChicago, a new website, CondoShark, has emerged to capitalize.

Interesting and catchy way to focus on a declining market. That said, our Chicago property search has allowed you to search by Price Drop for some time now. Don’t wait to receive a generic list of properties with highest price cuts. Set up a custom search tailored to your search criteria, across any Chicago neighborhood, and have an alert sent with the latest updates via email or RSS feed daily or weekly.

Check out the latest Lincoln Park price drops of 10% or more over the past 7 days.

Yes, there are foreclosures in Lincoln Park. Subscribe via RSS feed where you will receive the latest foreclosure listings, powered by our new Chicago home search. Continue reading to understand the method behind the magic …

The first option we added is something I’m especially proud of. You can now search for pre-foreclosures and bank owned listings in EVERY SINGLE MARKET WE SERVICE! We can do this by looking at two sets of data, both of which are provided by the MLS. First, we look at all of the features that are provided by the MLS for each property. If there’s a feature that denotes that the property is a short sale, is in pre-foreclosure, has had a notice of default filed against the owner, etc, then we mark it as a pre-foreclosure. If there’s a feature that says that the property has been foreclosed upon, is a lender / bank owned listing, is an REO, etc, then we mark it as bank owned.

If the MLS doesn’t provide features that say whether or not a property is distress, or if the agent just forgot to say that it’s in distress, we do something super special. We spent a very long time developing a proprietary algorithm to analyze the descriptions of each property, and for each of the literally millions of active listings in our database, we’ve run the descriptions through our algorithm to find out if it’s a pre-foreclosure or bank owned listing. We’ve run extensive tests, and our positive rate for matching these descriptions is near 99.5%! We toss out properties where the listing agent says things like “this house is not a preforeclosure” or “this house is better than a bank-owned listing.” The result is something we’re really proud of, and it’s something that we can confidently say that no one else has.

We know that there are still going to be small issues with this though, so we set up an email address that you can send property descriptions to so that our system will get better. That’s right – it’s ALIIIIVE! We will be continually training and refining our algorithm, so the more listings you send in that it either should have matched but didn’t or shouldn’t have matched but did, the better our system will get! We will manually review and classify each submission that comes through to ensure that our pre-foreclosure / foreclosure description analyzer is the very best there is!

Design your own custom Chicago foreclosure search.

Our Chicago home search has undergone a number of major improvements. Usability and performance have been greatly improved. A couple new features definitely highlight what is going on in the current marketplace.

Price Adjustments
Price drops are all too common in today’s marketplace. The first feature gives you the ability to search for properties by percentage of price drop within a defined number of days.

Foreclosures
The second is based on a recent MLS change that requires pre-foreclosures (short sales) or foreclosures to be identified in the MLS. As a result, you can now search for either situation.

The number of new features and improvements is too lengthy to cover completly but I encourage you to try out the new and improved search.

I have updated the Chicago Market Trends section of the site right sidebar.

You’ll now find access to ChicagoCondosOnline.com, one of the best sites to research Chicago condos. From building floor plans to condo documentation to detailed neighborhood information you’ll find it all here. Join the site as our guest and save the annual $300 subscription. Check out the sidebar.

My blog was hosted by a very large hosting company, I’ll refer to them as BigHost! from now on.  A bad decision on my part, as they are not WordPress (the software behind this blog) friendly, but I didn’t know any better when I got into the blogosphere. My bad for not doing my due diligence.  Lesson learned.

I finally was forced to change to a new WordPress compatible host.  The change came after a series of conversations with BigHost!.  They went something like this…

Me:  Hi there, I publish a WordPress blog (audible gasp from the service rep).  I’m on version 2.0 (BigHost! still installs this version) which is way out of date and has published security holes.  In fact, I think my blog has been hacked.  When my blog is viewed, virus detection software is alerted.  I have also had code inserted on several pages of my blog on a repeated basis.  I would like to upgrade but understand the upgrade is not supported.

BigHost!:  Yes sir, well, we don’t support that.  We just turn the software on and off.  The version of the software you have works best with our servers.

Me:  Huh?  I’m telling you my blog, supported on your servers, is being hacked.  Can I upgrade to the latest version of the software?

BigHost!:  Sir, we simply turn the software on an off.

My first thought was that I urgently need to upgrade WordPress.  After reading the horror stories on the WordPress support forums, I knew doing so on BigHost! was a nightmare and not always successful but I attempted the upgrade anyway.  Followed all the instructions to the letter but had no success.  In fact I could not get the site running again.  My next move was to take my content and move to a new WordPress friendly host.  All the new host needed was a plaintext export of the blog content.  To my horror, the mySQL export functionality was either disabled or not working properly.  Calling BigHost! support back, conversations went something like this…

Me:  Hi there, I publish a WordPress blog (audible gasp from the service rep).  I’m on version 2.0 which is way out of date and has published security holes.  I need to upgrade to the newest version of the software and understand BigHost! does not support this.  My new host needs a plaintext export of the database but for some reason I am not able to do this.  Whenever I (or my new host) attempts this in the site mySQL database it simple errors out.

BigHost!:  Sir, we simply turn the software on an off.

The actual conversations were of course a lot more involved and volitile than this, but in the end, I had no choice but to switch hosts.  The big issue for me was that BigHost! would not let me leave and take my content.  To move hosts, I had to export the content into Excel and recreate the site from scratch, post by post.  A painful process resulting in link breakages, improperly formatted posts, and lost content such as comments.

Despite the issues, the site is better than ever.  Page loads are faster and functionality is improved.  If thinking of starting a weblog, choose your host carefully and make sure they will not block the door if you want to leave.  Sorry for any inconvenience if you hit a broken link.

Enjoy the new site!

The site is almost back.  Pages and posts are now available.  A number of tweaks are left to be completed.  Sorry for any inconvenience if you have received multiple trackbacks.

I just addded an easily accessible Chicago property search to the ChitownLiving sidebar. A work in progress for now. Advanced search options are also available underneath. Enjoy.

The ChitownLiving Interactive Map Search has been updated.  It is now more like a Google map search.  You can select and drag the map and the list of properties will refresh.  You don’t need to log in but to get advanced features such as saved searches and virtual tours, login required. Check it out in the sidebar to the right >>>>>>

Coldwell Banker Residential finally unleashed the shackles and let me implement a decent Chicago home search.  Take a moment to test it out and give me your feedback.

• Neighborhood Search - You can search by community area.
• Interactive Map Search - You can define searches by neighborhood and even block level.
• All Properties – Get all of the above and more, such as saved searches and listing alerts, but you have to register.  Sorry, MLSNI rules, not mine.

Look for further integration of the home search throughout the site in the coming months.

What did I do you ask?  I finally cancelled my original agent website that has been with me from my start in the real estate business.  I feel a little empty, like I lost a good friend, or as if I just sent my first born off to college.  The way I am using the internet in my business has changed and as a result, my website had to change.  Look for a new, more streamlined site over the next six months. In the meantime, all requests for www.Kerr-Properties.com and www.ChitownResidential.com will be forward to this site, ChitownLiving.

Great news.  Attorney Tom Hawbecker is onboard as an official ChitownLiving contributer. Tom graduated magna cum laude from Winona State University. He received his J.D. from The Ohio State University Moritz College Of Law. He is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, Illinois Real Estate Lawyers Association, The Illinois Bar Association and its Real Estate Law Committee. Thomas is admitted to the bar in Illinois. Having worked with Tom on many occasions, I can attest to the fact that he is a great resource.  His understanding of real estate law, top notch service level, combined with an understanding of technology are an unbeatable combination.  At closings, he often pulls out his wireless laptop to review tax records and other online records if necessary.  For most of us tech buffs this is not earth shattering, but in the real estate industry where everything is done via fax it is.  Check out his firm site at Hawbecker & Garver, LLC.

I have been blogging for quite a while now, but am taking the leap, and am in the process of migrating not only my Blogger site, but my real estate website over to my WordPress blog.  I chose a new header image today that I thought was pretty cool and had some meaning.  The picture is from the Chicago Skyway tollbooth between Chicago and Indiana.  I travel there a lot as my wife is from Valparaiso, IN.  Kind of a symbol linking the two states and us as a couple.  More commentary on Chicago real estate + llife, and yes the tollbooth is open for business.