The other night I was on the phone with a buyer who inquired about Gold Coast houses for sale. I ran a quick search in MLSNI* for listings with Gold Coast as the subdivision and the system returned only 2 houses. The next day I ran a search of Near North Side houses (which would include the Gold Coast Neighborhood), imported the addresses into Microsoft Mappoint and discovered 21 houses in the Gold Coast priced between $2 million and $6 million.
Since I can’t depend on listing agents to always enter neighborhoods, I often use a map search which lets me draw a rectangle on a map in MLSNI to define the area I want to search. This search technique is less than perfect for neighborhoods such as the Gold Coast which have an irregular shape (see Gold Coast Map), but a significant improvement over searching by subdivision.
If you know the street coordinates that define a neighborhood (e.g. North 1000 – 1600, East 0 – 200, West 0 – 100), you can enter them in Baird & Warner’s HomeFinder System to create your own map search. Don’t count on searching just by neighborhood or subdivision.
*Multiple Listing System of Northern Illinois
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fran Bailey shows, previews and tracks downtown Chicago homes for sale giving her the insights needed to help her clients negotiate the best price and terms. Fran has been quoted in numerous Chicago and national publications. To schedule showings of listings regardless of broker or to contact Fran email her at fran.bailey@bairdwarner.com or call 773.793.4516. Learn More
Fran Bailey, Realtor
