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Grocery shopping in Naperville

Monday, December 12th, 2011

Grocery shopping is not just a quick trip to one store anymore.

Growing up in Chicago, my mom would “let” me do the grocery shopping. Depending on where we were living… this was a trip to the local Jewel, A&P or Potash Brothers. I loved shopping then, and I still love grocery shopping now.

However, the shopping has gotten more complicated because none of the stores are good at everything.

I regularly shop at Caputo’s, Casey’s, Costco, Dominicks, Jewel, Michaels Fresh Market, Sam’s Club, Trader Joe’s, World Market and Whole Foods.

Michaels and Caputo’s have great produce sections. Large open areas and bins piled high with fresh produce at great prices. These two stores also have great, reasonably priced deli counters. A pound of meat might cost 1/2 what it costs at the big name supermarkets. But Caputo’s (111th and rt59) is special.. the deli looms large, premade dishes and an extensive selection are just the tip of the iceberg at this place. As Grocery Shopping in Naperville IL - Michael's Fresh Market much as I love Michaels (next to Sam’s at rt 59 and Ogden) I would have to rate Caputo’s as a Naperville business that you need to know… also the best fresh bread department in town… Yum!

For your staples: cereal, milk, soda etc… Jewel, Dominicks and Meijer are the places to go and while they are pleasant places to shop, they are missing the boat in produce, meat and deli. Dominick’s has a very good web site where you attach coupons to your phone number (or card) so that you don’t have to worry about forgetting them.

Grocery Shopping in Naperville - Casey's If you like meat or quality prepared foods try Casey’s Food Market at Gartner and Washington (right by Trader Joe’s.. yum!) Casey’s always has a staff of butchers working, these guy’s know what they are doing… it’s pricey, so I save it for special occasions (love their heart of rib eye steaks – like Filet Mignon except with texture, flavor and richness)

Grocery Shopping in Naperville IL - Trader Joes and Whole Foods Whole Foods is conveniently located in the same mall as World Market (the BEST place to buy coffee) just across the street from Costco, this is like the one-two-three punch of greatness… the only problem is deciding where to go first….

Posted in Best places to live, Just for fun, Naperville, Observations, quality of life | No Responses »

New single from Naperville’s own Gina Glocksen

Friday, March 4th, 2011

Season 6 American Idol finalist (Naperville’s own) Gina Glocksen has just released her first original single and it’s available on Itunes.

Many will remember Gina as the “rocker chick” from AI season 6, she demonstrated versatality on the show but has released a terrific song that starts slow (showcasing Gina’s vocals) and features a chorus with a rock anthem like vibe. You can visit her website at Gina Glocksen

My family has given it a big thumbs up. Take a listen to “Superhero” and let me know what you think in the comments section.

Locals might remember that Gina was married to her husband Joe on New Years eve (Dec 31, 2008) at the Naper Settlement.

Posted in Just for fun, Naperville, Observations | No Responses »

About Food, Not Naperville Real Estate

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Well, several years ago I was trying to write about some of my favorite restaurants here. With the popularity of Yelp, a community of other people who like to eat, it seems to make sense to post my restaurant experiences there.

Recent reviews by Angus W.

What’s this?

While it’s not really real estate related, it IS something I enjoy

Posted in Downtown Naperville, Just for fun, Observations, Personal, quality of life | No Responses »

It’s attached… what is it? Condo? Townhome? What’s the difference?

Wednesday, December 6th, 2006

They both appear to be townhomes… they’ve got seperate entrances, no neighbors above or below, attached garage etc… still one is a townhouse and the other is a condominium.

What’s up with that?? We use the term “townhouse” loosely to describe a style of attached home, yet in a more specific sense… in a true townhome you would own the land that the property sits on. In this case you would need true homeowners insurance, even though the exterior may be maintained by the
association, you still need to insure your share of the structure.

This is a Townhome in Cinnamon Glen at Butterfield in Aurora Illinois

Condominium is a form of ownership. With a condominium association you own your unit but the association owns all of the exterior walls and the land it sits on too, you are part of the association so you are one of many owners. Typically you need insurance that is akin to renters insurance, since your monthly dues actually pay to insure the buildings.

A Condominium in the Woodlands at Oakhurst North in Aurora Illinois

As you can see, you can’t always tell by looking. Obviously if it’s a large building… you are probably dealing with a condo (or a co-op in some markets), but that’s because the term “condo” (condominium) describes the ownership.

In our area Multiple Listing Service (MLS) we lump them all together and call them “single family attached homes” and that that seems to cover it.

Manor homes, coach homes, garden homes are also condominiums, just good marketing offering a pleasant sounding way to describe smaller buildings. These can easily be mistaken for townhouses as well.

To search for single family homes (whether they are attached or not… visit) Real Estate in Chicago’s Western Suburbs where you’ll have access to the full gamut of available properties in the area.

Posted in Buying Tips, condos, Home Search, Marketing, Observations, selling tips | No Responses »

Marketing 101 in the Western Suburbs

Sunday, September 24th, 2006

I was recently talking to another agent in the office about listings that only offer a picture of the front of the house… We agreed that we always think: ” it may be a bad agent… or it may be a bad house… I’m not really sure”

You see, in the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois (MLSNI) we can add a total of seven pictures.. as well as a virtual tour to the listing. Not everybody likes virtual tours… but pictures are something that everyone wants (buyers and agents included) It costs nothing to use this feature and it can be done at the same time as the actual listing. I was wondering what other people thought about this and posed the question to a national group of real estate agents in one of my networking groups.

These real estate agents all said that if the MLS allows 7 (or more) pictures and the listing doesn’t include that many, they assume that something is wrong with the property. This is a real problem for those sellers in a slower market and it’s one that they are generally not aware of.

One agent from Florida said that if they talk about the pool in the remarks but don’t show a picture they assume that something is not right with the pool.

Another top agent said they definitely make assumptions based on the amount or lack of pictures. Like if the agent only uses interior pictures (or exterior only)

Of the 17 responses to my question 17 (100%) of the agents responded that they assume the worst when photos are not used properly……

One other thought is that these pictures automatically propogate throughout the system, showing up on real estate related sites all over the Internet (assuming that the agent elects to do that…that will be another marketing blog topic!) including Realtor.com if the agent pays a little extra for the expanded listings.

Sometimes it’s what you don’t say (or show) that influences people..

Posted in Marketing, Observations, selling tips | No Responses »

Cingular turns me on!

Sunday, September 3rd, 2006

In 2005 when Cingular announced that it was deploying it’s new 3g service (UMTS) in the Chicago area, I was very excited… until I discovered that they were including everything except the western suburbs!

To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement! Here I am, a guy that revels in tech toys… and I’ve been excluded from this great service! (Can you say geek?) I use Cingular because it is the only service that works everywhere that I need it to… I’ve tried all of them over the years. Being a geek, I purchased a 3g modem on eBay for the few times that I would be in an area where I could make use of the service. The modem tells you by color what system you’ve locked into… red is bad (not working) green is standard service (EDGE in this area) blue when you are in a 3G area.

Cingular said that they hoped to have other areas turned on by the end of 2006, but weren’t making any announcements. the City of Naperville is contracting for free WIFI and I was starting to focus that…. and suffering (with dignity) the slow EDGE modem speeds (at the same price as the fast connections elsewhere..I might add)

Sitting in the local Starbucks on 75th street while enjoying a vente coffee and chocolate chip cookie (exercising great restraint by only eating one) expecting the normal, pokey EDGE speeds… when my light turned blue. Working to calm myself (maybe the modem was confused)… I nervously fired up a speedtest… YES! Almost 1mb per second… WooHoo! Broadband at last!

I checked the Cingular site, but the map hadn’t changed…hmm… maybe they just turned it on for a test…then I thought that maybe it was working at the Starbucks because there is a Cingular store two doors down. (OK, so maybe I’m a little “overboard” about this stuff)
I drove to the Edard Health and Fitness Center (remember that cookie?) and tried again in their parking lot (it worked!) While I was sharing this reveation in the locker room I was shocked to discover that not all people share my enthusiasm…. imagine that! The great thing is that I still get to look forward to them turning on the even faster HSDPA next year!

Well… to lengthen and already long story, I’ve happily been using the service ever since. However, a new issue has cropped up… the EDGE speed of my Treo 650 accessing e-mail and the web is driving me crazy and I may have to purchase new phone… but, that’s another story.

Posted in Observations, Technology | No Responses »

One Kimball Hill Neighborhood Approved

Monday, March 20th, 2006

Edited – in case you don’t read the comments, the Planning Commission approved this plan.. but it was later denied by the City Council… who said to bring them plans that don’t include townhomes, a real victory for the neighbors concerned about the density

Original Post:
Kimball Hill has been approved for the Mayneland Farms subdivision at the southeast corner of Mill and Bauer Roads. They will be building 59 townhomes and 22 Single family homes… This is a fairly significant development for this end of town where there just isn’t much land left.

Kimball hill is no stranger to this area having built most of the homes in the the neighboring subdivision: Century Farms. They are not yet offering any information on their website but you will be able to get that information here when it’s available

Posted in Naperville, Observations | 2 Responses »

Kimball Hill and Naperville

Tuesday, February 28th, 2006

Kimball Hill homes is still trying to make things work at the southeast corner (currently known as Mayneland Farm) of Mill and Bauer. A community of 59 and 22 single family townhomes is having a hard time getting passed, neighbors are concerned about density (understandable) and Kimball Hill is concerned about utilizing the property correctly (also understandable)

On another front they are also attempting to build on a large parcel of land just south of Ogden and east of Rt59… a townhome community (280 units – called Townes of Greenbriar) located behind the Krispy Kreme (does it seem like I think of food all the time?) While this spot is contiguous to other residential development, about 30 acres of it is currently zoned commercial… district 204 is concerned about the additional students this could bring.

On a completely different scale Kimball Hill is developing Settler’s Ridge (along the RT30 extension… that’s the Sugar Grove exit from I88) this will be a “high concept” community of 1300 acres and almost 2500 homes. Lot’s of preserved space is in the plan.

Kimball Hill has been building in the Chicago area for many years, including developments in Carol Stream, Naperville, Aurora and Yorkville.

Possibly what they are best known for is creating the city of Rolling Meadows.

Posted in Naperville, Observations | No Responses »

As The Market Turns

Sunday, December 18th, 2005

As markets begin to turn across the country sellers and buyers should look for experienced agents who have been through several business cycles.

Inexperienced agents are the last to know when a market is turning, and are the least equipped to deal with it. Often they are afraid to go back to the seller and recommend a repositioning in the marketplace because just a few short weeks ago they recommended a certain listing price. They tend to try and create something out of nothing, all the while the seller is getting further behind the market as new listings enter the market and old ones reduce their price. You never want to get caught chasing the market down.

Inexperienced buyer agents may not realize the market is turning and you could end up paying a higher price than you should in a declining market.

By choosing an agent who has experience, you’ll maximize what you get for your home, and you’ll sell it much faster. As a seller, you’re really in competition with all the other sellers out there for the most qualified buyers. Too many sellers believe they’re in competition with the buyer, which really isn’t the case.

Always call the most experienced agent you can find. Chances are, they’ve seen the up’s and down’s of your marketplace, and they won’t be surprised by what happens next. It’s your home, and a large part of your life savings. Don’t gamble it away with a newer agent who doesn’t know.

85% of agents in the marketplace today have only seen 1 business cycle. In a Boom market, everyone gets lucky at some point, and if you’re wrong, the market will eventually catch you. Simple supply and demand economics take over, and because there are many buyes for your home, if the agent screws it up, there’s always another buyer to practice with. In a changing or declining market, this isn’t so. You’ll want an agent who’s had all the practice and ready to apss the Test.

Brett Ellis is a Realtor with RE/MAX Realty Group in Fort Myers, FL Listen to their radio show, or visit their website, or their Blog. Brett has over 17 years experience and sells over 500 homes per year.

Posted in Guest Post, Observations | No Responses »