In honor of the Gay Games opening this weekend in Chicago, we thought we’d point out an interesting site we discovered the other day. It’s the Chicago branch of GayRealEstate.com, one of several real estate Web sites geared to the gay community in Chicago.
We chatted with one of the real estate agents listed at the site, Greg Jarvis of Baird & Warner, who told Yo that although Chicago is a cosmopolitan city, many gay buyers and sellers prefer to work with a gay Realtor because they may have experienced discrimination in the marketplace, or worked with agents who didn’t understand their needs. More details after the jump.
“Sometimes you’ll bring two male buyers through a unit and the selling agent will assume that the two men are looking for two separate bedrooms and they will say, ‘here are the his’n’hers closets to the two men,” Jarvis said. “It kind of makes them feel a little bit uncomfortable and that’s what keeps people who are gay in what’s considered gay neighborhoods instead of sprouting out into other neighborhoods.”
That said, Jarvis has noticed more lesbian and gay couples who were part of the process of beautifying Boystown, being priced out of the neighborhood, and moving to areas like Uptown, Rogers Park, Ukrainian Village and Bucktown.
Jarvis, who is gay and says his clientele is a mix of gay and straight, says that he sometimes advises gay couples who are selling their home to put away personal photographs in case “prejudice from buyers comes through.”
Jarvis writes a column covering real estate issues for Chicago Pride, which also offers ChicagoPrideRealEstate.com.