Want to Be the Obamas' Next Door Neighbor? Obama's Chicago Neighbor Selling Home

Oct. 27, 2009— -- The housing market is tough right now, even if you're offering a house with a famous neighbor.

Steps away from the Obama family's Hyde Park, Chicago, home, their next door neighbor's 17-room manse is on the market.

The owner, Bill Grimshaw, had hoped to cash in on what he called the "Obama factor" by selling his home but is having a little more difficulty than he originally anticipated.

Instead of setting an asking price, Grimshaw initially left the price open-ended, hoping that the draw of living close to the Obamas' home would boost the profits for him.

"We've been getting inquiries from Singapore, Saudia Arabia, London, New York, California," Grimshaw said in an interview when the house first went on the market in September. "All of these wonderful places where there's large amounts of money and people who don't seem to know the value of it, which, from my point of view, is the perfect combination.

"So I don't think there's an upper limit to my fantasy anymore, I don't even think about it."

Grimshaw bought the house for $40,000 in 1973. Homes of the same size in the same neighborhood, typically go for between $1 million and $2 million.

The 6,000-square-foot house includes preserved woodwork, plaster-detailed molding and ornate original stained glass windows from the turn of the century. It sits on an oversize lot.

And that's even before the benefits of being a "rock star's neighbor," Grimshaw said. "We realized that the Obama factor was never going to get us higher, and so we finally pushed ourselves to take some action."

Since the house went on the market in the middle of September, more than 60,000 inquires have flooded in. The house has its own Web site too, www.5040greenwood.com, which has since had more than 100,000 hits.

But the initial interest failed to produce many actual offers: After a month on the market, there has not been one serious offer.

The real estate company has been forced to set an asking price -- $1.85 million -- when the house gets posted today on a Multiple Listing Service.

Matt Garrison, the house's real estate agent, said that despite initial worldwide interest, the few formal offers were unacceptable, much below what a house in that neighborhood should go for.

"It's a tough time to be selling real estate right now," Garrison, a Coldwell Banker real estate agent, said. "Obviously, the sellers want to get as much money for it as they can. I think we still will get a good price for the property, because it's so unique."