Downtown resi broker trying to lure high-end buyers out of state

A residential broker based Downtown is trying to get high-end buyers to look outside the typical neighborhoods for pricey home sales — way outside.

Hilary Pender launched a marketing effort aimed at affluent Chicago area homeowners, suggesting they look at homes in Northwest Indiana, where the property tax bill on a comparable home can be a fraction of what they are paying, according to Crain’s.

“I noticed that I have these multimillion-dollar properties listing in Indiana that have taxes of just $12,000, and that’s unheard of in Cook County,” Pender, a Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group broker, told Crain’s.

Properties that Pender is highlighting in the unorthodox campaign have tax bills in some cases half — or even a third — of houses in the same price range in the city or north suburbs.

As of Monday the campaign hadn’t produced any leads. But many residential brokers say the high property taxes in the Chicago area are definitely a factor for buyers, especially on luxury home listings.

And area homeowners are bracing for the possibility of even higher tax bills as new Gov. J.B. Pritzker, new Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi and a new mayor take office and implement new policies.

Anyone taking Pender up on her campaign would join residents across the country fleeing high-tax states for less expensive alternatives, in part because of the change in federal tax law that limits deductions of state and local taxes.

[Crain’s] — John O’Brien