Spaceship-style home of late radio psychic comes to market

A spaceship-styled home built for a Chicago radio psychic landing on the market again in July – for a lot less.

The four-bedroom, 4,000-foot home on five acres near Somonauk, 65 miles southwest of the city, is asking about $600,000, according to Crain’s. That’s down from the $680,000 asking price when the home, which once rotated, hit the market in September before the listing was removed in April.

The dome-shaped house was built 20 years ago for Joe Tufano, who hosted a WLUP show under the name Joe Who. Tufano, who died at 72 last May, left it to a friend, Bill McVay, who is selling the property. It’s on a private network and will be listed publicly in early July. Ro Malik, an agent at Keller Williams One Chicago, is representing the seller.

The home has curved walls, ceilings and floors and what McVay called an “energy-balancing” spot in the center. Standing inside five support beams “is supposed to balance your internal energy,” McVay said.

Tufano considered himself an “empath” or a “voice natural direct sensitive,” according to McVay, because he said he could determine people’s personalities through their voices.

Tufano bought the property around 1999 and hired a Canadian firm that specializes in rotating dome houses to build it, though the motor isn’t operational. The property also has a standard building that Tufano used as a garage and radio studio.

Tufano grew up in Chicago’s Little Italy and lived in the suburbs before moving to the property and building the oddly shaped house.

“[He] just really wanted to be out here, out in the prairie, and he had to have a dome house,” McVay said.

[Crain’s] — Miranda Davis

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