Rapping Rabbi Promotes Sale Of Wilmette Home In Music Video

WILMETTE, IL — A Wilmette rabbi and his family produced a rap music video to promote the sale of their home amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Moshe Teldon, program director at Chabad Center of Wilmette, dons face masks throughout most of the video as he extols the location, features and value of his five-bedroom split-level.

Teldon, 33, and his wife, Esther, put the 1,800-square-foot house on the market with plans to move to a larger Wilmette home following the birth of their fifth daughter four months ago. They listed their Gregory Avenue home in February with an asking price just under $500,000. But since then, buying or selling properties has become more difficult.

"Without any of these open houses and without the showings and agents coming by, we've got to think creative," he said. "Instead of giving up, we've got to just shift."

In the second week of May, Teldon, his three brothers and sister were meeting on their regular Zoom teleconference when they developed an idea for a real estate rap video. The siblings jointly penned the lyrics, Teldon said, while his brother-in-law Schmouel Flinkenstein handled the camera work over three days of filming.

"Let's be realistic, I'm being optimistic, your kids will be in the finest school district," Teldon raps. "You can be choosy, won't me feel woozy, because we selling this with a big bad jacuzzi."

Teldon is joined by his daughters in several scenes of the video, which is interspersed with a recording of a reenacted Zoom call with his siblings. The music video was edited by Teldon's older brother.

During the roughly two-week production process, Teldon said he had to steer his siblings away from including any extraneous elements in the video.

"The objective is that it sells the house," he said. "My siblings were like, 'Oh, we should do this,' 'We should do that.' I was like,'No, No, guys, we got to focus on the point. The point is I've got to sell my house.' They were having too much fun."

The house is located about a block from the Wilmette Park District's community recreation center. Its proximity is likely what Teldon will miss most about the home when he moves out, he told Patch.

"We love that. My kids, when it's nice, we're at the park all the time. There's the tennis right there, there's the field, there's the small little park, there's the whole rec center. They take ballet, they take gymnastics, they've done some art and music," he said. "Just being literally in our back yard is amazing."

A new roof was installed in 2019 and two bathrooms have been recently renovated, according to the video.

On the home's upper level, the master suit includes a balcony overlooking the back yard, while the lower level includes a sunlit family room and a fifth bedroom with yard access, according to its listing.

According to Cook County records, the home's estimated 2019 market value was lowered to just under $430,000 for taxing purposes following an appeal last year. Its annual property tax bill was about $8,000.

• Address: 3022 Gregory Ave., Wilmette
• Built: 1957
• Lot Size: 0.18 acres
• Square Feet: 1,800
• Bedrooms: 5
• Bathrooms: 3
• Last Sold: $393,500 in May 2014
• Asking Price: $499,000, listed Feb. 3

Listing information originally appeared on realtor.com. For more information and photos, click here.