The Chicago 77

Homeowners are usually overwhelmed with the many projects needed to make their properties stand out from the neighborhood competition and to appeal to prospective buyers. Whether you’re putting work into minor projects or more extensive renovations, how can you really be sure that your improvements are worth the invested money, time, and effort? To start, you can stick with updating […]

While the kitchen is arguably the most important room in the home, most owners living in small spaces can’t usually justify a large-scale project for the kitchen of their dreams. Instead of dealing with the stress of a major renovation, there are many alternative ways to create meaningful design to enhance the space. These five […]

Let?s face it, it’s a scary time to be a landlord. The apartment rental market is facing difficulties like never before. For the first time in six years apartment rents are down nationwide. Fueling the fire are investor-owned properties (usually condos or town homes), which has expanded the rental supply by roughly 50 percent. Whether […]

Over the past few months, I have noticed more and more home insurance activity: People picking up houses in foreclosure to fix it up to rent out; Buying foreclosures to move in to eventually; Renovating homes to flip them; People who can?t sell their homes either (1) renting out their homes or (2 ) even […]

The first thing I learned as a transactional real estate attorney was the only sign of success to the parties involved is a successful closing. For many years the fact that the buyer and seller both signed the contract was an assumption of success. I was always confident that I could resolve most issues with […]

So, you are facing foreclosure, and are worried and scared and don?t know what to do? Well, you are not alone. Millions of people nationwide have been foreclosed on or will be soon. There?s been all kinds of blame and finger-pointing (see my Who?s to Blame post for further info on that), but that’s not […]

Ok, so just about everybody has heard about loan modifications, or loan mods for short. They are also called loan workouts, loan restructuring, among others. I’m going to explain what types of loan mods exist, and who can or can’t likely get them. What kind of loan modifications are there? There are a few different […]

Is your real estate agent evolving or are they a dinosaur? And you know what happened to the dinosaurs?

Amazingly, many agents out there are natural born networkers. Some…not so much. It doesn’t always come naturally. Networking is getting out there and meeting new people in a business or social context. The purpose is to meet people in the same line of work for referrals and maybe even a little fun. There are many […]

It?s no secret to anyone that the current sales market is less than ideal. Under most normal circumstances, average homeowners are holding on to their property and hoping for the housing storm to pass. But what if you have to sell? You could be someone who is being transferred to another city or state by […]

Condos in All Shapes and Sizes…But They All Have Associations We all know that the major type of property changing hands and being built in the city of Chicago is Property Type-2.  The formal term is Single Family Attached and what most people call a condominium or townhouse.  With condominiums you will more than likely […]

So, how do you Ms/Mr Agent know how much to recommend lowering the price? How do you, Ms/Mr Seller know if the reduction is warranted? How do you know it’s the right amount of reduction? Do you guess? Do you feel your way along? Instinct is important to an agent, but the appraiser side of me also forces me to present […]

This year is a whole new ball of wax. Buyers are thinking short sales, foreclosures, and taking advantage of buyers who have to sell. They are thinking depreciation and buying at prices prior to the “boom.”