Archive for the 'real estate' Category

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The 5th and last mistake to avoid when selling your Chicago Home is to “Not hiring a professional real estate agent” or perhaps hiring the wrong agent.  We are currently in a buyers market so the FSBOs (For Sale By Owners) are at a real disadvantage.  Ninety-five percent of today’s buyers are working with buyer agents, in the purchase of their new home, condo or loft.  In this market only about 2% of successful Chicago Home sales are FSBO.  It may be unwise to hire an agent that doesn’t know the area very well or that doesn’t know the home values in your neighborhood.  Word-of-mouth or referrals from friends and neighbors are usually a good place to start in selecting your agent. Look for someone who has an established track record that knows how to use state of the art technology.  In this environment, experience isn’t expensive, it is priceless.

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Mistake number 3 is Not Making Your Home Accessible.  If a property isn’t accessible, when a buyer’s agent makes a request to view the property and can’t gain entrance, that buyer may not come back to look.  Why?  Because there are so many Chicago Homes For Sale that the buyers are sometimes overwhelmed by all the inventory.  Chicago Realtors have a lot to choose from when making appointments, so if it is difficult to gain entrance, that property is likely to get skipped.  The easier it is to get into the property the more showings that property will experience.  If you would like some tips on how to make your Chicago home more accessible to Chicago Realtors just send me an email,  roger@wesellchicago.com.

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This is based on an article and an NBC News report as well as on my own experience.  The NBC article by Marion Brooks can be found at www.nbcchicago.com/around_town/real_estate/5-Real-Estate-Mistakes-You-Dont-Want-to-Make.html .  The first mistake to avoid is not pricing right, of course the wrong price brings the wrong buyers.  In this shifting market it is sometimes necessary to adjust the price until you start getting activity.  Because the market is continuing to change it may be wise to pay more attention to the competition than to past sales.  Past sales are history, but your competition is what the buyer’s will see and make decisions about as to what is the best value.  What you paid for your property should not be a deciding factor in how to price your home.  Various sellers and agents are using some incentives to entice buyers such as including a large flat screen TV, my experience suggests that most buyers would rather see a lower price and skip the incentive.  According to our MLS at the time of this writing there are 13,931 condos for sale and there are another 7,381 Chicago Homes For Sale.  There is a lot of competition and if you don’t win the pricing contest you will not sell.  Next article will deal with the beauty contest that must also be won for a sale to happen.

The Loop-U as it is being called is an area from Roosevelt Road on the South and the Chicago River on the North, from the Lake to Wacker Drive on the West.  This area is being referred to as the Loop-U because of the approximate 60,000 students that live and attend various institutions of the higher learning in this area.  There are about 20 institutions of higher learning in the Chicago Loop-U area.  As the real estate horizon changed many of the large office building tenants moved west and some of the larger schools have purchased the recently vacated old buildings and have or are converting them for class use.  As the real estate market in Chicago continued to cool off, this Loop-U area has seen a surplus in rental housing, many of the rental units are available because the owners are unable to sell.  In addition there are a growing number of short sales and foreclosures so it is a great time to pick up a bargain.  There seems to be the beginning of a trend of parents purchasing condos for their children enrolled in schools in the Chicago Loop-U.

On 2/28/2009 we took 12 people out on a Foreclosure Bus Tour to preview condos in the River North, Gold Coast and Old Town areas.   We were able to show  8 different properties in 3 hours to 12 people, very efficient use of our time.  This was done in conjunction with  ChicagoForeclosureTours.com  a part of  americanforeclosuretours.com.  Most buyers were surprised to find condos that are available as short sales or foreclosures, selling for any where between $50,000 to $200,000 less than they sold for 2 years ago.  So yes, there are a lot of real estate bargains out there in this market place.  We at the WeSellChicago.com team are busy planning another Foreclosure Bus Tour, this time focusing on single family homes in Lincoln Park, Bucktown, Wicker Park, Lakeview, Gold Coast and River North.  If you are interested in joining, just email me:  roger@WeSellChicago.com with  “Bus Tour”  in the subject line.

It is estimated that about half of all real estate transactions in the Chicago area will be either a short sale or a foreclosure.  That would be about 75,000 properties as guesses are that there will be about 150,000 homes that change hands in 2009.  So it makes sense to start looking at some of these distressed properties.  As a buyer you need to be patient because we are dealing with a huge organization rather than a individual seller.  Usually they have much red tape to clsar up before they can even give a response to an offer.  Next, it will be in your best interest to be as unemotional as possible.  Most important get pre-approved, sometimes it makes sense to get pre-approved through the bank that is selling the property so you can actually compete with the cash buyers.  There are some great deals out there, so let’s go find them and then buy them.

Bus tours of foreclosure properties seem to be getting popular across the nation.  To some extent this is the result of the ever increasing number of foreclosures coming into the market place.  According to the IAR (Illinois Association of Realtors) there is a new foreclosure every 13 seconds in the United States.  The Center for Responsible Lending has created a foreclosure counter to tick off foreclosure starts as they occur at www.responsiblelending.org. The group also tracks foreclosure totals by states.                      

As recent as 1-2 years ago it was common to hear Chicago real estate agents suggest that we would not see foreclosures in such neighborhoods as Lincoln Park, Gold Coast, River North or the New East Side.  The thinking being that foreclosures only happen in the less affluent areas, not true today.  Just in zip code 60614 which is most of Lincoln Park, there are currently 248 Bank Owned properties, 115 properties scheduled for auction and 629 properties are listed as Pre-foreclosure by RealtyTrac.  This totals almost 1000 properties in financial trouble in just Lincoln Park. 

Part of the response and solution to the increasing number of foreclosures and short sales (many of which progress to foreclosures) is the Bus Tour.  A company known as DownTownChicagoForclosureTours.com has scheduled a bus tour on Feb. 28, 2009 starting at 10 AM and concluding at 1 PM.  Bus departs from the RE/MAX Vision office at 350 W. Ontario, Chicago at 10 AM.  If you would like to join the free bus tour and preview some of the foreclosures/short sale properties just email me: roger@WeSellChicago.com with Bus Tour in the subject line. 

Chicago condo buyers, “The Ultimate Condominium Resource” in now available and it is free if you have your Realtor register you for a complimentary one year subscription.  If you register yourself it is a cost of $300.00 for the year, so call your favorite Realtor.  This new site covers: Building Profiles, Floor Plans, City Maps, Area Profiles and Comparison Charts for neighborhoods as well as buildings.  This site covers more than 12,000 of Chicago’s finest buildings as well as all 77 of Chicago’s census areas.  It offers a ton of valuable information to anyone looking to purchase a condo in Chicago.  http://www.chicagocondosonline.com is the address or email me: roger@wesellchicago.com for a complimentary one year subscription.  If you are an agent and a member of “Midwest Real Estate Data” (MRED) which operates the multiple listing service of northern Illinois, you have free access to ChicagoCondosOnline.com.

NAR reports that they expect the sale of existing homes in the U.S. to jump to about 5.3 million units, up from the 5.0 million for 2008.  They are also predicting a 1.1% rise in prices of existing homes compared to a 9.3% drop in 2008.  With prices beginning to hold, interest rates at a historic low and plenty of inventory, this may be an ideal time to purchase a home.  We are seeing increased activity in showings even in this very cold weather, which should lead to more real estate sold in the Chicago market in 2009.  There are still many foreclosures and short sales to look at as well as the new Spring Market inventory.

The sweeping trend of “going green” has taken over our nation, but there are still a fair share of people that remain skeptical…with good reason.  Many of the ways you can go green are fairly easy and helpful, but there are also a lot of ways to go green that can be over the top and a waste of money.  Going green has had a great effect on the real estate market.  The price of gas has taken its toll on the housing markets, and people no longer want to live in far off suburbs.  They would rather pay a little more for their home and be in a pedestrian/bike friendly area closer to the city, than waste all of their time/money on gas to commute into the city by car.

Men’s Health online magazine gave us some truly helpful tips to go green in an easy and low key way: hand wash dishes, buy energy efficient appliances, give up bottled water, use your computer’s sleep mode, don’t use disposable razors, don’t use paper plates, use re-chargable batteries, use recycled napkins and toilet paper, and go to the car wash instead of washing your own car.  There are many products that are “green” for your home, including roofing, insulation, and heating/cooling systems.  Some of these options can be helpful/useful and some of them can just be scams. 

Housing sales have gone down in the past couple of months, but turning your home green can save dramatically on costs, especially for bigger homes that use a lot more utilities.  Also, there are incentives to go green, like subsidization for a green roof that helps to cool the building, and a rebate if you buy a hybrid vehicle (on top of the money you’ll save on gas).  Illinois also gives tax rebates to households that use solar energy.  There are many ways (big and small) to go green in your own household; it doesn’t take a lifestyle change, it can just be a small step towards the larger overarching goal of helping the environment.  One of the best and most inexpensive ways to go green is to recycle.

Mayor Daley has proposed a new way for homeowners and business owners to save some money on taxes and stay in their homes/keep their businesses afloat in this downtrodden market.  Since the economy is in a much worse state than it was in 2006, many people feel that they are being taxed unfairly based on outdated home appraisals.  Mayor Daley feels that they are right, and it is not fair, and he has thought of a way to circumvent this problem and to make things more fair.  You can start the process for 2008 next week, and depending on which township you live, you abide by a certain deadline to get your documents in for your home’s appraisal.  If you call the Cook County Board of Review (312-603-5542) they can lead you in the right direction.  You must fill out paperwork and gather documents and pictures for your home and the surrounding homes in the neighborhood and then submit the information for review.  After the Board has reviewed your information, the goal is to appraise your home at its new, lower value and hence cut down on the property taxes you must pay each year.  Mayor Daley is on our side and he has made this, and other tax incentives user-friendly and available so people can stay in their homes and keep their businesses alive.