March 2006

2 Questions to Ask When Shopping for a New Condo

March 31, 2006

Thinking about buying a new condo? Here are 2 questions to ask that may save your some surprises and grief. First ask, “Are the condos warrantable?” A condo being warrantable means that there is less risk for your mortgage company and thus you’ll pay a lower interest rate. A condo being non-warrantable can be caused Click to continue...

2 Bedroom Condos in Edgewater

March 28, 2006

Today I showed a buyer 2 bedroom condos in the Rogers Park and Edgewater areas of Chicago and in the suburb of Oak Park. I won’t spend much time on the condos in Rogers Park since I wrote about Rogers Park on Friday. There were several nice choices. I was impressed by the sound proofing Click to continue...

Verify, Verify, Verify

March 26, 2006

This morning I received an e-mail from a friend with a touching essay titled, “The Paradox of Our Time”, by George Carlin. I enjoyed reading the piece and thought about posting it here to share with you. However, since it was written by someone else, I thought I would verify it first. I’m glad I Click to continue...

Jealousy in Rogers Park

March 24, 2006

Today I showed high-end 3 bedroom condos in the Rogers Park area of Chicago. Rogers Park is just south of Evanston. My buyer submitted an offer. I am feeling a bit jealous of her. Assuming the sale the goes through, she’ll get to walk just 2 blocks to Lake Michigan from her new home. She’ll Click to continue...

Don’t Be Afraid to Question a Mortgage Pre-Approval

March 23, 2006

I presented an offer to one of my sellers today. I would have presented it yesterday, but the offer arrived with no mortgage pre-approval. I politely explained to the buyer’s agent that it would be too big a risk for my sellers to proceed on an offer with no proof that the buyer can qualify Click to continue...

Let’s Have More Truth in Advertising

March 21, 2006

I showed a buyer 8 houses in the Norwood Park area of Chicago today. We were both disappointed. Partially, I think, because the homes were so attractively described on the MLS sheets. Here are some phrases from the descriptions and what we actually found: Quality built – The house had plastic tiles in the kitchen. Click to continue...

Help for Deciding on a Home Purchase

March 19, 2006

This morning’s Chicago Tribune has a good article for home buyers, but it wasn’t in the real estate section. According to the article by Lisa Anderson, “In a recent issue of the prestigious journal Science, Dutch researchers reported that the more complicated the decision, such as pondering the acquisition of a house or a mate, Click to continue...

Credit Scores Get New Calculation

March 17, 2006

Sorry I haven’t posted the last 3 days. I was out of town helping my dad celebrate his 79th birthday. The 3 major credit reporting agencies are implementing a new way of calculating credit scores that is supposed to be easier to understand. Read “A New Look For Credit Scores” on npr.org (National Public Radio). Click to continue...

Dog for Sale, House Included

March 12, 2006

Real estate columnist, Mary Umberger, wrote in this morning’s Chicago Tribune about a house sale that included the seller’s dog. I found more story details at the St. Petersburg Times Online. Earlier this year, the sellers moved into a nursing home where their dog, Rocky, wasn’t allowed. Friends and family took care of Rocky who Click to continue...

A Real Estate Contract Doesn’t Need to be Intimidating

March 11, 2006

You’ve been searching for a home and finally have found “the one”. You’re ready to make an offer and your buyer’s agent pulls out a contract several pages long. It’s filled with terms like possession, prorations, and plat of survey. Did your stress level just go up? I started doing something new this week with Click to continue...

If Only Poor Writers Were an “Endangered Species” Part 3 of 3

March 10, 2006

In parts 1 and 2 of this post I pointed out 4 significant errors in the New York Times Magazine article on real estate agents titled, “Endangered Species” by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt. See “If Only Poor Writers Were an “Endangered Species” Part 1 of 3″ and “If Only Poor Writers Were Click to continue...

When Selling Your Home, It’s What You Net, Not What You “Saved”

March 9, 2006

Everywhere you turn there are ads for “for sale by owner” systems and discount brokers advertising the thousands of dollars their sellers saved. Yet, in the end, it’s not how much or how little it cost you to sell your home, it’s how much you netted after the sale. If you “saved” $5000 in commission Click to continue...

When a Buyer’s Agent Has 2 Clients Who Want the Same Property

March 8, 2006

Today I finished my 2-day Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR) Class. Our class of around 40 REALTORS® discussed a lot of legal and ethical issues. The biggest discussion was this morning when we discussed how to ethically handle a situation where you have 2 different clients who both want to make offers on the same property. Click to continue...

If Only Poor Writers Were an “Endangered Species” Part 2 of 3

March 7, 2006

Here’s another error from The New York Times Magazine article on real estate agents titled, “Endangered Species” by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt. See “If Only Poor Writers Were an “Endangered Species” Part 1 of 3″ for the first 3 errors. Error #4: “Most real estate agents seem to spend 95% of their Click to continue...

If Only Poor Writers Were an “Endangered Species” Part 1 of 3

March 5, 2006

Today’s New York Times Magazine includes an article on real estate agents titled, “Endangered Species” by Stephen J. Dubner, a writer, and Steven D. Levitt, a Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. Duber and Levitt are the authors of “Freakonomics – A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.” Click to continue...

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