From the monthly archives:

January 2007

Coffee, Books & More Coffee in Oak Park

January 30, 2007

On Saturday I showed houses in Oak Park to my buyers relocating to Chicago from Ithaca, NY and showed them what I consider some of the cool places in Oak Park. We looked at a house by the Buzz Cafe in Oak Park’s Art District and then stopped in for coffee. After looking at houses, [...]

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Evanston – Corner of Main & Chicago

January 28, 2007

Friday I showed houses in Evanston and a condo in Rogers Park to a lovely couple relocating to Chicago from Ithaca, NY. We met at the CTA Purple Line Stop at Main in Evanston. I got there early and shot the video below just north of that CTA stop. It starts at Starbucks® to the [...]

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Interest Rates Moving Higher

January 26, 2007

Recent strength in the stock market and stabilizing existing home sales (figures released yesterday morning) are contributing to a weakening in the bond markets.
Current 30 year fixed rates are 6.125%. However this is only for a 30 day lock, with a 10% or more down payment and a loan amount of between [...]

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Paint Wall Repairs

January 25, 2007

On Monday I showed 2 bedroom 2 bath condos in Oak Park and Forest Park.
One of the kitchens is shown left. It’s a very nice kitchen for a condo with granite countertops and 42″ cabinets. Unfortunately, the seller is either too cheap or too lazy to paint a wall repair above the cabinets. Does [...]

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Featured in Chicago Tribune

January 23, 2007

Yours truly made the front page of the Chicago Tribune’s Business Section yesterday. “Real estate agents hang blogging signs” by Chicago Tribune real estate columnist, Mary Umberger, covered the prediction that the real estate industry is on the cusp of a blogging revolution and featured a few of us in Chicago with real estate blogs. [...]

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New Home Inspection Tool – Thermographic Scans

January 22, 2007

This weekend while visiting family, I learned of a new technology used to supplement home inspections. The technology goes by a variety of names including thermographic scan, infrared testing, thermal scan, and thermal image scanning. What all of these have in common is that they produce images identifying temperature differences in surfaces such as walls, [...]

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A Mouse in the House

January 18, 2007

This morning I was at the final walkthrough for one of my listings in the Hermosa area of Chicago. A photographer for the Chicago Tribune was also there. Mary Umberger, the Tribune’s real estate columnist interviewed me the other day about this blog. Mary asked for a photo of the seller and I since the [...]

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The Difference Professional Quality Home Photography Can Make

January 17, 2007

When I talk with sellers whose previous attempt to sell their house failed, I often notice that their home’s photos were poor. Chicago area home stager, Craig Schiller, in his Home Staging, Rants & Ravings Blog has a couple of recent posts that clearly illustrate the difference professional quality home photography can make. Check out [...]

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You Can Buy a Home for Cash, but Don’t Bring it to the Closing

January 13, 2007

I attended the closing yesterday for my buyers who bought a house in the downtown area of Bartlett. The sellers’ real estate attorney shared the story of another closing where the buyer showed up with $20,000 cash to cover his closing costs. The attorney explained to the buyer that the title company wouldn’t accept the [...]

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Trulia’s Heat Map for Cook County

January 10, 2007

After I wrote about Zillow’s heat map for the Chicago area the other day, Megan Kamil, a product manager at Trulia.Com sent me a note about their new heat maps. To the left is their heat map for Cook County showing average prices by zip code.
Trulia.Com also lets users search for homes for sale and [...]

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