Yesterday I had a closing for a Lakeview condo that wouldn’t have happened for a few more days, if it weren’t for the extraordinary efforts of the buyer’s mortgage consultant, Michael Polera, and real estate attorney, Rachell Horbenko.
Condo financing is challenging in this market and even more so when a jumbo loan is involved. When the first approach at financing hit a snag, Michael quickly reacted and restructured the financing to make it work. That presented new challenges one of which was warranting the condo project for the second loan which could take up to 10 more business days.
With my buyers needing to be out of their rental by the end of the month, the 10 day delay threatened to leave the buyers without a home for a few days. Michael escalated the issue to Baird & Warner’s VP of Financial Services who agreed that Baird & Warner would assume liability for warranting the condo project for the second loan.
Once financing was in place, Rachell discovered that the seller’s attorney didn’t have the title ready and that there was an issue with the parcel identification number (PIN). Rachell worked with the seller’s attorney and the issues were resolved.
Rachell was already booked with closings yesterday, but squeezed in this one before the others. When the closing ran long and Rachell needed to leave for her next closing, she stayed in contact via texting.
Michael and Rachell worked as a team and through all of this constantly kept each other, the buyers and I informed. Bringing a real estate purchase to closing is truly a team effort with the numerous steps and organizations that are involved. When numerous difficulties are encountered as with this sale, working with experienced and service driven professionals makes a world of difference. Thank you Michael and Rachell for all you did for my buyers!
Fran Bailey specializes in downtown Chicago, Lincoln Park and Lake View condos, co-op apartments and houses. She has shared home buying and selling advice since 2006 and written about over 130 Chicago high rises. To schedule showings for any listings, get a 





