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I finally found a home for a pair of first-time buyers that took their time (they lost two homes they liked by waiting too long to make their offer - I wrote another post about this) until they finally purchased real estate in Tinley Park.  It was a very nice single family residence and in my opinion the nicest house they saw. 

We had the home inspection and I was very happy with the inspector we had.  He explained things very clearly and did not scare my buyer.  He explained maintenance and kept repeating what a nice house it was.  He did find two problems that the buyer asked the seller to repair.  I just found out today that the seller agreed to the repairs and everything is going forward.

However, during a phone conversation with my buyer after the…

The market is finally picking up in the southwest Chicago suburbs.  I'm seeing more homes going under contract after buyers ask me to set appointments based on listings they received from me from their automated e-mail search or properties they've found on the Internet or from a For Sale sign. 

I've been working with some buyers that have taken their time viewing all of the inventory in their price range and areas of choice.  One couple finally narrowed their choice down to two listings.  When I went to set an appointment on the first home I saw it was sold.  Their second choice was Orland Park IL real estate and my appointment was confirmed.  However, I got a call from the listing agent telling me that there was an accepted contract and they were waiting…

In all the years I've been a REALTOR I don't remember having such a difficult time finding comparable listings when preparing a Comparative Market Analysis or CMA.  I've always used the same parameters such as area, style of home, bedrooms, baths, etc. and have gone back six months, which is how appraisers prepare their appraisals.

There has been so little activity in most areas of the Chicago suburbs that I'm having to go back 12 months and sometimes even longer to find comparable sold and closed listings.  Yet this information is not very accurate as prices continue to drop in most suburbs of Chicago.  No wonder we're still seeing overpriced properties in today's Seller's Market.

It makes it difficult to offer a good market value for today's sellers…

There is an older post on REW Forums that keeps getting added to in the Laid Back Chat section titled "What kind of car do you drive?"  One poster mentioned a word I had never heard of before, hypermiling.  It was mentioned in a post written by Larry Jensen who is known as NY RE Broker on the forums.  He actually used the term hype-miling so I had to look it up on the Internet.

What a new world I was introduced to!  This is a new sub-culture that I can only imagine is going to continue growing.  I wrote an entire piece about my experiences with it (and my studies) so you can read all about hypermiling on my main blog.

I am really trying to make this my "way of driving" now

As I mentioned on my other blog post, you need to keep practicing.  I'm getting…

Did you ever get a listing that you were very excited about?  I'm excited about most every listing I get, but this has been a particular building I've noticed for years and never saw the interior.  I love historic buildings and have been charmed by this old school house for many years.

It was purchased quite some time ago by an attorney that used it for his law office.  He outgrew the building and started renting it out.  There is currently a travel agency and music school, although the music school is leaving.

This is one of those buildings that is larger inside than it appears from the exterior.  I was arguing with my son who had been inside before I had the opportunity.  He swore there was an upper level and I just couldn't see it.  But he was right,…

I always cringe when I see a listing where I have to set the appointment through the listing agent.  I am prepared to have to leave a voice mail and wonder if the agent will get to setting the appointment.  It makes it difficult when you're trying to set up multiple showings and preparing a route to take.  So many times by the time the agent calls back it's a day or two after we wanted to show the property.

I called an office early yesterday to set an appointment for today.  This particular office was closed on Sunday.  OK, some offices are not open on Sunday so I wasn't surprised.

I called again at 9:00 this morning and had to leave another message.  I showed the other 3 homes I had set for this morning and when I got in my car I noticed I had a voice…

A few months ago I received a listing referral from another REW member, Ken Smith.  He sells in the northwest Chicago suburbs and I sell in the southwest area.  Sometimes our websites attract each other’s area so we trade prospects whenever we can.

The sellers sounded very nice over the phone and I was excited to actually work what at first sounded like a good referral.  These sellers were selling a home in Palos Heights, which is a very sought after southwest suburb of Chicago.  They were still listed with another brokerage.

My excitement waned as I was preparing the Comparative Market Analysis (CMA).  The house had already been on the market for over 200 days.  The original asking price was $349,900 and after several price reductions they were…

I got an interesting call the other day.  It was from a woman who didn't sound too friendly asking me to take her off my mailing list.  So I asked her what her e-mail address was wondering why she didn't choose the opt-out feature vs. making a phone call.  She said it wasn't an e-mail.  Then she said in a somewhat exasperated voice, "I keep getting stuff from you in the mail."

I almost laughed.  In fact I think I did chuckle as I told her, in a nice way, that she was the first person to ever call me about sending snail mail.  She was either an expired or fsbo that I send a series of postcards and my newsletters to.  I didn't even have time to do it last year but have been successful in the past so decided to start it up again since it's been a slower…