Archive for the 'FSBO's' Category
Looking For A Mortgage Lender? Ask Your REALTOR®
August 5th, 2009 categories: FSBO's, For Buyers, For Homeowners, Mortgage Info
Choosing a mortgage lender is no easy decision. It’s even more difficult in today’s lending environment, as mortgage lenders and bankers have become pickier over to whom to lend money.
It’s natural to be nervous about this decision. After all, a mortgage loan officer is handling what will be one of the largest financial transactions of your life. It’s also harder to trust mortgage lending companies these days. After all, the newspapers have been filled with stories about deceptive lending practices ever since the housing boom began. Then there was the news last week, as reported here in the Wall Street Journal, that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo & Co. The lawsuit alleges that Wells Fargo illegally discriminated against minority borrowers.
Yes, there are bad loan officers out there. The truth, though, is that there are many more good, dedicated loan officers in the mortgage industry. The bad press tars even those loan officers who always act in the best interests of their clients. It’s an unfortunate situation.
There is one way to ease your nerves, though, when selecting a mortgage lender: Ask your REALTOR® for his or her recommendation.
Experienced REALTORS® have built up relationships with industry professionals whom they know work hard for their clients. That includes mortgage loan officers. Your REALTOR® wants you to have the smoothest home-buying experience possible, so you know he or she is going to recommend only hard-working, ethical loan officers to you.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do your due diligence. Make sure to ask any loan officer, even one recommended by your REALTOR®, for a list of references. Then call those references. Ask them if the loan officer was good about returning phone calls. Ask if the loan officer guided them to a mortgage loan product with which they were comfortable. And ask if everything went smoothly at the closing table.
Remember, your REALTOR® isn’t only someone who chauffeurs you from home to home. A REALTOR® is also an advisor, one who can help you navigate the process of making the biggest financial decision of your life. Tap your REALTORS’® expertise when it comes to finding the right mortgage loan officer.
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More Proof that Chicago is a Buyer’s Market
May 13th, 2009 categories: Chicago Info/News, Economic Recovery, FSBO's, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers, Housing Market
I’ve been reading a lot of unexpected good news lately regarding the residential real estate market. I’ve seen, as you probably have, reports that both home sales and housing prices are gradually rising in Chicago.
But while this news is welcome, it shouldn’t lead anyone to think that Chicago isn’t still a great market for home buyers.
Housing prices in the city are still far below what they were even one year ago. The Illinois Association of REALTORS®’ recently released first-quarter sales data bear this out.
According to the association, the median housing price for condominiums and single-family homes in the city of Chicago came in at $216,000 in the first quarter. That’s down 26.8 percent from the median price of $295,000 in the first quarter just one year ago.
You can read about these numbers in this story from Chicago Real Estate Daily.
Along with the drop in prices, Chicago home sales fell, too, in the first quarter. The city saw the sale of 2,909 homes in the first quarter this year, down 37 percent from the first quarter of 2008, when 4,617 homes sold.
These numbers are significant for anyone who wants to buy a condominium or single-family home in Chicago. They prove that buyers can still find great values in the local real estate market.
This is especially important for buyers looking for residences in the city’s most popular neighborhoods, places like Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square and River North. These neighborhoods are traditionally some of the priciest in the city. With housing prices down from a year ago, it’s now possible for buyers to find more affordable options in these neighborhoods.
Despite the fact that the median value of homes, and sales, too, rose slightly in March, it looks like Chicago remains a strong buyer’s market.
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Looking for an Affordable House? Try Chicago
May 11th, 2009 categories: Chicago Real Estate News, FSBO's, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers, Housing Market
I’ve always said that for a world-class city, Chicago is actually quite affordable. That’s reflected in our housing prices, too. Sure, it’s more expensive to buy a condominium or single-family home in Chicago than it is in Milwaukee or Indianapolis. But when you compare Chicago to cities such as New York City or Los Angeles, housing here seems like a real bargain.
Chicago, with a median housing price of $225,000 in 2008, finished that year in a tie as the 40th most expensive housing market in the country. Finishing with Chicago in that 40th place tie were Miami; Salt Lake City; Tacoma, Wash.; and the Provo-Orem area of Utah.
Topping the list? San Francisco, to no one’s surprise, finished 2008 as the most expensive housing market in the country. The median value of housing in that city came in at $575,000. New York City, which finished second, had a median housing value of $455,000.
Finishing 2008 as the least expensive housing markets were two Midwest cities: Youngstown, Ohio, and Saginaw, Mich., both of which featured a median housing price of $73,000.
The Center for Housing Policy’s list once again shows what a great value Chicago housing is. It’s possible to find affordable condominiums and homes in even the city’s top neighborhoods, places like Lincoln Square, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Wicker Park and Streeterville. And with housing prices down this year from last, it’s even easier to find a good value in Chicago.
If you’re thinking about purchasing a condo or single-family home, now is a good time to do it. It’s possible to get a lot of home for your money.
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Selling Your Home? Be Prepared to Compromise?
May 8th, 2009 categories: Chicago Info/News, FSBO's, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers, Housing Market
The buyers in Chicago are smart. They’re educated about the local real estate market, and know that in today’s housing market they’re in control, even in top city neighborhoods such as Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square and Streeterville.
What does this mean? It means that if buyers want an old roof re-shingled, sellers might have little choice but to either pay to have the job done or knock some money off their asking price. If buyers want a specific closing date, sellers may have to rearrange their own plans to accommodate it. And if buyers want the plasma TV to stay, sellers might have to say goodbye to their TV, even if it’s a favorite.
This is what selling a home in a buyer’s market is all about. This story on the Chicago 77 blog does a pretty good job of explaining why a real estate market goes from a seller’s market – which we saw in the city in the early 2000s – to the buyer’s market we have today. The blog’s author puts much of the blame on negative press. It’s hard to feel upbeat about the housing market when the media are filled with gloomy stories about the future of residential real estate.
It is possible, though, for sellers to move their homes fairly quickly even in a buyer’s market. As I mentioned at the top of this post, it’s all about compromise. Today, sellers must be willing to set the right price for their homes. They will not get as much for their residences as they did just one year ago. That’s a fact of this market. Those sellers not comfortable with this may have to wait out the buyer’s market.
Pricing a home right is always crucial to making a sale. But today’s market is even less forgiving of price errors. Sellers who insist on setting an unreasonably high price will find that their home attracts no serious offers. The odds are good that these sellers will finally agree to lower their asking prices, but only after they have wasted precious weeks or months of sales time and probably end up getting less than what what they would have had they priced their property correctly in the first place.
It’s important in today’s buyer’s market to work with a Chicago REALTOR® who knows the local market. This REALTOR® can help sellers set the right asking price in a buyer’s market, and can help homeowners move their homes as quickly as possible.
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Your Neighbors’ Foreclosure Can Devalue Your Home
March 11th, 2009 categories: Economic Recovery, FSBO's, For Homeowners, For Sellers, Foreclosures, Housing Market, Mortgage Info
There’s a lot of frustration right now among homeowners who work hard to make their mortgage payments every month. And when Pres. Barack Obama last month announced a new $75 billion housing rescue plan to help reduce the monthly mortgage payments of as many as 4 million struggling homeowners, that frustration only grew.
I can understand this. It’s not easy to make monthly mortgage payments when the economy is bad. Yet the vast majority of U.S. homeowners save and scrimp to make sure they keep up with their house payments.
These hard-working homeowners don’t want to see their tax dollars used to support people who may have unwisely purchased homes that cost too much.
But there is a reason why we should all want to see foreclosures drop. There’s a reason we should all support anything that can help others keep their homes: When a home falls into foreclosure, it has a negative impact on nearby homes. That means that when your neighbor’s home is foreclosed, it could lower the value of your home.
U.S. News & World Report recently wrote a story about this issue. The feature cites a chilling statistic: A study in Chicago found that a foreclosed home reduces the value of nearby homes by as much as 9 percent.
That figure there should be enough to convince homeowners that the government needs to do whatever it can to keep people from losing their homes. Foreclosures help no one. Not only do they lower the value of nearby homes, foreclosed homes can quickly deteriorate into eyesores.
It’s reasonable for homeowners who pay their bills on time to be frustrated when others who don’t seem to escape serious consequences. But remember, preventing foreclosures benefits everyone.
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