Ruth Karel Chicago Real Estate » Selling

FHA LOAN? CONVENTIONAL LOAN?

Ruth Karel — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:22:29 +0000

Jack Guttentag recently published an article comparing the two types of loans. His analysis is very detailed and bears out the generally accepted wisdom that the conventional loan is the more desirable. This is the first time I have ever seen so much information about the different type of loans and their amounts. He discuses the differences between, “Conforming standard loans,” “Conforming jumbo loans,” “Nonconforming jumbo loans,” “FHA Standard loans” and “FHA jumbo loans.” The information is exceptionally good and should be a must-read for anyone in the buying and/or borrowing mode right now. This is an article that will require careful attention to the almost mind-numbing details–and it will reward you with a much better understanding of today’s loan climate. Click here for the whole article.

Real estate questions? Just call me at 312-607-1306 or e-mail me.

RENTING–A GOOD OPTION TODAY?

Ruth Karel — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:18:10 +0000

A recent Fortune magazine article questions the concept of home ownership in a most informative way. The history of home ownership in our country is one of the most interesting facets of the article. Ever since my memory began, home ownership has been a part of living the good American life. Somehow there was an assumption that owning your home was better than renting your home. Since our first Great Depression president, Herbert Hoover, was Secretary of Commerce, our government has encouraged home ownership. One interesting facet is that Mr. Hoover thought that if people owned a piece of the country, they would be less likely to become Communists–the Red Scare was big at that time. The default rate later in the Great Depression was 50 per cent and massive government programs to help these home owners were begun. Franklin Delano Roosevelt instituted an agency to help people with low interest loans. After World War II there were loans to GIs so that they could buy homes and help transition our economy from a war-time economy to a peace-time economy. There are still lots of programs to help home owners and there may be a change in thinking to include renting.

Two reasons that renting is becoming more acceptable follow:

Ever-increasing equity in your home because of appreciation will no longer help you make the jump to a larger, more expensive home.

You can no longer use your home as a piggy bank for constant re-financing.

Capitol Hill is beginning to rethink the American Dream with regard to home ownership. Professor Joe Gyourko,
Wharton School, feels that the government shouldn’t blindly encourage home ownership.I agree with his feeling that government should “encourage people to make the right decision” and that could be renting rather than owning. In many parts so our country, the rental figures are increasing. The Midwest has shown the largest increase in rental households. To read the whole article, just click here.

Call me if you would like help making the decision to rent or to buy–312-607-1306 or e-mail me.

Other articles you might find informative:

Can’t Sell–Rent It Right?

Rent To Own, How Does It Work?

Home Affordability-A Balancing Act

STREETERVILLE ACCORDING TO RUTH

Ruth Karel — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:58:12 +0000

Well, after avoiding making a video for my blog for entirely too long, my good friend Ted Guarnero has helped me make my first video. He has worked with me on recording it and getting it into my blog. This is a beginner’s attempt and I am not sure I really want to share it with you and I am going to do so anyway. Like most things we postpone and dread doing, it wasn’t so bad!

LEPRECHAUN NEWS! GREAT–ALMOST!

Ruth Karel — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:26:40 +0000

Some leprechaun is better than no leprechaun–right? Well, almost right. June marked the 12th straight month of increase in Chicago area sales–that is the good news. The bad news is that prices continued to inch downward. In the nine-county collar area around Chicago, home sales were up 27.2 per cent in June of 2010 compared to June of 2009. Prices were down 1.2 percent from June of 2009.

Home sales were up 27.5 percent City of Chicago sales for June of 2010 over June 2009. Prices were down 3.2 percent for the same time period in the city The source for this information is an article published by the staff of the Illinois Association of Realtors. Seemingly and hopefully, home prices are stabilizing. A professor at the University of Illinois in the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL) opines that sales will remain strong through September and prices will continue downward in the 1 per cent to 5 per cent range. And don’t you just love the way academics title their offices for a great acronym?

For me,the most telling remark in the article was that until unemployment falls, housing will have a tough time recovering. Even with mortgage rates historically low, consumer confidence and employment have to improve before housing will experience a significant comeback. Click here to read the whole article.

Need help with Chicago real estate? Just call me,312-607-1306, or e-mail me.

Here a three other posts that you might find interesting:

Time Is Not Of The Essence

Contractor Speak 101

Green Ideas–Three Of Them

YOUR HOME NOT SELLING–WHY?

Ruth Karel — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:03:24 +0000

The Chicago Tribune recently published a great article about why homes don’t sell. There are five reasons and I agree with all of them. What is so nice about the article is that suggestions are given to solve each reason. Here we go with the reasons:

Overpriced. We have discussed this one many times, probably the most important of all the reasons a home doesn’t sell..
Bad curb appeal. For a condo, we could translate that to a cluttered hallway area or a front door in bad condition. This shouldn’t happen in a condo–and it still does sometimes. Most associations have rules about what can be left in the common hallway and outside your door–if you have a problem, try to work with your neighbor on getting the clutter out of the hallway. This is a good reason to be sure you have good relations with your neighbors.
Ineffective marketing, A number of good solutions are given–pay the closing costs, offer a one-year home warranty and lots osf others.
Interior clutter–now just how many times have I told you to de-personalize and de-clutter? This is basic Selling Your Home 101.
Undesirable location. This can be as true in a condo as it is in a single-family home. Certain tiers in most buildings are more desirable than others–this can be because of view, amount of light, proximity to the elevator and/or the trash chute.

Need some one to help you with selling your home–just call me, 312-607-1306, or e-mail me.

Other articles you might fine interesting, useful, helpful–one or all of the above:

Price, Price, Price, and Price

Before You Buy A Condo. . .

Choosing A Listing Agent? Here’s How

KICK TIRES TO PICK YOUR REAL ESTATE AGENT?

Ruth Karel — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:45:57 +0000

Absolutely! Mary Umberger recently published a great article on just how to do the tire-kicking. It’s amazing how trusting we are with our biggest assets–our home and our person. Of course, many people have a relationship with their Realtor that is based on a trusted friends recommendations or past transactions or a long-time good reputation. As buyers, we are sometimes going into unoccupied homes with our Realtor. Who is that person who shows us possible purchases and has the key to our home in order to sell it? It wouldn’t hurt to be more cautions–a lot more cautious. Especially if you are moving into a new area and are a complete stranger without a reliable referral system. Each state has it’s own way of investigating or not investigating applications for real estate licenses. Many states have a way to check on the status of a Realtor. The Association of Real Estate License Law Officials is working to network all 50 states with a reliable data base–a great Idea. For example, in Illinois The Department of Financial and Professional Regulation matched the names of Illinois’ one million licensed Realtors with state’s sex offender registry.The result was a match for 66 salespeople and 20 real estate brokers. Read the article and get some good advice about how to tire-kick your way to a good Realtor.

Chicago real estate questions? Just call me–312-607-1306-or e-mail me,

Other articles you might be interested in:

2010 A Better Year For Selling Than 2011?

Canceled Final Walk Through–Why?

A Final Walk Through Is A Mandatory Must Do

PRICE, PRICE, PRICE AND PRICE

Ruth Karel — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:54:26 +0000

Maybe it used to be location, location, location–now it’s just price, price, price. Has your home been on the market for a longer than average market time in your area? There are some sure signs that your home needs a price reduction:

No showings or very few showings.
Lots of showings and no offers.
Feedback from other agents that the home is over priced.
Several offers at much less than list price.
Your agent is suggesting that you lower the price.

What can you do to determine the right price?

Have your agent do an absorption rate. This is a calculation that will tell you how long it will take to sell the homes currently on the market if no new listings come on.
Figure out how much it is costing you per month to carry the home–taxes, mortgage, assessment if there is one. Decide how long you want to continue to pay this amount.
Go out and look at some of the competition with your agent.
Have a meeting with your agent and determine what is a fair listing price–make it as close as possible to your absolute drop-dead bottom price.
Decide if it is better to stay and perhaps remodel a bit or just drop the price and get on with your life.

Remember, it is not good enough to be a “good” deal. In today’s market you have to be the BEST deal. Hope this has been helpful–it is challenging time in even the best of our markets–we need to be honest with ourselves and our sellers about the reality of the market.

Here are a few other articles that might interest you:

In God We Trust, And Our Realtor. . .

Before You Buy A Condo. . .

A Final Walk Through Is A Mandatory Must Do

KITCHEN REMODELLING SAVVY

Ruth Karel — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:21:21 +0000

We all like a good bargain and most especially when we are remodeling a kitchen–it is sooooooo terrifically expensive! And there are times when a bargain isn’t a bargain–cheap cabinets, cheap workmanship, bad lighting–all of these can truly make your new kitchen a nightmare instead of a dream. Here are a few clues for a successful remodel:

Before you even talk to a kitchen planner, draw a basic sketch for the arrangement you think would work. Then talk to several kitchen designers–they know the proper distance between island and stove or refrigerator and can help you understand your cooking patterns.. You can also get some excellent suggestions from books and magazines–try your local library. And above all, take your time no matter how frustrated you are with your present cooking arrangements.
Allow 10 to 15 per cent as a cushion against the inevitable cost overruns–don’t get stuck with making cheap compromises thinking that you will replace the compromise with something better at a later date. Chances are you won’t.
Be careful about the size–and do listen to the kitchen planning pros on this one–you don’t want to have to roller skate from stove to prep area to stove. Big is not always better!
And probably most important–get everything in writing if you are using a professional remodeling person or company. Everything should be in writing with very detailed specifications, appliance models and numbers, Copies of the contractor’s license and workmens comp and liability insurance should be furnished so that you can be sure that they are still in effect. Every detail of each phase of the remodeling should be carefully spelled out in a written contract.

And do have fun in your new kitchen!

Need help finding a kitchen to remodel? I would love to do just that–call me at 312-607-1306 or e-mail me.

BEAUTIFUL UNDERVALUED BEVERLY

Ruth Karel — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:19:11 +0000

One of my faves, Kay Severinsen, has written three wonderful articles about one of my best-loved neighborhoods. If you are looking for the suburbs in the city, Beverly is the place for you. It is one of the best kept secrets in Chicagoland. We lived there with our four sons while they went to grade school and high school and didn’t leave until the youngest went away to college. It is the kind of neighborhood that allows a grade schooler to ride their bike to Ridge Park and to their friends homes. The housing stock is varied and ranges from relatively new homes built when there were still a few vacant lots left to homes built in the period before WWII.On of Kay’s articles is about the places that everybody knows about–one of the icons is the famous Rainbow Cone at 92nd and Western and the other is Top Notch. Rainbow Cone has been a mecca for ice cream lovers since 1926–a must-do on every one’s summer treat list. Top Notch grinds their own beef and forms their own hamburger patties by hand each and every day and has fabulous lard-fried (?!?!) french fries. To read “Here’s the scoop on Beverly eats,” just click here. I am sure that there are fine dining options in the neighborhood and who needs them with Top Notch right there on 95th Street?

Another of the articles by Kay is “Beverly – pretty streets, resilient residents.” This one details some of the recent projects that are continuing to improve the neighborhood–the new library at 95th and Damen and a new LEED certified fire house close by. Most unusually in a city with an ever-changing population, the reason most people move to Beverly is to be near friends and family. Housing prices in Beverly mirror those in Chicago–they didn’t go up as much as some cities and the are not going down as much as other cities. Same thing is true of Beverly, the prices didn’t go up as much as other neighborhoods and they are not going down as much as some other neighborhoods.

Kay’s third article, “Beverly: From hilly forests to high-end homes,” is a concise history of the Beverly-Morgan Park area beginning with the Potawatami Indians. It details how the residents of the area have worked together to preserve their neighborhood and welcome the diverse neighbors who have chosen to live there. Kay’s three stories really chronicle the area beautifully–I have often thought of highlighting the Tribune’s neighborhood articles in my blog and just never have gotten around to it. Kay’s excellent articles shows the depth of her research into an area that was a very happy place for me to live when our children were growing up.

Questions about Chicago real estate–I’d love to answer them–312-607-1306 is a good place to reach me. Or e-mail me.

Here are three other articles that might be helpful or interesting:

Rent Back Before Closing?

2010 A Better Year For Selling Than 2011?

Bottomed Out? Maybe Irish Cottages?

MOVING MISERY MADE EASIER

Ruth Karel — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:23:28 +0000

It always amazes me that I make a living encouraging people to move–I consider moving to be a form of cruel and unusual punishment! Gregory Karp has an article in the Chicago Tribune that gives some very good moving tips that most of us would not think about. For instance, consolidating your belongings with other people’s belongings. If you can’t fill a full-size moving van, why pay for one? Flexibility about delivery dates and times is usually necessary for this kind of move and consolidation can be lots cheaper. Did you know that summer weekend moves around the 15th and 30th of the month are the most expensive? I surely didn’t. How about buying used boxes instead of new ones? Here is a tip that I thought was fabulous–mail books! If you are paying for weight and distance, let the Postal Service do the work for you. It is much cheaper. There is also excellent advice about choosing a mover. To read the entire article click here.

Need help finding a place to move from or to move to? Just call me, 312-607-1306 or e-mail me.