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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…

I feel like I have already won as a behind-the-scenes participant of the Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World contest.  I have networked with many different agents and have been introduced to some very popular blogs that I had seen before but never went back to - until this contest.

Add to that Nick's submissions and this is the most fun contest I've participated in with the REW community.  The best REW contest was the one I won!

And one more thing this contest has done for me is finally getting me to create a Squidoo Lens, something I heard about since it's inception and kept wanting to do, but just never did.  Until last night.

I Had No Idea What I Was Doing

Oh sure, I could figure it out as it's a simple interface.  But I wanted to do it right,…

I've had 3 offers on 3 different listings this past week (2 over the weekend). One listing has only been on the market for 3 weeks and has received a first offer. Of course, it was very low (almost $20,000 under asking price and the price is what could be considered below market already). Of course, what is "below market" today? The price of the property is $193,500.

Last year the sellers had a sale that fell through (I did not have the listing then). The appraisal was done prior to the transaction falling apart and it appraised for around $214,000. In fact, when it was first put on the market it was listed at $240,000. We can all say, well it was obviously listed too high to begin with, but they did get an offer at some point in the price…