judyo's Blog: General Real Estate

The sad story of ePerks suing Vlad Zablotskyy of Go-Beyond-MLS.com is growing throughout the Internet.  Vlad, a real estate blogger, was one of ePerks many paid reviewers.  Vlad gave them a positive review but his blog started receiving negative comments from real estate agents that felt they were burned by ePerks. 

After reading these comments and doing a little research, Vlad posted another review asking if "ePerks was a gem or a scam?" More comments came his way, many from the same ip.  Seemed like those were positive messages and it is assumed that these posts were from ePerks employees.

To make a long story short, ePerks sent Vlad a cease and desist letter and requested that he remove all negative comments.  In fact, they also asked him to remove…

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…

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'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…

I have written two staging stories you can read here and here.  As popular as Home Staging has become in today's real estate market, I can't believe the majority of sellers in my area that either haven't heard the term or just don't think it will make a difference in their property.

I have shown more vacant homes than ever in the past few years.  When I first started in the business in the '80's, there were few vacant homes to show.  And if they were, it was an estate sale or a job transfer.  Today, there are many "flipped" homes that sit vacant (you can usually spot these investment properties pretty quickly) and homes that sit vacant for many other reasons.  Even I ponder how average people can afford having a home sit vacant if it's not an estate sale…