I have a great friend that is a Sales Manager for a large real estate Brokerage in Las Vegas that I talked to on Friday. A couple of agents left the ofice and she has the honor of being the recipient of dealing with a couple of short sales that are in escrow that the real estate agents left behind.

The sellers want to sell, buyers want to buy and she gets the honor of dealing with the loss mitigation specialists. Long story short, it's a process where you have to question if it's even worth the time in the first place. Even in a perfect scenario that is a win-win situation for everybody, it could all be a waste of time for everybody involved.

This post on Active Rain by a Real Estate Broker  who gets paid by the New York Times to write for About.com…

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Here is a quick summary:

For years the EJ&E Railway  has been a responsible company that has kept freight train traffic cutting through the Northwest Suburbs and other communities to a minimum due to the fact that every freight train that comes through has an impact on the communities in one form or another.

The Canadian National Railway Company is seeking to capitalize on the opportunity to take a railway with minimal traffic and to invest $100,000,000 into it to turn it into a major railway with intentions of increasing the traffic from maybe 3 to 5 freight trains a day to 20 freight trains a day.

Of course, the CN Railway Co. would like to make the case that their intentions are to improve the congestion of major freight train hubs in Chicago (you…

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It's great to have good news to share with all of the gloom and doom out there in the real estate world so I thought I would share some New Inverness Home statistics.

Chicagoland
 

Model Name: Marquis
Subdivision Name: Creekside at Inverness Ridge
Builder: KB Homes
  Period    Price    (%) Apr 07 …

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I'm not a Real Estate Attorney and I'm not going to pretend to be one but a conversation I had with a homeowners lenders representative today gave me a really good understanding of what may be happening to other homeowners facing potential foreclosure. My particular client is scared and confused and I just happened to be there when the phone rang.

First of All - ALL States have different Foreclosure Proceedings. The foreclosure process for a homeowner in Nevada is certainly different then the foreclosure process in Illinois and I highly suggest that you read and understand the foreclosure process for Illinois. My conversation with a representative from this particular lender that I had certainly should make you aware of at least the basic process.

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I don't watch Good Morning America so I missed that report on their investigation. Interestingly, right after I came across that video I saw this article about the Fed looking into taking aim at ending abusive lending practices.

I don't know about you but I'm wondering what proposed penalties they are considering if new lending guidelines are violated?

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The Illinois Safe Toys Shopping Guide

In my previous blog, Merry Christmas from Illinois, I highlighted a new simple and easy to use shopping guide for toys that have been recalled or banned from being sold in Illinois stores that can be downloaded and printed out at the Read Full Post

Just in Time for Christmas

Unless you've been SO busy that you never get the chance to watch the news, you've more then likely caught the several reports on the news about dangerous levels of lead in some of the very popular childrens toys that were imported in from China. Thomas the Train, Dora the Explorer, etc... very popular toys for the little ones.

It really did not make us too happy for little and extremely important reasons. As real estate professionals that understand what lead poisoning can do for Children under 6, it's certainly something that needs to be paid attention to. (There certainly are very valid reasons for disclosing the dangers to potential home buyers if you are selling a home built before 1978.)

We hear about all of the recalls,…

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Good news for Illinois sports. Illinois Fighting Illini (unranked!) are making people take notice with a win over #21 Penn St. last week and now knocking off #5 Wisconsin 31 to 26 to go 3-0 in Big Ten Football and 5-1 overall.

The sound win over Wisconsin ended College Footballs longest win streak with Illinois never trailing. Game Stats Since 9/1/2007, Illinois has only trailed in a football game for 13 seconds.

Rashard Mendenhall, the Junior running back from Skokie, had another phenomenal day with an impressive (AP Photo by Seth Perlman) 160 yards rushing on 19 carries.  Keep an eye on Mendenhalls stats as he climbs up in the rankings and garners more attention with Illinois making headlines of knocking off top ranked teams.       

Interestingly, Las…

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