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A new $3 Billion dollar network system being built by Motorola Inc. and operated by Sprint Nextel Corp. will soon provide the Chicagoland Region full time internet access for users... allowing users to log into the internet from downtown and staying online as they travel to the suburbs or vice versa with the same power as many broadband services used by many homes and offices. Chicago will be one of the first three cities in the nation to get the new network and according to Sprint the new te... Read Full Post

The Chicago Plan Commission approved the design for The Spire by world renowned architect Santiago Calatrava. The new condominium project, if built, will be the nations tallest building at around 2,000 feet high and will be home to aproximately 1,200 new Chicago luxury condominiums soaring high above the Chicago Skyline. Being approved by the Chicago Plan Commission is one hurdle of many more to come including actually building the proposed tower. Due to the soaring height, building costs wil... Read Full Post

Barrington IL homes average a 4.68% increase in selling price for March of 2007 compared to March of 2006 according to information provided from the MLS of Northern Illinois. Some notes before continuing: This is an overall analysis of Area 10 (60010 zip code) of detached homes from the local MLS and includes a pretty large area including the Villages of Barrington, Barrington Hills Real Estate, North Barrington, South Barrington Homes and Deer Park. The area is over 70 square miles and is ap... Read Full Post

After a long and well organized campaign to convince the United States Olympic Committee that Chicago would be a better candidate for the 2016 Olympics then Los Angeles, The USOC today announced that it has selected Chicago over Los Angeles for it's bid to host the 2016 Olympics. This is a major step in the process for selecting a city to host the 2016 Olympics by the International Olympic Committee and a huge accomplishment for the City of Chicago who has never hosted an Olympics before. Pla... Read Full Post

In our quest of keeping up with what is going on in the Residential real estate world and staying in tune with trends effecting the online residential real estate side of our business, we've come across several issues that effect not only residential real estate agents, but also the consumer. Last year it was Zillow and the Zestimate. Trust us, we had to more then once explain this system to several clients concerning the valuation of their homes... obviously much easier to do when the Zestim... Read Full Post

I was looking over some Broker/Client registration forms with a new home builder in the Chicagoland area and happened to flip over the back page. Three statements stand out and this is something that many new home buyers have a misconception about when beginning their search for a new Chicago home: 1) Builder acknowledges a single price policy. 2) Sales prices are not negotiable nor do they deviate for non-broker purchases. 3) Illinois real estate licensee must accompany and register the buye... Read Full Post

It's Masters week in Georgia. This is always a week that I reminence of my background of growing up in Georgia and the special uniqueness that Georgia offers in real estate. I graduated from Warner Robins High school in Warner Robins and later attended school at the University of Georgia -- Go Dawgs! Anyways, if you have a chance, watch The Masters and you'll see some beautiful real estate. In a world of the next great real estate finds by journalists who have zero experience in practicing re... Read Full Post

Barrington IL, located aproximately 35 miles from downtown Chicago offers unique real estate in an area that maintains a rural character. The area is established and one of the goals of the local governments is to preserve and maintain it's natural history. In an area with more then 350 homes listed in the National Historic Preservation district, it's quite surprising to just how much new construction there is in the Barrington area. There are currently three larger new communities being buil... Read Full Post

The Chicago Tribune announced today that in part of the massive buyout of the Tribune by Chicago real estate investor Sam Zell that the Chicago Cubs will be up for sale. How do you put a price tag on the Chicago Cubs? Despite not winning a World Series in almost 100 years, the Cubs have a phenomenal fan base. Tickets are not cheap and when you consider the performance of the Franchise over the past 20 years to any other franchise, tickets to a Cubs game have to be the highest when you base th... Read Full Post

Realogy shareholders approve $9 Billion dollar buyout by Apolo Management. For those of you not familiar with who Realogy is, it is a company that spinned off of Cendant just last August and is the leading franchisor of real estate companies that include the Franchises of CENTURY 21, Coldwell Banker, Coldwell Banker Commercial, ERA and Sotheby's International. (Yes, technically all of these franchises are headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey under one building.) My wife and I had the oppor... Read Full Post