Evanston IL Real Estate

 I thought I might share with you one typical day of a real estate blog.  On this particular day, I had over 30 visitors and here are some questions visitors are seeking and my answers to their questions:

 1. Define Common Area: 

Common Area is usually referred to as space shared by all who live in or occupy space in the building.  There is common area space in  residential buildings and commercial building.  Typical common  area space are hallways, elevators, outside landscapping, parking garage.

2. Define Condo Assessments:

In keeping with the theme above, condo assessments usually are monthly payments used to pay for the upkeep of common areas of the building. Typical condo assessments are landscapping, snow removal, lights and outlets for public areas, janitorial service,  building insurance. scavenger services. On occassion  some utility expenses may be include like heat and water. Cooperative buildings include real estate taxes in the monthly assessments while condo’s do not.

 3. Define Property Management:

Property management handles the financial affairs of a building including the general maintenance including operating expenses, and budget for a building. Some buildings will hire professional property managers while others will be self managed.

4. Define Contract Pending:

Contract pending is one of the stages during the buying process. Typically a buyer will make an offer to purchase and if the offer is accepted the contract may have certain contingencies. Typical contingencies include attorney review and inspection (A/I), mortgage contingency, sale of other home contingency. After these contingencies expire the contract usually goes into a Contract Pending status until closing.

If you are seeking a particular answer to a real estate question you can e-mail me at : jacklewitz@sbcglobal.net or call me at 708-309-5334 or visit my website and I will be glad to answer your questions.

For those of you who have been visiting my real estate blog, I think you will notice some changes which I am excited about telling you. I now own my own business as a real estate consultant. I am very happy about being in business for myself because now I have the freedom and opportunity to help people with what may be their biggest financial investment they’ll ever make : buying or selling a home. My goal is to make this process a fun experience rather than a horror story like you’ve heard about or even experienced.

 To help turn that horror story into a happy ending, I’ll be running my business different than most Realtors. And for those of you who think all Realtors are alike your in for a treat. I have a career “compass”- that is pointing me in a great direction, that will help me make good decisions while maintaining the respect of my clients and colleagues.

Ask your self these three questions:

1. Do you know the difference between a salesperson and consultant?

2. When you want financial advise would you go ask a salesperson or a consultant? 

3. Who is the next person you know that will need my services as a real estate consultant?

For a Free Initial Consultation please feel free to contact me 1-888-307-7311 Ext. 6

According to the Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR) single family and condo sales in Illinois rose during the month of May. Their study showed 14,349 homes sold in the Month of May compared to 12,932 homes sold in April of this same year.

In Evanston, we have also seen an increase in the number of homes sold. For this quarter (April-June) 84 homes have either sold, closed or are under contract compared to 66 homes for the previous quarter (January-March).

The total number of condo sold are down for this quarter (April-June) with a total of 148 condos sold compared to last quarter totals of 197 (January-March).

 I am proud to announce that I am a By Referral Agent serving Evanston, IL.

What does By Referral Only Mean to YOU? 

It means I dedicate 100% of my time and energy delivering first-class service to YOU, my customer. My objective is not only to help you buy or sell a home one time, but to build a strong, lasting, lifetime relationship with you. I want you to be so satisified with my services you fell compelled to refer your friends and family to me, not by obligation, but because you truely believe they will benefit. You see, your referrals are the heart of my business. If you would like to learn more how I can best serve you as a Buy Referral Agent then go to my website for an initial consultation.

The Evanston Spring Market is in Full Bloom. Sales of single family homes in Evanston are on the rise with a total of 119 homes either sold, or under contract for the first quarter of 2007. Each month has been steadily improving. indicating we are really in the Spring Market. In January 23 homes either sold or went under contract, in February 44 additional homes went under contract, and in March there were 52 homes, that went under contract.

Condo Sales for the first quarter of 2007 are up. From January 1, 2007-March 31, 2007 there have been 208 condos sold, under contract, or under contract. Each month there has been an improvement over the previous month. In January there were 55 condos sold, under contract, or under contract , in February 61 condos sold or went under contract, and in March 91 condos sold or went under contract.

Many homeowners believe to maximize their home sale they should sell it themselves. At first glance, they feel selling a home is simple. Why should they pay a broker fee for something they could do themselves? However, close to half of all FSBO’s were unhappy with the results they achieved by selling themselves. WHY?

Many FSBO’s say the time, paperwork and everyday responsibilities involved were not worth the money they saved in commissions. By the time they figured out fees paid to marketing and advertising, they would have been better off paying a broker’s fee that would have included these charges.

Selling a home requires an intimate understading of the real estate market. In today’s market if the property is priced too high, it will sit and develop a reputation as a problem property.  REMEMBER TIME IS MONEY when selling a home and if you spend too much money on marketing then is it worth trying to sell it yourself?

Before you decide to sell FSBO, consider these questions. A little time spent now could pay off tenfold in the future.

DO I HAVE THE TIME, ENERGY, KNOW HOW, AND ABILITY TO DEVOTE TO SELL MY HOME? 

One of the keys to sell your home effectively is complete accessibility. Many homes sit on the market much longer than necessary because the owner isn’t available to show the property.  If you are going to try to sell by owner, you must devote a certain amount of time each day and it is not going to be according to your schedule all of the time.

AM I PREPARED TO DEAL WITH THE ONSLAUGHT OF BUYERS WHO THINK THEY CAN “LOW BALL” THE SELLER?

Another challenge of selling a home by owner is screenign unqualified prospects who thing they can low ball you since your saving money on the real estate commission.

AM I ABLE TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT FINANCING FOR THE BUYER?

One of the keys to selling is to haave all the necessary information about the buying process including financing. If you can recommend a lender to assist them in the buying process the quicker your home will be sold.

DO I UNDERSTAND ALL THE LEGAL ISSUES IN SELLING A HOME BY OWNER AND DO I HAVE ALL OF THE LEGAL FORMS NEEDED TO GIVE TO A BUYER?

You should ask yourself : “Am I prepared to handle legal disputes with buyers?” and ” Do I have access to  forms such as real estate contracts, seller disclosure forms, lead based paint, radon, etc.

My hope here has been to educate and help you avoid the pitfalls many FSBO’s go through. I hope you found the ideas valuable and if there is ever any way I can be of service to you or anyone you care about. please have them contact me personally here or at my website: jacklewitz.com. Your initial onsultation is always completely free of charge and you’re under no obligation of any kind. We’ll sit down for 15-20 minutes ….no high-pressure, just plain talk. Go ahead and give me a call. I’d love to hear from you!

It has been years since you purchased your home and you now have decided to payoff your mortgage. So what do you do ?I recently received a call from someone who was asking me this very question.

Well, if you remember your closing when you purchased, you were given all sorts of legal documents to sign from your lender. One of these documents was a promisory note and a mortgage (deed of trust). The deed of trust is recorded as a lean by the lender in the county where the property is located.

After you make your final mortgage payment both documents should be returned to you by the lender stamped “paid and cancelled”. The cancelled promissory note is proof that you paid the mortgage in full and the deed of trust which was recorded as a lean on the property needs to be released.

Different lenders will have different procedures to release such trusts. You should call your lender to see if they will take care of recording the release of your mortgage. if they say yes, then my recommendation is to go to the county recorders office or call them and give them the original deed of trust document number and ask them to search to see if the lender has recorded the release. If this has not been done, then I recommended you request the lender mail you the stamped ‘paid and cancelled” promissory note and deed of trust and go to the county recorders office and have it released.

Finally, keep all records in a Safety box for future records. Remember, when you decide to sell you will be asked to give clear title to the property and these documents are your proof.

FREE NO OBLIGATION REAL ESTATE SEMINAR

Learn about the process of buying and selling a home for the Spring Market!!

Please call Jack for Reservations at : 847-570-9977 Space is Limited

February 28,2007

Chase Bank

50 Skokie Boulevard

Wilmette, IL

7:00-9:00 pm

Presented by;

Jack Lewitz Realtor

Kris Ruben & Myrna Goldberg

Ruben & Goldberg Attorneys

Agnes Byrne Loan Officer

Chase Bank

David Slack & Terry Patrick

Pillar to Post Home Inspectors

Real Estate Sales are beginning to heat up despite the bitter cold weather in Evanston. Within the past 30 days 41 homes have gone under contract and 10 new homes have been added to the market. During the same 30 day period, 75 condo’s, coops, and townhomes have gone under contract with 24 new listings added to the market. It appears we are now into the Spring Real Estate Market.

On the front page of the Chicago Tribune this Monday was an article titled ” Real Estate Agents Hang Blogging Signs”. For those of you who missed reading the article, here are some important facts about blogging. There are 175,000 new blog sites debuting each day on the internet. The real estate industry is just starting to catch onto the blogging phenomenum and for good reason. Three out of four people will use the internet before buying or selling real estate. They will use the internet to gather information on neighborhoods, schools, real estate home prices, etc. After the research is done they will contact an agent to help them in the process of selling or buying a home.

As a real estate agent who writes a blog, I hope I am providing usefull content on real estate matters and if you need my real estate services I hope you would not hesitate calling me.

Please feel free to leave your comments about the contents on my real estate blog site as I review them daily.