Sunshine Guru

A regular reader writes: Robert, Background info: I'm the president of a 32 unit condo building in Lakeview. It's been 15 years+ since the developer rehabbed this vintage building and made them condos. All of our units are sold and for the most part, the HOA is financially healthy. We have about ...

An esteemed colleague of mine wrote today: I have a deal on a listing where the buyers are going FHA. The only thing holding is up is that our condo docs have a 30 day first right of refusal! and the FHA sees this as discriminatory. So, we are trying to convince the 8 owners to amend the docs to ...

We received an offer on one of our listings on Sunday. The condominium was listed for $400,000 plus $35,000 for each of two parking places - a total of $470,000.The offer came in from a couple that had not seen the unit for themselves, but their agent had pre-viewed for them a week earlier. The o...

The Memorial Day holiday weekend was relaxing and enjoyable - just like an early Summer weekend in Chicago should be. We did some work for clients as well; I showed some listings on Friday and took a buyer-client out for a Saturday morning tour. Steve showed our listings on Saturday morning and t...

I had a quick conversation with a new seller this morning. She has a home that's almost 7 years old and in pristine condition. She has been able to keep her home in this condition by forbidding visitors from wearing shoes inside her home. Her place truly is a testament to how effective removing s...

Your guides play host to a wide variety of international visitors as we are members of an international travel club called The Hospitality Club as well as hosting relocating job transferees in our capacity as Realtors. One fantastic aspect of Chicago is its ever-growing collection of world-renown...

It's Tuesday and I'm finally getting around to catching up from the weekend. The past two weeks have been SLOW (Bears in the playoffs and few people doing real estate.) Next weekend the Bears are in the Super Bowl - so nothing will be happeing in Chicago. Given all that - EVERYONE was out shoppin...

I had an unproductive real estate showing today, and my first draft of this post came off more like a rant than anything useful to our readers. Here's the second try with some helpful hints to keep you focused on the business at hand - namely: finding a new home for yourself (if you're the buyer)...

During 2006, and reinforced repeatedly in the first few weeks of 2007, buyers decidedly made their preference known for new, newer and more new.Last year, my buyers purchased new product 50% of the time. Add in buyers that purchased fixer-uppers and renovated to new condition before move-in, and ...

Here's a list of the most frequently found items during home inspections. Homeowners - you'd be wise to take a look at this list and make a few repairs around your home if you're thinking of selling - or you've just gone under contract.If you take the time to fix these 5 items in your home before...