Short Sale - 4 Sierra, Lake in the Hills We keep hearing that "There has never been a better time to buy a home than right now".  Home Sales have picked up for our team, but home buyers are buying the "Deals".  There are also many home buyers still on the fence because they are waiting for prices to still come down, economic recovery or their own homes to sell first.  Being well educated or working with a real estate agent that knows the market is key right now if you are looking to buy a home now.  The homes that are the best deals are selling with multiple offers in just a day or so.  Even homes that are priced right at the beginning of the listing are selling quickly and are not necessarily ... 07/28/2009

The term luxury home no doubt means different things to different people. Essentially your living surroundings will be sumptuous, usually not essential  but very pleasurable.So if you are in the market to buy a luxury home in Barrington HIlls Illinois, or one of the other Barrington areas, your house shopping list may have some of the usual requirements and those sumptuous extras. Luxury homes in Barrington Hills IL are going to be more indivudual than other areas in Barrington. This is due in part to each home being a true custom build rather than a home of several on a subdivision. An exception to this statement is the new subdivision of Dorvillee Hills. Located to the south off Lake Cook Rd to the west of Barrington village this is a small exclusive subdivision of new custom homes wi... 07/07/2009

My First Few Years as a Realtor.After 4 years in the real estate business it became apparent to me as a Barrington Illinois Realtor, that although I was an independent contractor with my license hanging under another brokerage, I was not truly able to operate my personal business my way. I had by now already worked at a large indepenent brokerage that had many branches as well as well known franchise. The business models of both brokerages placed limitations on what I was allowed to do to market my listings and myself as a Realtor. Advertising was controlled by the brokerage, or outside service providers selected for me, as well as required contributions to advertising methods I deemed to be old hat. Training taught me to do things that did not appear to be working for other Realtors, b... 07/03/2009

Prices are dropping but we still have some pretty high priced homes here in the Barrington Area. If you are in the market to buy a luxury home in Barrington you'll find the most expensive homes in Barrington Hills and South Barrington. North Barrington also has it's fair share of higher priced homes. Before going shopping for your luxury home you must produce proof of ability to buy, either in the form of pre-approval for your mortgage, and also of your cash to make up the difference or buy outright. A letter from your bank will suffice but must be current. You are also best advised to write down a list of the amenities you require. When looking at homes of this size, it is more difficult to make sure you are getting everything you need there is so much to look at. Here are the top 10 p... 07/03/2009

So you have decided to sell your home.You select some Realtors to interview.Marketing Plans are presented.Prices are discussed.You list with Realtor B.Did you choose your Realtor based on the fact that the price presented was the highest?Did you ever consider that the Realtor was telling you what you wanted to hear just to get the listing?Did you choose that Realtor because of the brand name attached?If you do not have sufficient data presented to qualify the price given, your listing is very likely being bought. Ask every Realtor to show you sales and competitve listings in your neighborhood. Question how they arrived at their price. It does not matter what brand name or not your Realtor works for. It is up to the Realtor to sell your house, not the company that sponsors them.Any Realt... 07/03/2009

As a Realtor and as your buyers agent it is my job to not only find you a home that meets your needs but one that will hopefully be good for re-sale. By that I don't necessarily mean from an investment perspective but more from a speed perspective. After all when it is time to sell, for whatever reason, you don't want your house to be the one that sits longer than the average marketing time. So what are the warnings to give to buyers?   Don't buy the house that backs up to a busy street. Don't buy the house that needs a lot of upgrading. Don't buy the house that has a non conforming lay-out. Don't buy the house in the not so good school district. Well you get the idea. The only caviat is that if you accept that the value of your new house will be less than the others in your area when y... 07/03/2009

June 30th 2009 and I wonder if our summer is already over! At 65 degrees, almost 30 less than last week, we have all shut the air conditioners off, opened the windows, just a crack, & put jeans back on, but no worries it'll be back! As a long term Barrington resident I know that when our summer truly is over, many local residents will flee to the warmer temps of sunny Florida for the winter. Whilst this may seem a long time away, I thought I would write this post to remind Barrington residents that if they are looking for a property manager to take care of their property whilst they are away, this is a service my husband and I offer just for single family homes in Barrington and Inverness. We limit the property type to single family homes and to our local area. Property management for h... 06/30/2009

Advertising a home for sale is simply making the consumers aware the home is available to buy. This function alone will not sell your property. To sell your home, no matter where it is, it must be marketed. So what are the components of a marketing plan and whose job is it to carry out the marketing? Location, Location, Location. Neither your Realtor or you can do anything to change this! If your location is poor, i.e. you have a busy road behind you, your home is next to a factory; the only thing you an do to overcome these objections is price accordingly. Your home is not worth the same as the one that backs up to conservation land, period. Pricing. To sell anything you must attach an asking price. It is your Realtors job to establish a price range in which your home should sell and s... 06/30/2009

Looking for something to do on Thursday nights during the summer in the Barrington area? Barrington Cruise nights is in our own home town at 6:30 PM on South Cook Street.  My family and I went last Thursday and had an enjoyable evening looking at the Exotic Cars on display.  Cars are a hobby for all 3 of my sons.  Every week there is a different theme, June 11th 70s night, June 18th Corvette, June 25 Sports/British and more in July and August until the 20th.  Check out this link for Barringtons Calendar of Events.                  My son Josh check-in it out                                                The Turnout was great! See you Thursday at Barrington Cruise Nights on Cook Street at 6:30. If you bought a home in the Village of Barrington, you could walk to weekly events like this... 06/25/2009

Tuesday in Barrington is brokers Tour day. A day when the listing agent opens up a house to all agents for preview. I attended one yesterday with the listing agent who is from my office so I could give her my feedback for passing to her clients. Let me preface what I am about to say by reminding sellers of homes in Barrington that our average time on market as of June 2009 is 224 days. That's average. If your home falls in the median range of $600,000 and $800,000 it shoots up to 276 days. That is over 9 months! First let me comment about the feedback obtained from the other agents that stopped by. Not one agent gave the listing agent any constructive advice or comments at all. All comments were what I call gooey 'oohs' and 'aahs' about what a wonderful home, you should sell in days, lo... 06/10/2009

  Our First Annual Keller Williams Red Day was on May 14th.  This is one day that all the Keller Williams Real Estate Market Centers (offices) and Keller Williams Real Estate Agents across the country give back to our communities and make a difference in others lives.  Each Keller Williams market center also contributes on a monthly basis to our KW Cares.  Our Keller Williams office in Barrington did a Food Drive and Blood Drive.  Our Keller Williams Real EstateOffice reached out to our spheres and community at Jewel in Barrington for donations of Blood and Food.  It was a great success with 43 blood donors and over 100 bags of groceries donated to a locate food pantry. Thank You to all that Contributed and Helped Make this Keller Williams Red Day a Huge Success!                       ... 05/24/2009

Description and Features Links Barrington Il PlumbersPlumbing in BarringtonListing Website 05/16/2009

FIVE STARS!  Trouble making your mortgage payment?  Lost your job?  Payment going up?  Banks keep passing you from idiot to idiot - no one seems to care?  No modification is being offered? Well, there is a solution!  A new movie is coming out May 29 that answers the question "what can a homeowner do?" when they have trouble making their mortgage payments.  Cordell Eddings from Bloomberg, included comments from yours truely and other mortgage industry experts in his review.  This review can be viewed at www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=ay6ecNhApoMU&refer=muse For those of you that have read my blog in the past, you probably can guess that several of my comments during a half hour phone call ended up on the edit room floor (thanks Sharon Lynch).  I guess after 25 years as a mo... 05/15/2009

A Lake off Otis Road Barrington, Illinois The market statistics for home sales in Barrington IL and Deer Park IL zip code 60010 for the month of April 2009.  The current inventory of homes for sale in Barrington, Deer Park Illinois Zip Code 60010 is up vs last month and sales this month over last month up slightly  for single family & attached family homes.  Our average LP of sold homes is up for single family homes and for attached single family homes Mar vs April.  Average Sale Price of homes sold is up this month vs last for single family homes and up for attached single family homes, our LP/SP ratio is up for single family detached homes and up for attached single family homes.  The average market time for homes sold in the Barrington, Deer Park 60010 zip code has gone down for sin... 05/07/2009

How much of an opportunity is there in Barrington to buy a great foreclosed home? First lets look at statistics. With approximately 16,000 residential homes in the Barrington Illinois zip code of 60010, our foreclosure rate is relatively low. The data which was last updated on April 21st 2009 shows there are currently 73 properties owned by banks. This represents less than a half percent. What about pre-foreclosures? Well with 188 currently recorded in the state of pre-foreclosure this is still only just over 1 percent. How many homes are for sale that are bank owned? Not all the homes owned by the banks are currently available for sale. This is because there is always a delay between the banks foreclosing on a home and having it on the market for sale, this time an be as little as a co... 04/30/2009

Step 1. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Finance  Completed.Step 2. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Finding The Right Agent  CompletedStep 3. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Start Searching For Homes & Making Compromises  CompletedStep 4. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Making An Offer & Reaching Agreement   CompletedStep 5. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Under Contract Moving Forward.  Completed Almost There.Your transaction has cleared all hurdles or contingencies and you are ready to close. Most of the work now is being done by the attorneys and title company in preparation. A day and time will be set for your closing, hopefully the day you originally requested in your offer. Walk Thro... 04/30/2009

Step 1. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Finance  Completed. Step 2. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Finding The Right Agent  Completed Step 3. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Start Searching For Homes & Making Compromises  Completed Step 4. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Making An Offer & Reaching Agreement   Completed There are paragraphs in our contract which require immediate action, and others that require action before we can close. So let's look at the most common ones. Attorney Review & Home Inspection Your contract clock starts from the day all parties have signed and dated the Contract To Purchase. Within the first 5 business days there are 2 items to attend to. First we will get the contract to yo... 04/26/2009

In the table below lists all of the single family detached and single family attached homes currently on the market in Barrington,South Barrington, North Barrington, Barrington Hills, Lake Barrington, Norht Barrington, IL  The data lists available homes by price range with average time on market in each range. Should you have an interest in homes in a selected price range, send me your physical characteristics requirements. I will send complete details on those homes that meet your criteria. If you are contemplating a change in lifestyle, ie. a more luxurious home or the luxury of the amenities in a senior citizen development, I may be able to save you some money via discounts available to me.                         Active Listings List Price Range # Listings Avg. Days on Mkt Less tha... 04/22/2009

Step 1. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Finance  Completed.Step 2. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Finding The Right Agent  CompletedStep 3. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Start Searching For Homes & Making Compromises  Completed You have found the home you want to buy and are ready to make an offer. All offers in Illinois must be made in writing, must be submitted with earnest money, proof of finance. Before making any offer on a property you need to be sure you are not going to overpay for it. A good agent will review recent comparable sales in the area and show you how much the home should be sold for. This is a critical step for you for 2 reasons. 1. Why would anyone want to overpay for a property? 2. If you are financing ... 04/22/2009

Step 1. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Finance  Completed. Step 2. Real Estate in Barrington IL - Home Buying Basics - Finding The Right Agent  Completed Determine the needs of you and your family Create a wish list for your new home. Identify "Must Haves" as well as "Would Likes" Start researching by yourself if you like, or turn the wish list over to your Realtor and let them find properties for you. Start searching by clicking here. Consider whether you will or will not look at distressed property. Co-ordinate with your agent to schedule times to view homes. Don't view too many homes at a time, by the time you see no 10, you'll have forgotten what you liked or not about no 1 & 2. Allow enough time to properly view a home, the bigger the home the more time should ... 04/21/2009