Eric's Chicago Real Estate Local

Chicago Bungalow RehabIt's on. My partner Jon (pictured right) and I began the planning stage of the rehab. We took an inventory of the work we will do and discussed initial floorplan changes we'll make.  We'll do some wild stuff, adding a master bath and re-doing the staircase to the second leve...

Snowmageddon 2006: Will Chicago dig out? Photo of T-CREL staff... digging the good dig Snowmageddon 2006On the eve of Snowmageddon 2006, I sit before my computer monitor and wish all the fine citizens of Chicago God speed. If reports from the radio, T.V., the Chicago Association of Realtors (whic...

 If I were a great blogger, I would certainly start a series on my favorite sport. Olympic Speculation. But I'm not a great blogger, I don't even have tags and categories yet (my Blogger site has not invited me for the Beta upgrade ).We here at T-CREL and Chicago Home Estates have already been pl...

Mary Umberger reports in today's Tribune on the continuing debate surrounding credit counseling and zip codes. The IDFPR wants to curb predetory lending in certain zip codes by requiring credit counseling for those who meet a certain criteria. But many find their suggested rule will promote "redl...

No one, and I mean no one, gets the whole Chicago property tax assessment thing. Sure, I can calculate taxes based on a property's assessed value and equalize it ... but who determines the assessed value? Barry Pearce lights a fire on *"Cyber Monday" at Yo Chicago , which has a great discussion i...

Every client is different. Some like to search properties everyday (while at work mind you... get back to work), while others like me to narrow it down and put them in front of the places I deem worthy.For you search-a-holics... I have a great search engine linked here and in my side bar. You can...

Good column today by one of the top reporters on public planning and regional transit. One of the most striking points is each transit agency draws on their maintenance budgets for pure day to day operations... to a combined tune of $200 million in the hole.Check out the CTA Tattler for the compr...

Overnight averages for a 30 year fixed mortgage dropped to 5.76% in the Chicagoland area. A friend I ran into yesterday at Starbucks in Lincoln Square (yes, the only place open to get coffee on Jillian's and my walk) asked what I thought would happen in the spring market... with sales and mortgag...

Two particular incidences happended to me yesterday concerning new construction/new conversion properties.First, one of my clients expressed she is probably more comfortable buying a re-sale condo or a totally finished unit in a new development/new conversion.Second, I received an email yesterday...

 Great article from the New York Times concerning which building improvements actually improve your re-sale value. The Times requires registration, but it's two seconds and you should be registered there anyway. Lifted it from Closing Real Estate in Chicago... the type of blog Realtors should act...