Greg Phillips - Featured Partner - 01/28/07 03:28 PM
Today's featured partner is Greg Phillips who owns the website Business With Greg. Greg specializes in residential mortgages and his 8 years of experience help him provide excellent services to his clients. Greg works for Home123 Mortgage which is owned by New Century Financial. As a real estate partner of Greg's, I've learned about his many programs for home buyers and investors. Greg's focus is keeping clients for life by providing the best services and programs available. Home buyers have lots of mortgage options available - including zero down payment loans and funding with credit issues. One of the programs that … (1 comments)

Wordpress 2.1 "Ella" Released about 4 Hours Ago - 01/22/07 10:00 PM
The makers of Wordpress have released the long-awaited version 2.1 not 4 hours ago. It includes several fun features like an auto-save and integrated spell checker. Many of us maintain blogs on our own websites for local distribution of information to our clients, SEO or whatever. I currently use Wordpress for my personal real estate blog - the Fox Valley Real Estate News and find it to be a great looking interface and very easy to "skin" with a custom look. I've already given it a try and things feel smooth and it seems to be working faster than ever. If … (2 comments)

Affiliates Helping with Advertising Costs - 01/20/07 02:52 PM
Many of us have loan officers or other affiliates that help share advertising costs. Some help split the cost of newspaper ads, supermarket home magazines and the like. According to what I've come to understand, RESPA allows these activities in circumstances where the affiliate receives adequate exposure on the piece of advertising. Back in the beginning of my career, I had a loan officer that helped pay some of the cost of printing my newsletter and in return, received a banner ad inside. I'm sure many of you do something similar.
However, I found that, having allowed someone to help out, I … (23 comments)

Things Real Estate Agents Do When Selling Their Homes - 01/20/07 08:57 AM
Today's tip is from my real estate guide "22 Things Real Estate Agents do to their Own Homes Before Selling". One of our jobs as an agent is to suggest improvements that our clients can to do improve the saleability of their homes. Many of us have years of experience observing what sells a home and what prevents one from selling. This can be invaluable advice for home sellers - but some often wonder, do REALTORs actually do the things they suggest to their OWN homes before selling. The answer is a definately YES. As a REALTOR, I understand the importance of a … (3 comments)

Batavia Illinois History and Community - 01/19/07 09:01 PM
Batavia, Illinois
In 1833, Christopher Payne arrived in the area and found a valley consisting of rich farmland and conveiently located near the Fox River. He built a cabin and named his newfound community "Head of Big woods". Two years saw Payne moving on and selling his stake to Judge Isaac Walton who renamed the community Batavia after his New York hometown. In 1835, Colnel Joseph Lyon discovered a source of particularly excellent quarry stone in Batavia - Niagra Limestone. The first quarry was built shortly thereafter and Batavia became known as a premier source of top-notch quarry stone. At one time, … (1 comments)

Geneva History and Community - 01/19/07 08:56 PM
Geneva, Illinois
Geneva Illinois history really begain in 1830 when Daniel Shaw Haight built a log cabin near a spring. He named his settlement Big Spring and set up a homestead with his family. In 1835 he sold his claim to James and Charity Herrington and moved north. The Herringtons were very influential in Geneva's early history, overseeing the construction of a saw mill in 1835-36 and the establishment of a post office in the same year. In 1836, Geneva became the seat of a newly created county - the County of Kane. At that time, voters also renamed the community Geneva … (0 comments)

Lane Hornung - Featured Community Partner - 01/19/07 08:47 PM
Today's featured partner is Lane Hornung - a real estate agent who specializes in Colorado Real Estate - particularly the Boulder, Colorado and surrounding areas. Lane's website is both simple but effective - offering buyers and sellers looking for real estate in Colorado the tools and services they need for a successful transaction. If you are relocating to Colorado and are seeking real estate representation, Lane has the experience and service to help you. You can also conduct your own free search of the Colorado MLS from his website or request a property valuation. … (2 comments)

Putting Our Local Markets In Perspective - 01/18/07 11:14 PM
Having returned from a trip to take care of some family business in Houma, Louisiana, I'm able to reflect on some of the things I saw and learned during my trip. At first glance, New Orleans and the southern parishes look great - developing at a great pace. Even in Houma where it was hard to find many fast food places 10 years ago, there are now plenty to choose from. In New Orleans, they are still serving coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde and still serving beer for breakfast on Bourbon Street and the jazz is as hot as … (0 comments)

Popular US Home Styles - the Ranch - 01/11/07 01:52 PM
Today's tip focuses on the home style known as a "Ranch" home and is from my Guide To Popular US Home Styles
Ranch Homes
The ranch home styles is perhaps the most popular home style in the United States. It's basic feature is a single story but may also have a basement or attic. Other terms used to describe this home style are "American Ranch", "Western Ranch" or "California Rambler". Raised Ranches are considered a completely different home style and should not be confused with the basic ranch style. The first true ranch home is attributed to builder Cliff May who built the … (0 comments)

Montgomery Illinois History and Community - 01/10/07 09:01 PM
Montgomery Real Estate 
Montgomery real estate really fits into two different main types: affordable older homes in the Boulder Hill subdivision and surrounding area, and brand new homes in several new subdivisions currently being built in the western portion of the community. Like Yorkville Illinois, Montgomery is currently in the grips of a large real estate boom. Several major developers have been building new homes in Montgomery for several years and continue to add on to these developments to this day, offering plenty of new construction options for Montgomery home buyers. Joining them are several new subdivisions currently under construction and you have a … (0 comments)

Oswego Illinois History and Community - 01/10/07 08:54 PM
Oswego Real Estate 
Real estate in Oswego is centered on three main areas - the Boulder Hill area, the downtown area along the Fox River and farther east near the intersection of Douglas Road and Wolf's Crossing. The Boulder Hill area features nearly 4,000 homes and is shared by the three communities of Aurora, Oswego and Montgomery. Homes in this area started being built in the 1950's and new homes continue to be added to this day. Real estate in the downtown section of Oswego along the Fox River features many older homes dating back to the turn-of-the-century. Due to the separate … (0 comments)

Market Trends - Batavia Illinois - 01/10/07 08:44 PM
Batavia Real Estate Market Trends
December Market Conditions Detached Style Single-Family Homes The median price of homes on the market in Batavia has remained flat most of the fall. It currently sits at $365,900 - just $900 up from its September value of $365,000. However, the average sales price of homes sold this fall has leaped around dramatically. It currently sits are $359,000 - the third highest median attained in the past 2 years. The number of units on the market continued to drop during the month of December, from 208 units to 183. However, during that time, the number of homes sold … (0 comments)

Do you Digg? - 01/10/07 03:58 PM
I just signed up for an account with Digg and was playing around with it. It looks like another social bookmarking site like all of the others, but has some nice user-interactivity. Proclaiming true user-generated content, it allows people to either "Digg" up a site or "Bury" one that is seen as "spamy". I went and "Dugg" up a couple blog posts I thought were worthy but hadn't gotten much exposure. The news sources with the most "Diggs" gain increasing importance on the site. This "vote" model is an interesting concept on the 'net but isn't without it's abuses. For example, there … (0 comments)

Increase Sales Price by Looking Under Your Feet - 01/10/07 10:14 AM
Today's tip of the day features a suggestion from my guide: 10 Low-cost Fixes to Help Your Home Sell - The Indoors and talks about something some sellers often overlook - the condition of the flooring. Whether you have hardwood, carpets, vinyl, ceramic or pergo, your floor should look tip-top for buyers in order to maximize your sale. To get the full guide and find others that might help your sale or purchase, visit my Illinois Real Estate website.
1. Look Down, Look Down
This is an important factor for many buyers - what type of flooring you have and most importantly, what its … (0 comments)

Who is Winning the Internet War for Clients? - 01/09/07 10:42 PM
Searching the engines for major real estate keywords in my area brings up a mix of agent websites and large corporate websites such as Homegain and REALTOR.com on the first page. Local agents have regional expertise and hands-on service to offer but are often competing in the rankings with sites that have extremely high national traffic but very little in the way of local expertise or information except a list of homes for sale.
What I'm pondering is: what is the future of online real estate and how do I put myself in a position to benefit?
I personally feel that real estate is an area that is … (5 comments)

Montgomery Illinois Market Trends - December 2006 - 01/09/07 10:17 PM
December Market Conditions Detached Style Single-Family Homes The median price of homes on the market in Montgomery dropped in December, going from $264,900 in November to $259,900 in December. However, during the same time, the median price of homes being sold in Montgomery rose significantly from $258,560 to $269,375. The number of homes on the market dropped during the month of December, from 293 units to 263 - the lowest since Feb '06. Also during the same period, the number of homes sold rose significantly from 37 to 50. Despite rising sales and a reduction in inventory, the number of months … (0 comments)

RE Resolutions - 01/09/07 03:23 PM
OK, so I might be a week late in comming up with some resolutions for 2007 but better late than never. As we all return to a normal schedule after the holidays, it's been helpful for me to review 2006 and set some goals for the new year. I know many of us all have personal resolutions - loose weight, spend more time with the family, work out more etc. But I wanted to focus mainly on my 2007 Real Estate resolutions. So here they are, in no particular order:
1. Use the phone more and e-mail less. I've found that e-mail, … (2 comments)

Oswego December Market Trends - 01/09/07 02:35 PM
Oswego Real Estate 
Detached Style Single-Family Homes The median price of homes on the market in Oswego rose slightly in the month of December, going from $335,990 in November to $337,990 in December. Also, the average price of homes sold during the same period stayed fairly even - going from $309,900 in October to $309,800 The number of homes on the market dropped during the month of December, from 338 units to 315 - a 12-month low. During that time, the number of homes sold edged up from 26 to 33. The combination of inventory reduction with a slight spike in sold … (0 comments)

Holiday Decorations Must Come Down in Aurora or Face a Fine - 01/08/07 12:14 PM
The City of Aurora, also called the "City of Lights" is giving homeowners 60 days to remove holiday decorations or face escalating fines - starting at $50 for the first act of non-compliance. Voted into existence in early 2006, the ordinance has drawn ire from both local and national media. It isn't clear when the 60 days actually run out - 60 days after Christmas Day or 60 days after New Years? Of course this isn't the only ingenious method the city has come up with to make money off of its residents. This past summer, Aurora again enacted lawn watering … (4 comments)

Aurora Illinois - Community Information and History - 01/07/07 02:46 PM
Aurora, Illinois
Aurora Illinois was founded in 1834 by the McCarty brothers, Joseph and Samuel from New York. Real estate played a big part in Aurora's beginnings - the brothers were looking for a place to build a sawmill and the Fox River afforded them the perfect opportunity. They bought real estate from the government and several squatters east of the Fox River and named the new community McCarty Mills. The budding town soon became a stagecoach stop on the road from Chicago to destinations west. In 1854 a town named Hartford started to grow on the west side of the Fox … (0 comments)

Naperville Illinois - History and Community Information - 01/07/07 02:41 PM
Naperville, Illinois
Naperville is a very old community and features lots of real estate options for homeowners. As the fourth-largest city in Illinois, Naperville has focused inward on developing the community. Homes in Naperville tend to be priced higher than surrounding areas (on average) but many residents feel it's a fair trade for living in a city ranked in the Top 10 places to live in the United States. You can find a good mixture of Naperville real estate - from century-old mansions to modern townhomes. There are also a good number of high-end real estate options - homes for sale in Naperville priced … (0 comments)

December Market Trends - Naperville Illinois - 01/07/07 02:37 PM
December Market Conditions Detached Style Single-Family Homes The median price of homes on the market in Naperville remained rose slightly in December, going from $569,450 in November to $574,900 in December. Also, the average price of homes sold during the month of December rose fairly significantly from $418,250 in November to $455,250. However, this signals more of a return to normal than a large advance as the average price of homes sold in November was the third lowest monthly value over the last two years. The number of homes on the market continued to drop from a high of 1,462 in … (0 comments)

December Market Trends - Aurora Illinois - 01/07/07 02:33 PM
December Market Conditions Detached Style Single-Family Homes The median price of homes on the market in Aurora rose slightly in the month of December, going from $224,900 in November to $226,900 in December. That's the good news. Unfortunately, the average price of homes sold during the same period fell sharply from $207,500 in October to $186,250 - a $21,250 drop in the median and the lowest figure since January of 2005. The number of homes on the market again dropped substantially during the month of December, from 1,304 units to 1,127. During that time, the number of homes sold rose slightly … (0 comments)

Housing Slowdown a Wakeup for High-Risk Mortgages? - 01/07/07 02:27 PM
2006 was the year of the slowdown in many real estate markets throughout the country. In fact, December median sales prices for my local market posted a return to January 2005 levels. But perhaps this figure isn't completely bad. For years, buyers have been willing to purchase a home with no or little money down - counting on home value appreciation that would allow them to refinance in a few years to get rid of PMI.
As the market slowed in 2006 to negative appreciation, perhaps some of the drop in median sales price represents a "wake up" to buyers who otherwise might … (4 comments)

 
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Eric Rogers

Aurora, IL

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Century 21 Pro-Team

Address: 1999 W. Galena Blvd Suite 101, Aurora, IL, 60506

Office Phone: (630) 897-4114

Cell Phone: (630) 346-1041

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