Top 5 Reasons You Should Not Hide From Your Lender - 07/31/09 10:48 PM
 
  Top 5 Reasons You Should Not Hide from Your Lender
    1. The problem will not go away.
    2. Your lender does not want to own your Home.
    3. There is a solution to your problem other than Foreclosure
    4. Your credit can be repaired.
    5.You can be helped only if you want to be helped.
      “Yes it is safe to come out from hiding”

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Illinois Banks have cost FDIC a Pretty Penny - 07/23/09 05:43 PM
 
 
Illinois Bank Losses Cost FDIC a Pretty Penny.
The Top 12 Illinois Bank Failures of 2009 report from Chicago Tribune:
These 12 Illinois Bank lost a total of $869 Million Dollars this year or 25% of total bank assets a little under $3.5 billion.
All of this money was insured by FDIC.
FDIC total Losses on a National Level are estimated to be $12.7 Billion with $42 Billion in total Bank Assets.
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Stress Reduction Kit for Realtors - 07/22/09 09:29 AM
As we head closer to the " Dog Days of Summer" I am forwading the Stress Reduction Kit for Realtors. Have A Good Summer Vacation!!!
 

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Is Your MLS Behind the 8 Ball When It Comes to Short Sales? - 07/16/09 08:11 PM

Is your local MLS behind the eight(8) ball when it comes to Short Sales?
Mine is and here is why!!
According to my local MLS, all signed contract between buyer and seller  must be shown as “Under Contract”.
Here is the problem. Short Sales are not your  typical sales between buyer and seller.
Short Sales  are contingent upon the “Approval” from a third party “The Bank”.    This “Approval” can often take between 3 -4 months.
So what does this mean for the Seller. It means taking the property off the market  for 3-4 months, getting fewer showings and this can … (27 comments)

Who Do You Believe? - 07/16/09 03:22 PM
The New York Times announced that JP Morgan Chase has reported $2.7 billion dollar profit this second quarter even though we are in the midst of the worst economic downturn in decades.
Meanwhile in a Chicago Crains article,  Realty track  was quoted reporting a 32 % increase in foreclosure filings in Illinois. In Illinois, 10,796 households received a foreclosure notice in June, or one in every 486 households.
Based on these two different article, who are we to believe? Are the banks getting better and or are more homeowners loosing their homes to foreclosure?
One would believe a little bit of … (0 comments)

Putting the Pieces to Puzzle Together.. - 07/15/09 03:27 PM

 
Deciding what to do next about your home is like putting the pieces to a puzzle together.
Sometimes you don’t know where to start.  When doing a puzzle, I always start to look for end pieces and work my into the middle.
Sometimes I get stuck and start all over. Sometimes I try to make two piece try to fit when they don’t.
Recently I heard of two separate families  trying to solve the puzzle to their home problems by doing a loan modification on one corner of the puzzle and trying to fit a Short sale piece right … (1 comments)

Property Dates back to God... A Joke.. - 07/15/09 08:44 AM
A friend of mine sent me this joke and I am reposting it as I received it:
 
   A  New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client who lost his house in Hurricane Katrina and wanted to rebuild. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to the parcel of property being offered as collateral. The title to the property dated back to 1803, which took the Lawyer three months to track down.                         After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following … (3 comments)

Unemployment is the Number 1 Problem in Illinois - 07/09/09 05:39 PM
Every day I get asked the following question ” How is the Real Estate Market?” and then the follow up question is “When do you think it is going to get better?”
These are the two most difficult questions to answer because I do not have a crystal ball and I am not able to predict when the market will get better.
All I can say is the number 1 problem we face in Illinois appears to be the rise in unemployment through out our State.
According to the most recent May figures, the unemployment rate is now 10.1 percent. According … (4 comments)

Foreclosures are What New Home Buyers Want - 07/02/09 11:22 AM
 

 
The second quarter statistics are showing that new Buyers are buying Foreclosures at a steady pace.
Almost 4 out of 10 sales in the second quarter of 2009 have been foreclosures.
The number of foreclosure continues to attract new home buyers.
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Why Do They Call it a Short Sale When it Takes Sooo Long? - 07/01/09 02:40 PM
I am often asked by buyers and agents “How Long will it take to get an answer from the Bank” on a short sale?
This is a difficult question because each bank is different.
Currently, I am going for a new record for the longest Short Sale. On July 7, 2009 it will be 1 year and I still do not have an approval from the bank.
During the past year a lot of things happened like:
August 2008: Olympic Games of the XXIX in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008.
Michael Phelps broke the records for most … (6 comments)