There is obviously plenty of gloom and doom news in the media about the struggles of national new home builders and the fact that new home starts are at the lowest levels nationally in the past 16 years is certainly an indication that some areas were obviously a little overbuilt.

I Love Good News so I thought I would highlight it here with the sales for KB Homes in their Creekside at Inverness Ridge development. Only 28 Homesites remain and with the current chart shown below, prices have gone up which is a trend that shows that the Barrington and Inverness area is doing ok compared to all of the gloom and doom you may be reading in the media. Only 28 homesites remain and as you can see from the chart below, prices for the Marquis floorplan (2,610 Square Feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 Baths) have gone up 8.4% for the year. Not bad!

You can search for new South Barrington and Inverness Illinois homes (or pretty much any Chicago suburb) by going to our New Chicago Homes search and selecting Inverness. Enter your price range, fill out your information and we'll e-mail the floorplans to you. It's free, there is no obligation and it's that simple! We can show you new home sales trends in several suburbs for a good indication of what's going on. Information such as what is shown below is a very good indication that Inverness Real Estate is pretty stable. Don't forget that you can visit www.SuburbanVillageRealty.com to search for all real estate listed for sale by real estate brokerages that participate in the MLS and New Chicago Homes and condos. Enjoy and have a fantastic Christmas!

Chicagoland

Model Name: Marquis Subdivision Name: Creekside at Inverness Ridge Builder: KB Homes

Period    Price    (%) Apr 07    $539,900    -- Jun 07    $549,900    1.9% Jul 07    $549,900    0.0% Dec 07    $585,900    6.5%

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Ouch, I did not even realize how long it has been since my last post on ActiveRain for Barrington real estate until I tried to log in and failed on my first three attempts.  Not being able to remember my log on for AR certainly was a reminder that I've been AWOL for over a month. It's not that I have not been active in real estate blogging, I've just been sidetracked on several other real estate related blogs including my own concerning all of the real estate news going on out there in the world.

Where I have been in the past month? Well, Morgan Carey came up with a New blog platform over at Real Estate Webmasters  that is pretty cool and very search engine friendly. My Safe Toys for Christmas shopping guide and my blog about Illinois having the strictest standards in lead safe toys can be found over there.

I know, those blog posts are hardly real estate related but when you read that guide, it's pretty shocking how many toys are out in the market and already in people's homes.

Barrington was just recently honored by Business Week as one of the top 25 places to raise children. I don't put too much stock in magazine ratings but hey, it's not everyday Barrington Illinois gets mentioned in a national magazine and if somebody is relocating to Chicago, maybe they'll take a look at Barrington.

Of course, I've been blogging on my blog which included a South Barrington real estate report that really highlights the importance of a home seller pricing their home right to begin with. Overprice it, sit on the market for 300+ days is the overall moral of the story.

In case you've been a little busy blogging about glowing cats, the National Association of REALTORS decided that the usage of Search the MLS was a bad thing and went out and changed the code of Ethics so REALTORS can't use that term anymore. Of course, there is nothing that the Association can do to enforce the rule on non REALTORS so third party websites can use it all day long and take over this popular search phrase in Google and sell REALTORS leads. The only explanation I've been able to find for this change is that it confuses the consumer and they don't want the term to become Generic. So now the consumer can just use the term and get more confused and fill out their information on a third party site that sells their information.

Of course, a consumer could just go straight to a REALTOR that has a full Chicago Real Estate search and skip all of the third party sites with all of the annoying advertising to begin with. I don't think we'll see any ad campaigns promoting this though because it also means that the consumer really does not need Realtor.com either. And that's really the reason why other third party sites out there want REALTORS and Real Estate Brokerages uploading all of their real estate listings into their sites. Without real estate listings, people won't visit those sites. Of course it sounds better to use a sales line that it brings more exposure to the clients home but the truth is it's really easy to find all of the real estate for sale on an agent's website that has an IDX feed from the MLS that is far more extensive in homes available to view.

Anyways, that's a small sample of what I have been doing in the past month. Have a Very Merry Christmas and always remember that this is the season to truly enjoy what life is all about.

Cheers!

Suburban Village Realty | 117 Cook St | Barrington Il 60010 | 847.337.9236 

So.. I'm checking my Las Vegas Real Estate e-mail account. (Yes I'm licensed in two states which is absolutely mind boggling to say the least and the traditions vs. common sense is worthy of a book.) Obviously we all know what happens when the local association gets ahold of our e-mail address -- it gets sold to everybody and anybody but I sincerely have to appreciate this ad that was sent to my Las Vegas e-mail account:

Real Estate Blogging 101
How the Internet is Changing Business
Approved for 3 Hours Continuing Education (PD)
CE.3706000-RE

	Date/Time:  Monday, November 5th, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm Location:  Equity Title Training Center 4035 S. Tenaya Way - 2nd driveway north of Flamingo Cost: $45 in advance - $55 at the door Register and pay online at: http://www.careerrealty.com/contact_training.htm Instructors:  Jan O'Brien, 858-9191 Kathryn Bovard, 348-7191
Three hour CE APPROVED training seminar covering: The State of the Internet - Stats - Trends - History What is Web 2.0 and social networking? How does Web 2.0 impact the real estate industry? Blogging 101 What is a Blog? Who Is Blogging? Why should I Blog? Legal Issues, Disclosures, Disclaimers, Privacy How to get started blogging. How & Where to Find Blogs Lead Generation and Business Applications   Bonus Materials -  Receive a copy of: How to Blog eBook and Wordpress Tutorial($20 value) Real Estate Agents Internet Resource Guide ($10 value) A comprehensive guide to online Listing Tools, Blogging, and other Web 2.0 services, tools and technologies   Seating is Limited.  To register & reserve your seat contact: Jan O'Brien, 858-9191  Kathryn Bovard, 348-7191

Is there a state out there that gives CE credit for a class on blogging? Obviously, anybody here on Active Rain that happens to read this understands the importance of blogging -- much like many of us realized the importance of the internet for real estate marketing. (Our first Las Vegas website was in 1997.)

Being licensed in two states can certainly bring an appreciation to different concepts in internet real estate marketing. The fact that Nevada is allowing CE credit for real estate agents to learn a new and what can be a complex yet very effective means of advertising says a lot for a real estate division very focused on protecting the consumer.

The Illinois Association of REALTORS (IAR) has just released the September 2007 sales report for Illinois statewide sales. Statewide, median home prices for Illinois edged up 0.8% and the average sales price went up 4.6%. You can read the press release from the Illinois Association of REALTORS here.

According to the Illinois Association of REALTORS, the average sales price for a Chicago area home in September was $327,855, up 5.9 percent from $309,710 in September 2006.

For Barrington real estate, according to information from the Multiple Listing Service, detached single family Barrington home sales in area 10 (60010 zip code) edged up about 3% for September of 2007 in comparison to September of 2006. For Barrington real estate market stats for September of 2007, you can visit our Barrington real estate report.

According to the latest sales report from the National Association of REALTORS, the Midwest and the Northeast were the only regions that showed average sales price increases in the United States with the Midwest showing a 1.4% increase and the Northeast showing a 0.5%. 

Average sales prices for the Western Region of the United States dropped 8.8% and for the United States as a whole dropped 4.2%. You can View the Chart provided by the National Association of REALTORS Here.

 Chicago Real Estate | Search for Chicago Real Estate | New Chicago Home Search

To push a price or not when it comes to selling your Barrington Home? That's a question that can only be answered with experience and a big factor that a true real estate professional knows how to answer.

It's obviously no secret (unless you do not read the paper, watch TV and have no friends) that the current state of the Chicago real estate market is that of a Buyers Market. There is plenty of supply and as a result of this, the Barrington real estate buyers that are out there are going to be very sensitive about pricing.

Price your Barrington home too high to begin with, your plans will more then likely be put on hold as you hope for a real estate buyer that does not read the paper, magazines, watch TV, have no REALTOR helping them and no friends to come along. That could be a very long time.

Analyzing the situation that your home falls in requires much more then just national real estate conditions, Chicago real estate conditions and even Barrington real estate conditions. It actually breaks all the way down to your neighborhood. Some communities within the Barrington area have a higher demand rate with the Days on Market being much shorter then the overall area. Being able to properly analyze this is crucial when it comes to pricing your real estate. Your location within the community also plays a big factor.

These factors, among many others are factors that just can not be accurately evaluated with a free online real estate evaluation generated from a computer program in another state. Proper guidance means having a true real estate professional actually take the time to review the conditions of your home and provide market research specific to your community.

You owe it to yourself and your family to take the time to meet with true real estate professionals that will take the time to provide you with the research needed to make an informative decision based on solid facts -- not just an online evaluation of recent Barrington home sales. You can click the following link for a good place to start in preparing your Barrington real estate for sale with absolutely no obligation.

Current inventory for Barrington area homes and Barrington area Condominiums available for sale (Including portions of Inverness) on the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois:

Area 10 - 128 Barrington area Condominiums available for sale ranging in price from $158,900 to $959,000 for a Golf Villa in Wynstone.

526 Barrington area Detached Single Family Homes ranging in price from $212,000 to a $17,000,000 Million Dollar Barrington Hills Estate.

You can search and view all of these Barrington area homes on our extensive Chicago Real Estate search with absolutely no obligation! 

A new twist on the real estate game with old ideas. From Crains Chicago Business --> http://chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=26512

The concept behind listing homes at a lower fee to attract buyers is nothing new -- just the way money is being raised to start these new companies up. What I find most interesting is that these supposedly new ideas are being started up by people new to the real estate business.  Instead of hard work and building a system up that actually makes money, let's just raise the money through an IPO or Venture Capital using other people's money (OPM) on something that loses money. From Crains Chicago:

"Iggys which was launched in April 2005, had lost a total of $7.6 million since March 31, according to a registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month. The firm faces a crowded field of online competitors, including ZipRealty Inc., iNest Realty Inc. and Redfin Corp."

It's the Dot com game all over again except it is being applied to ideas that are nothing new in the real estate business. 

"Iggys plans to raise $17.25 million in the IPO, using the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including marketing and technology, according to the registration statement. Minneapolis-based Northland Securities Inc. is the sole underwriter for the offering."

Wow, we've got it all wrong. Any real estate Broker with a website should just form a corporation raise a couple million in an IPO and list homes for free on their website. It's certainly a lot easier then actually selling real estate.

"This is an industry that desperately needs to be transformed," Mr. Fox says in a recent news release. "Fixing the broken real estate and mortgage industries requires revolution, not evolution." 

There really is nothing revolutionary about this concept and the only thing new about this business model is how money is being raised to fund it.

Personally, I see nothing innovative about using the MLS for something that it was not created to be used for. I'm not going to elaborate on this topic but it basically involves making money off of other people's work.

Really now, what would stop anybody with a real estate license from applying these concepts? I'll try out the same concept for $5,000,000 of somebody else's money and we actually have experience selling real estate!

As promised in my previous post concerning the Illinois Association of REALTORS yearly convention, I would post about my experience and what I thought. Overall, the experience was pleasant and a very well coordinated event. In all honesty though, I thought it would be much bigger considering there are over 40,000 real estate agents (according to my knowledge and please correct me if I am wrong) in the metropolitan Chicago area alone.

I'll be receiving the complete list of attendees because typically from experience, the REALTORS that attend these conventions tend to be the ones that I want to do business with and want to focus on for networking. On top of technology and looking for the newest tools before they become mainstream to give them the edge. Here is a list of the Illinois Association of REALTORS vendors. It obviously contains the usual suspects but my attendance was well worth the time and money because I did find and had the opportunity to discuss with the owner of a new company for what I think will be an extremely beneficial service for Home sellers and marketing their Barrington homes to website visitors that I will be implementing on our next listing.  I have yet to see anybody else implementing this service on their listings but I consider the concept extremely important.

REALTOR conventions are much like Active Rain, I would have to say that the majority of AR members are on top and understand what the future of the real estate business is all about and how technology will very soon replace the REALTOR who honestly thinks the internet is only for Generation X's and that could hardly be further from the truth.

Interestingly, this ties into what a real estate Broker/Owner told me earlier in the week who used to be a top real estate Broker in Illinois in the late 1990's. She actually told me that her clients don't care about the internet and are more interested in seeing their homes in the newspaper or magazines. That was an interesting statement which is probably from lack of educating the client about the effectiveness of the internet. I'll certainly be keeping a close eye for those listings when they expire.

In any business and not just Real Estate, you always need to be on the look out and willing to try new things in order to honestly tell your sellers that you can effectively represent them in the sale of their home.

The reason why I focus so much on internet advertising is because I also have an understanding of financial accounting, marketing, statistics and history.

What does that have to do with anything?  SIMPLE

Marketing - According to the National Association of REALTORS 2006 home buying study, over 75% of all homebuyers searched for homes on the internet which beat out all other forms of advertising hands down. (The other sources home buyers used were not even close.) What more needs to be said about that?

Financial Accounting - Real estate agents who understand this also know that internet marketing can be the most cost effective and efficient advertising there is if done properly. For anybody who thinks that a website is still an online brochure telling visitors that they were a top real estate agent a decade ago is not keeping up with the times and These are the same agents that think viral marketing is a disease. I've seen tech savvy REALTORS marketing lower tier homes on the internet far more effectively then some luxury real estate agents marketing luxury real estate and that's sad.

Statistics - Buyers searching for homes on the internet tend to be more educated, have higher incomes and are better qualified to purchase real estate. I sincerely hope I do not need to expand on the benefits of this.

History - Wake up. We are no longer in the industrial age - we are in the information age. Free information is everywhere and can easily be researched online and that's not going to change. However -- free information online can also be bad information and you need to be able to explain the differance. Something that you will not be able to do unless you have a basic understanding of the internet itself.

Having an internet presence for real estate advertising is not the end all solution for real estate marketing; but not even having a basic understanding of how to use the internet to market real estate is more then likely a sign that the individual has no concept of marketing to begin with.

This is going to be really interesting -- especially considering the past two weeks that I've been through (a story for a later time, trust me) and I can't wait to go to the Illinois Association of Realtors convention. I have a very funny feeling that it is going to be interesting to say the least -- especially since I had a sneak preview and got in to view the vendors setting up the day before the show. (To be commented on in future posts.)

It will be my first IAR convention. I've been to several conventions in the past including the Nevada Association of REALTORS (NVAR) and when I lived in Las Vegas, always had passes to some of the greatest conventions in the world including CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and Comdex (before the tech world got turned upside down and Comdex was the main event) and multiple other conventions including MAGIC and the International Shopping Centers Convention. Trust me, all of them are very exciting and entertaining conventions and I sincerely miss all of those great venues. Entertaining and Educating to say the least.

Many people consider Las Vegas the Entertainment Capitol of The World but in reality, it is the Marketing Capitol of the World. Where else can you make somebody spend their life savings and give them nothing to take home?

On Thursday, Terry Watson will be presenting a conference, "Generation X: You can't Just Follow Suit to Win Over This Demographic". The following is a quote from his lead:

"A typical salesperson is between 53 and 55 years old. A typical buyer is  between 32 and 35 years old. Ignoring the Generation X group of prospects could cost you your real estate career.

I wonder if this really has anything to do with age..... I personally think it  has to do more with embracing technology.

Advertisements pushing lists of foreclosure real estate with the promise of making money in purchasing real estate that has been foreclosed on and the several services selling online subscriptions for lists of foreclosure real estate is on the obvious rise for obvious reasons.

It's really not that hard to gather together public information and offer a service and in reality, the low monthly fees for the subscriptions are well worth the time they save for anybody interested in Foreclosure real estate even though the accuracy of some of these services can be suspect at best. While I was certainly interested in foreclosure real estate years ago before huge increases in artificial appreciation rates, I'm certainly not interested in it during a buyers market. When I've been contacted from clients to look into a Bank Owned home for sale, I've often found a better deal from a home seller without all of the "AS IS" requirements... and in better shape.

The big question though is if buying bank owned real estate is even worth the time right now. Are they really good deals when all of the risks and unknown headaches are factored in?

I've actually been focusing more on New Chicago homes and the beautiful Luxury Chicago condominium developments and keeping an eye on what new home builders are doing. New home builders need to sell the inventory they have coming online and can't afford to sit on inventory and will offer incentives, price slashes, whatever it takes to sell the inventory. Many of the large homebuilders have been through not so favorable markets before and will make it through another one. Being able to keep track of new Chicago homes and resale homes is a very important aspect for any real estate agent to provide a superior service for their clients. I've been able to compare brand new home sales and find a brand new resale home or two priced lower and vice versa.

The news and debate has started on what will probably be the first of many "New Home Fire Sales" across the country with the Fire Sale starting this weekend with Hovnanian Homes with six figure and up to 20% discounts on it's inventory. You can read about it here. I personally think it will not be the only and last time that it will be done and I'm fairly certain that many more national homebuilders will be following suit since I'm already seeing it.

I spend a lot of time talking to new home builders and the sales staff and always make sure they keep me informed of current and future incentives. While some of all the great deals are not openly advertised, they are already out there.

Foreclosures or New Chicago Homes? I'll focus and stay on top of all the new Chicago homes and new Luxury Chicago condos and keep my clients informed of the next big "fire" sale.

Supply and demand determines any and every real estate market.... period. It's not hard to find an article that blames the current meltdown in real estate on the cheap and easy loans available and I somewhat agree on this but in a different light.

Cheap money enabled new home builders to build developments with the demand that was caused that would not have sold in a normal real estate market. Corners were cut, building lots were diminished, and some questionable real estate was developed with the intent of builders squeezing the most homes that they could on the amount of land they had according to zoning guidelines. I personally have talked to builders and asked them why they developed a piece of land the way they did and the answer was so they could squeeze more units in. The art of thoughtful development was put on the back burner and replaced with creating more supply for an artificial demand.

Las Vegas is a perfect example of this. In the 1980's you had developers building Spanish Trail. In the early 90's you had a community called Summerlin being developed which includes some extraordinary real estate. In the late 1990's you had an incredible community called Lake Las Vegas that was planned out. These were carefully planned developments during normal real estate markets where a lot of thought went into the design of the entire master planned community and some incredible real estate was developed.

There are probably examples of this in several communities across the United States. In Barrington, you can spot some incredible developments such as the guard gated Jack Nicklaus designed Wynstone community in North Barrington (planned and developed in the late 1980's) that to this day is some of the most incredible real estate you will find in all of Chicagoland.

During the days of high demand,  there were several subdivisions planned and developed that were being purchased simply because speculators were taking advantage of the cheap money available and developers were more then happy to take advantage of this by building as much as they could on whatever piece of real estate they could purchase. At one point, it seemed like it did not matter what was built because it would sell.

When you start seeing headlines in the National media about outrageous appreciation rates, it's time to get out.  Stocks, real estate, gold... whatever... once the media starts reporting how great something is doing, it's time to be careful and to not let excitement get in the way of common sense.

On the flip side, when the media reports how bad something is, it's time to take a closer look and to start finding the great deals available.

I've come across several people who's main source of advice is a newspaper and that's scary. They read something about how well a particular real estate market is doing and they want to jump right in along with all of the other new real estate experts and purchase anything that is available. 

On the flip side, they read the sensationalized stories of how bad the real estate market is and they want nothing to do with it despite the fact that some of the best real estate available to purchase at the best prices in a couple of years is now available.

The psychological effects the media has plays an important part of any market but the reality is any market is  based on supply and demand. I don't think it's too hard to debate the fact that in some real estate markets, the demand for housing was artificially created which drove appreciation rates to levels that just did not make sense. In a rush to meet the artificial demand, builders overbuilt and created too much supply.