Greg's Blog

I am looking to purchase a foreclosure, REO, bank owned condo in the Ft. Lauderdale area as a vacation and rental property.  I'm looking to spend around $200,000 and would like 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.  I also would like to have low assessment charges.  I would like to work with an agent that can ...

I'm starting to see this over and over again. And I was wondering what this actually entails. What I normally see is something like this : "Ask me how you can pay off your 30 year mortgage in 7 to 10 years without changing your spending habits. The best part about this is that the information is ...

I'm reading this story about Ed McMahon facing foreclosure!  Talk about a surprise.  I've watched him on tv for years.  Hes $644,000 behind on his $4.8 Million dollar mortgage from Countrywide.  It just blows my mind that someone with so much money could ever be facing foreclosure.  I've paid my ...

I am wondering about how many people volunteer their time and what activities they volunteer for. As a realtor and mortgage loan originator, I feel that its important to get visability by volunteering my time to various organizations. It seem that volunteers are hard to come by and that donations...

It seems to be getting more difficult to get approved for a loan these days. I had a client that couldn't get Fannie Mae to approve her mortgage because Oak Park was a "declining zip code." The couple apparently had great credit and had 6% to put down. Working with loans, I'm finding this pretty ...

I have clients asking about crime in certain areas of Illinois. Now I have a nice web site that keeps track of this type of information. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program was created by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to meet a need for reliable, uniform crime statistics...

I was browsing the internet and came across this interesting link about Oak Lawn. It contains a snapshot of real estate sales, based on deeds transferred and it basically gets compiled from public records. Median Price means that half the homes sold for more and half for less. The location of thi...

I have a few clients asking about tax rates in Cook County, Illinois. I've found a pdf that has information on the taxes from the cook county clerks office. Now when I get clients, I can refer them to this link and hope that it answers their questions. Take a look and maybe you can use this infor...

I received an interesting call yesteday.  A neighbor called about a listing that I have.  The grass hasn't been cut in over a month or so.  Anyway, she saw my sign and name and decided to call me.  Let me see if I can quote this lady exactly.  She said "Could you please tell the owner to mow his ...