the wasserblawg

A last minute reminder that 2010 1st Installment Cook County property tax bills are due tomorrow, April 1st. Starting Saturday, delinquent taxpayers will have to pay a 1.5% late charge for each month they are late. Of all the nuances in my work helping buyers and seller close their real estate transactions, few facets of the process cause as much confusion as Cook County property taxes. There are a great many reasons for this, but on the bottom line, it is just darn messed up. The property tax system pits citizen tax payers against citizen consumers of governmental services. We want the good services and benefits our State, County, and City...but we would like them a whole lot better if someone else would pay for them. Carrie Porter over at the Morton Grove Patch is running a week long series on the Cook County property tax system. I highly recommend taking a look at her reports: A video explaining the basic computation of property tax bills A look at the extra burd...

Lets see how City Council reacts on this one, but the Mayor introduced a pretty interesting little ordinance that might be a real boon to first time area home buyers willing to buy and rehabilitate some bank-owned properties. Progress Illinois reports that the mayor's bill, introduced on March 9: "seeks to tackle the growing problem of vacant homes that are blighting neighborhoods across Chicago, and in particular in minority communities. Called the Vacant Building TIF Purchase and Rehabilitation Ordinance, the  bill  (PDF) proposes allowing residents with a household income no greater than 100 percent of the regional median income to apply for a tax increment financing (TIF) grant that would pay for up to 25 percent of the cost of purchasing and rehabilitating an empty residential property. Single-family empty homes or units in condo and cooperative buildings with four units or fewer are eligible. The empty homes must be located in a TIF district and must be in need of...

Local buyers hoping to finance their home purchases with a loan from a parent or other family member are going to need to change their plans. Quickly. Sellers offering financing to prospective buyers too.  As of January 1st, 2011, ONLY Illinois mortgage licensees, regulated/licensed banks, savings & loans, credit unions, insurance companies, and the like can make residential mortgages for gain or profit.. Non-interest bearing mortgage loans are still allowed. The new rule was enacted to implement a Federal law intended to enhance consumer protection and reduce fraud in the mortgage industry. That protection it seems, comes at a cost. Consumers have no choice now. Licensed mortgage lenders are the only game in town. At least for residential transaction. THE FEDERAL LAW: The Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (“SAFE Act”), was passed on July 30, 2008.  The federal obligated each of the 50 states to enact their own laws requiring licensure...

I have not heard of this from friends or colleagues, have you? Hard to argue with the general advice though: Addicts Snatch Drugs From Homes for Sale Addicts are posing as home buyers and cleaning out medicine cabinets in homes for sale, according to recent police reports. "It's commonplace – more common than you think," Detective Dennis Luken, vice president for the Ohio chapter of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "It's everywhere." In one recent case, a man showed up to an open house and while the real estate agent was distracted with other customers he went through the home owner’s medicine cabinet. The agent overheard the man going through the drawers, and he was later questioned by police officers. He admitted that he went to the house looking for pain pills and that he learned the trick from peers at a drug treatment program. Authorities say some criminals also copy information off the home own...

With the new year upon us, the  “Good Funds” section of the Title Insurance Act is now one full year old.  Illinois home buyers (and the professionals that represent them) are the beneficiaries of a bit of a "birthday present" from our friends down in Springfield - an amendment that addresses the three biggest issues that were complicating closings over the last 12 months. The good funds rule regulates the way anyone bringing money to a closing can deliver it to the closing agent. Basically, funds in excess of $50,000 must be sent by wire transfer. Funds less than $50,000 can be delivered by wire or cashiers, certified, or (approved) title company check.  As amended,  •         Earnest money held by a real estate broker or attorney is no longer aggregated with the buyer’s bottom line. As long as those funds are less than $50,000, title companies can now accept a realtor's or attorney's check drawn on a trust account. Note: this is no...

I am a real estate lawyer. I help buyers buy and sellers sell their homes, their condos, their apartment buildings. One at a time.  Each deal I work on is the most important contract in the local real estate market. To my clients and the parties on sitting accross the table they are. And because each individual transaction is to each individual client, that specific deal is also the most important case I am working on too.  But in a wholly other sense, each transaction is part of a larger real estate marketplace. Each transaction adds another data point that economists and sociologists can pick over and analyze. The collective information gleaned from all transactions informs us all about the larger trends and patterns in our communities. The collective body of information gathered in real estate conveyancing and from census data, all helps paint a very different picture. It is real estate pointillism. Think of Georges-Pierre  Serat or Chuck Close .   ...

Homeowners - think back a moment to your last re-finance or purchase transaction.... How did you chose your lender? According to a just released study by Lending Tree & Harris Interactive , chances are you probably signed on with the first lender you spoke with. True?  Lending Tree reports that roughly 40% of homeowners surveyed went with the first loan officer they spoke to. As restated in a Forbes article on the report, 2 out of 5  buyers take the very first home loan deal presented to them, regardless of whether a better one could be had. Curiously,  96% of the survey participants said they compared prices when shopping for anything else besides mortgages.  Heck, the average consumer compared at least three home computers before buying. And special question for all the Realtors: How many houses did that buyer look at before picking "the one" to make an offer on?  The end result? Only   28% surveyed felt confident that they got the best possible...