the wasserblawg

Nov. 2022 Hello Dear Reader. I started blogging on this site 15 years ago.  Crazy right? May or may not Chicago's longest-running blog about real estate law. I think so, but who knows, Whether it is or isn't doesn't, of course, really matter.   Either way, it's been a blast.  But things change. We've pulled up the tent stakes here and are relocated on other platforms. Want to follow along? Join us on the mothership I'm also writing on LinkedIn Thanks for everything.

by Michael H Wasserman Tragedy in Sunrise, Florida and now Waukesha, Wisconsin . Authorities ordered the emergency evacuation of another condominium building late last week. Deemed to be at risk of imminent collapse. Structural and life safety problems noted after a wind storm sheared some exterior elements off a couple of years ago. Led to a balcony reconstruction project, which in turn revealed far worse structural deterioration. Of a building (only) 50 years old. 80 or so people forced to leave their homes with no advance warning. Fannie Mae’s October lender letter tightened lending guidelines in buildings with too much deferred maintenance. Inadequate reserves. Associations lacking the political will to take on the challenges of funding and orchestrating necessary structural and safety repairs. Whether they are brought to light by municipal inspections or the associations own investigations or capital reserve studies. Fannie will not loan money into buildings with structural defect...

by Michael H. Wasserman Flippers. Wholesalers. I-buying fin-tech disrupters. Publicly traded REITS. Private equity firms. Boot-strap investors. All out on the prowl for opportunities. It's never been easier for Chicago area owners to sell homes directly. But should you? What can possibly go wrong? Read on to learn the unpleasant truth, and the things you can do to make the most of these no-broker deals. It may start with a series of unsolicited offers. Out of the blue. First a letter. Then another. (Look – this one's on yellow stationary!) A note left in the mailbox. A knock at the door. Maybe the allure of those ads on tv and the net. That billboard you keep driving past. Same deal. "We'd like to buy your house. Just us. No middlemen. No realtors. You won't have to pay anyone's commission. We can pay all cash. Close in two weeks if you want. What do say"? The money sure would be nice. More house than you need. Getting harder to keep it up. Money i...

 by Michael H. Wasserman A pervasive problem for some in contemporary society splits us into two camps. One particular segment of the community. They may be your friends, your neighbors, your co-parishioners. They are fully aware of the environment we live in. They read the same things you do. They receive the same guidances we all do. They take wildly different views of what those writings mean. Who they apply to. They are not easily persuaded by reason or the advice of experts. While they acknowledge legal obligations they still want to “do their own thing,” often to the detriment of others they engage with.   You know who I am talking about. Unrestrained buyers who ask for the sun, the moon and all the stars based on property inspections without regard to the terms of their inspection contingency or as-is contract. Sellers expect buyers to abide by inspection contingency terms of the contract they (the buyers) offered. If the deal is “as is,” sellers expect not to hear ...

by Michael H. Wasserman  An interesting 20 minute podcast here . The disaster in Miami calls to light a critical challenge for all condo owners, including owners here in Chicago. Who decides if repairs and who pays? Hint: the owners. These are two really tough questions to answer. Particularly because condos are for the most part run by untrained volunteers. Few have experience apartment buildings. These volunteers have to not only appreciate the need for action but must then convince their co-owners that the necessary costs must be paid. Think these sorts of deferred (ignored) maintenance problems don't effect us localy? Consider the deconversions of Keneally Square or River City back in 2017 & 2018. The over-whelming costs of long deferred maintenance forced owners to sell out at a loss. Thankfully, no loss of life, but still disastrous outcomes. This is one of many reasons why Buyers should inspect condo common elements, financial records and meeting minutes. Understandin...

by Michael H. Wasserman  It turns out that ink color really does matter. At least it does for Kane County recordings. This alert from one of our favorite title companies today: **It has just come to our attention that Kane County will charge an additional $22 if deeds are signed in blue ink.**  I assume that this policy would also apply to deeds signed in red, green, purple or whatever too. This seemed odd. Why would the County single out blue inked deeds and but not mortgages or other documents? So i called the recorder to find out. Perhaps a slight mis-understanding here. Blue ink used in signatures and dates should be OK. Both for grantors and notaries. Its those corrections of scrivener's errors. Language adding vesting information. "Mail-to's" and the like. Making those marks in blue is going to cost you. Or the Buyer. In Kane County those markings render the document non-standard and will incur a recording surcharge. Blue ink or black. Just one of those eterna...

  Court Clobbers Kayaker. Concludes Competitor's Contiguous Keep Cannot be Crossed by Michael H. Wasserman The sun sets majestically. You take another sip of lemonade. Your attention focuses on the gentle wind blowing thru the trees. The noise of water coursing along river at the far end of the property. The blissful payoff for a long long week at work. The calm evaporates when you open the letter – a cease and desist order from a neighbor’s lawyer. You are directed to stay off their property. This puzzles you. You’ve been here three months and never once set foot on their land, barely even know which place is theirs. You haven’t been to any neighbors yet. Just the new place and the river. And this, my friend was your downfall. The neighbor does not want you to boat past his place. Turns out, owning riverfront property does not necessarily confer access right upstream or down. The neighbors might have a thing or two to say about it too. In these circumstances, absent permission, t...

The streak is over. Closing lawyers and owners who do not escrow for property taxes celebrate. We are often asked - when will Cook County 2nd installment property tax bills come out? For most of my career, the best answer was a shrug of the shoulders and a warm smile. None of us knew. Mail-out dates were erratic. Theoretically due out July 1st billing. Rarely that early. Erratic. Unpredictable. August? Maybe. September? As late as November - once, anyway. Your guess as good as mine. But for nine years running tax bills were released online in late June (often the 30th). Due August 1st or there-abouts. Consistency is to be appreciated in most contexts, but especially stressful for closing lawyers and title company escrow officers. Unpaid taxes are allocated between buyers and sellers at closing and June 30th is one of our busiest days in the business. Tax bills data released early in the morning mean last minute revised computations, revised closing statements, further lender reviews a...

Cook County tax bills are due March 2nd by Michael H. Wasserman "'Tis impossible to be sure of anything but death and taxes." Christopher Bullock's infamous quote still rings true, some 300 years later.  Cook County tax bills are due March 2nd Cook County's 2020 First Installment property tax bills are due March 2nd. Surrounding counties will be due soon enough too. Thankfully, while none of us can avoid death, there are a few ways to save money on property taxes...which might make living a little sweeter. We are talking here are 2020 property tax bills that we will all need to pay this year, in 2021. Exemption eligibility is determined as of January 1st, 2020 . If you closed on property last year, you can certainly check the former owner’s status and ride on his or her coat-tails. You will not be eligible to claim exemptions you may qualify for yourself. Check out all the property-tax exemptions currently available for Cook County homeowners. Scroll below to f...

Set aside any discussion of climate change or COVID for a moment. It’s winter. It’s Chicago. It snows. As a homeowner, you owe it to your friends, family, neighbors and delivery people to keep the sidewalks free of snow and ice.

by Michael H Wasserman Our day to day focus in this office is to facilitate safe, secure, and pleasant closings for our clients when they buy and sell real estate. We work very hard to assure success and to solve the problems that get in the way of our shared objectives. We are always on the lookout for ways to make the process even easier. We spend an inordinate amount of time on improving the system and the client experience.  Like many other businesses, we see the year's end as a time of reflection. We step back from the day to day work and try to appreciate the results of our efforts. To consider our achievements and to express our deepest gratitude to everyone we work with. We thank the other deal participants, our referral partners and we consider how fortunate we are that so many hundreds of families entrust us us on work on their real estate deals. We can do none of this without them. We cannot do any of this without you. We appreciate all of you. Our hearts are full. ...

by Michael H. Wasserman Steve Schneider I’m not sure how you spent your Memorial Day weekend, but if you are in the market to buy a new home in or around Chicago, you very likely spent much of it out and about looking at new homes. By all accounts real estate activity right now is quite strong despite a limited available inventory of homes to choose from. Buyers seem to be re-energized right now and the effects have been staggering. Most buyers who have contacted me this week have won out or are still engaged in bidding wars over properties they like. Brokers are reporting the clients are back out, looking at 5-10 homes before making offers. Our initial fears of the COVID-19 pandemic seem to be waning. Confidence in our Realtors’ ability to keep us safe and secure in the house hunting process is increasing. We have seen more new contracts come into the office in the past seven days than we had in the preceding three weeks combined. If you are a seller waiting on the sidelin...

by Michael H. Wasserman The two-bedroom, Lakeview condo seemed huge when Meg and Cary first moved in 10 years ago as newlyweds. That was two dogs and two daughters ago. Before the stay-at-home order. Before COVID-19. The small house movement may be “a thing,” but Meg and Cary are living proof that small houses are not all that they are cracked up to be. Especially now that they have all been cooped up together for the last two months. Every useable surface is covered by school projects, computer electronics, pet toys, and kid toys. Meg laughs to herself nervously. “I guess everyone’s home must feel small by now but there just isn’t enough space here. Is this a dining room or a “school?” Is Cary working in the living room or his office? Am I sleeping in my bedroom or my office”? The is once spacious home is getting smaller and smaller by the hour. Hopefully, Jan will call soon. It’s Monday afternoon and Meg has been trying all day not to think about it. She cannot help check...

CLOSING TRENDS - What We Lack in Volume, We are Making Up for with Success by Michael H. Wasserman Our April stay-at-home order ends tonight, and the May stay-at-home-order starts at midnight. The sequester is dead. Long live the sequester. Here’s what you need to know about the closing real estate contracts in Chicago right now. Contract Activity: We are still open for business and taking in some new really solid purchase and sale transactions (more on that in a moment). But, as is the case for most of the colleagues I talk to, the numbers fall far below seasonally appropriate levels. I don’t want to say that its slow, but birds are building nests on our office printers. (They outgrew their perches on the typewriter and fax). I’m the new Maytag repairman. Our numbers are not statistically significant right now, but some intel is available on Gary Lucido’s blog and at CribChatter . Both are on my regular reading list. Good stuff.

by Michael H. Wasserman We are now four full weeks into the Illinois Stay-at-Home regimen. Hopefully, the last of winter’s snowfalls are finally behind us. I’m not bike-commuting on the lakefront these days, but the firm is still actively engaged in real estate transactions. Here is our take on the current real estate closing landscape and where we think it is heading. The good news is that (some) buyers are still buying. (Some) sellers are still selling. Lenders are still lending out (some) money, and Realtors are still out in the neighborhoods putting contracts together. The firm is still closing clients’ contracts.

OFFER ACCEPTED? NOW WHAT? by Michael H. Wasserman The two-bedroom, Lakeview condo seemed huge when Meg and Cary first moved in as newlyweds 10 years ago. That was two dogs and two daughters ago. Before the stay-at-home order. Before COVID-19. The small house movement may be “a thing,” but Meg and Cary are living proof that small houses are not all that they are cracked up to be. Especially now that they have all been cooped up together for the last three weeks. Every useable surface is covered by school projects, team equipment, pet toys, and kid toys. Meg laughs to herself nervously. “I guess everyone’s home must feel small by now but there just isn’t enough space here. Is this a dining room or a “school?” Is Cary working in the living room or his office? Am I sleeping in my bedroom or my office”? The is once spacious home is getting smaller and smaller by the hour. Hopefully, Jan will call soon. It’s Monday afternoon and Meg has been trying all day not to think about it...

UPDATE: ILLINOIS REMOTE ONLINE NOTARIZATION? NOT SO FAST! by Michael H. Wasserman A follow up on last Friday’s posting. This is going to be a bit of a bummer. Just because RON is legal does not mean that we will be able to use it . For all the State’s efforts to minimize public health risks associated in-person document signings, title companies and mortgage lenders just are not yet willing or able to accept Illinois RON signings. For the time being, we will still need buyers to sign loan documents in the actual physical presence of notaries.

REMOTE ONLINE NOTARIZATION APPROVED FOR ILLINOIS By Michael H. Wasserman With the stroke of his pen, Governor Prtizker eased one of the biggest logistical challenges for client real estate closings since the COVID-19 emergency was declared nearly three weeks ago.   Executive Order 12 allows for remote online notarization. My firm is prepared and ready to utilize this tool now. (Technology, for the win!) Deeds, mortgages and many other documents used in real estate closings must be witnessed by an Illinois licensed notary . The ink-signed, original document has always been—and will continue to be—required for real estate closings. This poses a great difficulty: The notary and signer have to be in the same place, at the same time for the notary’s attestation to be valid. Shelter-in-place rules, best health-safety practices and overall concern of spreading COVID-19 make that unacceptable to many, undesirable to all, and impossible for some. Law firms and title companies h...

COVID-19 Home Closing Outlook – Week of March 23rd, 2020 By Michael H. Wasserman Need some not-so bad news? Real estate closings will continue for the foreseeable future. Governor Pritzker's  shelter-in-place order designates lenders, title companies, and lawyers all “essential.” This means my firm and I remain available and at the ready assist with real estate purchases and sales. We are working closely with title companies and colleagues to implement and execute safety protocols so that we can all minimize contact among the many, many hands that touch each transaction. The title industry has been quick to urge reducing number of people in their facilities, disinfecting offices, providing hand sanitizer, fresh pens and encouraging as much remote work as possible. We support and appreciate their efforts (and provide our own pens to clients too). Do you have a closing coming up? Here are our latest guidelines:

Covid-19 Update Date: March 15, 2020 The news over recent weeks has been startling and of great concern to us all. Following the President’s declaration of a national health emergency and the Governor’s executive order to combat continued spread of Covid-19, I would like you to know the steps that we are taking to protect your health and the health of our team, our partners, and colleagues. Let me reassure you there will be no disruption to our services. Michael H. Wasserman PC continues to be fully operational. We long ago invested in the technologies necessary to work remotely. These systems enable the entire law firm to work from anywhere and most of us do so to one extent or another already. We are able to receive mail and packages as usual, however, with limited exceptions. we are permitting only employees and necessary contractors to enter our offices for the time being. We are taking these steps to protect the health of our clients, team and colleagues. To reiterate, ...