the wasserblawg

What will it take to get your property sold these days? An attractive home, in a nice neighborhood, well staged and ready for showings? An attactive price ? Of course these things help, but cannot assure a sale, let alone an offer. Many sellers are resorting to various forms of promotions  to entice buyers agents to show/sell their offerings. Other promotions are geared directly towards buyers. Here is a great article from the Washington Times on some of the various techniques being used. Cover story: Incentives upgraded in down market - Washington Times : The article falls short a bit for Chicago area home buyers and sellers. There are some pitfalls to be avoided. Mortgage underwriting guidelines may limit the types (and amounts) of concessions a buyer can take from a seller. Some concessions can have unintended tax consequences for unsuspecting sellers. Do your homework before agreeing to offer - or accept a seller incentive. Better yet, do your homework, AND che...

Declining property values over the past several years have caused many property owners into reluctant landlords. The difficult lending climate has turned many would-be home buyers into  temporary tenants. Whichever side of the Landlord-Tenant relationship a person finds himself on, at least some familiarity with local landlord-tenant statutes is worth while. City of Chicago landlords and prospective tenants ought to take note of a newly enacted provision of the State of  Illinois Landlord Tenant Statute. Effective New Years Day, 2012, many landlords in Chicago will be obligated to change or re-key locks for incoming tenants. The law APPLIES to: City of Chicago Landlords Who rent residential dwelling units In buildings with 4 or more residential units, OR fewer, if the Landlord does not live in the building.  The law EXEMPTS Owner-occupied buildings with 4 or fewer apartments Written leases that obligate the tenant  to change ...

First American Title Insurance Company announced today that it too will no longer accept third party checks at Chicago area residential real estate closings. They join Chicago Title and PNTN , who already declared an end to the age old practice of telling buyers to bring funds to closing in the form of cashiers checks made payable "to themselves." These net effect of these three announcements (and the many more that are about to follow) is that the rules have changed for ALL local closings... and anyone not keeping abreast is going to have an unfortunate  problem at their next closing. 1st American's notice takes the issue even one step further, and this will be of particular concern and import to real estate lawyers :  First Am will no longer accept third party title insurance company checks either . In other words, Buyers who intend to use the proceeds of a sale to close their next purchase at First American better have a lawyer (or realtor) who is hip to the new ...

Title Companies are changing the way some Buyers are going to need to bring purchase money funds to closing. If these changes are rigidly enforce, the transition is likely to be a rough one and anyone with a purchase or sale closing coming up in the near term should expect a greater likelihood of delays / aggravation.   The long standing "best practice" for having Buyers bring funds to a closing table has been to instruct them  to bring cashiers' checks to a closing table made payable to themselves. Until now, it has  just  the way things have been done my whole career. Back in June , I reported seeing a notice from one of the local Chicago Title offices indicating that CT would require all checks be made payable directly to the title company. At that time, only one or two offices were actually  requiring this, and everything was business as usual. Closing bays at Chicago Title's flagship offices  in Chicago now sport notices that CT will no lo...

Think for a moment about the pure ecstasy of that sweet first lick of ice cream on a hot summer day. Client Kris Swanberg needs your help. Kris is the brains and brawn behind Nice Cream, the reigning champion of Chicago-based artisanal frozen dairy confections. No offense to the late great Kid Millions (i miss you guys a lot). This is the good stuff. Stoopid state regulators are shutting her down for not having a "dairy" license - insisting (suggesting) she is committing for the high crime of using REAL strawberries instead of syrup; PLEASE support Kris & Nice Cream: - Save Chicago Ice Cream!" http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2027922571/estw via @eventbrite Nice Cream works to get back in business

Big news today from Washington, for sellers who would consider offering financing to potential buyers and for lucky souls who's parents or other benevolent freinds or family might consider financing their real estate purchases - HUD announced rules that may actually let you execute on your plans. Shockingly, the  Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008, or  SAFE Act seems to have outlawed these sorts of financing tools.  The SAFE Act established  minimum standards for state  licensing of residential mortgage loan originators in order to increase uniformity, improve  accountability of loan originators, combat fraud, and enhance consumer protections.  but in enacting restrictions on their qualifications and authority, the law included everyone  in the universe who made, or wanted to make, mortgage loans.  The SAFE Act defines “loan originator” to mean  “an individual who takes a residential mortgage loan appl...

I do not really know why I am so fascinated by mortgage fraud, but I just am. Here is a fascinating description of the level of sophistication and determination of the fraudsters. Next time you - or your client - or your client's buyer complains about all the paperwork they need to submit to document their loan applications, consider how much tougher it must be when you are making the stuff up as you go along... 'Next wave' of mortgage fraud strikes | StarTribune .com