the wasserblawg

No snow in the forecast and the earth has not frozen over, but indeed, your Cook County 2011 2nd Installment Property Tax bill is on its way to your mail box and will be due August 1st. First time it is out this early in 40 years. MORE INFORMATION HERE.

by: Michael Wasserman Here is a really great article from a blog over at Zillow detailing some of the potential pitfalls of buying recently rehabbed / "flip" properties. Flipping is a "term of art" used to describe an investor's quick sale following the purchase of a home or condo, (hopefully with a tidy profit earned in the process).  There have been many reports in the media these days about  "flipping" properties, mostly touting them as investment opportunities, and the massive profit potential they offer. Six years ago, those flips would have started with  pre-construction condo purchases, resold shortly after the properties were completed. These days, almost all the flips I see involve the "rehabilitation" of foreclosed or otherwise distressed real estate. (Including, ironically enough, flips of those new-construction condos from years gone by). From a Sellers' point of view, there are great opportunities for profit here. I hav...

Mark Greene at Forbes Magazine nailed it earlier this month in his article the perfect loan file , which really does capture the rigor with which lenders are scrutinizing every mortgage loan application these days. In my opinion, this should be mandatory reading for every buyer in the marketplace now. Lenders demands for proper / acceptable supporting documentation can be pretty daunting.  I see many clients with qualifying income and credit scores being driven to tears by the excruciating process. In recent weeks more than a couple have simply quit. Some are using all cash to make their deals, avoiding the hassle altogether. Others are giving up their dreams of home ownership. If I never hear a loan originator ask for (or a client complain about) "just one more thing,"  I will be a happy man. Certainly understandable that lenders are being  very  cautious while processing their loans applications. No one wants to see loan failures given the s...

For a second consecutive year, I pledge to donate a portion of my fee from each successful Chicago area real estate closing that I work on to a worthy charitable organization.  Clients designate the specific recipient from a list of ten pre-approved organizations and all donations are made in their honor. The Thanks to You program is intended to both express gratitude to the clients that hire me, and to help build a stronger community for us all. Together last year, we pledged more than $4,000 to organizations supporting better education, better health, and the fine arts. This year should be even better.   I am pleased to announce the finalized list 2012 grant recipients: WORKING IN THE SCHOOLS - Promotes literacy and the love of reading among low-income and minority students in Chicago Public Schools by providing one-on-one tutoring and mentoring. READING IN MOTION - Provides at-risk children from Kindergarten through 3rd grade with the key...

A home being offered for sale was the site of a grizzly murder-suicide. Is the Seller obligated to warn prospective Buyers? A recent decision from Pennsylvania held that (at least in that Commonwealth) the answer is yes. Back in 2008 , we reviewed an Alaska court opinion in which a Buyer's lawsuit against a Seller was dismissed. In that case, the home's former occupant's badly decomposed body was discovered   long after her death. The Sellers said nothing to the Buyer. The Buyer sued the Seller, but the Court turned that claim down. Working with an equally gruesome set of facts, a Pennsylvania Superior Court has held otherwise, upholding a Buyer's right to sue her Sellers and the real estate agents on both sides of the transaction  for failing to disclose a murder/suicide that took place in the house for sale.   Milliken v. Jacono, 2011 PA Super. 254 The crime in question took place in 2006. Konstantinos Doumboulis,...

The tax man cometh. Cook County first installment property tax bills should be hitting mail boxes everywhere this week. The bills will be due and payable by March 1st . Taxpayers are reminded that the first installment bills are being sent out now, even though the County does not know how much is actually owed. These are "estimated" bills. For now, bills are simply computed based on a percentage of last year's tariff. A law change enacted in 2009 raised the estimated amount due from 50% to 55%.  The final reckoning will not be announced until later this fall. In theory , those final bills will be mailed out at the beginning of August and will be due September 3rd. The actual due dates may be (and typically are) much later. Our County is notorious for tardy tax bills. Last year's final installments were due in November. Bills paid in 2010 were so late that they were not due until December!  The Second Installment due dates vary because they are computed based on th...

Homeowners are not always "out of the woods" once their home is lost to foreclosure or sold by "short sale."  Foreclosures and short sales remove  the mortgage  lien  from a property, but do not eliminate the debt  described in the note or loan agreement, or it's promise to repay the debt in full. That remaining balance due is the "deficiency." Contrary to public perception, banks are not only allowing short sales and completing foreclosures,  but they are still looking to borrowers to satisfy deficiencies well after closing. The Illinois Appellate Court has started the new year with a "win" for mortgage lenders . The Court confirmed  a bank's right to pursue it's borrower for everything that was due and owing, over and above the recovery from a foreclosure sale. Banks can be awarded deficiency judgments  as long as borrowers are given proper notice of the fact that they were being sued.   This case held specifically that ...