Chicago Suburb Real Estate & Area Guide

Happy Homer Glen Home Buyers

judyorr@gmail.com (Judy Orr) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:35:06 -0500

We found the buyers for 14459 Abbott Rd., Homer Glen. They were first-time buyers and we worked hard to get them a great price on their Homer Glen home. We saved them $22,400 off of list price, and this was not a short sale or foreclosure. We go to bat for our buyers and we've saved buyers thousands of dollars over the years. Buyers - if you're looking for a property in the southwest suburbs we're your team. Judy Orr has 29 years experience and her husband, James Herter, is her team mate. We are full-time agents and we fully represent you and your best interests in what could be the biggest financial decision you've ever made. We educate first-time buyers and try to make purchasing a home as fun and stress-free as possible. Sellers - we have many means of attracting buyers. We can't guarantee we'll sell your home or if we'll attract a buyer working with another agent, but we do a lot to attract buyers to our listings, whether they call us or come with the agent they're working with. We make your home look fantastic with our photos, we create a website just for your home and we do much more. We have top Google placement for the most searched words in the areas we service. Buyers come to our website and do their searches and we convert many of them. Give us a call at 708-536-8200 or contact us.

Homer Glen Homes Under $200,000

judyorr@gmail.com (Judy Orr) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 17:34:22 -0600

The average sales price for Homer Glen homes in 2011 was $317,170, so anything priced under $200,000 should be considered a bargain for the area. If you're a first-time buyer some of these homes might be nice little starter homes. They might also work out for those empty nesters that are downsizing. But there will be some larger homes at discount prices that are short sales or foreclosures. Homes in this price range can go quickly and we're starting to see multiple offers. A good priced foreclosure has always brought in multiple offers for the most part but we're showing good buyer activity right now. I'm seeing more buyers sitting on the fence wondering if they should make an offer and the property already sold. Again, it happens more in the lower price range of any town. Right now there are 9 homes in Homer Glen priced $200,000 or under. Some of these might already have an offer, but technically our MLS considers them in Active status (even though it is Contingent) until it goes Deal Pending or is Closed. You can tell the home's status by looking under "Essential Information" to the left and all the way down to "Status." If it says Contingent then you will probably have to wait for the deal to fall apart and the listing to be reactivated.

Homer Glen Real Estate 2011 Sales Statistics

judyorr@gmail.com (Judy Orr) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:41:45 -0600

The table below shows the difference between the sale of Homer Glen homes in 2011 vs. 2010. # of Homes Sold % Change Average Sale Price % Change 2011 2010 2011 2010 139 128 8.6% $317,170 $336,531 -5.8% Like many surrounding suburbs, the amount of sales went up in 2011 compared to 2010. There was an 8.6% increase in single family Homer Glen homes sold. Like many other towns Homer Glen showed a 5.8% decrease in average sales price. Some areas are showing double digit decreases so it could be worse, but prices are still dropping. This means that if you're a buying in Homer Glen this is a great time to make that purchase with current low interest rates and low prices. No one knows when we'll reach bottom, but I am super busy with buyers right now and if buyers continue purchasing at this pace prices will stabilize at some point. A nearby town, Palos Park, showed a price increase so it is happening already in some villages. Click the link to see updated Homer Glen real estate sales statistics from 2005 to the present for both detached and attached properties. Call Judy Orr or James Herter at 708-536-8200 if you're ready to start looking at properties in Homer Glen or any other southwest suburb.

Lots of News for 2012

judyorr@gmail.com (Judy Orr) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:24:57 -0600

Lots of "News" for 2012 For the first time in a while I feel optimistic for the upcoming year. We are busier than normal at this time of year, so I feel 2012 will be even better, and might show a quicker start to the selling season. We have some new things coming up and I'd like to briefly go over them here. There's a new team in town I have already introduced my husband Jimmy Herter and my son Matt Orr. Jimmy got licensed last year and is now a Broker. My son Matt has helped us out on and off over the years and he has committed to giving us more time. Matt is our "new" photographer with his new camera. Our photos have always received compliments from happy sellers, but we've now kicked them up a notch. We have a new newsletter Every year I start out writing my custom newsletters and do good sending them out until things get busy and I can't keep up. I've actually gotten phone calls asking me where the newsletter is? I was happy that they were missed, but I felt guilty not being able to keep up. We have decided to set a goal of a quarterly snail mail newsletter and we will keep in touch with our friends, family, past and future clients in other ways during the year. Because my newsletters are created by me, it takes up a lot of time. I haven't found a pre-made canned newsletter that I would want to send. So we'll commit to 4 a year and if it runs smoothly with our new team we might increase that to 6 issues a year. We'd love to be able to put one out every month but I have other ideas for mailers so we'll see how it goes. We have a new territory About a year ago we moved from Oak Lawn to the Homer Glen/Orland Park area. We have an Orland Park address but we're truly in Homer Glen. We've always worked in this area but it was on the perimeter of how far we'd go. Now it is our back yard and we want to focus on this area for new listings. If you live outside the general area (our main towns will be Homer Glen homes, Lemont, Lockport, Mokena, Orland Hills, Orland Park and Palos Park), don't think we can't work with you. Call us first and let us know where you're looking to buy and/or sell and if we can't help you we will find you a great local agent who will. We have a new marketing plan Customer service and thinking out-of-the-box has always been our modus operandi, and we have put together an unsurpassed marketing program for our listings. We'll be writing about some of them in the future and introduce our techniques individually. The new year is almost here! This year flew by (don't we always say that). We are excited to put our new plans and systems into action as a cohesive team in 2012. If you are thinking of buying and/or selling please give us a call at 708-536-8200 or use our Contact Form.

Why Agents Need Advance Notice to Set Showing Appointments

judyorr@gmail.com (Judy Orr) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:09:55 -0600

Real estate agents know that it can be fun and exciting viewing potential homes that you might be interested in purchasing. When you find a home online, in an automated e-mail or driving down the street, you might want to see it right now. However, even if it is a vacant home, we still need to make an appointment with the listing office. If you want to view several homes, we need time to set up a logical route, put a viewing time on each one and then call each individual listing office. We need to be in our offices to print up the listing sheets before we can even work on setting up the appointments. Although we can use our smart phone, tablet or laptop on the road if necessary, it isn't that easy if there are multiple properties to set up. If you reach us when we're out of our office, we most likely will need to get back in order to set up appointments, especially if there are more than one. Sometimes we have to contact individual agents who set their own appointments, and we usually get their voice mail. I don't understand why a busy agent would set their own appointments, but some do, and we are at their mercy of when they're going to listen to our voicemail and then they have to call the owners if the home is occupied. I've had agents not call me back at all and I had to chase them down. That's another story I've written blog posts about before. I doubt their sellers know that they're missing out on showings because of the way their agents set appointments on their own. At Classic Realty Group we have office staff that set our appointments during our business hours. If the home is vacant, I usually use the automatic showing system that is built into the MLS. Our sellers will only miss out on showings if they're not available. Busy agents might already be working with their buyer or seller clients when you're interested in seeing a home. That's why we also need advance notice, so we can set aside enough time to show you properties without rushing you through. We want you to take your time viewing properties and that's how we treat all of our buyer clients. If you want to see a home please give Judy Orr or Jimmy Herter a call or text at 708-536-8200 and we'll do our best to get you in as quickly as possible. We show homes in Homer Glen, Lemont, Mokena, Orland Hills, Orland Park, Palos Park and most southwest suburbs.

Buyers Losing Homes By Taking Too Long to Decide

judyorr@gmail.com (Judy Orr) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:58:00 -0500

A buyer recently sent me a list of Palos Park homes she wanted to view. When I started setting up appointments I was told that one of the homes just accepted an offer and there would be no further showings. I relayed this to my buyer, who was very upset because it was the top choice on her list. This is a buyer who has been viewing properties online for a long time. They just started actually going out and viewing homes, although they are not in a hurry. I have seen this happening with buyers more this and last year than ever before. These buyers are looking for homes part-time. Some go out once a month, some a little more and some even less. When you're only sporadically looking for homes you can miss the best deals. Even in a slow buyer's market in the southwest suburbs, the good homes priced correctly are selling. So when you only go out to look once in a while, you're probably viewing the homes that continue to sit on the market, while the best deals are being scooped up by motivated buyers that are out there looking and ready to write an offer. I never push buyers to purchase before they're ready. But it does get frustrating when a buyer is so upset that a house they were very interested in sells because they felt they had all the time in the world and the house would be available until they were ready. Yes, there is much more inventory than buyers looking, but if the house shows the best in its price range, one of those other buyers will probably like it too. If they're ready to buy and you really aren't, you're going to miss out on all the best listings.

6 Month Activity for Homer Glen, Lemont, Orland Park and Surrounding Suburbs

judyorr@gmail.com (Judy Orr) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:03:37 -0500

I recently shared 1st half of 2011 sales activity for only 4 neighboring towns and decided to add more towns in my service area. The table below will show sales activity for the 1st half of 2011 for single family Homer Glen homes, Lemont, Lockport, Mokena, New Lenox, Orland Hills, Orland Park and Palos Park. # of Houses Sold Average Sale Price Town Sold YRD Sold YRD YOY Avg Price Avg Price YOY 2011 2010 % Chg 2011 2010 % Chg Homer Glen 68 81 -16.1% $321,950 $334,765 -3.8% Lemont 55 58 -5.2% $383,940 $368,418 4.2% Lockport 86 134 -35.8% $176,621 $202,241 -12.7% Mokena 58 55 5.5% $305,268 $334,138 -8.6% New Lenox 87 96 -9.4% $241,805 $264,404 -8.6% Orland Hills 16 25 -36% $178,078 $196,206 -9.2% Orland Park 126 151 -16.6% $317,157 $345,934 -8.3% Palos Park 17 27 -37% $320,558 $369,345 -13.2% As you can see from the above chart, Lockport, Orland Hills and Palos Park took more than a 30% downtown in the amount of homes sold for the first half of 2011 compared to 2010. Lemont homes were the only real estate that actually appreciated in value. Home values should be more important to a home owner than amount of homes sold, although that also shows us supply and demand, and there is too much inventory vs. qualified buyers. If you have a home to sell in any of the above towns please give the team of Judy Orr and Jimmy Herter a call at 708-536-8200. We have an unsurpassed marketing plan and would love to share it with you.

Save Money on A Home Purchase With a VA Home Loan

judyorr@gmail.com (Judy Orr) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:34:31 -0500

Save Money on A Home Purchase With a VA Home Loan Home loans are presently at an all-time low. Currently, lenders are able to issue new purchase, refinance and FHA loans at rates that were previously unheard of. These rates are a result of the economic crash and housing market crash of 2008, and allow first-time homeowners, veterans and everybody else to purchase or refinance a home at prices and rates that have never before been seen. While this is great news for those who are currently looking for a new home, home buying gets even better for those who have worked in the Armed Forces and have served to protect our country and its freedom. Those who have been in the Armed Forces are eligible to receive a VA Home Loan. This is a special loan that allows honorably discharged servicemen and women to purchase a home at an even lower rate than what the public is able to qualify for. While there are certain limitations to VA loans and a special process to obtain one, these loans are a great way for veterans of the military to provide a home for their families. There are a few qualifications one must meet to receive a VA home loan. First, one must have served in the US armed forces and have received a DD214. A DD214 certifies that the holder served honorably in the US Armed Forces. Once the DD214 is obtained, interested homebuyers can find a VA specific lender who can help them find out what their loan limit will be. Be careful, however, as not all lenders are qualified to write VA loans. Lenders who deal with VA loans will be specially certified and licensed to issue this kind of loan. VA Loans are quite simple and their limitations are easy to understand. Qualified buyers may borrow up to $719,000 with no down payment for the purchase of a new home, and this amount may be increased up to $1,094,625 in areas that are specially constituted as “high-cost counties.” VA loans allow the buyer to borrow up to 103% of the total purchase price, and the buyer is not required to purchase private mortgage insurance. There are a few fees associated with a VA loan, but they will never be more than 3.15% of the total purchase price. In addition, these fees may be rolled in to the amount of the loan and paid off over time. For those who currently own a home and also qualify for a VA loan, they have the option of refinancing to lower their loan interest rate. These refinances may be part of a “streamline” refinance that allows the homeowner to save time and money on the creation of a new loan. The streamline option allows a new home loan to be created without many of the hassles of a traditional refinance, such as a home appraisal. Homeowners are able to take advantage of these expedited refinances and lower their interest rates to the level that are currently being given to new VA home loan buyers. Refinancing a property can potentially save a homeowner thousands of dollars over the life of their loan. No matter your buying circumstances, if you are looking for a home or currently own a home, a VA loan is the best option if you qualify. With the available financing options and lowest rates in history, consider purchasing or refinancing your home. This post was written by Jessica Markam of MilitaryVALoan.com. If you are interested in finding a VA lender in your area, visit MilitaryVALoan.com.

Why Don't Sellers Want to Accept Your Contingent on Sale Offer?

judyorr@gmail.com (Judy Orr) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 22:48:55 -0500

We are in the worst market I have experienced since I started in the business in 1983. My welcome to real estate was interest rates that shot up to 18% and even higher. There was a lot of creative finacing out there, and homes were still being purchased. The good news is that those high rates didn't last very long, and the market got back to normal much quicker than what we are experiencing today. There are way too many homes up for sale than buyers that can qualify for a mortgage. The lower priced homes are in competition with a slew of foreclosures and short sales so it's very hard to compete. If those sellers cannot sell their homes then they can't move up to the next home. It is a vicious circle, where you have to be priced really well and your house must show beautifully in order to hope to get an offer. Buyers have so much to look at, you have to be the cream of the crop. So let's say you want to sell your current home, and it really doesn't matter what price range it falls in - they're all hurting. You have to sell your current home before you can purchase the next one, but you want to get out and start looking so you have an idea of what is out there in your price range. You find a wonderful home and want to make an offer. But there's one problem, your house isn't sold yet. A seller does not want to take up marketing time with a Contingent on Sale contract that might never come to fruition. The seller and their agent cannot guess how long it could take to sell your home, so they don't want to put their home in Contingent status since that will keep most prospective buyers away. They could wait months for you to sell your place and if you don't, the sellers have to start over. It is much better to sell your home and then go out looking. Now you would have a Contingent on Close offer, which is a step above Contingent on Sale. You have your buyer and should have a normal closing time frame, which will hopefully coincide with the purchase of your next home. The problem would be if your buyer could not qualify or your home doesn't appraise and the sale becomes null and void. But some sellers will take this risk in this slow market. Many buyers that have to sell first are afraid they won't be able to find anything quickly enough, or they'll end up settling on something that is not what they desired just to find somewhere to move to when they close on their home. In my opinion, there is enough inventory that a motivated buyer should be able to find something. When my husband and I searched for our Scottsdale AZ townhome, we had 3 days to look. In those 3 days we actually found 4 places we would have been happy with. I guess we're not the norm, but this is a risk you might need to take if you have to sell something first. I've been meeting more and more buyers that need to sell first. Some understand that they need to get a buyer for their home before a seller will negotiate with them. Others are surprised that they will most likely not be successful with a Contingent on Sale offer. But would those same sellers want to accept a Contingent on Sale offer on their property? I would suggest that they don't because of the reasons I already stated. If you would like to sell your Homer Glen home or any other home in the southwest suburbs, give Judy Orr a call at 708-536-8200. Judy can help you sell your current property and purchase your next one.

Tips For Buyers Searching For Properties

judyorr@gmail.com (Judy Orr) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:33:32 -0500

This post will teach you how to save yourself time and money as a real estate buyer in today's huge inventory of properties up for sale. There might be 50 or more properties for sale in your price range, but you don't need to view all 50 to find your home. You can start your search online using my MLS search (set for Orland Park single family homes, but you can change it to whatever town(s) or property types you want) or the searches of other property portals. The very best way to search is to have me create an Automated E-mail Search that sends listings directly to your e-mail from the MLS. OK, now you've got the listings in your price range and with your amenities. Depending on how many listings are available, you now need to sift through them to try to get the listings that would best fit you. Here are some things that can come up. As an agent, I work with many buyers and sellers at any given time. I don't always have time to sift through listings for buyers, especially when I start working for them. So here are some items that come up that buyers can learn about to help them eliminate listings they would never consider. How to use those listing print-outs One thing I hear the most is how certain rooms are too small. I'm told how the king sized bedroom set would not fit in any of the bedrooms, or the dining room or family room is not large enough. You can quickly learn different room sizes that are too small for you, and you need to then check the room sizes on the online or MLS print-outs. If one of those important rooms is too small for your needs, then there is no reason to view that home. I realize that sometimes you can put on additions or knock down walls, but in today's market it usually makes more sense to find a home where you don't have to do all that, unless you're considering a very low priced foreclosure. Check those real estate taxes! There are new construction homes that foreclosed and are priced in first-time buyer price ranges, but carry huge real estate tax amounts. I showed a newer home priced at $175,000 with over $8,000 in real estate taxes! My clients could afford the home, but they were not interested in paying those high taxes. That was our first time out together, and I made sure that there was a cap put on the real estate taxes in their automated search. If you're looking at condos, townhomes or single family homes that have a Home Owner's Association and fees, you need to check out the monthly or annual fees and see what they cover. When my husband and I bought our Scottsdale, AZ townhouse, we didn't want to pay high maintenance fees since it was a 2nd home. If you would not consider paying $500.00 a month in maintenance fees, then there is no reason to view that property. Use the maps. I can't always tell if a house backs up to a busy street or if it is close to a train track, electrical power lines or commercial buildings. Although you can usually tell if a home is located on a corner, the address doesn't always convey that. Using the satellite or terrain map features provided on my website search or the automated MLS search, you can see what is around the property. This really helped us with our Scottsdale townhouse search. We only wanted properties that were very close to the pool. That really helped us narrow down the properties to look at during the 3 days we had for our search, and we ended up liking any one of four units we saw. This also helps buyers see whether a corner house has any kind of back yard, or how a house is situated on the lot. Some homes are situated on the back of the lot, and many buyers would not buy that home. Speaking of the lot, check the lot size of every listing you're considering. If there is no way you'd consider a 25' wide lot, then don't waste your time looking at the house on it. Same goes for those buyers that don't want a lot of yard work. If you don't want to take care of a half acre or higher lot, then take it off the list. Look at all of those photos and virtual tours. I know they can be deceiving and most homes look smaller than the pictures convey, but they will give you an idea of updates, paint colors, flooring, etc. Some of these items can more easily be changed, but you might see an outdated kitchen or bathroom that you don't want to deal with, or a house with old wallpaper on every wall. Check out where rooms are located in the house. I've shown homes where the kitchen is in the lower level. I showed a beautiful Tinley Park townhouse where there was one bedroom on the upper level, the master bedroom on the main floor and the 3rd bedroom was in the basement. That might be perfect for someone without children or with older kids, but not the best set-up for a family with younger children where they'd prefer to be on the same level. By checking room locations, you will be able to see if the floor plan is acceptable for your situation. Keep in mind, bathrooms do not show locations, with the exception of master bath info (you can check the floor location of the master bath). Also, as far as I am aware, room locations are only visible on automated searches directly from the MLS – not from a website search. Check for pools. That might not turn up on a website search, but should be shown on an MLS print-out. I've had buyers that were unpleasantly surprised to find built-in pools, something they would not want. Many don't want any kind of pool, but above ground pools can be taken down easier than filling in a built-in pool. I think searching for a new home is fun. We bought our Scottsdale townhouse over 2 years ago and we purchased our Orland Park home last year. Sometimes we can't tell a home's floor plan by reading about it and we know some listing agents don't put many pictures up. You are going to see homes you are not interested in, but you can lessen your physical search by really reading those property descriptions and eliminating the homes you would never consider purchasing. If you're interested in buying a home in the southwest suburbs give me, Judy Orr, a call at 708-536-8200 or use my Contact Form.