Whenever a client hires our firm in connection with a Cook County real estate purchase or sale, one of the first things we do is check out the Assessor's web site. The property search function provides homebuyers, owners, and the professionals that represent them with data points that can be critical to their deals. We are on this site every day.
It's October! Where are the Cook County property tax bills? If you pay the bill directly, you may have been wondering if they forgot you. They didn't. It's not just you. The bills for the second installment of Cook County property taxes (generally due August 1) have not been finalized yet. Earlier this year, we expected tax bills to be sent by the ...
My phone rings. It’s Amanda, a client in the last steps of buying a house with her husband James. She’s calling as they take the final walk-through before the closing the next day. I hear the upset in her voice as she tells me,
From the first call, the pain in the seller’s voice was apparent. The caller sounded tired, worried and a little scared, describing
On May 13, 2022, Governor Pritzker signed the Illinois House Bill 4322. This bill updates the Ilinois Residential Real Property Disclosure Act by: adding a 24th disclosure, changing the timing of disclosures, allowing email or e-delivery, and changing which sellers need to make disclosures.
These changes went into effect immediately—as soon as Pritzker lifted his pen off the paper.
As a real estate attorney, the heart of my
My boss gave me no notice. No briefing. No training. The ‘file’ was a crumpled copy of the purchase contract that he tossed at me as he said, “This is the buyer’s first home and the most important thing in his life right now. He is also my car mechanic. That makes it important to me too.”
Sure, I studied real estate in law school, but that was four years earlier.
As of March 1, 2022, there will be a change in the Disclosure of Financial Interest form that Illinois title insurance producers (sellers’ lawyers, some brokerages, etc.) must provide to consumers as they contemplate title insurance. These ‘producers’ include our firm.
The new disclosure form will:
I'm talking about naming names on purchase and sale contracts. The standard forms give you room to identify the deal participants – buyer and seller, natch. Yourselves. The lender. The homeowners' association. And yes, us lawyers too.
Adding the lawyers' name lets us all
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 defects or deficiencies until they are made habitable. Not until the work is complete. And paid for.
Fannie Mae is calling on its lenders and their appraisers to ferret these buildings out. To shut off the money supply for loans into those associations. Once problems are identified, no acquisition loans. Not even loans already in the pipeline. No re-fi’s. Owners will be “stuck” with the inevitable special assessments and will have fewer avenues to raise funds by selling or pulling out home equity.
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 is tight. Need a fresh start. Almost seems too good to be true. Or maybe luck is smiling down, finally.
You know who I am talking about...
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 signedby Michael H. Wasserman
The sun sets majestically over your new vacation home. Your attention focuses on the gentle wind blowing thru the trees. 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, which puzzles you. You’ve never once set foot on their land, barely even know which place is theirs.
Whew. Real estate buyers, sellers and professionals all exhaled with relief last Friday. After lobbying from the mortgage industry, the Treasury Department has deemed Internal Revenue Service clerks (who process lending forms) as "essential" employees. Which means they can get back to
So, how does a home buyer or real estate investor know where to find the best opportunities for property appreciation in Chicago?
Most folks ask friends for their recommendations for agents—and you can ask us too. Yet once you land on a name (or more), it comes down to asking the right questions.
Discrimination is an ugly, pervasive problem. Even in real estate. Americans have come a long way over the course of history, but we still have work to do, especially in Chicago. I can think of at least three areas that need work: the undervaluing of many minority-owned properties, the over-taxing of Cook County's poorer neighborhoods, and the bias against minority homebuyers in automated mortgage underwriting.
As with any problem, these topics need needs to be examined, talked about and understood until we find effective solutions…and can
Working thru divorce, foreclosure, domestic violence, discrimination claims (and really, most legal matters) often involves complex procedures, strict timelines, and—of course—tons of paperwork. Jumping thru all the right hoops can be exasperating...more-so for folks on limited incomes and even worse for those in rural areas. Have no fear, Illinois Legal Aid Online is here.
One thing we don’t love about Chicago is its literacy problem. Our city has one of the lowest adult literacy rates in the country. Thankfully, Reading in Motion works hard to reverse this trend by helping our youngest students learn to read in some
By Michael Wasserman
In 2017, the FBI reported that wire transfer fraud was up 480% in real estate transactions. It’s a frightening number.
Yet more and more, I’ve heard that real estate lawyers won’t discuss transfer instructions with clients—that they leave it
The HRRA gives homeowners civil remedies against reckless contractors. It’s extra protection
Equifax, one of the big three credit reporting agencies announced that a massive security breach took place earlier this year. Offenders accessed data sets of 143
There are a couple of things ALL home owners should know about their abodes. The wonderful Art of Manliness blog hits this point very well in a recent post identifying spots in the home that every owner should be familiar with for safety and maintenance
From streamlining the look and including reviews to adding photos of our team, we’ve made it easier to help sellers, buyers and brokers understand how we get them to the closing table on time, as planned.