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Putting the Fun in Law
Let’s face it — law firms are often considered pretty stale and boring places. Although most things surrounding the law are serious, like big real estate purchaes, there are ways to make the experience less drab and a little more enjoyable. Patrick Loftus understands this more than most lawyers. By taking a highly personal approach with his clients, Patric has found a way around the bore. While most law firms rely on suport staff to be the primary contact with clients, and their clients may not have a single conversation with their lawyer until the day of closing, if ever, that is not the case with Patrick. “Each one of…
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Park District Releases Updated Plans For Renovation of Jackson Park and South Shore Golf Courses
In case you hadn’t heard, Tiger Woods is coming to the south side. Sort of. In 2016, his golf course design company, TGR Design, signed on to oversee the “restoration” of the Jackson Park and South Shore golf courses into a PGA tournament caliber course. However, plans for the restoration released this past June received a mixed response from the public. As a result, TGR went back to the drawing board in an attempt to appease some of the critics. Local residents and long time patrons of the courses had a number of concerns about the plans. First and foremost, they do not want an beautiful course that they can no…
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6 Myths About Homebuying — Translated
I came across an interesting article on Yahoo about “Homebuying Myths” (click here to see the article). The article has some interesting information, but there are some things that I think could be added to make the article more helpful. Here is what I would add — Myth 1 – You don’t need a 20% down payment to buy a home. This is true. In fact, most of my clients do not put down 20% of the purchase price when they buy a home. FHA insured loans require only a 3.5% downpayment, and there are other loan products that require as little as 5% down. However, when you borrow more…
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Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Accusing Zillow of Conducting Appraisal Without License
This is a follow up to my post last week about some of the controversies surrounding the real estate website Zillow. To bring yourself up to speed, click here… Welcome back to the post! At the time of publication a lawsuit was pending against Zillow accusing the website of violating Illinois law by conducting appraisals without a license. The Plaintiff in the lawsuit sought an injunction stopping Zillow from publishing its Zestimates in Illinois, as well as unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. In what could be called a big win for Zillow, Judge Amy St. Eve held today that Zillow is not violating Illinois law, because Zestimates fall into an…
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Is Zillow Helpful or Harmful?
Zillow is a real estate listing website with a twist — each listing has an estimate of the value of the real estate, which Zillow calls a “Zestimate.” That twist has been controversial among homeowners, especially when the Zestimate is lower than expected. In April of this year, a homeowner (and lawyer) in Glenview filed suit against Zillow alleging that the Zestimate for her property is unfairly low and prevented her from selling her property for the market value. The case has since been dismissed, but another lawsuit filed shortly after remains pending in Federal Court, and the larger debate about Zestimates continues to swirl. For its part, Zillow takes…
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Condo Rental Caps – How The Board Can Prevent You From Renting Your Place
Most condo owners prefer that their neighbors are owner-occupants. As a result, many condo boards enact rental restrictions or even outright ban rentals. If validly done, the condo board can levy fines and file lawsuit to stop you from renting your unit. Here is how to determine whether your board’s restrictions are enforceable. Most buildings don’t start off with rental restrictions. Developers want to cast the widest net possible for buyers, which means they want to be able to sell the new units to both owner-occupants and investors. Rental restrictions tend to scare off investors. As a result, rental restrictions tend to be enacted only after the condo board has…
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Per Crain’s: South Works Site Has New Developer On Board
Vacant since 1992, the former U.S. Steel South Works site is set to be purchased by WElink and Barcelona Housing Systems. Both companies specialize in environmentally friendly construction. Thanks to Crain’s Chicago Business for reporting the story. Any comments on how you think this news will affect economic development in South Shore neighborhood are appreciated!
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In Defense of Real Estate Broker Commissions
I hear it all the time from home sellers. “Why do Realtors make so much money?” I’ve heard a few variants on the sentiment, ranging from the more diplomatic, “Realtors don’t seem to do much work to earn their commission,” to the more direct, “this commission is horse s**t!” I submit to you, however, that Realtors more than earn every penny of their commissions. My first point is quite simple — You don’t realize how much work a Realtor actually does. If your Realtor friend goes for spa treatments every day, they are not closing deals — it’s that simple. Prospecting and networking for clients takes a lot of…
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Why Chicago Landlords Should Not Take Security Deposits
I should first and foremost make it perfectly clear that the follow advice is geared specifically toward Chicago (and maybe also Evanston) residential landlords. If you are a commercial landlord, or a residential landlord somewhere else in Illinois, feel free to scroll past this to another blog post, because it does not apply to you. Now that I have the major disclaimer out of the way, let me tell you why it’s a bad idea to accept security deposits in Chicago. The City of Chicago has a law on its books called the Chicago Residential Landlords and Tenants Ordinance (RLTO). The RLTO imposes a number of fairly onerous requirements on…
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Closing Costs Part 4 – Miscellaneous Charges
In the first three installments of my series on closing costs, I addressed real estate tax credits, title charges and lender costs. This fourth, and final, last installment will address the last category of closing costs – everything else. As you review your closing costs with your attorney at the closing table, it may feel like everyone is taking their pound of flesh from the transaction. That is because it is essentially true. Transfer Taxes Whenever you buy or sell real estate, the government sticks its hand in your pocket. The amount of the tax depends largely upon the location of the parcel. The State of Illinois always gets $1 per…
