Some of you know that I just got back from a short trip to see the sites in Warsaw, Poland. Whether it is a good idea to lose and gain 7 hours in the span of 5 days is debatable, the trip was a great success. The best part is that the whole trip cost about $1,000, including airfare. It all starts with something called “flight hacking.” This is not a complicated as it sounds. There are a few tools that are easy to use, which can have you traveling the world for dirt cheap. Scott’s Cheap Flights The best flight hacking tool I have encountered is Scott’s Cheap Flights.…
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Financial Planning In The Era of Marriage Equality
Everyone should have some kind of financial plan. For many people, this does not become clear until they get married and start a family. Once there is more than one person to think about supporting, it becomes fairly obvious that a plan must be in place in order to avoid bad consequences for spouses and kids. Most financial planning instruments were devised before America embraced marriage equality. As a result, these devices and mechanisms make assumptions about families that, in many cases, no longer suit the real world. As a result, it is a good idea to make sure that you have a financial plan in place that will fully…
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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. 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 exception in the Illinois Real Estate Appraiser Licensing Act…
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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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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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Mindfulness & The Law
The topic of mindfulness is near and dear to me. Last year, I was in a bit of a funk when I was fortunate enough to stumble on Dan Harris’s podcast. Some of you may know Dan as the 10% Happier guy. Dan had a man named George Mumford on his podcast. I really liked the way George talked about this thing called mindfulness, so I decided to download is audio book, “The Mindful Athlete,” and my journey began. Mindfulness has a lot of definitions, but perhaps the best is from one of the first people to bring the practice of mindfulness from India to the western world, Jon Kabat-Zinn.…
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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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LoftusLaw Goes To London
In another departure from the topic of real estate, I am pleased to report that LoftusLaw (basically just me) had the honor of spending a week in London, UK soaking in the sites and learning about the UK legal system and the legal traditions we share with our brothers and sisters across the pond. I would like to give a huge thanks to the Chicago Bar Association, and especially Beth McMeen for organizing the trip. It is no small feat to get over 100 attorneys and their guests moving in the same direction for three straight days! The highlight of the trip was a banquet at the Inner Temple Main Hall.…
