I love this home on Cook Street. It is a little over-the-top, but it’s large open lot and spacious porch make it warm and inviting. I would love to sip lemonade on the front stoop and watch people walk into town. My father-in-law grew up on Cook Street, and I like to [...]
Archive for July, 2008
Filed under buyers
What Matters Most when Buying a Home?
Every night when you drive home from work and turn into your neighborhood, down your street, past your neighbors’ lawns and driveways, you will think to yourself, “oh, I love this area” or “ugh, why don’t those idiots in the blue house ever mow their lawn?”
You can change the look of just about everything in [...]
Comments Off Laura on Jul 25th 2008
Filed under sellers
You Gotta Be Hip to Sell
Green laminate counter-tops were probably never a good idea. Still, in the preppie hey-day of 1986, you may have been able to get away with them. Today, they will cost you both market time and money. They have to go.
The following list re-states the obvious, but sometimes it is difficult to view [...]
Comments Off Laura on Jul 21st 2008
Filed under random
What are You Doing this Weekend?
I am working this weekend. I am taking out buyers on Saturday and Sunday, and I also have an open house. Actually, I am pretty happy to be working. A lot of my fellow Realtors are lamenting what is turning out to be a long, dry summer for the real estate market. [...]
Comments Off Laura on Jul 18th 2008
Filed under random
Is the Housing Market Getting Better or Worse?
Is that even a reasonable question? One could respond, which housing market? -i.e., the one here in the Northwest Suburbs or the one in Miami, Florida? They’re totally different markets.
Real estate markets are largely local phenomena which depend on fundamentals like access to jobs, regional employment, types of local industry and the desirability [...]
Comments Off Laura on Jul 17th 2008
Filed under random
Say It Isn’t So
Fortune Magazine is calling the current state of affairs at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac The $5 Trillion Dollar Mess . . .It looks like we won’t know what is going on until the markets open tomorrow morning and the business week begins to unfold.
I was just feeling good about a busy open house this [...]
Comments Off Laura on Jul 13th 2008
I have seen so many crazy pictures on the MLS. I wish I could publish them, but I don’t want to get sued. I think many people would be surprised by what passes as marketing. I’ve seen a family room picture with a man drinking beer and smoking a cigarette in a [...]
Comments Off Laura on Jul 12th 2008
Below, I’ve listed first quarter price information for Barrington and neighboring suburbs*. In order to get a broader picture of current market conditions, compare this data with my post on the first quarter for Cook and Lake Counties and May Market Statistics.
Barrington: first quarter prices were up 5.83% over quarter one prices in 2007; sales [...]
Comments Off Laura on Jul 8th 2008
