URBALO

Ahhh, the green craze!! Some of you probably don’t know, but western European countries have recycled for decades. We, as a nation are running behind, but it is never too late to start. And I am thrilled that developments are competing for the best environmental friendly condo project. I hope people understand that this is not the next “venti - skim - no sugar vanilla - no foam - iced - chai Latte” fad. To be environmentally conscious is almost mandatory. Green is good and it is even better when it increases the value of your home. I am talking about your yard!

After 5 years of hauling sod from Home Depot and planting seeds, and still harboring a mud pit (having a Labrador doesn’t help), I gave up and finally hired a professional to pave my yard. My reaction, the first time I saw it paved was: “Wow, I didn’t realize that my yard is this big.” I spent about $2000 to pave a 400sq ft yard with two-tone pavers, plant climbing ivy to cover the back wall and plant two magnolia bushes. This improvement has just increased the value of my home. The potential buyer will now recognize that my city duplex comes with great outdoor space for entertaining and relaxation, instead of my lab’s paradise mud pit.

As the housing market continues to weaken sellers are starting to make improvements outside the house to give their home a nice curb appeal. Read Full Article ->

I think we all know by now that updating a kitchen or bath can add about 20% value to our home. The word “update” automatically makes us think of granite and stainless steel appliances, right? for all of us who are tired to hear about granite, 1 1/4 inch or not, here is a list of “hot” countertops worth remodeling and showing off with.

• Concrete - many love it because it can be molded in various shapes and cast in large sizes without seams. Cracks and stains easily and it is more expensive.
• Corian - is an acrylic rather than a natural material and it is available in many colors and patterns. It can be fused in large expanses. Stain resistant and cheap Read Full Article ->
  

LoopNet Inc, which operates the largest commercial real estate marketplace online, announced it acquired privately held Cityfeet.com, reported Inman News.

Cityfeet operates an online distribution network for commercial property listings that are sent to more than 100 partners, including the Web sites of The New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News and Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“The combination of LoopNet and City.feet.com will bring great benefits to both LoopNet and Cityfeet customers,” said Richard Boyle, LoopNet’s CEO and president. ” Read Full Article ->

On a lighter note, here is a great event for all of you yoga lovers. Yoga pro or not, attend the Global Mala event on Sunday, September 23 at 9am.
The Global Mala is an international event in which people all over the world will be practicing yoga simultaneously in honor of the UN International Day of Peace, from Hong Kong to Tel Aviv, London to Cape Town, Sydney to the hub event in Los Angeles.

Hundreds of people here in Chicago will be gathered at Grant Park to practice together- this is a great opportunity to get a nice easy workout outside with a number of people who share your passion! If you love the feeling that yoga gives you, just imagined it amplified – this is one of the intended effects of the event. Kind of like a “yoga marathon” but not so strenuous.

The goal is to raise awareness of peace and other issues such as global warming, aids, and refugees of war, and to generate change on an individual level across the globe, literally.

Celebrity participants include Sting, Jennifer Aniston, Christy Turlington, and Russell Simmons to name a few.
For more info go to www.globalmalachicago.info or www.globalmala.org.

CNN reported earlier this morning that hundreds of thousands of homeowners who may struggle to make mortgage payments are likely to get some relief in coming months, including more options to refinance into lower-cost, fixed-rate loans and tax relief if they do face foreclosure.

About 240,000 borrowers of the estimated 2 million with adjustable-rate loans scheduled to reset in the next year already are eligible to refinance into a loan insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) - roughly 80,000 of them are eligible because of the newly created FHASecure Act, which loosens FHA’s criteria for refinancing.

The FHA program has been geared toward home buyers and homeowners with weak credit. Lenders may be more willing to lend to a buyer with shaky credit when the FHA is insuring the loan.

Borrowers with FHA-insured loans - which they get from private lenders as they would any other mortgage - pay a small premium to the FHA every month. The FHA, in turn, uses those premiums to cover the lender in the event of foreclosure and requires lenders to pursue viable ways to help borrowers avoid foreclosure if they become delinquent.

If you are behind on payments by at least four months but no more than 12, the FHA may even make a one-time interest-free loan to you to make your account current with your lender.

It used to be you couldn’t refinance into an FHA loan if you’d been delinquent in your payments for any reason. But with the FHASecure Act, delinquent homeowners qualify for an FHA-insured refi if they have:

• A history of on-time payments for at least six months before their loans reset to higher rates
• Interest rates scheduled to reset between June 2005 and December 2009
• 3 percent equity in their home, or the cash equivalent
• A sustained history of employment
• Sufficient income to make their FHA-insured mortgage payment and all other obligations Read Full Article ->
  

According to a report released by Hitwise in July, the following websites made the “Top 20″ List:

1 Realtor.com

2 RealtyTrac

3 Homegain

4 Rent.com

5 RE/MAX Real Estate

6 Apartments.com

7 Zillow

8 Yahoo! Real Estate

9 MSN Real Estate

10 Move.com Read Full Article ->

How quiet is your Condo? When purchasing a condo in a high-rise, we emphasize location, view and amenities. One very important element we tend to ignore is the noise level. It is usually after closing that we find out at 2:00am that the next door neighbor is taking electric guitar lessons, again. According to Tom Corbett, president of Tomacor Home Inspection, there are ways to protect yourself and your neighbors from excessive noise when purchasing a high-rise condo.

1) Confirm in writing that the developer has installed a sound-deadening assembly of materials. To inhibit sound from passing from the floor above, builders should install a “Z” channel in the ceiling. The “Z” channel is a piece of sheet metal shaped like the letter “Z” that has soft material in the middle that absorbs sound.

2) The builder should leave a gap of about an eighth of an inch between the drywall of ceilings and walls and fill the gap with caulk which absorbs sound vibrations. Read Full Article ->

In a previous article, I have talked about interviewing a realtor and the questions a customer should ask before choosing a real estate agent. Today, I am going to cover the issue that most of the people are having when trying to sell their house: hiring the perfect real estate agent.

Here are some good questions that you should ask all the real estate agents when interviewing them.

1. What is your commission? ( This is probably the most important question)

A very important factor in choosing a real estate agent is the commission that he/she will take from the sale. Most of the time, the commission falls between 5-6% but remember, this is negotiable and you can always try to get it lowered.

2. What’s your sales volume for this year and last year?

This is also important to know because it could tell you how successful and how good of a marketer the realtor is. Remember that even if he/she sold properties with a total amount over 3-4mil, there is a possibility that the realtor did not sell other listings that could have been worth 6 mil or more. Find out why did he have a hard time selling those and ask for specifics.

3. How is my property going to be advertised?

A good brokerage will advertise your property not just on MLS( Multiple Listing Services) but also newspapers, neighborhood postcards, full size brochures. Also, the property should be listed on their own website as well, and if the agents is part of a team, all the team members should advertise that property on their websites. Open houses are a must and the realtor should host them at least 2 times a month. Many large brokerages with good marketing programs will use mass mailings or emails to attract more traffic to your property and increase the number of showings.

Read Full Article ->

The construction work at The Chicago Spire tower has begun already. The new building that will change the Chicago skyline forever is located at 420 E North Water St. On the same note, we have learned that the sales center will be opening in the last week in September.

Read Full Article ->

Roosevelt University will start offering a master’s degree in Real Estate at their Walter E. Heller College of Business. This program applies to women only at this time and is designed to help advance the careers of women in commercial real estate.

The new program provides a stipend or scholarship, career counseling and placement assistance, forums and networking events for as many as 10 women a year who are working toward a master’s degree. The program is funded by a three-year, $300,000 commitment from the Jack and Goldie Wolfe Miller Foundation. According to Ms. Wolfe Miller,

I want more women in high levels of the professional arena in the real estate industry.”

A 2005 nationwide survey by the Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Network, whose local chapter is providing many of the mentors, found some evidence of a glass ceiling in the industry. Only 23% of women with more than 20 years experience surveyed held the title of president, chief executive or chief financial officer, vs. 44% of men surveyed with more than 20 years experience.

For students, the master degrees are often expensive; at private universities, many students take out $50,000 in loans for every year of school. And scholarships and fellowships are rare, unlike doctoral programs, which are usually fully financed by universities. To many, the investment in a master degree is worth it and they are able to pay off their student loans within two years after graduation, due to a higher salary negotiated.

The University of Phoenix, is a school focusing mostly on online education, but it still has 60 branch campuses and around 200,000 students. The school awards over 30,000 master’s degrees in a year, and the number is increasing. The tuition for a master’s degree is also lower than traditional campus-based universities.

The Master Degrees in Real Estate are becoming more and more popular these days and many successful real estate agents are considering them.