Real Estate in Barrington & The Northwest Suburbs: August 2010

Are You Relocating to Chicago Illinois? Forget The City-Come to The Country!

Without doubt there are a lot of families around the country in the throws of relocating. This maybe because your employer wants you to move to their facility in another city, it may be because your new job was only available in another city, or you may just be coming home.



If you are relocating to Chicago Illinois it's unlikely you'll actually move into the city of Chicago itself, although a few of you might. The city of Chicago houses about 3 million people but the suburbs are even bigger. Many people who work downtown in the city itself live out in the suburbs, so how are you going to decide which suburb is right for you?

Perhaps you lived here before so have some knowledge of Chicago-land as we call it. Maybe your job is not in the city in which case you'll focus on areas close-by. If you are Relocating to Chicago Illinois or the northwest suburbs, let me invite you to a place called Barrington.



I selected Barrington as the place to live when I was Relocating to Chicago Illinois back in 1996 from the UK. Barrington is a suburb of Chicago about 35 miles northwest of the city but unlike other suburbs which have rows of tract housing on standard lots you'll realize what I mean when I say come to the country.

Here is why Barrington is more like the country.

• We have 75 square miles of beautiful open countryside.
• You'll find homes on 1, 2 3, 5, 10 acres or more.
• There are many forest preserves and conservation areas.
  
• Our primary color is green, there are thousands of trees.
  
• Take the kids on a bike ride not along the sidewalk but down the long winding bike paths.
• We have creeks, rivers, ponds and lakes of all sizes.
• Wherever you are you're not far from a park to play ball or fly kites.
• As you drive around the countryside of Barrington you'll need to watch for our horses.
• If you love wildlife we have plenty: White Tailed Deer, Raccoons, Sand Hill Cranes, Coyotes, Squirrels, Birds, Possums, Groundhogs, Rabbits.
  
• You can visit our village at the center of our large area of real estate-quaint and Victorian.
• No high-rises - just hot air balloons can be seen in our skies.
  

So if you are Relocating to Chicago Illinois, I would love to show you why I picked the suburb of Barrington as my home town.

Contact:

Corinne Guest
Barrington, IL Realtor®/ Royal Advocate Realty
Info@CorinneGuest.com
(847) 363-3686

More information can be found at my Barrington IL Real Estate website. Research all the villages of Barrington, Deer Park, Inverness and Tower Lakes. Search all the Barrington Homes For Sale with no registration required. Sign up for new listings by email.

Providing buyers agent real estate services in the communities of the Barrington Villages, Palatine, Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Long Grove and Kildeer.

Copyright 2010 Corinne Guest All Rights Reserved  - * Are You Relocating to Chicago Illinois? Forget The City-Come to The Country! *

Get Some Skin In The Game or Avoid Short Sales in Barrington and Palatine

Short sales. Should you buy one in Palatine or Barrington?

In case you have no idea about short sales the simple overview is this. The homeowner must sell and cannot fully repay his mortgage loans. So he will ask them to approve the sale and receive less. i.e. short

So should you, can you and will you buy one. Much of this question depends on your personal circumstances so seek the advice and counselling of your Realtor for Palatine or Barrington. They can be long drawn out and often complex transactions. Any Realtor that has no experience of short sales might well create a problem for you, not willingly but just because of a lack of experience and guidance. As the broker of my company if my agents need assistance they know they can count on me to help them with short sales because I have been doing them now for three years.

So what do I mean by getting some skin in the game? There are some very simply rules when it comes to short sales which make them no different in Palatine or Barrington Illinois to any other home purchase.

1. The contract is between the buyer and seller, not the buyer and the banks.
2. The contract is binding at signature, not when the banks approve the sale.
3. The clock starts ticking immediately with regard to contingencies, the banks approval is a contingency.

What does this mean to you the short sale buyer?

1. You must have your attorney approval done in the contract stated 5 business days.
2. You must have any property inspections done in the contract stated 5 business days.
3. You should apply for your mortgage as soon as possible, but certainly within the contract stated 10 business days.

Where's the skin? Money. Simply...Money. You must show your commitment to the purchase, hire your attorney, pay your home inspector/s, write the check for your loan application. Be ready to close.

If you do not want to put skin in the short sale game here in Barrington and Palatine, then do not put offers on my short sale listings. I am not going to have you pull out in 6 months after the bank says yes, because you then found a problem on the home inspection that you did not care to deal with. You have caused my client to wait and anguish through six months hoping to sell only to find you are the cause of his foreclosure.

Thank you but we will wait for a buyer who is committed.

To buy or sell short sales in Palatine - Barrington - Lake Zurich and surrounding areas, let me help. I have the experience and close my short sales.

Contact:

Corinne Guest
Barrington, IL Realtor®/ Royal Advocate Realty
Info@CorinneGuest.com
(847) 363-3686

More information can be found at my Barrington IL Real Estate website. Research all the villages of Barrington, Deer Park, Inverness and Tower Lakes. Search all the Barrington Homes For Sale with no registration required. Sign up for new listings by email.

Providing buyers agent real estate services in the communities of the Barrington Villages, Palatine, Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Long Grove and Kildeer.

Copyright 2010 Corinne Guest All Rights Reserved  -  *Get Some Skin In The Game or Avoid Short Sales in Barrington and Palatine *

Building Your Dream Home In Barrington & How To Choose Your Vacant Lot

If you have been pondering building your dream home in Barrington but don't yet have a lot there are certainly plenty to choose from. I remember about 4 years ago the average number of lots for sale at any one time hovered around 100. With 75 square miles of real estate the lots were scattered around the villages.

Today there are 194 available lots for sale in Barrington area.

So how do you choose and are there considerations today that were not there 4 years ago?

Before building your dream home in Barrington consider the following:

• What size of home do you want to build? How many bedrooms, bathrooms and for how many people to live at the home. This is important so you select lots in the right locations. i.e. a village lot likely will be too small for a home of 5000 square feet. There me be some septic system restrictions on some of the available acre+ lots.
• What size of property are you looking for. Commonly there are 1 to 2 acre lots, Barrington Hills is the place to go if you want something bigger.
• Incorporated or not? PUD or not. Typically unincorporated land will have less restriction than land incorporated into one of our villages. If a lot is in a PUD-Planned Unit Developement-there may be association restrictions that are specfic to the subdivision.
• Empty lots in established subdivisions. Consider that if the subdivision is 30 to 40 years old your home might stick out like a sore thumb. The value of your property might be negatively affected by the presence of many older homes. This is a personal consideration, it may not bother you at all.
• Flat, hilly, close to roads, backing to conservation, flood plain -all these thoughts and more will contribute to price.
• Are you prepared to tear down an old house to benefit from gorgeous established trees?
  
  

  

Considerations today.

• Lots in newly created subdivision that are filling up. If a PUD has homes already built and there is not much left to do, this might be a great time to get a lot cheaper than your new neighbors paid and you will not suffer from the previous issue of older homes. The negative factor being that usually the best lots go first. Examples of PUD that are more than half built are Magnolia Pointe in South Barrington, The Woods of South Barrington and Wynstone Real Estate-North Barrington.
  
• Lots in newly created subdivisions with little to no new homes. This is a real tricky one. There are a number of PUD's that have 1 or 2 homes and nothing else. Build your new home on one of these lots you might have some quiet years ahead of you with no neighbors. What about your lot and home value. What's happening to the other lots? Has the owner gone into foreclosure because the lots are not selling. If so the bank will likely them them a lot cheaper to re-coup some money or might sell the development. Is this for you? Examples are Tallgrass Lake Barrington, Enclave of Heritage Lakes Lake Barrington, Creekside Meadows Barrington Hills.
  

My favorite PUD which stands empty aside from a few homes. Peraino Circle in Barrington Hills is an area I am watching for a lot. I am looking to buy a 5 acre parcel to build a ranch on but the prices right now are too high. So I will bide my time and wait. If the time is right for you now, let me help you find that perfect lot. Let's bid aggressively and get you a great price.

Contact:

Corinne Guest
Barrington, IL Realtor®/ Royal Advocate Realty
Info@CorinneGuest.com
(847) 363-3686

More information can be found at my Barrington IL Real Estate website. Research all the villages of Barrington, Deer Park, Inverness and Tower Lakes. Search all the Barrington Homes For Sale with no registration required. Sign up for new listings by email.

Providing buyers agent real estate services in the communities of the Barrington Villages, Palatine, Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Long Grove and Kildeer.

Copyright 2010 Corinne Guest All Rights Reserved  - * Building Your Dream Home In Barrington & How To Choose Your Vacant Lot *

Peregrine Lake Estates - Palatine's Luxury Homes and Townhomes

• Hunting Ridge Elementary School
• Plum Grove Junior High School
• William Fremd High School

Round Lake IL Short Sale Approved in 30 days with Bank of America

Short sales in this area can sometime be very contentious. It can take months to get offers and we rarely get multiple offers on a property. Sellers can get disheartened - frustrated - sad - so when a buyer comes in with a decent offer close to market value hope is back on the horizon.

For my short sale listings I tie the buyer to the contract for 90 to 120 days to give the seller, the bank and the short sale attorney time to submit the papers and get a decision from the bank and the final go ahead from the seller. Sellers may be asked to bring a cash payment to close or sign a promissory note for an amount the bank wants. There is often a mountain of continuous paperwork going back and forth.

So imagine my surprise when yesterday one of my Bank of America short sales under contract since July 16th 2010 was approved. Collecting all required paperwork from the seller took a couple of days and the short sale packet was submitted about July 21st. No sooner than one day later I attended the Broker Price Opinion thinking - seriously!

Two weeks later we get a verbal preliminary agreement subject to either a cash injection by the seller or a promissory note. A few days later the approval is in my hand.



So another Round Lake IL short sale is approved and we progress towards a closing in 30 days time. I am under no illusions this is going to be normal for this bank or any other back but every now and then it is really nice to have some good and unexpected news.

If you are in financial distress with your Round Lake IL home - consider a short sale instead of foreclosure and make a positive step towards moving on with your life.

Copyright 2010 Corinne Guest All Rights Reserved - * Round Lake IL Short Sale Approved in 30 days with Bank of America *

Active Adult Community of South Barrington-Regency Collection Ranch Homes

Barrington has only one active adult community and you can find it in The Woods of South Barrington. The Regency Collection is a gated active adult community of ranch homes and is just to the south of the main development of The Woods of South Barrington.

A typical home in this young active adult community is about 2500 square feet, walk out basements are available, 2 to 3 bedrooms and 2/3 bathrooms and 2 car garages.



Considering an active adult community for the next phase in your life? You need to be over 55 years young to live here and there are no children under the age of 18 allowed. There are ready built homes for sale but if this is the time of your life to finally get a home you absolutely love, nothing to do, all finishes your own choice there are a choice of lots available for your perfect home.



All residents in this active adult community have access to the Regency clubhouse. There is a swimming pool and gym. Monthly assessment's include lawn care and snow removal you you'll be able to enjoy your own time resting, playing golf on one of Barrington golf courses or go shopping and have dinner in The Arboretum.

For the younger generation the single family homes in The Woods of South Barrington start in the Low $700,000's. Call for an email list of Active Adult Community homes in The Woods. 847-363-3686.

Copyright 2010 Corinne Guest All Rights Reserved - * Active Adult Community of South Barrington-Regency Collection Ranch Homes *

Marte was a real estate broker prior to her copy writing business. Her summary of buying a home without an agent is an extremely well written article and I thank her for letting me post it here on my blog.

The Woods Of South Barrington Luxury Homes

If you are looking for new construction in South Barrington - The Woods of South Barrington is a new developent of luxury homes on smaller lot sizes. You'll be able to choose from ready to move into homes, re-sale homes or custom built homes. The builder of The Woods of South Barrington is Toll Brothers and the homes here are built very much  in The Toll Brothers style.

There are a few lots left for building in the original phases or you can opt to have a luxury home built in the final phase which is just north of Penny Road and Route 59 South Barrington. Above is the model home already built in the final phase of The Woods of South Barrington.

Homes in The Woods of South Barrington vary in size from about 2700 square feet to over 5000. Most have brick fronts and many are all brick or stucco. There are a variety of floor plans. Typical lot sizes are less than half an acre but there are some on  3/4 acre lots.

Landscaping in The Woods of South Barrington is beginning to settle in. There are areas of conservation with wildlife ponds and the trees and shrubbery have a few years growth. In a few years as the trees grow taller and put on more foliage there will be more shade. Toll Brothers have planted considerable amounts of both deciduous and evergreen trees in the common areas and entrance ways.

In 10 years time these black pines will have put on another 10 feet of growth and the Colorado Blue Spruce should be at least 10 feet or more tall.

Prices of homes in The Woods of South Barrington for homes that are not in the Active Adult Regency Collection start at about $700,000 and reach $1,300,000. The lower prices are base prices and so upgrades will be extra. Just think you get to customize your home to your taste and it will all be done for you!

Buy your next home with me this year in The Woods of South Barrington and you can be Christmas Shopping in the wonderful Arboretum Shopping Mall in South Barrington. Call for an email list of South Barrington homes in The Woods. 847-363-3686.

Copyright 2010 Corinne Guest All Rights Reserved - * The Woods Of South Barrington Luxury Homes *

Getting Top Dollar For Your Lake Barrington Shores Real Estate - Market Report Update

Summer is hot yet coming to an end and schools will be back in session before the end of the month. Before we know it our thoughts will turn to preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas.Perhaps for some of Lake Barrington Shores residents you'll be making plans to close up your home and head south for the winter. If you want to sell your Lake Barrington Shores real estate and get top dollar by the end of the year it may be time to review the market data.

You may also need to look at your pricing, condition, marketing to make sure everything is on track so you take advantage of the autumn sales period. We will look at market data first for trends in Lake Barrington Shores Real Estate and then the three things that will get your Lake Barrington Shores home sold. We will visit some of the aspects to review what might be missing.

Market Data - Pricing - Presentation - Marketing

Market Data

• There are 84 units for sale with an average marketing time of 194 days.
• There are 6 units under contract.
  
• This year to date there have been 30 sales with an average marketing time of 242 days.
• 3 homes were sold as foreclosures-i.e. bank owned units. No short sales this year to date.
  
• Units sold at 83% of the original list price-91% of final asking price-on average.
• Prices range from $150,000 to $479,000
  

Pricing

• Be sure your agent provides a market analysis before listing.
• Get a market analysis update after 3 months maximum.
• Look at your competitions pricing.
• Price with a sale in mind - not with emotion.
• Don't let an agent buy your listing i.e. they tell you what you want to hear.
• It might hurt but honesty is the best policy.
  

Presentation

• Location is established aside from desire for waterfront or golf course location.
• Spruce up the entrance way with seasonal flower pots.
• Neutral paint if you have loud colors.
  
• Have a hand in selecting the best photos-make sure you get lots taken.
• De-clutter. Yes I know you've heard it before.
• Be absent for showings. Go for a walk or to the clubhouse.

Marketing

• Ask agents how they are going to market homes-get them to show you.
• Pick agents with a good online presence - Google Lake Barrington Shores real estate and see what you find. Does it draw you in or are you lost by what you find?
  
• Ask agents if they attract buyers to Lake Barrington Shores real estate and if they have sold any.
• Ask your agent to keep you informed of progress-set a schedule.
• Test a Realtors response time to emails and phone calls. I recommend using a full time agent-they are more focused on getting the job done and will respond to inquiries promptly.

If the time has come for you to sell your Lake Barrington Shores real estate please contact me. As a buyers agent I have sold 215 Club Circle in June and have 947 Shoreline under contract soon to close. My web site attracts many buyers for Lake Barrington Shores-let me put your home in front of buyers today.

Copyright 2010 Corinne Guest All Rights Reserved - * Selling Your Lake Barrington Shores Condo Townhome or Duplex in Todays Internet Buyers Market *

Renting a Home in Barrington or Nearby Chicago Real Estate Markets is Not a Matter of What You Want.

If you are looking at renting a home in Barrington or any of the surrounding Chicago suburbs you must show the owner of a home that you have not only the ability to pay the rent but that your attitude towards another persons home is one of caring and respect.

The economy has created a lot of movement across the USA with job seekers looking across state lines to find a new job and often securing a job which is too far to commute to. The result is that rentals are now in demand again in Barrington and many of the Chicago suburbs. This is good news for owners that have investment property or have decided to rent out their home rather than sell it.

As a potential tenant you cannot just say you have enough money to pay the rent. You cannot expect an owner to ignore low credit scores. You cannot expect an owner to waive away any delinquent payments. You cannot fabricate your new income to support the dream rental. You just cannot expect an owner to say OK because it's what you want.

A credit report will always be required so if you don't know what's on yours maybe it's time to take a look.
If you are looking for a home to rent in Barrington or some of the other luxury areas - rental rates can go up to $10,000 a month. If you have a new job have your employment offer letter to hand. If you have started work have 2 recent paychecks.

Be realistic about the monthly rent. For example a monthly income of $7000 is not enough to rent a $3000 Barrington home. After taxes and other deductions you might have $6000 a month and now you are committing half to the rent. By the time you have paid the utilities and bought food and other essentials, you'll have nothing left. So be realistic. A good rule is not to commit more than a third of your income to your rent.  Factor in any mortgage payments going out and rent coming in if you are not selling your current home. What about cars, college fees-both current or upcoming. In other words do the math and find a budget before you go looking.

It can be hard to move to a more expensive area as the home your money will rent may be considerably less in size and features than the one you have now.

If you find a Barrington home you like that will not allow pets-then they won't allow pets. Sometimes we can ask and the owner may consider your pet but if they don't then we must respect their wishes. Likewise smokers can meet resistance. If the owner wants to verify your income, your references, your personal credit details they are fully entitled to. As the applicant you are just that. You apply and if you are approved we can write a lease agreement.You must be of legal age to enter into a lease agreement.

Owners cannot refuse your application based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin.

If you have sold a home as a short sale or had a foreclosure lay this out on the table to your Realtor. The same applies to Bankruptcy. It does not preclude you from renting  - there are always Landlords that will consider hardships.

You can search rentals in Barrington and all Chicago suburbs here - just click a link below.

Copyright 2010 Corinne Guest All Rights Reserved - *  Renting a Home in Barrington or Nearby Chicago Real Estate Markets is Not a Matter of What You Want. *