Really? Already! Gesh you've just got your pre-approval, you know what you can afford and what you are comfortable paying, you've got a fabulous idea in your mind about the home you want to buy and here I am telling you to compromise!

Let's peddle back a little. The pre-approval tells you what priced home you can afford. Numbers have been crunched and your new mortgage payment will be $WHAT! How much.

As you plop into the chair you realize it's a large chunk of your monthly pay check, so let's first take a look. You see the number you have been given is really the top end of your budget, it does not mean you have to spend that much. So if by maximizing it's going to cramp your social style can you compromise?

Two reasons you will compromise when buying your first Palatine home.

  The first is to do with your monthly payment. Afford what you want to and if it's less than your pre-approval, so be it, that's not ever a bad thing. At least you'll feel comfortable knowing you can go out on a weekend, visit the theater every Friday, or buy as much take out as you are used to.

The second is your property wish list. You might have a list of 'must haves' for your new home but the reality is you will not get them all. All of us have an inflated perception about what our money will buy, and even though it is a buyers market, homes that are priced right, are priced right; as a buyer you'll not be able to mandate a lower than market value because you say so.

Be prepared to give some things up. By all means write the wish list and together we'll get as close as we can to your list, but I guarantee somewhere along the way you'll make compromises. Whether it's location, number of bedrooms, upgrades, or decor have an idea in your mind about what you'll give up. If we can check 8 out of 10 boxes, then it's a pretty good bet the house is about as perfect as it can be.

All first time buyers homes can be viewed on Real Estate in Palatine.

Hot on the heels of my last post about why 2012 appears to be a great year if you want to buy your first home, I thought I would turn this into a series to help Palatine first time buyers understand the entire home buying process.

I know many of you won't have the time to attend a seminar, or just don't want to go to one. So I am going to do this online for you. Feel free to ask me any questions-email is just fine.

Here's the first post in case you missed it.

http://blog.realestateinpalatine.com/palatine-first-time-buyers-2012-could-be-a-great-year-to-buy-your-home/

So having discussed the low prices of Palatine homes and the low interest rates I suggested the first thing you need do is to get pre-approved for a mortgage. If you don't know who to call try Steve. He's a friend of mine, in fact when my kids were at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, he was their gym teacher. Those days are long gone now, my boys are in college and Steve is a full time loan officer. I trust him and have no problem recommending him. So if you are curious, wonder if you can afford to buy, give Steve a call, tell him I sent you. His cell is 847-942-5151. Ask him how you can get approved for a mortgage.

And just so you know. Neither he nor I get money for referring clients to each other, that's against the law. I just recommend him because he does a very good job for his clients.

To get pre-approved you will need to provide information about your income and outgoings, a loan officer will tell you exactly what they need. You cannot get a full approval until you find a home to buy but a pre-approval is what you need to go property shopping. It tells the seller you can afford to buy the home, that you're serious.

First time buyers in Palatine - Well Done, You're Pre-Approved

Now you are pre-approved we can go property shopping and I'll talk about that in my next post.

Sign up for properties by email today. Learn how to get a FREE home inspection.

Attention Palatine first time buyers, mortgage interest rates are at an all time low. As I write this post today, December 23rd 2011 the 30 year fixed mortgage rate hovers under 4%. Believe me when I tell you that is a very low interest rate. No doubt it will go up and down a little but it is predicted to stay low for a while. I hope so!

Now I am not one of those agents that say you must buy, you must, you should, buy now, you know all that hipe. What I am saying is if you are considering buying your first Palatine home in 2012, you are being blessed with the lowest home prices we have seen in a very long time and the lowest mortgage interest rates we have seen in a very long time. Add those two to the great choice in homes for sale in Palatine and you cannot go wrong.

Here are a few to tempt you. Take a peak and then read on about where to begin. 

A Palatine First Time Home Buyers Starting Point

So what's a first time home buyers first thing to do? Well I know the temptation is to start looking at homes. Doing your online research is fine but looking at homes might set you up for disappointment. Here's is what you should do. Find out how much you can afford and make sure you are comfortable with the monthly cost. Adjust down if it cramps your social style too much. Then go property shopping.

We can help. We know buying your first home can seem a daunting task. Yes there is excitement but it can take a while and can be very stressful. Our job is to guide you through the process, finding the right people to help you along the way, like a good trustworthy loan officer, a great home inspector, an attorney to handle the legal stuff, yet all the while we are your single point of contact. So no matter what you need to know or when, you can text, call or email us and we promise we'll answer as soon as we can, usually the same day.

Sign up for properties by email today. Learn how to get a FREE home inspection.

I recently read a comment online from a consumer on another web site that got me thinking about how contracts and earnest money work differently in every state. Today I am talking about Illinois and the reason I want to get this in writing is because the writer thought there was unethical behavior-which in fact there was not. Let's answer the first question.

When Is Your Contract Secure. I am of course talking about your contract to buy a home. In the business we refer to them as Purchase Offers. Why? Well because to begin with that is what they are. So here is the process:

1. You find a home you want to buy.
2. Your Realtor writes up a purchase offer and you sign it.
3. Your Realtor presents your offer to the listing agent.
4. Listing agent presents and discusses offer with seller.
5. Seller either rejects, accepts or counters the offer.
6. Any negotiation concludes and terms are reached. Changes are made on the offer to reflect changes.
7. Purchase offer goes back to listing agent.
8. Seller signs document.

Homes in Barrington are like books, some are short stories and others are epic novels.  The bigger the house the longer it's going to take to review. When we get to mansion level there's so much to take in a notebook is a good idea, unless of course you have a photographic memory. I certainly don't have one and cannot remember every detail for every house, especially when I see so many in a week.

As a buyers agent here in Barrington I get to show short stories and epic novels. I am not one of those agents that'll just drag you from room to room and then ask if you are interested in making an offer. Good Lord, how boring is that, actually that's just a little too robotic don't you think?

Homes in Barrington run the gamut. Everything from one bedroom condos to mansions and estates with 4 to 10 bedrooms. So what does this Barrington buyers agent do when showing big houses? I explore! It's easy to get lost in the big homes. It's equally as easy for buyers to miss things, so my job is to make sure you see it all.

Just yesterday my buyers and I were looking at a 10,000 square foot banked owned property. As we weaved around this big North Barrington home we stumbled upon 4 more closets for the master bedroom hiding down a back hallway. Funny, we thought 3 was a little on the low side, 7 was more like it.

So when looking at homes in Barrington, just know this Barrington buyers agent is not going stick her head in each room and leave; every door gets opened, every nook and cranny gets investigated, everything gets found, drawn to your attention, everything I find you will see. It might take 10 minutes and it might take 2 hours but I will be excited to show you the Barrington homes you want to see.

Contact me when you're ready to buy or let me know what you're looking for.

Real Estate in Barrington's primary goal is to help buyers find the perfect home at the right price. The right price can sometimes be a little difficult to pin down. Barrington does not have your typical subdivisions like in many of the suburbs with cookie cutter type homes from which to pick recent comparable sales from.

So how can a buyers agent not only come up with some good comparable sales but also educate the buyer on prices?  The best choice for you is to pick a Barrington Realtor. Even better if they have also lived in Barrington for a while. You see looking at sales in our MLS system is one thing but you and I both know you should never judge a book by it's cover. An out of town Realtor is going to do just that. While it may give them an idea or range of pricing, there are contributing factors that drive the price of Real Estate in Barrington.

Contributing Factors to The Price of Real Estate in Barrington

To establish a property's value we should always look for similar sized, age, style, accommodations in a house, within certain parameters. For example, having worked for four years as a property values estimator, I know it's within acceptable limits to find properties that are 10 years older or younger but no more. Square footage differences can be accepted again with a reasonable difference, but there are things which have a much larger affect on value.

The biggest one is location. For example a comparable home in Lake Barrington will never sell as high as the equivalent property in South Barrington.

School District. Again this can be a huge factor. There are some homes in 60010 that attend Lake Zurich schools and not Barrington. That will not make much of a difference as both schools are comparable. Barrington High School 2011 had a composite ACT score of 25. Lake Zurich 24.3. However some Barrington addresses attend District 300 schools and their average was only 19.2. This can make a huge difference to property values.

The issue of schools is very subjective and I would never advise a buyer to choose a home based on anything other than their own school research and findings. That said for resale it should always be considered.

Lot Sizes. Much of the Real Estate in Barrington is situated on 1 acre lots. We also have 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 acre lots and more. What about properties in the Village of Barrington, on small lots? No comparison. So while there is not much difference between 1 or 2 acres, lot size must be considered.

Smaller factors. Nearby roads, condition, maintenance, upgrades etc all contribute to a value and all must be taken into account. An experienced Barrington Realtor may not be able to find any comparable sales nearby but will know where to look and where not to look, what can be used and what cannot. Whether you are buying or selling real estate in Barrington, it's not a good place to choose a rookie agent to help you or hire an out of towner.

When you are ready to buy your piece of Real Estate in Barrington, give us a call or send an email. We are locals and have been since 1996.

The Barrington MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is the tool used by Realtors in their daily real estate businesses. It's a common request by consumers to want to search the Barrington MLS. It's likely you'll go online and find websites with buttons that say Search MLS. So you think you are using and searching the MLS - not so. 

You are not searching the Barrington MLS and nor will you be able to, unless you are a Realtor. To be granted access a user must have a valid license and be a member of one of the Chicago real estate boards with dues paid up to date.

The Barrington MLS is part of MRED LLC. Midwest Real Estate Data LLC. There is no seperate MLS for each town, we have one big system allowing all agents and brokers use and access for the entire Chicagoland area. The MLS is where we input our listings to advertise your homes for sale. This is then seen by thousands of other agents and brokers and listings can be emailed directly to their buyers.

Want to know how big it is? As of right now it holds 124,045 listings. That's homes, land, rentals and commercial. And that's only a part of the data. As a tool our MLS access provides the information we need to find comparable properties for pricing listings or making offers, tax information on homes, market sales data and so on. The listing data is also fed to outside companies who present the listings in their format on hundreds of other websites. Like this one or Trulia, Zillow etc. (That's what you see and use to search for homes).

Our Barrington MLS allows us to set up custom searches for home buyers .

You tell us what you are looking for, price, location, subdivision, amenities and we'll email you the homes that match your criteria. You get your own consumer side account, can save favorites in a folder and mark properties interested, maybe or not. You'll get an email link to click or you can login at a portal as shown above.

Or you can do the searching yourself at our website. It's not the MLS but it does have all the listings.

When you are ready to buy your next home, let us search the Barrington MLS for you, email you matches and make appointments to start viewing your favorites. Call Corinne today: 847-363-3686.

Dare To Buy a Home Without Your Barrington Buyers Agent

If you find a Barrington home and fall in love, would you try to buy it without the help of your Barrington Buyers Agent?

Let me tell you a little story. A recent client of mine was referred by a loan officer for this very reason. They seemed OK with using the listing agent, they loved the house. The buyers were indeed friends of the loan officer so were perhaps more inclined to take his very strong suggestion that as buyers it cost them nothing to have a buyers agent so why wouldn't they.

New buyer client relationship formed and we get on famously. That always helps and I think that's what they were more concerned about, trying to find some-one they felt really comfortable with. We spend time together looking at the property to make sure we would have a good working relationship.

Our offer is written and after 1 and a half hours of explaining everything in detail, because that's what I do, it's presented to the sellers agent. Lot's of questions, expected for first time buyers and I have the patience to answer them all thoroughly.

No problems, right? Wrong. During our attorney review period there's a problem. I wont bore you with the details but let's just say this is the one point where they really needed their buyers agent. Someone to take control of the issue, make the phone calls, push the other side a little, report back to them, talk to their attorney. It's not a big deal but we had hit a stalemate so it needed a little cajoling of the listing agent, something that would not have happened if my buyers were without their Barrington buyers agent.

We are moving forward again and look to be on target to close.  I even joked about how they wanted to go alone on this and the comment was, "Yes what were we thinking!"

Hire yourself a buyers agent. Don't feel obliged to use a listing agent.  Our commission is paid by the seller not you. I love working with buyers. To be on your side and get the job done. Call me : Corinne 847-363-3686  

This is almost comical coming on the heels of my last post about not letting dead bugs kill your sale. Well how about live bugs?

This week I attended a home inspection for my buyers on a home in Barrington. We knew that the property needed some work doing before going in with an offer. I highly recommended my buyers have a home inspection amongst other inspections because where there is known work to be done, there is likely unknown work to be done.

It was a hot day and the air conditioning was barely keeping up with the demands of keeping us all cool, our poor inspector was obviously suffering, after all he was working, everyone else was either watching or waiting. During the inspection I overheard a comment about bugs, so went to ask what he had found, curiosity got the better of me.

It seemed that if we opened the windows there were hundreds of bugs in the window jams. He showed me. All I can say is EEW. No matter which window he opened it made hundreds of these nasty looking black bugs scramble for cover. I have no idea what they were but it surely made my skin crawl.

I wonder of these bugs liked the house because it was all wood siding? Or was it because the windows were never opened or cleaned? Whatever it certainly put me off but was not a safety or health issue, or maybe it was. Gil Grissom from CSI comes to mind, he was into bugs and could have helped us out. It was however a problem that any buyer would have to deal with. So would you want to deal with a house that was full of live bugs?

Hoping I am done with bugs for now, we'll talk soon.

Corinne. 847-363-3686.

I am pleased to present my very first ever published video here on the web. For buyers of homes in Barrington Hills it's nice to know how quiet and tranquil it really is here. Most homes are situated on 5 acre lots and homes are well set back from the roads. As you'll see from the video many of the homes cannot be seen from the street at all.

If you have any feedback, I truly welcome it. After all this is a maiden voyage and suggestions for improvement will help me produce better video for my Barrington buyer and relocation clients.

So without further ado, I present the privacy and tranquility of Barrington Hills and I hope you like it.