Real Estate in Barrington & The Northwest Suburbs: Illinois: Palatine

My year end review of real estate sales for 2011 is under way, you can read about single family homes; this post is a quick similar summary of Palatine condo and town homes sales. In other words attached properties that rarely have land, mostly common areas. You know there is always an exception to a rule.  

First lets take a look at sales in 2011 compared to 2010.

• Sold in 2010 = 396
• Sold in 2011 = 453

That's an increase of  14%. Single family homes had an increase of 16% so it's very comparable. Lets look at sales in the previous 3 years as a comparison.

• 2009 = 501
• 2008 = 429
• 2007 = 650

No doubt about it, Palatine attached home sales are still down but maybe there is a sign of recovery. We have to factor in short sales and foreclosures as they always make up a large part of the lower end of a market.

What about average prices in Palatine's attached home sales? Here's a chart that goes back to 2007, the first year after the big declines. You can see the average sales price and the average marketing time in Palatine over the last 5 years.

The average sales price has taken a big hit, but as I mentioned earlier short sales and bank owned homes contribute to a steeper decline as they sell under market value.

Marketing times are still going up, that's not a good sign for condo and town home owners who want to sell but at 6 months it is not awful. There are many local markets that have a 10 to 12 month average market time.

Stay tuned for Palatine real estate market reports throughout the year.

Palatine real estate is local. The only thing relevant to Palatine real estate is Palatine. What happens in Schaumburg, Cook County, Illionois or the USA is irrelevant. Reading the major media headlines is dangerous when it comes to real estate. They focus so much on what's going on in the whole country. Palatine real estate could be better, could be worse, one thing is for sure, it will not be the same.

So here goes with my Palatine year end review. This report is all about single family homes. Referencing above, single family homes are different to condos so I must do another report for those with town-homes. After all you don't get any land with those so values are bound to be less.

First lets take a look at sales in 2011 compared to 2010.

• Single family homes sold in 2010 = 263
• Single family homes sold in 2011 = 306

That's an increase of  16%. The question is are we on an inclining trend?  The only way to establish that is to go back a few more years so here we go:

• 2009 = 303
• 2008 = 268
• 2007 = 298

Well 2011 was a good year but it's not necessarily an inclining trend, just a better year than 2010. Only future years well tell us if it's getting better. So what about:

• 2006 = 414
• 2005 = 503

It's fairly obvious when the bubble started deflating.

What about average prices in Palatine's single family home sales? Here's a chart that goes back to 2007, the first year after the big declines. You can see the average sales price and the average marketing time in Palatine over the last 5 years.

I would like to see both of the lines on this chart flattening out a little more, but I guess we'll just have to be patient. It appears to be happening, just slowly.

Look out for my next report on Palatine's  condo and town-homes sales.

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.

In my first post about selling your Palatine home we talked about the MLS, agents, and syndicating the listing. Now that's done and your home is beginning to appear on a lot of web sites, it's time to see what else we'll do to market your Palatine home.

Fortunately the MLS is just the start of your online presence and the marketing we do. Now it's time to take a look at a sign, the benefits and how we'll make it an interactive experience.

Sign or No Sign?

This will be a personal choice but as buyers of homes in Palatine still drive around preferred neighborhoods, we encourage home owners where-ever possible to have a sign. It's not always possible for town homes or condos, an alternative option is to have a sign on an upper floor window.

The sign tells buyers your home is for sale, and they'll slow the car down and start considering if it's the house for them. A  sign must have the name of the brokerage that is listing the property and a contact phone number. Some say for sale, others will have a seperate rider identifying a for sale or for rent. Agents can also add other riders , perhaps adding their name and cellphone.

The sign gives the drive buy viewer the option of calling for more details. However many buyers are not ready to make contact with an agent. So we'll hope they write down the address and go home, open up the laptop or tablet and search the address. WIth our syndication they should find it.

Is there a better sign experience?

Knowing that buyers crave information yet like to remain anonymous as long as possible why not make the best possible use of the sign? On the left you'll find a different type of sign. It is the same size as the one above, you can see everything we added to the sign. The required company name and contact phone number are there, but it includes a lot more.

• Property Address.
• Some essential details.
• Domain address - we'll talk about why in the next post.
• Three high quality photos of the interior.
• A QR code. Quick Response. These can be scanned by smart phones for more information about the property. (It's the black and white square on the left.)
• A text code, again for cell phone users to request more information.

Of course the choice is yours, sign or no sign, regular sign or interactive sign.

Next time we'll talk about that web address on the sign and how we utilize a single property web site.

The marketing of your Palatine home will continue.

Did you know that at least 80% of the buyers that walk through your home will do so with an agent of their own. It still is the leading source of finding a buyer and therefore is the number one prioritized item on a good marketing plan. The way to these buyers is through advertising to those agents and also online.

Let's look at the Palatine agents first.

If an agent wants to find homes to show their buyers the largest source is our MLS. (Multiple Listing Service). So it is the first place to advertise your home for sale. Now you are listed, any broker with a buyer in the Palatine area can check the database of homes to find properties that might be suitable for their client.

Now let's see where we can get the MLS listing to show up.

Where do buyers go to do research and find homes. Online. In fact it's now as high as 92% start their research online. That's before they hire a Realtor, before they drive neighborhoods, before anything else.

The simple addition of your home listing to our MLS will mean it now shows up on Realtor.com. It's still one of the most commonly visited sites by buyers but it does not stand alone. If you've heard of Yahoo real estate, Trulia, Zillow, Homes.com you'll know there are a lot of alternative web sites that buyers visit. So we want to be sure your home is on all of these sites, the big ones and the little ones. We achieve this by syndication. In fact we'll syndicate your home to over 900 of these web sites. If anyone inquires about your home on one of these web sites that inquiry will be sent either to Corinne, or if an agent has paid for leads from that site it might go to them. Either way buyers interested in your home will be directed to a broker.

Our picture is just a small sampling of the sites we always syndicate to.

Of course we'll be adding as many photos as we can to your listing, a virtual tour with more photos and even video, before we publish the listing. So right out of the gate your home will provide those buyer researchers with a lot of information. Viewers can send inquiry emails, request showings or just bookmark the listing for the future.

Do you think this is something you would benefit from when listing your Palatine home for sale?  

Stay tuned for the next stage in marketing your Palatine home for sale.

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.

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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.

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SEO Success in Just Two Days - Google Loves Me! Real Estate in Palatine is Number Nine.

Back in April this year I took on a task which had all the makings of success over a wide geographic area for the niche relocation. The problem was it was just too big for one person to handle so last weekend I decided, with a few tears, to bench the project. No, not thrown away just benched. Maybe one day I'll have the financial ability to start it up again, who knows.

Have a nice rest Relocation House Hunters

I did not want to waste the money I had spent on the design and the blog so what to do. Well as my Barrington site has been so succesful in the search engines and really now beginning to increase leads and clients, it seems a good idea to target a new geographic area. So I spent last Saturday doing my keyword research and formulating the plan. Enter Real Estate in Palatine. I already sell homes in Palatine so it seems a logical choice for a new site.

Why a new site? Well the keywords in the title puts me leaps ahead of the competition and in a minute I'll reveal the results.

Yesterday was spent moving the design to the new domain: RealEstateinPalatine.com moving the blog, the IDX, a new logo, my attached Posterous blog for photos, that's a lot of coding, some I did, some I had help. By the end of the day, voila!

is live. I believe there is one home page glitch to be taken care of and a few more may become apparent as I test the site. So having added a redirect from old to new, to help Google visit a little faster I am sitting happy this morning to see that Google loves me. Yesterday new site-not indexed. This morning 1 day old site with 8 pages indexed.

So how well did my keyword choice do in the domain name? I chose Real Estate in Palatine. I already have Real Estate in Barrington and Real Estate Lake Zurich, the third area I cover. Most people search for Palatine real estate and that domain was first taken but also really hard to rank. So I looked at the keywords and found that Real Estate in Palatine has what I call the middle of the road searches. Not huge but not small either.

Today Google decided my new site fit that search term so well I am on page one at position number nine (9).  Boy does that feel good. Of course I know it will fluctuate for a while as I build out the site's content. We had about 200 pages to go live with but most of that is Wordpress and IDX, it now needs content about Palatine, photos and more blog posts. Gives me something to do over the quiet winter months.

I wanted to look at the sales of Palatine Town Homes to see if sales activity is better this year than in 2010. Condos and town homes always suffer more in a buyers market, well at least they seem to, but let's look at some numbers, it should help verify my thoughts and maybe help Palatine town homeowners decide whether they want to sell or not. Lets take a look at the things sellers are most interested in:

1. How long will it take to sell my Palatine Town Home?
2. Are prices going down or up?

This first graph shows that since 2007 the average marketing time to sell Palatine town homes has increased year on year. Although 2011 is not yet finished I went back 12 months from today to make it a 12 month cycle. I doubt it will change much in the last 3 weeks of the year. Naturally this is only an average and there are so many things a seller can do to get under that number. But in general it appears we have increased from 4 to 6 months.

Did you know that according to stats released today, 3 of 4 home owners still think their home is worth more than it is.

Now lets look at average sales amounts.

This graph is showing the average sales price of Palatine town homes from 2007 through to 2011. The graph tells it all right? Prices going downhill. We've heard on the media that there have been some nominal increases in price over the last couple of months. I think the jury should stay out for a while in relation to townhomes in Palatine. I certainly would want a period of six months to really see if they are climbing.

As for whether you should sell, well the numbers might help, it depends on why you need to sell. Call us if we can help.  

Reseda Palatine

Located just south of Dundee Road and accessed off Hicks Road, Reseda is a well established neighborhood in Palatine Illinois. It's centrally located and in 5 minutes you can reach Route 53 for a north or south commute, the Metra station is also about a 5 minute drive if you need to commute to Chicago or visit for shopping or field trips.

The schools are very close, many within walking distance including Palatine High School. There are several community parks nearby and just 5 minutes drive will take you to the Twin Lakes Recreational area. You can enjoy boating, fishing, golf, or just play in the large park area. There's also a grill for drinks, snacks or lunch and they also offer catering.

For shopping lovers you are within 5 minutes of a large Dominicks grocery store on Dundee Road which is also home to one of the newest and largest shopping areas in Palatine with many big box stores. Palatine is home to one of the largest local libraries, again only 5 minutes drive.

Reseda Homes For Sale

Homes in this established neighborhood are all single family properties. Common home types in Reseda of Palatine are ranch homes, split level homes and 2 story homes in tradition, colonial and french styles. Most homes are 3 or 4 bedroom, 2 to 3 bathrooms but some have nicely finished full basements and owners have expanded the bedroom and bathroom count. Lot sizes are typically 0.20 to 0.25 acres, a standard builders lot size.

Reseda home prices are between $200,000 and $400,000.

To view all the available homes click the button below or sign up for property alerts so you won't miss the newest listings in Reseda. Learn more about real estate in Palatine and the northwest suburbs of Chicago