Spring Cleaning
The arrival of spring leads many people to think of renewal, rebirth, reorganization and of course, spring cleaning. This spring, however, was marked by news that few will ever forget: the surprise announcement on May 1 that Osama bin Laden was finally hunted down and killed in Pakistan. This event has swept economic worries off the front page, at least for a few days, as Americans reflected, and indeed celebrated, the death of the man behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
But while the announcement of Bin Ladin’s demise caused an initial drop in oil prices on stock markets worldwide, gas prices at the pumps are still higher than ever, and it remains unclear how his demise might affect the United States in a whole range of ways the long run. Aside from the economic factor, we can expect heightened alerts to prevent retaliatory terrorism. In the meantime, those of us who are not directly involved in the crisis, we can take our minds off the matter by returning to our own spring cleaning, an annual tradition for many people whether or not they are planning on buying or selling a condo or other residence.
Spring cleaning is also a good time to recommit to some green living in your home, if you are so inclined. You might be surprised how simple, inexpensive and even healthy it can be. Green living can include everything from recycling and reusing household items, to walking whenever possible instead of using your car.
If you do have plans to move within the next year, spring cleaning can be a good time for you to assess your need for home repairs, or just begin to pare down your possessions to prepare for condo staging. That way, you can show your property in the best light to prospective buyers, and not have to pack so much “stuff” when you do move.
Housing Market: Prices Down While Gas Prices Climb
Unlike the housing market, gas prices have risen sharply over the last few weeks and it looks like they are going to continue to rise in the future. According to Atlantagasprices.com, local gas prices have risen by almost thirty cents in the past month and by a dollar in the past year. Atlanta’s gas prices are cheaper than the national average, but have risen at the same rate. Chicago's gas prices, on the other hand, are now the highest in the nation. According to a forecast by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, gasoline prices could rise above four dollars per gallon nationwide this summer. In many markets, including Chicago, priceas are already well above the four dollar mark.
Although gas prices have risen, it appears that the prices of housing are still declining. It doesn’t appear that the market is going to turn around anytime soon. So I suppose, instead of looking at the negatives and complaining about gas prices, see the positive that housing prices are still low. A positive, you ask? It can indeed be a positive for people who want to purchase. Combined with historically low mortgage interest rates, the prices of condos, townhouses and single family homes right now make it easier for first-time homebuyers to own real estate.
For all those who are in the housing market and looking to purchase a home, just keep two things in mind. Make sure that you work close to your home. If not, try to use public transportation, and remember to budget for the transportation costs. Calculate how much you spend on gas or public transportation and add that into your monthly bills. This way you are well-prepared for the cost and can plan ahead for the worst case scenarios.
Take advantage of the housing market and purchase as inexpensively as possible and also remember to budget for increased transportation costs these days and everything will balance just right. Go to OwnACondo.com to search for housing housing in your affordability reange and find your dream home.
Alexandria Pope
Another great real estate professional has joined the OwnACondo.com team: Broker associate Alexandria Pope.
Alexandria is a condo-specialist Realtor® with OwnACondo.com and she serves buyers and sellers with knowledge and care that can’t be matched by a real estate generalist. Her enthusiasm, experience and specific training in the condo market and lifestyle means that she can provide highly focused information and services that consumers demand and deserve.
From the beginning of her real estate career in 2003, Alexandria has been devoted to upholding the industry standard of C.O.A.L.D. for her clients: Care, Obedience, Accountability, Loyalty and Disclosure. And while there probably isn't a real estate agent out there who wouldn't claim the same, with Alexandria it's different. A new acquaintance can sense her energy and passion for real estate and for her clients within the first minute or two of beginning a conversation.
Alexandria Pope's journey into a real estate career started when she decided she needed to educate herself, her family, her friends and even her community at large about several things real estate-related, including first time homeownership.
"I knew a lot of renters who should have been home owners, but they didn't have the tools" she recalls. "I also found that a lot of people simply didn't trust real estate agents. I wanted to stand up for what a true Realtor® should stand for."
Alexandria's specialties include:
- Chicago Real Estate
- Condos
- Townhomes
- First-time homebuyers
- Real estate investing
- Real estate investors
- Real estate auctions
- Leasing
- Rentals
- Foreclosures
- REO
- Short sales
- Condo financing
- Downtown Chicago real estate
- Chicago North real estate
- Chicago South real estate
Alexandria earned a master's degree in inner city studies from Northeastern Illinois University and a bachelor's degree in African American studies from Chicago State University. She's the proud mother of a three-year-old daughter and a 19-year-old son. Her son currently attends college in Arkansas, where he is studying business.
When not busy with her real estate clients, Alexandria enjoys poetry, youth mentoring and community activism. She also assists graduate-level university students with preparation for their master's thesis.
Contact Alexandria Pope via email at apope@ownacondo.com or via her a call at 773-407-4018.
Lizzette Jimenez
Lizzette Jimenez--condo owner, real estate investor and first-time homebuyer specialist-- joins the growing team at OwnACondo.com.
Fluent in English and Spanish, Lizzette’s story of how she chose OwnACondo.com is a good one, and one we’ve heard before.
“I had a great experience with one of the OwnACondo.com agents,” says Lizzette, who purchased two investment condos at a complex exclusively represented by OwnACondo.com. The service she received was obviously well-remembered.
Lizzette has 10 years of experience as a licensed real estate sales associate and is encouraged by signs the market is again warming up. She says that she decided to pursue a career in real estate because the experience she had purchasing her first condo at age 21 wasn’t particularly easy.
“I felt completely lost in the process when I was a first-time home buyer,” Lizzette explains. “I decided I had to go out and educate myself.” This led to her decision to become a real estate agent and now Lizzette loves sharing her knowledge and experience with people who are in the same position as she once found herself.
“Working with first-time buyers is so much more rewarding,” she says. “There’s so much more help I can provide.”
Lizzette Jimenez's specialties include:
- Suburban Chicago Real Estate
- DuPage County real estate
- Condos
- Townhomes
- Real Estate Investing
- Real Estate Investors
- Real Estate Auctions
- Leasing
- Rentals
- Foreclosures
- REO
- Short Sales
- Condo Financing
Lizzette moved up from that first condo she purchased at age 21 to a spacious townhome where she now lives with her husband and young daughter. Lizzette enjoys yoga, fitness, international traveling and she’s also an avid reader; although with the demands of a two-year-old child, she admits with a laugh “I’m lucky I can even fit in my industry-related reading these days!”
Lizzette currently serves on her townhome association board of directors. She knows first-time home buying, condos, townhomes and real estate investing—in short, she’s a perfect addition to the team at OwnACondo.com, the best place to buy and sell condos! Contact Lizzette Jimenez, an English- and Spanish-speaking real estate agent, at: ljimenez@ownacondo.com
OwnACondo.com Has Relocated
By Patty Cunneen
So as many of you know, the OwnACondo.com office has relocated to 540 N. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. Because our office has moved to the city, my commute is much longer than it used to be and as a result I come up with a lot of random thoughts! I was just thinking that in my everyday commute, I probably pass at least a few hundred people a day, literally. This led me to think that the OwnACondo.com and BankREOs.com illuminated signs on Lake Shore Drive have to be seen by at least 2,000 people a day. Talk about good advertising! There are only a few other signs on Lake Shore Drive, so this should get some exposure for the company. Also, because the weather is turning nice, more people are out and about walking around, so we have the foot traffic as well.
OwnACondo.com is becoming more and more known on the streets and the office has only been here a short period of time. People are already talking about it and curious to see what it’s all about. Many new agents are joining and our team is growing fast. We're hiring real estate agents in order to grow the company and serve all the condo buyers and sellers in the marketplace.
OwnACondo.com has also expanded into Florida and California. We are located in Boca Raton, Florida and looking to open in Miami. We just opened in Sherman Oaks, California and are looking to open in Los Angeles as well. We are planning on opening up offices all across the United States. While many real estate companies are retrenching, we are expanding. What a great team to be a part of. Join our family here and come aboard and take advantage of the many opportunities that OwnACondo.com has to offer.
Real Estate Auctions Picking Up Steam
With real estate auctions expected to account for approximately 30% of all real estate sales in the U.S. by 2013 according to the National Auctioneers Association, OwnACondo.com held two auctions that proved to buyers, sellers and even curious members of the public that auctions are, indeed, a great way to transact business.
Based on those successes, OwnACondo.com founder and CEO Brian Kuzdas launched RealEstateAuctions.com to specialize in this growing trend and to provide a premier source to the marketplace for everything related to real estate auctions.
Mr. Kuzdas is currently visiting the company's new office in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he is recruiting real estate professionals and talking to bank officials about disposition services for their real estate-owned (REO) properties. The new office is the local base for not only OwnACondo.com but also BankREOs.com, which provides banks with an entire array of company services including auctions, traditional brokerage and management. As Mr. Kuzdas has spread the word about the family of companies and real estate auctions in general, he had the opportunity to speak with journalist Tagrid Shunia about RealEstateAuctions.com and the state of the industry. Ms. Shunia interviewd Brian and wrote this piece for the Miami Mortgage Examiner.
Licensed real estate brokers in Florida, the Chicago area and even other areas of the country are invited to contact Mr. Kuzdas for more information about getting involved with RealEstateAuctions.com, BankREOs.com and OwnACondo.com. Lenders and portfolio managers are also encouraged to reach out if they'd like to learn more about how the company can help them with their under-performing assets. Feel free to connect with Brian via his Linked In profile or via email at bk@realestateauctions.com.
Moving to a New Place
By Patty Cunneen
Last weekend my fiancé and I rented a U-Haul truck because we were moving into a new place. We had spent all day packing up and unloading. It was midway through the day and our job was almost completed. All we had to do was drive the truck back to U-Haul and we would be be on our way back to our cozy new place. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, there was a sudden “bang.” Even though we were proceeding very slowly and cautiouly around a parked car, constantly checking our mirrors, we realized very quickly that we had crashed. But it wasn’t into the car that we were trying to be careful not to hit, it was the roof of the truck into a balcony of the building! We were not even thinking about the roof! We immediately jumped out of the truck to see the damage. Yep, we had put a hole through the roof.
We were reluctant at first to get too upset because, after all, we do have movers insurance right? Well, yes we did, but moments later we realized right on the dashboard was a notice which read "Overhead damage is not covered by insurance" and it had a few simple pictures to display this act.
We knew that was not good. We immediately drove the truck back to the place where it came from and told the owner the truth. As we nervously waited in his office, he clicked away calculating a final price. Fortunately, it wasn’t as horrible as we thought, but just a note to all homebuyers and condo movers: Make sure to watch the roof of the truck and try to remember how tall the truck really is that you are driving when you move into your new place!
Don’t Flush in a Challenging Real Estate Market!
By Anthony Caciopo
News of the Odd, with some things a Little Odder Than Others:
Apparently, the difficult economy and a challenged housing market has lots of ripple effects...sorry, no pun intended...and the latest bit of unusual news is that household water pressure in at least one community has been affected by the lack of residential real estate development.
According to the Elgin Courier-News, a three-year-old water tower in the Highland Woods subdivision on the western edge of the City of Elgin can be filled to only about 25% capacity because home building has all but stopped in the area . Now, a partial fill might not sound like a problem if there aren't that many homes to serve yet, right? But the real problem is that in order to keep the water from stagnating (since not enough useage is occurring for even that limited amount of water) the city's fire department has been periodically flushing fire hydrants in that area in order to prompt the cycling of fresh water in the tower.
This has resulted in reduced water pressure for a different type of flushing at homes and schools nearby. Less pressure means that all sorts of daily activities related to water change a bit, from washing the dishes, filling a drinking glass, sudsing up the laundry and, yes, even going to the bathroom.
We trust the good people of Highland Woods in Elgin aren't too inconvenienced by the occasional low water pressure. Certainly, no one wants to have to resort to flushing in shifts. The fire department has already said it will do its own flushing--of the hydrants, of course--on days when school isn't in session, along with giving local residents more notice of when to expect the temporary pressure drop. And let's also hope the recent glimmer of partial good news in the housing market has some impact soon in Highland Woods and beyond.
Home Sales
Home sales nationwide grew in February, according to the National Association of Realtors®, but home prices continue to decline in most areas of the country. Industry experts see this as an indication that it might take several more years for the real estate sector to recover fully.
The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator, rose 2.1 percent to 90.8, based on contracts signed in February, from 88.9 in January. The index is 8.2 percent below 98.9 recorded in February 2010. The data reflects contracts and not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months.
“Month-to-month movements can be instructive, but in this uneven recovery it’s important to look at the longer term performance,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, who stressed the importance of looking at the broader trend. “Pending home sales have trended up very nicely since bottoming out last June, even with periodic monthly declines. Contract activity is now 20 percent above the low point immediately following expiration of the home buyer tax credit.”
According to Illinois Association of Realtors® data, statewide home sales, including single-family homes and condos, in February 2011 totaled 5,575 homes sold, up 1.3 percent from 5,505 sales in January 2011—and down 10.0 percent from February 2010. The median price in Illinois in February was $128,800, down 4.6 percent from $135,000 for the same month last year. The statewide single-family median price reached $129,000, up 1.6 percent from $127,000 in February 2010 and up 2.8 percent from $125,500 in February 2009.
While home sales are showing signs of recovery, data released March 29 by Standard & Poor’s, tracking home prices through January 2011, shows that home prices continue to drop in most areas of the country. The only metro areas in the United States that showed improvement in prices since last January were San Diego and Washington, D.C. San Diego’s figures rose just 0.1 percent over price averages seen in January 2010, but average prices rose more than 3.6 percent in Washington D.C.
Industry observers point to the unemployment rate, which remains about 10 percent nationally, as one reason for the reluctance of people to buy condos and other real estate, despite the low prices. In cities such as Washington, D.C., where the government accounts for many jobs, home sales have not been affected by unemployment as much as other areas.
Swiss Army Knife
While the build-out at the new OwnACondo.com office is nearing completion at 540 N. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, we are working like busy elves in the training room of our old office in suburban Oak Brook. We had anticipated moving in sooner and so all of our belongings are packed away and we are working from limited resources. It is amazing, though, that our huge office can still operate from folding tables and temporary computer set-ups. We are a fully functioning office in a room in the basement of our building! We operate like a Swiss army knife. We have everything we need at the tip of our fingers in one small office. This may not be the nicest knife in the drawer but we have everything we need. We have had clients and agents stopping by the office and asking us if we have this or that, and we do. They are very impressed with the work that can be done, in a room in the basement of a building!
Granted we are very excited for the Chicago office, do not get me wrong, but we are perfectly capable and fully operating. Just like a Swiss army knife, we are able to do everything we need to do to get our work done....and that means helping people buy and sell condos, of course.
Once we move downtown (to Streeterville, to be exact), we will be a premiere Swiss army knife! We will have everything and more. Through this whole moving experience we have learned that all you need to do is make it work, no excuses. Do what you can with what you have and simply, get the job done! It is that simple!
