I recently received notice of a 21% increase in my Lake County IL 2008 real estate tax assessed valuation. In 2007, I along with many of my neighbors, were facing a similar increase and protested to the Lake County Board of Review. They agreed with our position and rolled back the 2007 increase
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09/18/2008
AIG bites the dust. Many are wondering "what does this mean to the Real Estate Industry?" As I see it, 30 year mortgage rates were traditionally around 200 - 250 basis points above the yield on the 10 year treasury. If this pattern had followed, mortgage rates would have been below 6% most of
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09/17/2008
Two sections of the new housing bill will help First Time Home Buyers. First, a $7500 Federal Tax Credit. This is advertised as if $7500 is added to taxes paid for 2008 and will increase your refund. While that is how it will work, it is actually an interest free loan that must be paid back o
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07/25/2008
Realtor Beware! A Realtor recently attended a Bank of America presentation. The message that she received from BofA was suggesting that - "If she wanted to loose a deal she should use a mortgage broker that had to comply with SB1167. However, if she wanted to keep her deal she should send her
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07/22/2008
How would you like to save $.08/gallon? Consider this - All you need to do is pay $50 for a gas card to receive $51 worth of gas. If your reaction was "so what", you should do the math. $51 buys you 12.23 gallons @ $4.17/gal. (today's price). Since you only pay $50 for the 12.23 gallons, you
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07/21/2008
"Greetings!" is a Big Hit! Playing June 17 - July 6 If you are planning to visit DOOR County this summer, be sure to check out PENINSULA PLAYERS, just North of Egg Harbor. My wife & I were there thiis past Sunday and viewed this comedy. What a great show. (They even scheduled a sunset ove
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06/26/2008
highlights - Before a real estate transfer(buy-sell) or refinance can take place in Cook County (beginning 7/1/2008), data must be entered into a database to determine if it is an exempt or "subject to counseling" transaction. This information must be verified by the title company before funding
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06/20/2008
Do you have a COOK COUNTY closing after June 30? Was the application taken before July 1? So you think you are off the hook and do not have to worry about SB1167? Wrong! Your title company closer will have to enter the borrower's information into the state data base to confirm that the borrow
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06/10/2008
Press Release I was recently awarded the Lending Integrity Seal of Approval from the National Association of Mortgage Professionals. This means that I have met the Association's high standards for ethics, integrity, professionalism and knowledge in the mortgage industry. I couldn't buy it or re
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05/12/2008
I would say that at least this month, the newspapers should rank economists below used car salesmen and loan officers when it comes to the listing of "who can you trust". Of course all three would rank above politicians.Well, the economists missed again with their prediction of March consumer sp
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05/06/2008