It’s the kind of “problem” many would like to have: a buyer has just made an offer on your home — and you hadn’t even listed it for sale! Turns out, it’s not all that uncommon for “house-stalkers” (or their determined agents) to slip notes into owner’s mailboxes or just knock on the door and ask
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11/27/2013
Interest rates may have been rising, but they are still invitingly low. As a consequence, some Naperville homeowners are looking to refinance their mortgages to lock in interest rates while they can. A key element in both refinancing and home sales is, of course, the formal appraisal. Most hom
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11/26/2013
This summer, the National Association of Realtors® reported the largest number of existing home sales since February 2007— and I expect we will see similar results when this fall’s final numbers come in. With more individuals looking to enter (or re-enter) the real estate market, buying a house
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11/24/2013
When a Naperville first-time home buyer begins hunting for the prize that has to serve both as a satisfactory home base and a solid investment, most feel a mixture of excitement (a home is a landmark achievement!) and maybe just a touch of apprehension. Like any expense you’ve never encountere
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11/21/2013
This could be any new Naperville homeowner’s worst nightmare: shortly after closing on their new house, a family in Canada discovers over $100,000 in hidden damages — the kind of damages that have to be fixed before the house can be deemed safe for occupancy. The cause? HGTV’s Mike Holmes made th
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11/20/2013
Virtual tours can be potent tools to selling your Naperville home over the coming holiday season. To make the best use of those tools, it’s important to prepare your home with the special requirements of the medium in mind. How doing so differs from prepping for in-the-flesh showings is a subtl
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11/19/2013
October’s Mortgage Credit Availability Index shows a slight relaxation in lending standards — but as most Naperville home buyers and sellers will agree, getting a mortgage is still difficult. With mortgage availability benchmarked at 100, although it’s currently at 111 ½, compared with the 80
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11/18/2013
Conventional wisdom dictates that people selling homes in Naperville prefer cash offers. So what is a typical would-be buyer in Naperville to do when the competition comes forward with an all-cash offer? Cash offers may come from any of a variety of deep-pocketed parties: institutional invest
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11/14/2013
Renovations and upgrades will increase anybody’s Naperville home values, right? Maybe…but not so fast! Believe it or not, some projects can actually diminish a Naperville property’s home values. In other words, you could potentially lose more than the cost of the project: you could lower your hom
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11/13/2013
By virtue of their purchasing experience, homeowners have necessarily become familiar with the basics of real estate. A Naperville homeowner may not consider her- or himself an expert in the matter, but history does allow them all to share a degree of confidence in real estate markets and the fac
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11/12/2013
