Paul N. Paterakis's (lakezurichrealestate) Blog

You may have clients who qualify to have their foreclosure case checked by a third party as part of the federal regulators’ independent foreclosure review directive now have until July 31, 2012 to submit their requests. How about notifying your database? This is great info for them either way. Th...

Some of you keep asking if the IRS will go after stressed sales homeowners for the forgiven amount they did not pay via the sale of their home that closed for much less than the mortgagenote. Back in 2010 and reported on our Monday’s MEMO’s we gave you the details on it: a two(2) year “stay” on t...

On December 28, 2011 the FHA extended its waiver of a rule that prohibits the agency from insuring homes sold within 90 days of their acquisition. The anti-flipping regulation wasdesigned to prevent activity that could be harmful to neighborhoods.While the law was created to maintain stability in...

Online, on TV or in print it’s all conflicting and contrary: escalating foreclosures, rate of unemployment is up, hard to get a loan on one side; home prices stabilizing, unemployment rate is unchanged, lowest interest rates in decades; just to mention a few. Information and misinformation is goi...

      A new law will soon make it easier to transfer residential real estate upon death while avoiding the time and cost of going through probate.  Governor Quinn recently signed into law the Illinois Residential Real Property Transfer on Death Instrument Act which takes effect January 1, 2012.  ...

We are all aware of schemes in short sales from “Flipping” to “Flopping” and many others; now something else for Realtors to worry about: fake short pay letters from lenders. Nothing worse than having written a few contracts with a buyer and have the “good” one fall apart before the closing just ...

Someone will actually call you from this area code and leave you a message along these lines:“Hey, this is Karen, sorry I missed you – get back to us quickly. I have something important totell you.” Then she will repeat a phone number beginning with 809: do not respond, it’s a scam!AT & T has be...

Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren had a great article in Forbes that helped me “balance” the ongoing conversation and costs of green energy compared to our current structure; wind, solar and biomass presently constitutes only 3.6% of fuel used to generate electricity in the U.S. How much will it ...

In a new book, Game Plan, to be published and available at the upcoming “Gathering of Eagles” in Denver, Ian Morris, CEO of Market Leader and REAL Trends Editor Steve Murray researched the market for housing sales and consumers and real estate professionals for the next 3-5 years. The goal of the...

The IRS recently announced changes to its procedures on filing liens with the hope of assisting taxpayers and small businesses in climbing out of their debt obligations. In order to understand the impact of these changes and how they will affect your client, it is first necessary to be familiar ...