The MG Group Blog

I’m sure we REALTORS® sometimes sound like broken records to our clients. But there are some things that bear repeating, no matter how many times you have to say them. “Make sure your home is ready for every showing,” is one of those things. In today’s slower housing market, your home will not ge...

I hope that all of you are having a great holiday season despite the weather and gloomy economy. As many of you may know because the media is actually reporting it, interest rates on 30-yr FIXED conforming (loan amount of $417,000 or less) loans hit a low of 4.75% yesterday and are continuing to ...

It’s tempting when you read about the growing number of housing foreclosures across the country and locally here in Chicago to consider entering the market for distressed properties. After all, there are plenty of housing bargains to be found, right? But before you take the plunge, you should con...

Today’s mortgage lenders are a lot more cautious about whom they pass out mortgage loans to. During the heyday of the housing boom, even borrowers with suspect credit – not to mention high levels of debt and shaky job histories – were able to obtain mortgage loans with low interest rates. Thanks ...

Now that we are suffering through one of the most serious housing slumps that I can remember, much of what I’ve long told buyers and sellers suddenly carries more weight. There is no clearer example of this then my longstanding recommendation that homeowners and buyers work with REALTORS® who are...

As someone who makes his living selling real estate, I like to keep up with our city’s economic fortunes. After all, when Chicago’s economy is humming along, more people think about buying and selling homes. When it’s not? That means I have to work just as closely with my clients to make sure the...

You’d think that if anyone could get through today’s slumping economy and struggling real estate market with few problems, it’d be Donald Trump. And you’d think that his 92-story high-rise in River North, the much-heralded Trump International Hotel & Tower, would be a strong enough draw to easily...

If you read this blog with any regularity, you know how I feel about the national news media’s predictions about the future of the housing market: If you live in Chicago, it doesn’t matter what the New York Times says about housing prices in Los Angeles. You need only concern yourself with what h...

It’s easy to get depressed these days when the statements from your retirement accounts come in. You open that envelope, take a deep breath, look and then … Well, it’s safe to say that you don’t like what you see. You’re far from alone, of course. Thanks to the country’s economic slump, the monet...

I always tell my buyers and sellers not to pay too much attention to national news reports regarding the housing industry. That’s because those reports focus on the entire country, while my clients need only worry about their local markets. To see what I mean, visit the Chicago Tribune’s Market P...