Chicagoland Area Real Estate Blog & News

As-Is Listing Info for Buyers and Sellers


What you need to know about buying or selling an as-is home.

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The term “as-is condition” has different connotations for different people. So when a seller calls and says they want to sell their home as is, I ask what that means to them.

Often, they want to list as is because they don’t want to update their property. That’s fine because we’ll consider that when deciding on a price. However, for some sellers, it means something like the furnace is out and they don’t want to repair it, but that’s something we’ll have to disclose. Some people think they can list their home as is and no one will ask for inspection repairs, but the issue is that as-is listings sometimes have negative connotations for buyers.

That means we need to be extremely careful when listing a house as is. The only time I advise it is when there are issues that won’t be handled. If it’s a cosmetic problem, the buyer understands that they’re buying it as they see it, like if you didn’t remove wallpaper or replace the carpet. However, if something major needs to be fixed, such as the roof, we need to disclose it. Sellers need to be smart about using the term “as is” when selling because it could turn...

Why Your Home May Not Be Selling


Our market is changing, so your home may not be getting as much activity.

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Lately, we’ve had some sellers ask why they aren’t seeing multiple offers or getting as many showings as anticipated. Every property is unique, and some receive more activity than others. The more unique your property is, the less activity you may get. The real estate market has shifted over the past few months, so people aren’t getting as many offers as they were.

Staging or decluttering might help, and if your price isn’t appropriate, you won’t get multiple offers either. When you price correctly, you receive multiple offers that drive the price up, but if you price too high, you won’t get multiple offers—you may get one, then sell for less. Buyers are smart and will see that your home is overpriced and make an offer on another house; if you price too high, you’re helping someone else sell. We’re starting to see more inventory, so if your real estate agent is talking about reducing your property’s price, you want to listen to them and seriously consider it.

The market has slowed down in Illinois, and we’ll likely see a point here in July where it slows even more. Though we’re technically...

The Current State of Our Market


Our market is finally slowing down a bit, and here’s what that means.

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We’ve been hearing for so long now that it’s a hot seller’s market, but if you’re in the industry, you likely felt the change around mid-May or at least the end of the month. I spoke with an appraiser the other day, and they felt the change too. If your home wasn’t on the market by May, you may have missed the peak, but that doesn’t mean it’s all over; it just means the intensity is slowing down some. Buyers are getting a bit more time to think, they aren’t having to make split-second decisions, and they aren’t competing with as many other buyers as they were.

Nationally, our median price is currently $350,000, but in the Chicagoland area and a little south of that, it’s $262,500. A lot is going on in our market; it’s still a wonderful time to jump into it. We likely have another month before the market changes again because we’re moving toward having the more typical market that we saw before the pandemic. 

If you have questions about our market or would like to know the median price in your area or town, I’d be glad to help you. Give me...