The City of Chicago offers these seven tips for tenants when their landlord faces foreclosure. If you would like further information on how to protect your home when a foreclosure threatens to evict you, please call on iMove. We are here to help. The process may be confusing but we can offer some clarity. The Illinois ARDC, which regulates lawyers in Illinois took action today to alert Illinois lawyers to be wary of those operating loan modification scams. Seems that these guys are attempting to lure Illinois attorneys into their operations to give the appearance of legitimacy. If you are considering a modification, always ask for a second opinion or run it past a person familiar with the law. iMove Chicago has attorney's who are brokers are are lad to help you evaluate what is being offered. Bottom line is to exercise caution.
Things are not looking so good at Jameson Sotheby's Realty. Crain's Chicago reports today that CEO Chris Feurer is facing yet another foreclosure. This time on his single family home. This comes a mere six months after Jameson's President, Michael Sato, was charged with shoplifting ties at Bloomingdale. In November, Jameson brought on board a group of rental agents led by Sohail Salahuddin, who it turns out is himself a convicted felon (narcotics). This used to be a well respected firm when it was ran by the Huzenis brothers. Since selling out to Sato and Feurer, it seems that reputation has fallen. What next? Folks, check out who you are working with. A franchise name means very little today. What a disgrace.
Short sales are presently dominating the real estate sales market and many buyers are electing to purchase these properties because of the often substantially reduced prices. However, buyers of these properties should exercise caution and consult with an attorney before buying. One often overlooked pitfall for the unwary buyer is a provision of the Illinois Condominium Property Act that was put in place in 2007. This change can make the buyer responsible for paying up to six month's of the seller's liability for the assessments levied against the property and remaining unpaid after foreclosure. Thus know what you are getting into before you sign that purchase contract. Set forth below is the referenced change.
Today it happened again. A tenant who viewed a ver nice condo rental unit in Andersonville on Thursday and seemed to be committed to renting decided to "sleep on it" and make a decision over the weekend. Guess what? The unit was rented by the time she came in to our office to apply today. This scenario is playing out much more frequently than we have ever encountered in the past. No, we don't have a bunch of government surveys and statistics to confirm our hunch. What we do have is day to day evidence of the fact that apartments in Chicago are renting far quicker than they ever have in the past. One agent in our office also experienced a bidding wat on Friday over a Gold Coast studio apartment. The rent started at $1,000 but settled out at over $1,200. We have never heard of that happening before. We have recently had many clients facing multiple, competing applications on apartments in Chicago. The trend doesn't seem to be limited to the popular neighborhoods of Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Downtown, Loop. Rather, we are seeing first hand evidence of a very tight rental market throughout Chicago, in communities like Andersonville, Edgewater, Rogers Park, Uptown, Albany Park, Evanston, Roscoe Village, and Wrigleyville.
We can only speculate as to the reasons underlying this trend. Perhaps, give that the housing market remains in the doldrums, more folks are staying put. People who have lost homes to foreclosure are also returning to the rental market. Builders and developers have all but stopped new construction. Many units caught up in the mortgage foreclosure mess are sitting idle and vacant as cases work their way through the legal system. All of these factors seem to be contributing to the tightening rental market. The end result is that competition for value priced units seems to be at an all time high. We are about to enter the spring rental market and this will reveal whether the trend continues. What we are observing is that rents for many large rental companies are on the increase, reflecting what these apartment owners must be seeing in terms of vacancy rates. Stay tuned, it looks to be a rough ride. A large segment of the housing market has long been neglected by the government in its support of loan modification. To date, investors and those owning rental properties have been shut out of all loan modification programs. No longer. On Friday, the Obama administration announced a major expansion of its mortgage modification program as it seeks to prevent more foreclosures and further deterioration of the housing market. Now, investors can seek modification under the Home Affordable Modification Program ("HAMP") regardless of whether the property is occupied by a tenant or is vacant. Approximately 700,000 properties nationwide are estimated to now be eligible for the HAMP program.
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