Putting our Soldiers back to Work..http://ping.fm/grNNi

Congrats to my Prudential Rubloff office for award this week for 2011 Gold Coast/Lincoln Park highest volume. Thanks to my colleagues/friends/clients for an inspiring year in real estate and the start to a successful 2012.

...highest affordability index@ an all time high while interest rates@an all time low.."the perfect storm"

Carpe Diem.. Great time to buy from motivated sellers and uplifting and realistic time to sell to educated buyers
http://ping.fm/cTVFR

Congrats to my Prudential Rubloff office for award this week for  2011 Gold Coast/Lincoln Park highest volume. Thanks to my colleagues/friends/clients for an inspiring  year in real estate and the start to a successful 2012.
...highest affordability index@ an all time high while interest rates@an all time low.."the perfect storm"
Carpe Diem.. Great time to buy from motivated  sellers and uplifting and realistic time to sell to educated buyers

 chicagoluxuryrealty.com

Love to share great news! Happy Friday
http://ping.fm/sMH7D

Turn Key Investment..Just collect rents…Carpe Diem. Perfect for 1031 Exchange or New Years gift!

2011 was a difficult year for countless retail investors, money managers, hedge funds and just about everyone trading in the global markets. The S&P 500 Index returned a paltry 2.1% (counting dividends) and market volatility and economic uncertainty drove investors into U.S. Treasuries despite record low yields. And yet, this charming package of 3 bldgs and 27 units  yields a Total Return of over 8%

Turn Key Investment..Just collect rents…Carpe Diem. Perfect for 1031 Exchange or New Years gift!

          


FULLY LEASED Tenant Heated...  3 bldgs(27 units) in Bridgeport.
3225 S. May($1197775.10 unit) 3157 S. Racine($925775.12 units + penthouse) and 3247 S. May. ($469,700.5 unit can be deconverted back to 6)

All within a block of each other(12 units/5 units/10 units). Most of the units have been upgraded in the last 5 years. In addition, new windows/roofs and w/d….Asking price is $2.5m but also sold individually.. Cap rate based on actual numbers@ ask price is 8%.+.(Cant do that in the stock mkt!).

 Email rgoldstein@rubloff.com for more info and attached is  financial package

--

Ron Goldstein, MBA
Transnational Referral Certified(TRC)
Quality Service Certified(QSC)
Broker Associate
Prudential RUBLOFF Real Estate
office(312)264-5846
rgoldstein@rubloff.com
Carpe Diem(Seize the Day!) Today is your day!...
Certified Eco-Broker
www.chicagoluxuryrealty.com
Check out my blog@
http://www.carpediemrealestate.blogspot.com

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS FOR YOUR HOME

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS FOR YOUR HOME

 

 

5… 4… 3… 2… 1: Happy New Year! January is the perfect time for a fresh start. But with beginnings also comes reflection on the year that just passed. For homeowners, it's a fitting occasion to take stock of the improvements on or repairs to your home or condo you made last year, and the things that were on your to-do list that never got done.
Here are a list of resolutions for homeowners to keep their place running smoothly and their home value up in the New Year:
I resolve to keep my paperwork organizedOf course you got a new roof two years ago last fall… or maybe it was three? Without having a central system to keep track of what was done, by whom, and when, it can be downright impossible to make sure all the yearly maintenance and big-ticket improvements that need to be done on the house actually get accomplished. Your organization method doesn't need to be fancy. You could create a folder on your desktop computer or buy file folders to keep track of your receipts for improvements or repairs throughout the year. It's not only for your peace of mind to know your go to guy for bathroom repairs, or when the last time was you got the furnace repaired. You'll need to know the value of home improvements over your entire ownership when the time eventually comes to sell.

I resolve to do regular maintenanceTo keep your home in working order, every year you should you have your furnace cleaned and serviced, have the chimney cleaned, have the roofs cleaned, check decks, porches or balconies to ensure they are not rotting and check the crawl space underneath your home to make sure there are no major pest infestations or water. If you live in a condo, it's important to ask at condo association meetings the schedule for common area building maintenance issues, such as cleaning the roofs and chimney. To drive the pricing on some of these services down, try to organize the entire association to have these yearly maintenance services done at the same time. Every few months homeowners should clean the gutter and inspect weather stripping around doors and windows to determine if air is getting in and you need to re-caulk those areas. Every month you should change your furnace filters to prevent fire hazards.

I resolve to restore harmony to my homeYes, no one can see the inside of your drawers, but you know the frustration you feel when you're hunting for your favorite shirt in the morning, and it's seemingly nowhere to be found. So clean out your drawers and closets to bring order to your bedroom. Organize your pantry and your refrigerator so that food is both within reach and no one in your family tempts fate by eating an item that has passed its expiration date.

I resolve to be safeMake sure smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are in working condition. An easy way to remember to change the batteries is to do it twice a year, during the spring forward and fall back time changes. Check electrical systems for worn or exposed wires, and check heating systems and appliances for gas leaks and adequate ventilation. You can't put a price on your family's safety.

I resolve to keep minor repairs just thatDespite the time and money involved, roof repairs, functioning doors and windows, safe plumbing and safe electrical fixtures are all non-negotiable home repairs. Ignoring the problem or putting it off until later might not only be costly, but also dangerous.

I resolve to beautify my homeIn the chaos of daily life, keeping up with keeping your home clean may seem both impossible and a drag, but remember the feeling you get when you survey a sparkling room and feel fortunate to live there. Dirty windows, for example, can make the entire place look filthy. It may not be an ideal way to spend a Saturday, but the end result of your cleaning will make you feel great when you see how much brighter and larger the entire room looks. And by maintaining the cleanliness of your home on a regular basis, straightening up will feel like a much more manageable task than if you don't clean at all for a few weeks, and have to spend hours and days picking up and putting things away.

CARPE DIEM Real estate Update... January 2012

Diem.CAR..Real Estate Update

 CARPE DIEM Real estate Update... January 2012

MAKING SENSE OF HOME VALUE NUMBERS

From various media reports, you may be confused by stories that say home prices are up, home prices are down and home prices are stable.

All of those things may be true, depending on which data you're citing. Different groups collect different statistics, one reason why they get different results.
    Bankers: Home prices won't recover before 2020
If median sale price is measured, for example, it could rise in a month when a lot of expensive homes were sold and fall in a month where there were mostly sales of lower-priced homes, yet still not mean home prices in general are falling.
Plus, home prices vary widely from neighborhood to neighborhood, and statistics may look at entire cities or metropolitan areas. One great example is South Florida, where homes on average have fallen in value 50% since the market peak in 2006.
Yet the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area is home to the city where homes have risen in value the most since President Barack Obama took office in 2009 and the city where homes have fallen the most in value.
In Weston, a high-end suburb of 65,000 people west of Fort Lauderdale, home values increased 15.1% from February 2009 to August 2011, the best appreciation in the nation, according to data gathered by Zillow for Bloomberg/Businesswe?ek. That same data show that in Homestead, a working-class city 50 miles away, home values have dropped 48.8%, the biggest drop nationwide.
Of course, statistics are most meaningful when looked at over time. A month-to-month price change is less significant than a year-to-year price change. The statistics also are more useful for measuring trends than for determining the value of a particular house.
SmartMoney recently took a look at the three major home-price indexes and pointed out how you can use them. The San Diego Union-Tribune did the same last year, looking at four indexes.
In brief, here are their conclusions:
The Federal Housing Finance Agency statistics are more meaningful if you are in a lower-priced area without too many distress sales to cash buyers. The FHFA measures sales to buyers who got mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, now about two-thirds of people who get mortgages. But those data don't include cash sales or jumbo mortgages.
The National Association of Realtors statistics may be most helpful in drilling down into your local market, especially if your local organization makes data available for smaller geographic areas. The NAR numbers includes sales through the multiple listing service but don't include sales that didn't involve real-estate agents. The NAR also provides data on more cities.
The Standard & Poor/Case-Shiller statistics are useful when measuring the value of higher-priced houses in larger cities. The data include only 20 cities, but they look at different price points.
The Union-Tribune also mentions MDA DataQuick, which pulls data from a variety of public records and offers prices per square foot, and Zillow, which uses a computer model to estimate the value of all homes, not just those that have sold. The Zestimates provided by Zillow have gotten more accurate over the years. They are most on target in areas with lots of data to draw from.
    Survey: 42% of buyers expect 7% annual return on their home