All Forum Posts by: Ryan Bird

Why are the home prices in Chicano stagnant or coming down? I’m looking at northwest suburbs specifically and either prices are the same or have come down since 2015. Not a generalized trend - but I was looking at areas like schaumburg, hoffman estates, palatine, lake zurich, mount prospects, prospect heights, arlington heights, wheeling  etc . Trying to see if buying single family/townhomes now and renting them is worth it (profits after mortgage and tax) in these areas or if I should wait/look at other markets. Do you see any property appreciation in the coming years in Chicago? If not, what the main blocker (tax?) is? There are lots of tech opportunities booming in Chicago at least in my domain and I’m surprised it’s not reflecting on housing markets appreciating compared to what I'm seeing at other major cities. Thoughts?

Have a question on something mentioned in sellers disclosure on the contract. In the disclosure section, seller mentioned that “they are aware of leaks or material defects in the roofs, ceilings or chimney”. In the additional comments section, they mentioned “there was a toilet leak from top floor to the roof below which was fixed two years back and there were no issues since then.”

I did inspection and they didn’t find any issues on the report either. My question is - material defect definition in the contract (provided below for reference) specifies sellers to call out any conditions “unless seller believes that condition is corrected”. If they think it’s fixed why are they disclosing it as a material defect? Is it because they think there are no issues but not sure if it’s fully corrected? Or is it mandatory to call them out as material defects even if we fixed it. Not getting a convincing answer from them. Should I ask our attorney to ask anything to clarify this?

Definition from contract - “material defect means a condition that would have a substantial adverse effect on the value of the residential real property or that would significantly impair the health or safety of future occupants of the residential real property unless the seller reasonably believes that the condition has been corrected.”

Why are the home prices in Chicano stagnant or coming down? I’m looking at northwest suburbs specifically and either prices are the same or have come down since 2015. Trying to see if buying single family/townhomes and renting them is worth it (profits after mortgage and tax) in Chicago or if I should look at other markets. Do you see any property appreciation in the coming years in Chicago? Is property tax a main blocker for appreciation? There are lots of tech opportunities booming in Chicago and I’m surprised it’s not reflecting on housing markets appreciating compared to other major cities. Thoughts?

Do you take home warranty for your homes - primary residence or rented out? Is it worth it in long run? Any preferred vendors that are good and doesn’t give a hard time while submitting claims?

@Ashley Carter

Makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.

I have a question on mls listing sheet of the house.It has a "sold by" field on top section after the address/directions section. Can someone tell what it means?

Reason I'm curious is that this field lists out my agent name (buyer's agent) as the sold by company. I know that sellers name (based on contract) are different and the listing broker(mentioned in mls sheet) is also different so wondering why the buyer's agent is listed in the "sold by" section in listing sheet. I was thinking this "sold by" would have been sellers broker? Or am I incorrect with this assumption?

1.What are some of the recommended home inspection items - do you usually stick with the standard ones offered by the inspection companies or should we conduct radon/mold testing or anything else in addition? Any recommended check lists that you could guide me to? For context, this is a relatively newer townhome to be used as a primary residence. Also, how much does do they cost in average?  (home + radon + mold) 

2. I understand that we need to do home inspection during the attorney review period. I also learned that either party can back out during this period. What happens if sellers back out during this time once we pay money to complete the inspection - will we lose the money that was paid for home inspection? Hoping there won't be any surprises but what would be a recommended approach here to cover ourselves from inspection costs?

Any reference for good property managers in iowa city/coralville? I'm planning to rent out my townhome and wanted referrals for good management company that will take care of tenants/rents etc. google and yelp did not help much!

What happens during an attorney review process once the offer is accepted? What exactly do they review? Are there things that buyer can be proactive about to make this thorough without stepping into their work. For eg: How do I get hoa documents accessible to us so that we can make sure there are no rentability issues or do I just need to tell this to attorney and they will review it for us? Are there anything that I need to call out from my end from your experience? 

Thanks everyone. Appreciate the feedback.