I thought I would post a bit of “law humor” this week. I don’t know who originally wrote this piece, but it was sent to me some time ago: In the year 2008, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in the United States, and said, “Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me. Build another Ark and save 2 of every living thing along with a few good humans.” He gave Noah the blueprints, saying, “You have 6 months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights.” Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard – but no Ark. “Noah!” He roared, “I’m about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?” “Forgive me, Lord,” begged Noah, “but things have changed.… read more →
Short sales are becoming more and more common these days. Every week I seem to have another client who has become involved in a short sale, whether on the sale side or the purchase side, and is completely bewildered by the process. So what is a short sale? How does it work? A short sale comes into play when you have someone who is trying to sell real estate, but cannot get an offer that is sufficient to cover the mortgage owed on the property. For example, Seller A might own a property with an outstanding mortgage of $175,000, but Seller A is unable to sell the property for at least that amount. Not only that, Seller A can no longer afford the mortgage, taxes and other costs associated with keeping the property. Seller A is not making loan payments and knows that he is on the road to foreclosure.… read more →
For years I’ve had buyers complain to me about the City of Chicago’s transfer tax. At $7.50 per thousand dollars of sales price, it was already one of the highest real estate transfer taxes in the state. For example, if you were buying a property in Chicago for $250,000, your transfer tax would have been $1875. That’s quite a bit more money for a buyer to budget for closing. But if you were hoping to get that bargain rate, today is the last day! Tomorrow, April 1, 2008, the tax goes up to $10.50 per thousand dollars of sales price, and that is no April Fool’s joke. There is a silver lining, however, but only for buyers! The extra $3.00 per thousand is the responsibility of the seller. So using our previous example, the tax on a $250,000 property is now $2625. The buyer is still paying $1875, and the… read more →