Archive for May, 2009
GUARDIAN ANGELS CHICAGO CHAPTER MAKE ARREST 9/24/08 SUBWAY STATION. RED LINE. MAN AULTS LADY. WE HEARD SCREAMS AND RAN TO THE RESCUE. WE DETAIN SUSPECT. CALL THE POLICE AND SUSPECT PRESSES CHARGES.
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DARE TO CARE AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
PATROL LEADERS “3RDRAIL” “M.I.A.” “BIG JES”
Duration : 0:9:52
A young man nearly drowned while swimming at Northern Avenue Beach in Chicago. He became hypothermic and irrational and could not get out of the deep water because there are no safety ladders at the deep end of the promenade. It’s time for the city council to act! Lucky for him the life guards came to his rescue.
Duration : 0:3:43
Chicago is one step closer to the 2016 Olympics.
Dan Yost from MyLaptopGPS.com Comments on the state of the breach and MLGPS solution.
Duration : 0:2:55
The days of dropping a sign in the yard, putting an ad in the paper and baking cookies for a Sunday Open House are gone. Today’s real estate consumer is using the internet to gather information and make preliminary decisions before they even go out to see homes. If your listing agent isn’t prepared for this shift in the industry, your home could go largely unnoticed.
Over the last several years the real estate industry has changed dramatically. Some agents feared it, some agents ignored it, but the best agents embraced it and learned to play by the new rules. The best Realtors discovered they now had to do more to market a home. They had to learn all the new avenues consumers would come into contact with homes for sale. Most of all, they had to be technologically savvy and have a proactive marketing campaign to get a home sold.
The first shift was from the individual agent to an entire team. This approach allows the agent to focus more on finding buyers for your home. The agent’s staff can focus on marketing the home, processing paperwork and doing the day-to-day operations. Ask yourself, why wouldn’t you want an entire team working to sell your home versus a single agent when it doesn’t cost you a penny more?
Secondly, agents needed to be more proactive. Custom full color brochures have become commonplace in most homes for sale. Agents became involved in more direct mail campaigns marketing homes to neighborhoods and potential buyers. Some Realtors have even developed buyer databases that they can reference as they list homes for sale. These databases automatically alert them to matching buyers making an instant connection between buyer and seller.
A huge shift in the industry has been the internet and it’s ramifications on how consumers are searching for homes. This led to more and more Realtor websites. It began with a few sites posting a picture of a home for sale. Then came virtual tours, allowing home buyers to preview a home from the comfort of their desk or couch. The latest cutting edge tool used by some of the best agents are home websites. An entire website devoted to a single home for sale. These sites provide more information for buyers than any other avenue, even seeing the home with an agent. These sites offer unlimited photos (both exterior and interior), virtual tours, property documents (like disclosures) available for online viewing, links to schools, area information, mortgage calculators, heck, you can even set up a showing appointment! What’s next, maybe you’ll be able to buy the home sight unseen!
Another shift has been in value added services. Consumers are doing more work on their own, they need justification for what they’re paying their agent. More and more Realtors are offering value added services such as home warranties, home appraisals, home staging experts to prepare a home for sale and even FREE moving trucks!
Even with all this technology, the heart of the transaction still needs to be good communication and superior customer service. Some agents have unfortunately lost touch with these qualities as they have become more wrapped up in the technology. If you’re considering selling your home, make sure your agent possesses these skills. Get plenty of references and find out how they will be communicating with you throughout the transaction.
Perhaps the last thing that is important when you’re looking for a Realtor these days is some form of Performance Guarantee. Some agents like to charge a processing fee, or marketing fee, for listing your home for sale. If you decide to cancel your listing or it doesn’t sell you’re out! A good agent will provide you with an “easy exit” or Performance Guarantee stating that you can cancel your listing at no cost.
These are just some of the things changing the real estate industry over the last few years. Take this advice to heart when it comes time to sell your next home. A lot of consumers may be unaware of these changes, and what they should be looking for in a Realtor. Don’t get burned find an agent that has adapted to these changes yet held on to the most important qualities like customer service and communication!
Kris Kombrink
http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/chicago-home-owners-todays-real-estate-market-and-how-it-affects-you-60421.html
Homebuyers who are parents are always on the look out for the perfect place to raise their children. Places that have excellent schools are often preferred, and in many cases, is a major factor in deciding where to buy a home. While school quality is important, there other many other factors that buyers consider when selecting a residential neighborhood.
Andrew Schiller, a geographer and founder of Location Inc., conducted a study that ranked the top 10 family-friendly metro areas in USA. The rankings were derived using six criteria that included: the availability of good schools, low crime rate, high homeownership rates, high numbers of residents with college degrees, and the percentage of families with children and single-family homes.
When a community has high ownership rates, it reflects an investment in the location by the residents, which is a positive aspect. A high number of college-educated residents in a community increases the likelihood of greater community involvement in the schools, which contributes to school quality. Homebuyers with children value communities that already have a lot of children. The social network for both the children and parents are great in such communities.
In the study, Schiller made out two lists, one that considered home prices and one that did not. The research was conducted twice for each metro area, once without considering cost, and the second time considering reasonably priced areas. This way, the study was expected to reflect the top 10 choices and the best value communities in the top 10 U.S. metropolitan areas for raising children.
When home values were not a factor, the top locales for families with children in the top 10 largest U.S. metropolitan areas were:
1.In the Boston metro area: Sudbury, Massachusetts.
2.In the New York metro area: Manhasset, New York
3.In the Philadelphia area: Richboro, Pennsylvania
4.In the Washington area: Potomac, Maryland
5.In the Detroit area: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
6.In the Chicago area: Lake Forest, Illinois
7.In the Dallas-Ft. Worth area: Highland Park, Texas
8.In the Houston area: Sugar Land, Texas
9.In the San Francisco Bay area: Los Altos, California
10.In the Los Angeles area: Moorpark, California
When home prices were considered, the top 10 locales for families with children based on the best home values were:
1.In the Boston metro area: Holden, Massachusetts
2.In the New York metro area: Andover, New Jersey
3.In the Philadelphia area: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
4.In the Washington area: Columbia, Maryland
5.In the Detroit area: Troy, Michigan
6.In the Chicago area: Wheeling, Illinois
7.In the Dallas-Ft. Worth area: Richardson, Texas
8.In the Houston area: Stafford, Texas
9.In the San Francisco Bay area: Suisun City, California
10.In the Los Angeles area: Simi Valley, California
If you are considering buying a home, be sure to seek out the services of a local real estate agent who can advise you about the pros and cons of particular communities based on your preferences.
Real Estate Advisor
http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/best-places-to-riase-children-in-the-united-states-97365.html
I have an idea to stop government waste in Chicago. Let’s put cameras in City Council meeting and post City Council meetings on the internet for everyone to see. Who knows, maybe we’ll stop some of that government waste.
Duration : 0:0:28
The Chicago Blackhawks are proud to support the Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid. Johnathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Martin Havlat, Adam Burish, Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, Dustin Byfuglien, Kris Versteeg, Patrick Sharp, Cam Barker, Cristobal Huet, Nikolai Khabibulin, Brian Campbell, Aaron Johnson, Troy Brouwer, Ben Eager, Niklas Hjalmarsson, and Head Coach Joe Quenville took time from a busy media day to “Back the Bid!” Be a part of it at www.Chicago2016.org
Duration : 0:0:45
Citizen and Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting (CLEAR) is the enterprise information system for the entire Chicago Police Department and one of the most sophisticated information systems in the nation. The program won a 2007 Innovations in American Government Award.
Duration : 0:14:12
http://24hrglassrepair.com/
Emergency Services | Toll Free 1.800.403.3887
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