BuyerSellers April 22, 2020

Condo Association is changing your rules! Now what?

So you own a condo and they’re about to change the rules on you. Do you own a condo now with no rules in place? How does it work? Let’s go find out. Stay with me for the next 2 to 3 minutes and I will show you the exact answers and lay out a path for you to as a 90% of your questions when it comes time that the condo association is changing their rules. Hi. I’m Janine Sasso, local real estate professional and somber. How close is bearing down and the surrounding suburbs? Many associations are changing their rental rules due to newer companies like Airbnb or VR, BO that are operating currently in sort of a gray zone because they are doing nightly or weekly rentals that are not regulated by many associations. So in an effort to adapt, many androids are adapting their roles. But what does it mean for you, association one to limit the amount of renters that are actually occupying a complex? One of our two largest lending institutes are wanting to make sure that their money is in good hands and therefore they are preferring owner occupied properties.

Now, if you have a higher increase in renters, your potential buyer might not qualify for one of those bad loans. So with that, your buyer pool becomes smaller and smaller associations are trying to navigate that by putting a limit into place. Association like to keep the unit owner occupied in the belief that owners are actually taking better care of the units than renters. What do you think? Do you think that’s true? Do you think that renters do not care about the unit? Let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. So what if you’re owning in a building where they’re about to change the rules? Well, you have two options. Most often you are grandfathered in with the old set of rules. As long as you are owning the unit, once the units sold itself and transferred, the new rules will apply to the new unit owner.

Now there is a second scenario that can come to fruition, which is a little bit more tricky. The second scenario says the association will make everybody adhere to the new rules. And like I said, sometimes this can lead to great obstacles for many people. And it’s the least traveled road when it comes to this. Do you own a condo and have experienced association changes? Have they changed the rule for you? Did it affect you? Do you think you came out for the better? Let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear your input on this subject. My name is Janine Sasso. I’m your local Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates and Barrington Realtor serving the northwest suburbs of Chicago. And I cannot wait to see you in the next video. Do not miss it. Please make sure you subscribe and ring the bell. And if you have any other questions, please send them in. I always love to get questions from my audience to make sure I address the things that matter most to you.

Buyer April 15, 2020

Don’t go looking for your DREAM home…

Chasing the dream of the perfect home is setting yourself up for failure. But don’t worry. I can get you back on track. Stay with me for the next 2 to 3 minutes and I will show you exactly how to get yourself unstuck. If you have been looking for your perfect dream home that you can find, and how your long term happiness will live on as long as you are in that house and how your bank account will actually. Thank you. Hi, I’m Janine Sasso. I am a local realtor in the Chicagoland area, servicing Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Barrington and the surrounding suburbs. In a perfect world, your dream home probably has eight bedrooms, six bathrooms, five car garage, separate in-law and guest house built in chef for the kitchen maid. How about a nanny? All right. I might be exaggerating here a little bit, but let’s be honest. Our wish list for our dream home might sometimes be quite extensive. And the dilemma is oftentimes the budget to find everything and fit everything in just the way you want it.

But don’t worry. I got some solutions to get you out of your dilemma. So watch those next when buying a home. Focus on location first. Don’t get distracted with all that fun, glitzy stuff. After you determine the perfect location, make sure you take a look at the bones of the house. The bones are really mechanics, the roof, the windows. If an owner has maintained those a those are costly to maintain. And B, if those have been maintained most often, you can assume the home was maintained for the long term and there’s less likelihood of deferred maintenance, which means less money spent on future repairs. Your perfect home needs to fit your lifestyle. If you hate yardwork, maybe getting the big, big yard so the dog can play might not make the most sense. If you hate commuting to work, getting the biggest house possible an hour away from work might also not be the right choice. So most of all, be honest with yourself and your lifestyle when buying a home. Be mindful of your budget. Overextending yourself to get everything you think you want might not be the best thing. You should be budgeting and about 1 to 3% of the property value in maintenance expenses for the year and your mortgage payment should be roughly about 30% of your income.

This way you are lowering the risk of overextending yourself, and you will also not be caught off guard if unplanned expenses due to homeownership come your way. When looking for your dream home. Keep in mind that certain things can be added or changed along the path of homeownership. A home that has enough flexibility to pivot with your changing lifestyle is the perfect home that you can ask for. These tips are all here to help you make a financially smart decision about your dream home. Don’t get swept up in the latest trends. Consider the home in terms of location, in terms of lifestyle choices, and in terms of flexibility to adjust to your potentially changing lifestyle. If you have any other questions, I’m happy to help you. My name is Janine Sasso. I am your local Chicagoland real estate agent, and I serviced Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, Barrington and the surrounding suburbs. Now, do me a favor. Make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel. Leave a comment below. And if you have anything else that you want to discuss, shoot me an email. I’d love to hear from you.

Sellers April 8, 2020

Don’t buy a Short Sale until you heard this!

Hey, everybody, it’s Janine Sasso, your local Chicagoland realtor. And in today’s episode, we will be covering how much home is too much home for you. This one I want to kick off with some interesting stats. Did you know that in 1982, 2.76 people lived on an average of 1595 square feet. Now, let’s compare this to 2018. In 2018, 2.54 people lived on 2385 square feet. What a difference. But how come? Where’s the difference coming from? Now, let’s think about this. Double vanities have become a must have in a master spa bath. How about the man cave? The entertainment room. Everything is considered a must have item on today’s home buyers list.

What about the in-home office? Or my absolute favorite, the king sized bed that has to fit in the master bedroom. Now, qualifying for the McMansion is not so much a problem these days. People are generally making a good amount of income and they’re getting qualified for homes that are definitely up in the price ranges. But when it comes to buying McMansions, here are some things you definitely want to consider before you make the purchase. Bigger homes mean higher property taxes. The added square footage adds into your taxes. Bigger homes also mean higher utility cost. Heating and cooling. A bigger sized home will take more money from you.

And bigger homes also equal more maintenance cost. The outside of the home has a larger surface, which in turn means a larger roof. Larger siting, most often a decent sized yard that needs to be maintained. Now, what do all of those higher costs mean to you? Now, if you have higher maintenance costs and higher utility bills and higher taxes, do you have less money oftentimes for retirement savings? College funds. And to pay down other debts that might be important for you to get rid of. So before you purchase the McMansion, consider those facts. I hope you found this helpful. And as always, I look forward to another episode next week. Feel free to send me your questions at Janine@3keysrealestategroup.com. And I look forward to being your local real estate guide in the Chicagoland area.

Buyer April 1, 2020

How can parents help children own a home?

How can I help my children buy a home? Stay with me for the next few minutes and I will answer exactly that question for you. My name is Janine Sasso and I am a local realtor here in the northwest suburbs of Chicago servicing Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Barrington and the surrounding suburbs. Research shows that many first time homebuyers are getting held back by accumulated debt from student loans and are turning to their parents for help. First thing you could do.

That is probably the easiest, is to simply write a check for a down payment gift that they can then use and apply it to their closing cost and down payment, which will give them a better interest rate and therefore a lower monthly mortgage payment. But that’s not all. There’s more. If you are financially strong and you are looking to help your child buy their very first home, you could potentially become your child’s mortgage lender if you have a boatload of cash available. Now, there are certain statewide and national and federal laws that you have to follow.

However, there are special lending institutions that are specializing in facilitating that kind of sale. So this might be a win win solution because your money will grow faster than if it’s just sitting in a bank account and your child will be able to get the best interest rate around because you’re definitely going to get them a deal. Now, would you consider becoming your child’s mortgage lender? Let me know in the comments. I definitely would love to hear the answer to this question.

You can help your child buy a home by cold borrowing. And what that means is that you will be treated just like any other buyer. Your personal situation and finances will be reviewed and you will be required to sign closing documents at closing. This is most likely the riskiest way that you can help your child buy a home that I am covering during this one. But it is definitely a possibility. So now that you know the three ways of helping your child buy a home, which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below. I’d love to find out. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay up to date on topics like this or any other ones that are real estate related. Up to date on the latest listings in Schaumburg, Hoffman, Barrington, and the surrounding suburbs. And if you have any comments, please put them in. I’d love to chat about what is important to you. My name is Janine Sasso, and I am your local real estate resource.

Sellers March 18, 2020

Home Staging Secrets

Hey, everybody, it’s Janine Sasso at your local Chicagoland realtor. And today, I will be revealing to you the secrets of a home stager. So stay tuned because you do not want to miss them. So let’s talk about staging. What is staging? Staging is really just selling a lifestyle. So when it comes to staging and getting it done, there’s a couple of things you should consider. And the first one is doing your research. Did you know that your home becomes a commodity once you enter it on the market? It is no longer your home as harsh as this sounds, but it becomes a commodity. And you need to ask yourself, who will be my buyer? Because this is the person that you want to target with your staging. The second best tip we can give you is to paint. If you don’t do anything else, painting is the one thing that should be on your to do list. And the reason is, buyers enjoy a fresh feel. They want those scuff marks covered. They want to make sure it is a blank slate that they can start off on. Now, not everything can be fixed with staging alone. You should also consider doing some minor repairs, such as recording the bathtubs to give it a nice, clean look. Maybe there is a broken step that you were meant to fix. All those little tiny details will be perceived by the buyer as something that is an unmaintained home. Something you haven’t taken care of. So you want to make sure your first impression is amazing. Make sure that you give the buyer no reason to nit pick your house.

Now, the next secret is really not a secret at all. It is all about purging. Okay. We’ve told many of our clients that if they are looking to enter the market, we want to make sure we are purging the stuff that has been stuck in closets that they haven’t played with. For the kids with the clothes that haven’t been worn, we want to really thin it out to make the closet look really spacious, the playroom look really big. Axes those furniture pieces we want to have removed because we want to show off the room sizes. It becomes an entire art when getting your home ready to sell. Now the home stagers also recommend for you to have a general marketing plan, and this is what your real tour is good at. You should hire a realtor that has a solid marketing plan that will align with your home. So it’s important to really go into detail and ask questions of what is your initial thought on how you will market my house? The next step we oftentimes get from our stagers is to depersonalize your buyers. Do not want to see the pictures of your children, your pets, your hobbies.

While we do appreciate you having all of those wonderful hobbies and life events, we want to make sure that the buyer walks in and he can envision his family pictures on the mantel and his pet pictures on the refrigerator. So you want to make sure you depersonalize as much as possible. The other thing that we get pointed out a lot and we do pass on to our sellers is you want to make sure that the room is showing was a function it was intended to. What does it mean? We see our downsizers having our four bedroom homes and one of the bedrooms is all of a sudden now an office and another one is a playroom. We want to try and get them back to bedroom purpose because the person looking for a four bedroom home is most likely going to need a four bedroom home. So having that perception of, Oh, this is an office, this is a playroom. Now there’s two bedrooms. Where are my other two bedrooms is not good on a buying and selling perspective. So we want to make sure that every room got returned back to its attendant purpose prior to showing.

The next thing you want to consider is creating a timeline. Having a step by step process of what to do, when to do it. And also, if you are looking into the act of marketing off the property. Always remember that it is in your best interest to capture that buyer at early as possible because this will most often equal the most amount of money in your pocket. Accumulating market time will start to have buyers having doubts about your property. They wonder why it’s still in the market. While it hasn’t sold, what is wrong with it? Which in turn will affect your bottom line. And of course, the last step you can hire professionals. Stager So if you need a professional stager, reach out. We do have references available and if you have any other questions, shoot me an email. I would love to hear from you. I would love to answer your questions. And other than that, I’ll catch you next time.

BuyerSellers March 4, 2020

Add character & style to your home – SECRETS REVEALED

Hey, everybody, it’s Janine Sasso, your local Chicagoland realtor. And in today’s topic, I will be telling you all about and how to get a lot of character into your home. Did you ever check out those amazing, beautiful magazines? And you wonder, why is it that if you look at that picture, you immediately feel this connection? And the answer, to be honest, is all about character when it comes to making a home, have this certain feeling. We want to pay attention on how well things play together, and I’m going to go over that with you right now.

The first thing is your first impression, and this starts at your entrance, so you want to really take a good look at your foyer. So, for example, you could just add a little bit of crown molding to define your for your space. And then you could paint the ceiling a certain color that matches the color scheme from the rug that you have in the foyer. So there are certain ways to just play together with certain materials that just make it look so inviting that people feel immediately like they’re home.

The second tip I can give you is to consider to go natural. So what does that mean? Going natural can be achieved by using certain lamps that are, you know, wicker or base or wood that are more of a modern sixties style wood to just really blend in the natural themes into your home. People will love to see those natural aspects throughout it and feel an immediate connection. Another great thing to get this natural feel in is was textured rugs and my absolute favorite when it comes to sprucing up a home is trim. You can never, ever have too much trim.

That is probably not quite true. But if you have trim and you trim out a ceiling for crown molding or if you even take a bathroom mirror, you know that normal mirror that the builder puts in there and you trim it out. Trim can have an amazing effect on how things are perceived with depth and it makes it look like a million bucks.

And it was really just a quick, quick fix. You can also use trim to do a cherry. Well, you can use it to do a little casement like a wainscoting kind of type almost. And you could do like a picture art gallery. You was trim. There’s just so many uses for trim. It’s crazy. And Pinterest, for example, would have you covered on it. And my last tip for you is to consider a mix and matching some of the materials. So, for example, you could get an amazing backsplash done with a faux brick panel that you can put up really quickly. It’s a unique design, so you definitely are striking a chord there with the buyers. You could also add a custom fireplace into the bedrooms simply by an electric one that you can push in. There’s so many easy hacks to do that with a built in character. If you wanted to do a living room, you can put up a mantel. Even if you don’t have a fireplace, it creates depth. And buyers find this oftentimes very, very intriguing. I hope this helped. So today’s episode was all about building character in your home. If you have any topics you want to discuss, let me know and I look forward to next week.

Sellers February 26, 2020

5 Tips to Sell FAST during the Winter Months

Hey, everybody, it’s Janine Sasso, your local Chicagoland realtor. And in today’s episode, we will be covering five tips on how to make sure your home sells this winter. Let’s be honest, we always say that winter in the Chicagoland area is one of the worst times to sell a home. But is that really true? Now, when it comes to having your property listed in the winter, you need to make sure you’re following a couple certain guidelines to make sure your home stands out as the best possible choice for your buyer. And I’ll help you exactly with that today.

The first thing we can advise you to do is curb appeal. Even though in the winter, it is important to keep in mind the curb appeal of your home. When a buyer pulls up to your house, it’s nice to have a driveway that is plowed. You want to maybe invest into some hardy winter plants, some evergreens to spruce up the outside. You want to have some planters available that you can use them for. There are some different ways you can spruce things up.

The second part we want to point out is some of the maintenance that is required. You want to make sure your gutters are all good and they’re all attached, they’re all in shape, they’re all level, because if they’re not, the buyer will be pinpointed out and they will start questioning if the house has any water infiltration if there is anything wrong with the house. And we do want to eliminate that belief right off the bat and also go around and check your doors and your windows to make sure that there’s no draft coming in. We want to demonstrate to the buyer that house is as solid as can be and a great investment. Next thing we want to talk about is pay attention to lighting. If you are local and you are able to keep in mind the sun goes down earlier, the buyers might still be at work. So by the time they get to your house at 430, it might be pretty dark. Keep the lights on for them. Try and make the showing as easy and as pleasant as possible without people stumbling around your house trying to find a light switch. It makes the whole experience so much better. And of course, number five, make sure you make your interior sing, which that means make sure your walls are freshly painted. Make sure you do clutter. You can find more on my tips on how to prepare a home for sale. In my other video of squirrels to my channel and I will link it in the comments below for you as well. I hope those tips help. If you have a real estate need in the Chicago area, I’d be happy to talk to you about it. Feel free to drop me a comment below. You can find my contact information as well and I will find you at the next episode.

BuyerSellers February 19, 2020

4 Strategies to become MORTGAGE-FREE and get rid of debt

Hey, everybody, it’s Janine Sasso, your local Chicagoland realtor. And today I am going to share with you four secrets on how to pay off your mortgage early. I’m excited. It’s everybody’s dream. You want to be debt free. You don’t want to have a mortgage to pay. And I want to show it with you or share with you today for tips that might just help you accomplish that goal. Not every strategy is created equally so when it comes to the right one for you. Maybe one of them is the right one.

I have listed them below again in the description, so you can look at that too. But let’s get started with number one. The first thing you could do to pay off your mortgage quicker is refinance into a shorter term loan. That’s the easy solution. Make sure you pay attention to your interest rate and to see if it makes sense on a closing cost basis.

Talk to your local mortgage professional about it. But this is choice number one. The second choice, you could just pay a little bit more each and every month. What you should do with that is have one mortgage payment and divided by 12. And then every month you add that 1/12 of a mortgage onto your payment and send it off. The estimation is that you can cut off about seven years of your loan. The third option is that you make an entire a 13th mortgage payment once a year. So this way it has the same effect. Then the option number two. You are estimated to shave off about seven years for the long term and you get to save a lot of money on the interest. And the fourth solution, you can have any extra money that we find. May it be your holiday bonus? May be a tax refund. You can have any extra money funneled right onto your mortgage in order to help speed up the paying it off process. So those were my four tips. Maybe there’s a strategy in there that just right for you that works for you. Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear from you. My name is Janine Sasso, and I am your local Chicagoland realtor.

BuyerSellers February 12, 2020

Housing Bubble 2020

Hey, everybody, it’s Janine Sasso, your local Chicagoland realtor. And today I am talking to you about the housing bubble. I’m sure you’ve heard the talk. People, again, are talking about the housing bubble. So is there one? Do we have to worry about one? Let’s get into this a little bit and examine what really makes a housing bubble. It always starts with the fact that people perceive home values to rise faster than what they should. They see homes flying off the market, going to get multiple offers going to buff list price and naturally people start to worry because they are remembering that this was an event that led up to our market crash in ’07 and in ’08, one of the big differences between a healthy market was rising prices, though, and one that is unhealthy is the fact that you need to analyze who is driving the sales. Because if the sales are driven by speculators, people that are looking to buy property and then turn them over in a short period of time for a high profit, then this is definitely not a good price increase we should be looking at.

The other part is spectators that have been driven to buy because the interest rates were low and they have gotten this fear, we call it FOMO. So it’s the same principle, the fear of missing out. When they do see the prices increasing, they are jumping the gun to get in on the boat. Maybe they would have waited if prices were on a slower rate. Maybe they would have taken a little bit more time. That influx of spectators all coming into the market is definitely something that contributes to a housing bubble. Now spectators are starting to question the increasing prices of homes value. They are starting to become timid and they are starting to draw out of the market. This is when our prices are starting to rapidly fall. The confidence in the marketplace diminished and disappears and the prices are becoming lower and lower. Our housing bubble is full blown at this point.

Loan terms are also a contributor. It was a lot easier to get more buying power because lenders would help the borrowers make it work. Now there are more regulations in place to prevent this part, but when this happened, borrowers were just going out, they were getting easy mortgages and they were oftentimes using what we refer to as an arm. It’s an adjustable rate mortgage where you were paying upfront and this is where eventually things got caught up. And for some people they weren’t able to catch up, at which point, you know, some people ended up losing their homes. So is there a housing bubble today? And the short answer to that one will be no. The last big recession after 2007 was in the 1920s. Now we are only about 15 years old, 13 years in from that one. We have long got gotten rid of some of the loan types that were responsible.

We have adjusted our regulations and we have also done more research on what caused it so that we can be more prepared and we can eliminate some of these factors. The market will regulate itself. It will go up, it will go down. But as for the near forecast, we are not expecting and housing bubble for 2020. So I hope this build your confidence it was a little bit more of a dry material today. I hope it made it a little bit fun. If you have any questions, give me a call or you can also email me your questions and I look forward to talk to you next week.

BuyerSellers February 5, 2020

4 Investment Mistakes to AVOID

Hey, everybody, it’s Janine Sasso, your local Chicagoland realtor. And in today’s episode, I will be sharing with you my four investment pitfalls to avoid. So my first tip goes to people that have a high mortgage and their rent is barely covering it. One of the best advice we can give you is to keep about 10% of your annual rent in a separate account. This way you ensure if your tenant is unable to pay the mortgage, that you have a steady way of making payments without falling behind. Tip number two is for frequent vacancies. One of the best tips we can give you is to make sure you screen your tenant 100%. We want to avoid quick turnovers.

We want to make sure your tenant is financially able. So you want to make sure that you verify the sources that they give you. My next pitfall is when people are starting to chase too high of our wise, which is our return on investment. What you should be looking for is something in the mid-single digits. I have had clients where were wanting double digits returns every single time, but the investment strategy that is most commonly successful is a slow and steady approach over the long term.

If you do find a good deal, that’s great. But making this an expectation is probably not realistic. So make sure you have a game plan that is feasible for you and your investment. And that ties in with my fourth step, which is looking at it from a long term perspective. Having your rental gain equity over the course of time will be in your benefit regardless of where home prices are heading. Normally, our rents remain fairly stable regardless of market condition, so I hope you really enjoyed those for tips on the investment side. If you have any other questions, you can always email me and I’d be happy to cover that in next week’s episode.