Thursday, August 15, 2013

 great   article from our friend at Zillow Mary Barnes  
 
 
Marble countertop   granite is great! no one is denying that. Mary has really done her research and talked to the experts take a moment to read her report it may make you more aware about the alternative's to granite and save you  some money
Soapstone counterIts use in residential applications has skyrocketed in recent years. A 2012 survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of The Marble Institute, found that 75 percent of homeowners who intend to remodel their kitchens in the next two years indicated they want granite counter tops.
Granite’s durability, longevity and good looks make it ideal for kitchen counter tops and other heavily used surfaces, including table tops and floors. Still, it’s expensive (typically $60 to $100 per square foot installed), it’s extraordinarily heavy (requiring reinforcement of base cabinets) and requires     click here for the rest of the story






what upgrades score big with buyers?annual cost vs value report



Which home upgrades will score big with buyers? REALTORS® in markets across the country judge the effects of several projects on sales prices for the annual Cost vs. Value Report, done in cooperation with Remodeling magazine.





click here for the restof the story

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

THE COST of Waiting to Buy a home Just keeps going Up!

We often talk about the potential cost of waiting to buy a home. Today, we want to look at the actual cost for someone who waited over the last year. We used a 10% increase in house values as prices have gone up by double digits in the country on average. We looked at approximate mortgage rates last year compared to this year. Here is the impact on a monthly mortgage payment (principal and interest):
 
 
click here for the rest of theKCM story

Sunday, June 23, 2013

downers grove live home search

did you know there are over275 homes for sale in downers grov eright now priced from1.9 million to$49,0000




Downers Grove Homes for Sale - Page 1click here to start your live downers grove home search

Friday, June 7, 2013

Senior Housing: Silver Tsunami About to Hit

The largest demographic tsunami in the history of our nation is scheduled to arrive in the next 2+ decades and business executives and entrepreneurs are only beginning to become aware and will eventually scramble to find their place.
The industry term is “Silver Tsunami” and it is arriving in your neighborhood every day. You see, that train delivers 10,000 people that turn 65 daily in the United States. Today there are 34+ million Seniors (aged 65+) and by the year 2030 over 70 million will live in the U.S. The leading edge of the Baby Boomer generation (born between1946 and 1964) will gently wake us all up and make us aware of their life needs. At peak numbers, this demographic will reshape the economy of the United States.






click here for the rest of the story from Keeping current matters

Friday, May 31, 2013

show your A/C unit some love this weekend

Due to the wet weather this spring in Chicagoland  the littlecottonwood “Snowflakes” fell early!

 cottonwood-seeds

Cottonwood   Clogs A/C  COILS

Think about it for a moment… During the peak of cottonwood season, fuzzies are flying around your neighbor hood. This is when they attack your air conditioner. No they don’t use magic, or contain some sort of chemical agent. Instead, they are sucked into your condenser coil, and the result is reduced air flow across the coil. This will first cause your air conditioner to loose some of its energy efficiency. Although this is a problem, losing a little efficiency will only cost you pennies, but the bigger problem of an over heated compressor can cost hundreds.
Picture this, its 100 degrees outside and your cottonwood seed packed coil can’t cool itself off. Do you see the problem here? Those cute little fuzzies we chase around as kids just burnt out your compressor! Now you have to call up for an emergency service call in the high heat of summer.

From what the experts' tell me, the simple solution is to just fully hose down the grill work around your A/C unit so it can do it’s job!

Click here to see a Video on how it's done

“Neal Paskvan is a Real Estate Agent in Downers Grove with Baird and Warner”