Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Number of closings in Western Springs in the last 3 months

I was looking over what is selling and who is selling it. In Western Springs there have been 34 closings in the past 3 months. I have been a local agent for over 30 years. Until recently I have worked at an office in the central business district of Western Springs. I was at Re/Max Properties for 5 years and Prudential American Homes for 16 years. I always believed it was important to be with a local office. 2 years ago I switched to Charles Rutenberg Realty and started working out of my home office.



When I pulled up all the sales for the past three months I was pleased to see that Charles Rutenberg Realty sold 2 out of the 34 sales and 3 out of 34 were sold by offices in WS. The rest were sold by a variety of agents coming from the city, Downers Grove, Hinsdale, LaGrange, the south suburbs, etc. Many were agency I never heard of. The change in rules by the MLS has created this dynamic. We are no longer limited to our area. We now belong to the MLS of Northern Illinois. We can show homes in all the suburbs. I personally sold a big home in Park Ridge this year, one in Cicero, a couple in WS and have listings in Downers Grove and Westmont plus one on Magnolia in Chicago. I am leaving my home now to list a nice condo in Lombard-let me know if you have anyone who might be interested in one over by Yorktown Center!



The one thing to remember when working with an agent is to pick one you feel you can work with. I am experienced, knowledgeable and listen to your needs.



Linda Hanley Kelly, Charles Rutenberg Realty, 708-334-5356

6 comments:

  1. Interesting that over 80% were sold by Realtors outside of WS. But I assume that Hinsdale and La Grange realtors always sold a lot of WS homes. We bought ours through Hinsdale realtor.

    Lot fewer homes being sold....I assume fewer on the market.....a good realtor needs to cover more towns these days.

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  2. I agree that agents from Hinsdale and LaGrange were always selling homes in our town. Now about 1/3 are agents from the West Loop and the south suburbs, etc. 35 years ago when I bought my first home here my agent was from LaGrange.

    You are right that a lot less homes are being sold and a good realtor does cover a lot more towns now.

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  3. Are there many For Sale by owner homes in Western Springs, IL? With prices falling, owners might want to save on Realtor fees?

    Also, are realtors open to negotiating their percentage? or is this against the multiple listing rules?

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  4. Why do some realtors take a home off the market and then relist at a lower price. Do they think buyers are stupid? e.g. 4055 Howard. Now a new listing, reduced price ($1,199,000); but the realtor left the old price, $1,249,000, on her Zillow ad. Nice video, wrong price.

    I would imagine that any good buyers agent knows and would inform their customers of the price history.

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  5. There will always be for sale by owners. I have not noticed more this year...in fact I have noticed that there are fewer by owners. Historically(I have 30 years at this) the vast majority of for sale by owners eventually list their home with a realtor. And even the ones that don't list pay a realtor who is representing a buyer.

    In answer to the question on commissions....they always have been a negotiable item between the client and the broker. I offer different fees based on level of service desired by the client and other considerations.

    With this tough real estate environment exposure to all potential buyers becomes even more important. I think that is why I am seeing less for sale by owners.

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  6. Regarding why do realtors take listings off the market and put them back on as new---the answer is it puts it in front of the other agents when they pull up the daily hotsheet. For agents out of the area they really do quickly look at it and think it is new. Yes, we can do a property history and see that it is just a relist, but many do not. Also, when the home was initially listed an agent may not have been looking in that town or price range. They may have a new client on an automatic search for new listings. The new price may put it in a completely different category. By relisting it we give it more exposure and since that is one of the key ingredients to getting the home sold it is a good thing.

    The second part of the story has to do with the fact that listings are posted everywhere since the internet really took off. There are sites that agents are not even aware of that have grabbed their listings. You did give me pause for thought that I should be more deligent in attempting to get price changes to ALL the sites that have my listings.

    Thanks for your questions.

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