So it's time for you (or you and your wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/partner etc) to buy a house. What do you do? I mean Chicago's huge - 29 miles of Lakefront from Juneway to Calumet - used to be a Chicago Park District lifeguard in college - for some odd reason that was our claim to fame.
You live in Lakeview and your significant other lives in Andersonville. You both go to a few open houses along Clark Street from Diversey to Foster and everything in between. You can't find anything you can afford. Why is it that everything with a 5 as the first digit has an open house but nothing with a 3 as the first digit? How are you going to make sense of it - in either neighborhood - and find anything that you can afford? Where is this Ukrainian Village you hear so much about? How much is it worth? Is it a good neighborhood? Can I find the train? Can I walk to a bar to watch the Cubs game? Can I get a cab late at night? Where would our future kids go to school? How am I going to make sense of all of this? Can anyone help me with this?
Yes. Find a Buyer's Agent.
In a Real Estate transaction, Illinois affords the Buyer an advocate in the process. This advocate is a Realtor, and in this case works for the Buyer - hence Buyer's Agent.
This person works for the Buyer, but is paid by the seller (usually through a co-operative commission). They can tell you all sorts of pertinent information - days on the mare kt, neighborhood information, what the house was bought for initially, or recently sold comparable properties. They also have an opinion on the neighborhood and I'm not really shy about telling you my thoughts (West Bucktown vs Bucktown - East Lakeview vs the North and East sections of East Lakeview).
For more about Buyer's agents and what they can do for you - take a read of Steve McLinden's article on Bankrate.com
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