The Anti-Cruelty Society will be holding its 15th annual Walk for the Animals, a 5k/3.2 mile walk (with or without your dog) to raise funds and awareness for The Anti-Cruelty Society, Chicago’s comprehensive, open-door humane society. Activities include canine obstacle and agility courses, demonstrations, exhibits, and free product samples from our small business sponsors, as well as a family fun in the Arts & Education tent – plus free snacks, souvenir photos, 50/50 raffle, contests with prizes awarded, and much more! Come join us for the biggest, most popular dog walking event in Chicago!

Activities Obstacle and agility courses, demonstrations, exhibits, and free product samples from small business sponsors, family fun tent —plus free snacks, a raffle, souvenir photos, Denise Zak, Tails from the Heart, 50/50 raffle, and much more. Audience 3,500 animal lovers—most with their dogs. Proceeds Benefit The Anti-Cruelty Society, Chicago’s comprehensive, open-door humane society and Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA of Illinois)—working to find a home for every healthy and treatable animal in Chicago. Last year we: found homes for over 5,400 animals spay/neutered over 12,000 animals at a very low or no cost (free for pit-bull breeds and feral cats) provided rehabilitation & treatment to 1200 animals through our Bruckner Center educated 34,000 school children and community members conducted 3,600 cruelty and abuse investigations and worked with law enforcement officials in the battle against dog fighting assisted 2,100 pet owners through our free behavior hotline and graduated 800 pups and their people from dog training classes coordinated pet visitations to the sick and elderly, bringing a little warmth and cheer where it’s needed most. The Anti-Cruelty Society is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. We receive no government funds. Questions: Send an e-mail to info@barkinthepark.org, or call the Bark hotline at (312) 329.8726.

Here is the Mission Statement for Realtors to the Rescue:

On May 20th from 7-9 p.m., Rubloff agents will host a free Buyer Coaching event , The Real Deal in Real Estate Today, featuring a panel discussion with a champagne and fruit reception to follow. This event will take place at the Rubloff South Loop office at 80 West Harrison Street.

Topics will include:

• Real estate myths vs. reality
• 4 programs you must know before you buy
• Where are the best buys?
• Buyer beware? What to beware of?
• Should you buy a garden unit? Is the short sale the one for you?
• “Ask It” basket where you ask tough questions of the panel

Panel:

Dennis Rodkin – Chicago Magazine Deal Estate columnist and blogger

Greg Braun –veteran real estate attorney representing investors, developers, and homeowners in transactions; workouts, short sales and bankruptcy

Tony Kapp – Rubloff Wells Fargo – Senior Home Mortgage Consultant

Moderator:

Darlene Little – Executive VP Rubloff – CAR past president and eighteen year real estate veteran

Rubloff real estate agents to field questions

Please email your RSVP and important questions to your Rubloff agent or contact Michelle Browne at mbrowne@rubloff.com or 312.980.5144.

See our event on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=67111229732&ref=mf

People in the Network Making a Difference: Lara Phillips of Rubloff Residential Properties

By Nanda Vargas

April 13, 2009

By Mark Pullinger

The foreclosure crisis is forcing urban planners to rethink how we live. Since WWII the flight to the suburbs was as predictable a migration pattern as that of salmon returning to their headwaters. Now  communities all over the US are suffering from numerous empty foreclosed homes that are neglected, vandalized, are fire traps, and are becoming attractive nuisances. Moreover, planners wonder just how sustainable is suburbia in the long term given the cost of commuting to both the commuter and our environment. Will revitalized downtown areas and close-in communities create a bigger draw upon home buyers and so create a reversed “suburban flight?” Or, is the idea of moving away from the hustle of major metropolitan areas still as strong a drive as ever?

These are the issues dealt with in an interesting article on Inman News, by Gilbert Mohtes-Chan, entitled Suburbia Looks Inward for Answers. To read this article, CLICK HERE…

Make sure your eyes are wide open, be prepared to

do plenty of legwork and realize that the hard work

 is still ahead

THE LOCAL SCENE BY MARY ELLEN PODMOLIK

June 27, 2008

Prospective home buyers with an open mind and a good credit history are finding there are plenty of diamonds in the rough in the foreclosure market.

But you have to be prepared to look, both at multiple properties and their potential and at your own wherewithal to get through the process and move into what in some cases is essentially a rebuilt home.

Much has been reported over the past year about the growing number of foreclosures here and elsewhere and there is a lengthening list of properties from which to choose. In May, foreclosure filings, which include default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions, totaled 9,670 in Illinois, according to RealtyTrac, a real estate web site. That was a 15 percent increase from April and an increase of almost 42 percent from May 2007.

The latest list included almost 3,000 Illinois homes that have been foreclosed upon and a bank now has title to the property.

Related links

• Foreclosures

• Foreclosures? Have I got a hot deal for you

• Mary Umberger: There to help

“There’s so much inventory out there that the buyer can pick and choose,” said Susan Sirles Fidler, a Realtor at Re/Max 10, Oak Lawn. But she cautioned, “The stuff that’s almost free is almost free because it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg to put it back together. It’s not buyer beware as much as buyer be smart.”

Krystina Pratt is about to take one home off the foreclosing listings. The 22-year-old Chicagoan works in the construction industry, so when she started looking at foreclosures as a means to buy her first home, she knew to look past curb appeal. Still, even she was surprised by some properties’ condition as she went through almost 100 houses in the city and suburbs.

“Some of them were in supreme shape for them to be distressed houses,” she said. “Others were ‘this has been on the market forever.’ There was mildew and water damage.”

There were also broken windows, graffiti, and it was obvious what squatters had used for bathroom facilities in homes where the plumbing had been ripped out. Pratt suspended her search for a month in the winter because of squatters but since then, she’s found an 1878 home on a double lot in Grand Central Crossing.

Despite being vacant for more than a year, it wasn’t boarded up. There weren’t broken windows or graffiti. Copper pipe was missing in the bathroom but the furnace, hot water heater, kitchen cabinets and original woodwork all were intact.

Listed at $44,900, she offered $45,000 to the bank that holds title to the property, to increase the chances for acceptance after she lost bids on two other properties to buyers who made cash offers. Pratt secured a loan for $130,000 and is set to close on the home July 1, after which she’ll start working with contractors to make the home livable. That includes new electrical and plumbing systems, new interior walls and new windows.

The takeaway from Pratt’s experience: Go into the process with your eyes wide open, be prepared to do plenty of legwork and realize that the hard work often begins after the purchase is closed.

“I can’t recommend this to someone who can’t see the vision of a house,” Pratt said. “If all you see is the windows are cracked or the walls are cracked, a foreclosed house is not for you. You have to be able to see outside the box. Ninety-nine point 9 percent of them are going to require moderate to heavy work.”

Real estate agents who specialize in bank-owned homes, called real-estate-owned, or REO, properties within the industry, say there are two kinds of foreclosures available on the market now, and each appeals to a different sort of buyer. Investors, with contractors in tow, are buying the most distressed properties at rock-bottom prices with plans to flip them. Realty professionals advise consumers who plan on living in the homes to buy properties that don’t need as extensive work.

Marki Lemons, a broker with Rubloff Residential Properties in Chicago, gives a monthly seminar for consumers on foreclosed properties and each month 15 or 25 people attend. As part of it, she takes them through a foreclosed property to open their eyes to what lies ahead. “They tell me ‘is this for real’ and I say this is typical,” Lemons said. “They’re sold as it because you can’t even have full inspections on the property because the water and electricity is turned off and there are missing furnaces and hot water tanks. [Foreclosures] are for people who want to create sweat equity for themselves.”

When it comes to making an offer, the better the property’s location and condition, the less likely banks are to negotiate concessions like paying closing fees or footing the bill for some repairs.

“If it’s the location you want and the condition you want and the price you want, it’s the same as any other deal,” Fidler said. “It goes smoothly, depending how good the buyer is, how good the source of funding is and how good the seller is.”

Available properties are listed on numerous web sites that have been established for the foreclosure sales business; some are membership driven while others are free with registration, which means the site’s operators then have access to a buyer’s contact information.

Consumers also can work with a real estate agent, or use some agent’s web sites, to access listings on Midwest Real Estate Data LLC, formerly the multiple listing service’s database. Plugging in key words like “foreclosure,” “no inspection” and “addendum” will narrow the listings to foreclosure properties.

Many buyers of foreclosed homes are finding the best financing option to be a 203(k) loan offered by lenders and administered through the Federal Housing Administration. The program was developed for buyers of single-family properties that need rehab and repair. With a 203(k), a buyer secures sufficient funding to buy the home as well as to renovate it at a long-term fixed or adjustable rate that is generally 1 to 1.5 points higher than conventional lending rates. Some lenders offer, and others require, that the loan be converted to a conventional mortgage once the project is completed. Find more information through a lender or at www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/203k/203kabou.cfm.

“Every call we get is for a 203k,” said Stephanie Sowell, a renovation specialist at Wells Fargo Bank in Chicago. “Since the depression in the real estate business the past seven to eight months, it has become a huge, huge, huge product. Everyone wants it.”

— Special to the Tribune
More articles

Correction Appended: February 19, 2008

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1713483,00.html

by Dan Kadlec 

Famed Money Manager is perhaps best known for his timeless wisdom that you can beat the pros by focusing on stocks of companies where you either work or shop or have some other edge. But a more relevant Lynchism today is this gem: Ignore the headlines.

That’s no easy thing. How do you tune out all the chatter and ink on recession, housing, subprime woes, the credit crunch, rogue traders, insolvent bond insurers, $100 oil and nukes in Iran? It’s enough to make you sit on your thumbs and wait before making any big moves. But what, exactly, are you waiting for?

There has rarely been a moment in history when you couldn’t scare yourself into doing nothing. And yet, as Lynch observed nearly 20 years ago, “in spite of all the great and minor calamities that have occurred … all the thousands of reasons that the world might be coming to an end–owning stocks has continued to be twice as rewarding as owning bonds.”

A top reason to not buy stocks, in Lynch’s view, is if you don’t already own a home–in which case, that should be your first investment, since an owner-occupied home is nearly always profitable. Through a spokesman, Lynch reaffirmed these views to me–housing debacle and all.

When prices are falling, few people have the discipline to buy stocks, a house, gold, art or any other asset. But those who do pull the trigger excel in the long run. As John D. Rockefeller famously said, “The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.”

And the streets are stained crimson. Start with stocks. They have been pummeled this year. GDP braked sharply last quarter, and there has been plenty of panic about a recession. The Federal Reserve is slashing short-term interest rates at the fastest clip in decades. But if you stick to your steady, diversified plan while everyone else is retreating, you will be happy years from now. For one thing, Fed rate cuts always lift the economy eventually, and the stock market typically starts responding just as headlines get gloomiest. Sure, the market could fall again before recovering. But the recession may be half over already–or we may avoid one altogether. You just never know.

As for housing, certainly some skepticism is in order. Formerly sizzling markets in Florida, Nevada, Arizona and California probably haven’t seen the worst headlines just yet, though they may well be close. And “jumbo” mortgages, those more than $417,000, are likely to remain artificially high for a few more months while banks work through their credit issues.

But let’s say you are emotionally ready to be a homeowner. You have good credit, plan to stay put for five years and have been waiting for the perfect entry point. It’s time to get serious–before an inevitable rise in interest rates wipes out your advantage. “The thing that will make home prices stop falling is the very same thing that will push mortgage rates higher,” says Jim Svinth, chief economist at mortgage firm Lending Tree. So anything you gain by a further drop in prices might be offset by rising financing costs.

Consider a typical home that sells for $218,900. You put down 20% and get a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at today’s rate of 5.5%. Monthly principal and interest come to $994.31. Let’s say that 12 months from now the same house goes for 10% less, or $197,010. But by then the recession is history and the Fed is jacking up rates to stem inflation. If mortgage costs rise a point, to 6.5%, your monthly payment would be $994.94 and you’d have saved nothing. Meanwhile, home prices might steady and sellers might become less willing to negotiate. And you have spent a year living someplace you’d rather not be.

It’s more complicated if you must sell before you can buy. But that logjam won’t persist forever–and if it appears you’ll be trapped for a few years, try to refinance at today’s lower rates. Risks always seem most acute when the headlines give you ulcers. But that’s exactly when you should think long term–and get off your thumbs.

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine.]

Due to an inputting error in information supplied by Lending Tree, the original version of this article contained incorrect data in an example assessing the relative cost savings of buying a home today or waiting a year for the housing market to drop 10%.

By Mark Pullinger

Email marketing can be a very effective tool for generating new clients. Rubloff will soon be rolling out a new email marketing and CRM tool. So I thought it might be appropriate to give an overview of email marketing. Like sending postcards in the mail, email marketing is considered ‘direct marketing’ because, well, it goes directly to the intended recipient. This is definitely a ‘shotgun’ approach as response rates of 3% are considered fantastic.

Still, the tactic can be very successful. MarketingSherpa reports that 64% of adults say that email is the preferred way to reach them. A study done by The Direct Marketing Association showed that for every $1 spent on email marketing the sender received a $43.52 return on their investment. Of course the DMA study includes numerous types of companies including some with very large and sophisticated email marketing departments.

 But don’t dismay, you can create and send effective campaigns even if you are doing it yourself for the first time. The effectiveness of your email marketing will grow with repetition and experience. Here are some basic tips to get you started:

• Create a good contact list: The basis of any good direct marketing plan is the contact list. Special requirements apply to email marketing because of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, making it illegal to send marketing emails to people against their wishes.
  • Start with business contacts, friends and family members.
  • Make sure that you collect contact information for every client that you ever do business with.
  • Use Rubloff’s ‘HOMECLUB’ as a means of enticing potential clients to give you their contact information. Register yourself as their preferred agent and send them saved searches from their search criteria.
  • If just starting out in real estate, volunteer to sit at open houses for other agents and collect the names and contact information of EVERYONE who shows up.
  • Use an ‘Opt-in’ form on your website or blog.
  • Use ‘Free’ offers or sweepstakes to collect contact names and email addresses. For example, send a snail mail postcard to your farm list offering a free home Market Analysis to anyone who responds.
• Make your greeting personal—‘Dear Jane”
• Include your postal address, it is the law.
• Remind recipients that they signed up for your email.
• Include a ‘Forward to a Friend’ link.
• Avoid heavy backgrounds or using too many images. These may not download well or may take an inordinate amount of time to download. Using backgrounds and lots of images can also make your email trigger the recipient’s firewall or anti-spam software.
• Keep it simple. You may be burning with all kinds of important information, but remember that large blocks of copy are a turnoff. Get to the point, make the offer and ask for the response.
• Make sure that your name is in the ‘From’ name. Studies indicate that 60% of consumers consider it important to know who the email is from before they will open it. With online scams at a record high, it is extremely important to make sure that the recipient knows who is contacting them.

 These are just a few tips about email marketing, not exhaustive but hopefully helpful. Our new emarketing system will give you designs that are consistent with best practices like having the most important information ‘above the fold’. The important thing is to build your list and save it in a software program like Outlook, Excel, or Access. The list is the critical part of any direct marketing program.