Chicago Realtor Tammy Engel Takes The Helm At RE/MAX Classic Real Estate In Genoa

New ownership is in command at RE/MAX Classic Real Estate in Genoa, Ill. Chicago Realtor Tammy Engel, a native of the north-central Illinois community, is the new broker-owner of the office that has been the leader in the local real estate market since shortly after its founding in 1994.

Engel has built a successful career as a RE/MAX agent since earning her real estate license in 2003. Now, with five years experience under her belt, she is taking the next step by acquiring the office from Mary and Robert Gedmin. Amy Smith will aid Engel in managing the office. The two have been working together as an agent team for several years.

“This office has a great reputation in our community, and I want to keep it that way,” said Engel. “We aren’t planning any major changes but do hope to recruit a few more agents. We have seven agents now, but with the growth our area is experiencing, we think expansion of our staff makes sense.”

Engel reports that families moving from areas to the east, such as Elgin, created much of the growth Genoa has seen in the last few years. She expects that trend to continue even though it has slowed a bit in recent months.

“The economic outlook for this area is strong,” said Engel. “I’m especially
pleased by the improvements that have been made in downtown Genoa, where we have a lot of nice shops and a strong business community. When you combine that with our excellent school system, it’s no surprise that the area is proving attractive to new residents.”

The influx of residents makes being part of RE/MAX a real asset, according to Engel.

“It gives us immediate credibility with people who don’t know us personally but respect the reputation of RE/MAX as the leader in residential real estate, and RE/MAX provides great tools for our agents, including training programs and an outstanding Web site,” she said.

Best of all, according to Engel, as the new broker/owner of RE/MAX Classic Real Estate, she’ll be following in the footsteps of Margy Hill, who originally established the office, continues to work as a local RE/MAX agent and was Engel’s mentor when she entered the business.

“Margy helped this office become a real resource for the community, and I look forward to continuing that tradition, working with the friends and family I’ve known all my life as well as those new to the Genoa area,” said Engel.

Chicago Real Estate Office Consolidates Operations To Central Location In New Lenox

Chicago real estate office RE/MAX All Properties recently consolidated all its operations to the new, state-of-the-art office it opened a year ago at 1938 E. Lincoln Hwy., New Lenox, Illinois, while closing its long-time office at 20500 S. LaGrange Road in Frankfort, Ill. The consolidation was completed in April.

Twenty agents from the Frankfort office have now joined the 22 New Lenox agents in a high-tech facility that offers the most contemporary communications technology and a dramatic atrium space to serve consumers better. The office is located in the Atrium Point Professional Building at Schoolhouse Road and U.S. Hwy. 30.

“We actually have nearly as much total space in the current office as we did in the two older offices we had been operating,” reported Leo Koulouris, who along with Don Benkendorf, Jr., is broker/owner of RE/MAX All Properties. “We felt that having a single, large facility just made more sense from an efficiency perspective, and our old Frankfort office didn’t offer all the bells and whistles that the New Lenox office contains. Our agents are eager to show their clients this terrific facility, and it helps build cooperation and teamwork.”

He added that because the Frankfort and New Lenox offices were just four miles apart, there wasn’t a reason, geographically, to keep both open. The New Lenox office also is centrally located to serve the entire Lincolnway area, according to Koulouris, who noted that the office Web site, www.allpropertiesonline.com, plays a key role in delivering that service.

“This area has experienced exceptional growth in recent years and it will continue for some time to come,” Koulouris said. “We are proud that RE/MAX is the leader in the Lincolnway real estate market. Having replaced two older facilities with one that is brand new, we are positioned to maintain and expand that leadership position and grow right along with the Lincolnway area.”

RE/MAX All Properties has been serving the Frankfort-New Lenox area since 1983 when it opened its Frankfort office. A New Lenox office opened two years later.

Chicago Real Estate Office Celebrates Opening Of Its Commercial Real Estate Division

Chicago real estate office RE/MAX Superior Properties, located at 10880 Highway 47 in Huntley, Ill., celebrated the opening of its new commercial real estate division on June 11. More than 150 guests attended the ribbon cutting and open house that ran from 3 to 8 p.m. The event also featured live entertainment and a raffle.

Establishing a commercial division at the office is one of the first initiatives being undertaken by broker/owner Anthony Bellino, who acquired the office earlier this year. In addition to 20-plus years of residential experience, he has been working with commercial properties for more than 15 years.

“In our view, the Huntley area is on the verge of a period of significant expansion of its commercial infrastructure, particularly retail properties,” said Bellino. “The Route 47 corridor is clearly going to be the next focus of growth in Kane and McHenry counties, especially once the interchange at I-90 is expanded. The Huntley area has seen a great deal of residential development in the last decade, so it is only logical to anticipate a burst of commercial development in the next few years.”

He noted that with an ample supply of vacant land west of Route 47 and local planning by Huntley officials well advanced, responsible commercial development is likely to meet few obstacles.

According to Bellino, another important factor will play a role in the success of the new commercial division of RE/MAX Superior Properties.

“The RE/MAX organization over the last year or two has launched a major initiative to develop a presence in the commercial real estate arena that is separate from, but comparable to, its established position in the residential market,” he said. “RE/MAX has developed new signage and a separate commercial Web site along with other tools specifically for commercial real estate, and our commercial division will make full use of those tools and more.

For example, RE/MAX Superior Properties will be linked to such established commercial real estate tools as CoStar, which provides a variety of data about commercial real estate, and LoopNet, the online commercial listing service. Bellino recently added a new agent, Ken Fishleigh, specializing in commercial property and is interviewing others to staff the new division.

“Our timing is perfect for providing expanded commercial real estate services to the Huntley area,” he said. “I’m excited at the prospect of what we can accomplish.”

As Chicago Real Estate Buyers Seek Bargains, Short Sales Multiply

Bargain hunting for Chicago real estate is a popular pursuit for home buyers these days, and one favorite place to shop is among those properties whose current owners are facing the prospect of foreclosure.

These properties, often described with the term “pre-foreclosure,” typically have two characteristics in common, according to Jim Merrion, regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois, the Chicago real estate leaders:

• The market value of the home is less than the outstanding mortgage principle amount;


• The current owners typically are a month or two behind on their mortgage payments, but the mortgage lender has not officially initiated foreclosure proceedings.

There also are instances where homes on which mortgage payments are still current can fall into this category, notes Merrion. That happens when, due to health problems or loss of a job, it becomes clear that the current owner won’t be able to keep the mortgage payments current in the months ahead.

When properties in these circumstances are sold, the resulting transaction is called a “short sale” because the sales price of the property falls short of paying off the mortgage, and the homeowner lacks the financial resources to make up the difference. While the mortgage lender doesn’t legally own the property, it effectively becomes the seller and must approve the price and terms.

“I’m definitely seeing more buyers, including groups of investors, looking at properties that have already been foreclosed or those that might be subject to a short sale,” said Cindy Banks of RE/MAX Cornerstone in West Chicago, Ill. “Most investors hope to buy a distressed property like that at anywhere from 10 to 20 percent below the market price for a comparable property where the owner hasn’t run into financial difficulties. Trying to buy these properties at an even bigger discount isn’t realistic though some buyers would like to think it is.”

What happens in a short sale, explains Nancy Freeman of RE/MAX Realty of Joliet, is that the lender will agree to sell the house for less than the amount owed under the existing mortgage. Freeman has considerable expertise on the subject and teaches a continuing education course for real estate agents on how to handle these transactions.

“A short sale is usually a better deal for everyone – the buyer, the homeowner and the lender – than would be the result of continuing through the foreclosure process with the property,” said Freeman. “The seller needs to get the lender to agree in principle to the idea of a short sale, and reaching that initial agreement is typically a key responsibility of the seller’s real estate agent. The agent wants to determine upfront what the lender will require from both the seller and the eventual buyer in order to formally authorize the sale and close the transaction.”

However, in addition to an agent with experience in handling short sales, the seller also needs an attorney with comparable expertise, according to Freeman.
The attorney’s job is to negotiate with the lender (or lenders if there is a second mortgage), and work out the final terms. Freeman urged homeowners who may be headed toward foreclosure to explore the option of a short sale before it is too late.

“Don’t put your head in the sand and ignore the problem,” Freeman advised. “Start the process as soon as it is clear that you are going to miss two or three mortgage payment. Otherwise, it may be too late.”

Indeed, many homeowners who are facing financial difficulties don’t understand the short sale option that is available to them, according to Laura Heinberg of RE/MAX Connections II in Marengo, IL.

She tells of one couple who fell behind on mortgage payments and owed $280,000 in principle and late fees on a home that was worth about $260,000. They tried to sell the home for $330,000 because that would cover all their costs and yield a small profit. However, no one would buy at that price, and the lender finally foreclosed. A new buyer then purchased the home from the lender for $220,000.
“The couple probably could have kept their loss down to less than $50,000 if they had talked to their lender and done a short sale,” said Heinberg. “Instead, they lost their entire investment.”

For buyers, the secrets of successfully purchasing a property via a short sale are threefold.

“You need to keep your contract clean, by which I mean without a lot of contingencies, and your financing must be in place and you need to be patient,” Heinberg said.

As foreclosure problems have increased nationally for lenders, those seeking to purchase pre-foreclosure properties have found patience to be a cardinal virtue, reports Craig Stein of RE/MAX Showcase in Gurnee, Illinois.

“Four years ago, a wait of 10 days for lender approval of a short sale was a long time, now a lender may take a month or more to approve,” said Stein, noting that lenders aren’t delaying because they want to but because the evaluation process can be complicated.

Stein recalls a situation last year, where he represented a seller in a short sale situation for a property that attracted offers from five buyers.

“But by the time the lender responded, three of the buyers had withdrawn their offers. I tell my buyers who submit an offer on a home in a short-sale situation that they should keep looking at other properties until the lender approves the contract,” he said.

According to Jim Merrion, regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois, buyers currently are advised to give a lender a month or more to respond to an offer.

Buyers who want to consider pre-foreclosure properties should also keep a few other considerations in mind, according to Stein.

• The home will be sold “as is,” and the lender probably won’t agree to make any repairs.


• Because the current owner is having financial problems, there can be issues with getting clear title to the property.


• The closing will be scheduled at the lender’s convenience, not the buyer’s.

Though buying a home through a short sale can be more challenging than other types of residential transactions, they appear to be growing in number.

“I recently saw one respected industry source quoted to the effect that 20 percent of completed home sales nationwide are now short sales,” said Merrion. “We aren’t seeing that high a percentage of short sales in our area now, and I don’t think we ever will. Still, short sales are more common right now than at any time in recent decades, which is why so many of our agents have been getting additional training in how to handle these transactions.”