Jim Ludes: Your Grundy & Will County Expert's Thoughts

Curious as to what has been happening in the Coal City/ Diamond real estate market? Below is a list of what has sold in the last 6 months and what is currently available. You'll see that few 2 bedrooms have really sold wonderfully recently; quick and for an average over list price. I recently pla...

I've always said, "I wish it were more difficult to be a real estate agent." It's not that I'm looking for more of a challenge than selling property- that's challenging enough. It's that I think I hold people in my profession to a standard that they often times do not live up to. I just run into ...

Heard an interesting question in regards to an agent going after an expired listing that sparked light debate/ conversation between a couple of agents (I won't say whose opinions are whose to keep it light and the dialog flowing). The question: "Would it be cuth to tell a prospective seller that ...

Have you ever opened up a newspaper (I know, seems prehistoric) and looked in the classifieds or real estate section? I suspect most of you have. Outside of all the great locations (location....location), won't last longs and other cliche sales tactics agents use you'll usually find one other thi...

I'm in the back of my office working away on plans for 2010. Marketing tweaking, video watching, article reading (absorbing a la the sponge) and anything else I can think of to be more productive and, overall, better for myself and clients in the coming year. In walks an agent from a nearby offic...

Closed attached and detached homes 1/1/08 to 8/27/08:     Detached Single   Bedrooms # Sold % Sold Avg LP (Sold) Avg SP SP:LP Ratio Avg MT (Sold) Avg LP (Unsold) % Expd All 56 100% $211,768 $202,025 95% 145 $0 0% 2 or Less 7 100% $99,629 $98,214 99% 62   0% 3 34 100% $213,524 $205,553 96% 123   0...

Big-game fish? Florida baseball team? The daddy from Finding Nemo? You'd, of course, be right on all accounts. But you'd also be missing out on a true piece of sports history that I'm guessing you know very little about. Marlin Briscoe. Briscoe played football at the University of Nebraska at Oma...

Does fantasy football have sequels? I guess it does now......maybe. Rick Beal was gracious enough to start up the Official 2008 Active Rain Fantasy Football League and it filled quite quickly. Some interested members didn't get invited or didn't act quickly enough to participate so I'm testing t...

In Coal City, we've been waiting with baited breath for over a year to see the results of the Early Childhood Center. The school measures out at around 74,000 square feet and features 12 kindergarten rooms, 12 first grade rooms and 6 for pre-schoolers. Obviously, these will be the grades the sch...

"Buyers are liars." My assumption is that this phrase isn't foreign to you. It certainly wasn't me as I learned it in my first office about a month after breaking into real estate. I have always found it cheesy, defeatist, and a pretty good indicator that agents that say it aren't spectacular at...