September Slowdown

As I sit trying to get better from being hit hard by a really bad cold or an early bout of flu, I am happy that I haven't been so busy selling real estate during my sickness but sad that our busy season is going through its normal slow-down after the school season began.  Real estate is seasonal and the slowdown at this time of year affects single family homes more than attached properties.  In fact, I had 2 offers on a Palos Hills condominium that went back on the market because financing fell through with the first buyer.

I love the Fall season but I hate that winter is right around the corner.  The leaves on trees are already changing and I hope to capture some beautiful Fall photos.  I'm already seeing Halloween decor on neighboring homes.  My husband junk picked an organ from someone's trash and will have our ghoul guy playing some creepy tunes on it.  That will be a one-time decoration as we're not storing that big thing just for Halloween.  I hope we have nice weather for trick or treating this year.  I think last year was a little cold.

Now that we're not so stressfully busy I'll be able to work on my final real estate website transfer from a long-time host/webmaster to a Wordpress set-up.  I hope I'm doing the right thing!  It's a big step.  Some clients of the site provider feel that the website itself helps them attract clients.  I don't think that's 100% true. Many of today's newest real estate website providers are building their sites using custom Wordpress themes.

I've written many posts on how I can no longer attain #1 organic search results because of Google's algorithm changes that put all the big real estate portals above my sites.  These are sites of mine that were #1 for many years.  One site fell to page 2 and my oldest site is still on page one but "below the fold."  That's why I created 2 new niche hyper-local websites, which I'll share my latest posts with.

The problem is, the big portals have outdated information and their crazy home estimates that can be 20%+ off!  That's a huge difference.  Yet when a buyer searches for certain keywords, instead of getting a good, local site from an agent that works in that particular town and has updated data, they'll get a huge nationwide portal with listings that have already sold and closed and other properties that are not up-for-sale.

One popular real estate site started listing homes that are in some stage of foreclosure.  Many of these homes will never be on the market.  Some of them will be taken out of foreclosure proceedings by the current home owners.  Yet this website lists them all.  I know some buyers that would go up to the home and start looking around.  I hope they realize that in many cases there will be an angry or scared owner that will call the police for trespassing - or worse!

Homes in Homer Glen

Click the link to see 2nd Quarter sales for single family Homer Glen homes.  I was hoping for better statistics and I'm hoping year-end data will be more positive all-around.

Orland Park Real Estate

I'm loving my new website with MLS search, or as it's called, IDX search through iHomefinder.  I'm trying out several different IDX providers on all of my newly vamped websites and will try yet another when I make my final change to my main website.  I created a pre-done search for Orland Park foreclosures and the link will take you to a blog post explaining foreclosures and some differences between a foreclosure and short sale.

Oak Lawn Real Estate

I created the same search for Oak Lawn foreclosures, so click the link and you'll read another blog post all about it.  Some of the searches I create can be embedded into individual blog posts, but those are more general searches such as by a certain price range.  When you get more advanced I can only provide a link to the pre-made search.

Real estates sales do continue throughout the year, so if you are still considering buying and/or selling property, give The Judy Orr Team a call at 708-536-8200.

Best August Real Estate Blog Posts

I like to recap some of the prior month's real estate posts I've written in other sources, so here they are for August 2013.

Orland Park Homes and Real Estate

The website isn't just about real estate and homes for sale.  I live and work in Orland Park so like to throw a local lifestyle spin on the website.  In fact, although I don't get a lot of people relocating into Orland Park, I'd like to paint a true picture of living in this popular southwest suburb.

I wrote about a great fast food diner and find out by a comment that the place might be moving from their current Orland Park location.  Go figure. Baby's Cheesecake and Lemonade has other locations, although they're a bit too far for me.  If they move I hope it's not too far away.

Although there are lifestyle articles on the site, it is about real estate, after all.  I'm really interested to see how 2013 will compare with 2012.  I don't really need to read statistics to know we're much busier this year compared to last, but I wasn't sure about how that affected prices.  You can see the difference between Orland Park homes sold in July of 2013 vs. 2012.  It's good news!

Homer Glen Homes and Real Estate

I've been transferring older posts to my new Homer Glen website template and it's literally been copy and paste.  Lots of time consuming work and I hope I keep this site as I'll have to do it all over again if I decide to switch back to Wordpress (although I kept my last back-up from my prior Wordpress site).

I'm having fun creating pre-set searches and I know many local buyers are interested in Homer Glen short sales.  Not only does this post give the link to show all current short sales in the village, but it explains what short sales are and how they work.  Many buyers have heard about short sales but don't fully understand what they really are.  This post should explain everything in easy-to-understand language.

Another fun way to search for Homer Glen real estate is by viewing pre-made searches by price.  Click Homer Glen homes for sale to see all single family properties priced $200,000 and under.  There are several ways to get to this pre-made search.  You can find the link in the post or on the right-hand sidebar on the Home Page.  It is also under the Search Homes tab on the top menu and this shows on every page on the website.

All of these pre-made searches will continually update the results, so you'll always have fresh listings no matter what the search parameters are.  Don't forget, you can always create your own advanced search of Homer Glen real estate.  We realize you might need more than just price.  You might need a certain price with a certain number of bedrooms and baths, etc.  If the pre-made searches are giving you properties you're not interested in then create your own personal search.  The best way to keep updated is to create an Automated Search that will send listings directly to your e-mail.  You'll never miss what might be the pefect place for you.

I sold another home in popular Meadowview Estates in Homer Glen.  This post will give you a little information on this subdivision.

Homer Glen doesn't have a lot of restaurants so we go to different towns a lot (we live in Homer Glen even though we have an Orland Park address - it's a long story).  One of our favorites is in the neighboring town of Lemont called 3 Corners Grill & Tap.  It just goes to prove you can be in a weird location and still prosper if you have something great to offer, and 3 Corners has great food you don't usually find in a restaurant/bar.

I've written other posts but these are the ones I wanted to feature here.  Homer Glen and Orland Park are the two major towns I work in.  Call Judy Orr if you're interested in either of these towns, or any southwest Chicago suburbs - 708-536-8200.