Barrington, IL

My First Few Years as a Realtor.
After 4 years in the real estate business it became apparent to me as a Barrington Illinois Realtor, that although I was an independent contractor with my license hanging under another brokerage, I was not truly able to operate my personal business my way. I had by now already worked at a large indepenent brokerage that had many branches as well as well known franchise. The business models of both brokerages placed limitations on what I was allowed to do to market my listings and myself as a Realtor. Advertising was controlled by the brokerage, or outside service providers selected for me, as well as required contributions to advertising methods I deemed to be old hat. Training taught me to do things that did not appear to be working for other Realtors, but that's how it was done! Out of the box thinking did not appear to be encouraged, many systems were antiquated and presentations were canned.

Time To Follow My Independent Streak.
I long ago decided that I wanted to use the internet as my primary method of advertising, for both listings and myself and had already set these wheels in motion, and all my clients came from the internet. But with frowns from above it was obvious my choices were not in line, so I set the next wheels in motion and started studying for my brokers license. Less than 6 weeks later I had passed the tests and taken the state exam and was now a real estate broker. It was now October 2007 and with the support of my husband I started planning. I have always had a fiercly independent streak and am somewhat stubborn, so it was only natural for me to do what I wanted and become the owner and broker of my own company. We opened in June 2008 and I find it hard to believe a year has passed already.

Independent Thinking.
Royal Advocate Realty is my company. I am now free to run both the company and my personal business how I want. I have three agents working for the company that also share my philosophies and are very willing to listen to my independent thinking. None of us are constrained by rules other than the law of operating as a real estate brokerage. Out of the box thinking is encouraged, some of it succeeds and some is vitoed. The internet is still where I invest my efforts as a Realtor. I am moving with the times and learning from other independent brokers about new things every day and how I can utilize them in my everyday business. We are a very strong group of Brokers, not afraid to be the entreprenuers in real estate.

Consider Your Local Independent Broker.
If you are in the market to sell or buy real estate in any of the Barrington Illinois areas, now you know a little more about who I am, please consider me to be your real estate advocate. As a listing agent I do NOT just enter your property into the MLS and hope. I make use of many internet based tools to drive buyer prospects to be able to see your home. Ultimately they may buy with the services of their own Realtor, but I want to be sure they find you where they look - ONLINE.

As a test I invite you to search for a listing our company has now - July 2009. The address is 25497 Cayuga Trail. Copy and paste the address into Google. On July 3rd 2009 I had positions 1, 2 and 5 for this address and the listing agent has position 6.

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Contact Corinne Guest ABR, e-PRO, GRI, Broker, Royal Advocate Realty Licensed Realtor® in Illinois, 847-381-6328 to list your property for sale or to buy a property in Barrington, Lake Barrington, North Barrington, South Barrington, Barrington Hills, Inverness and Deer Park, as well as Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer and Long Grove in Lake County Illinois.

Call me today at 847-381-6328. Contact me by email if you prefer by clicking on email me on the right side of this page under my profile.

Copyright © 2009 By Corinne Guest, All Rights Reserved. Royal Advocate Realty in Barrington Illinois - The Independent Real Estate Broker with Independent Thinking - Created by Corinne Guest - Long Time Barrington Resident

Prices are dropping but we still have some pretty high priced homes here in the Barrington Area. If you are in the market to buy a luxury home in Barrington you'll find the most expensive homes in Barrington Hills and South Barrington. North Barrington also has it's fair share of higher priced homes. Before going shopping for your luxury home you must produce proof of ability to buy, either in the form of pre-approval for your mortgage, and also of your cash to make up the difference or buy outright. A letter from your bank will suffice but must be current. You are also best advised to write down a list of the amenities you require. When looking at homes of this size, it is more difficult to make sure you are getting everything you need there is so much to look at.

Here are the top 10 priced luxury homes on July 3rd 2009.

Barrington Hills - Brinker Road - $4,495,000
Barrington Hills - Windrush Lane - $4,500,000
Barrington - Old Barrington Road - $4,500,000
Barrington Hills - Brinker Road - $4,990,000
Barrington Hills - Dana Lane - $5,390,000
Barrington Hills - Otis Road - $5,900,000
South Barrington - Star Lane - $5,999,900
Barrington Hills - Dana Lane - $7,275,000
Barrington Hills - Woodhaven Lane - $7,750,000
Barrington Hills - Old Sutton Road - $17,000,000

Here is more information on some of the luxury homes for sale in the Barrington Illinois area. If you would like a list of all the luxury homes that match your criteria, just send me an email.

So you have decided to sell your home.
You select some Realtors to interview.
Marketing Plans are presented.
Prices are discussed.
You list with Realtor B.

Did you choose your Realtor based on the fact that the price presented was the highest?
Did you ever consider that the Realtor was telling you what you wanted to hear just to get the listing?
Did you choose that Realtor because of the brand name attached?

If you do not have sufficient data presented to qualify the price given, your listing is very likely being bought. Ask every Realtor to show you sales and competitve listings in your neighborhood. Question how they arrived at their price. It does not matter what brand name or not your Realtor works for. It is up to the Realtor to sell your house, not the company that sponsors them.

Any Realtor in this market that buys a listing is going to hit problems with selling the house.
You are not going to get showings, price reductions are going to be requested by the Realtor all the time, and what incentive is there for the Realtor to actively market the home when they know the price is too high?



Your goal is to sell the house, so don't be bought!

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Contact Corinne Guest ABR, e-PRO, GRI, Broker, Royal Advocate Realty Licensed Realtor® in Illinois, 847-381-6328 to list your property for sale or to buy a property in Barrington, Lake Barrington, North Barrington, South Barrington, Barrington Hills, Inverness and Deer Park, as well as Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer and Long Grove in Lake County Illinois.

Call me today at 847-381-6328. Contact me by email if you prefer by clicking on email me on the right side of this page under my profile.

Copyright © 2009 By Corinne Guest, All Rights Reserved. Is Your Barrington Realtor Buying Your Listing?

As a Realtor and as your buyers agent it is my job to not only find you a home that meets your needs but one that will hopefully be good for re-sale. By that I don't necessarily mean from an investment perspective but more from a speed perspective. After all when it is time to sell, for whatever reason, you don't want your house to be the one that sits longer than the average marketing time. So what are the warnings to give to buyers?

• Don't buy the house that backs up to a busy street.
• Don't buy the house that needs a lot of upgrading.
• Don't buy the house that has a non conforming lay-out.
• Don't buy the house in the not so good school district.

Well you get the idea. The only caviat is that if you accept that the value of your new house will be less than the others in your area when you sell, and you are getting a steal of a deal, and are 100% comfortable with the purchase because you just have to have the house, then go ahead and buy it! Knowledge is key here.
So do we Realtors always practice what we preach? Since immigrating to this country 13 years ago our family has bought 3 homes. Two in Illinois and one in Florida. I am pleased to say I score 2 out of 3. Not enough to pass most exams but I was not a Realtor for any of the purchases! So perhaps I can be forgiven?

1. First purchase in Deer Park, good school district, conforming lay-out, upgraded kitchen, and behind the house it was conservation land. Time to sell- 8 days and we were under contract.
2. Second purchase in Florida, good school district, or as good as we could get in Florida; house only 6 years old and still had a new kitchen, conforming lay-out, big big inground covered pool. However I failed because it was close to a major freeway. As a reference point I only had 1 weekend to find a house, and I was out-voted 3 guys to 1 girl. Why because of the pool! Time to sell in a downward spiralling market, 3 months and under contract. Biggest selling feature - that pool! Phew.
3. Third purchase in Barrington. Good school district. conforming lay-out, newly built home and we asked for some extra upgrades. Out of 42 homes on the subdivision only a handfull back up to conservation and we are 1 of them.

Although we are not yet in the market to sell, I feel comfortable knowing that nothing can be built behind us and that as long as we keep the property maintenance going, update when needed, we stand a good chance of selling in less that average market time. One of the first things we did was to fully finish the basement.
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Contact Corinne Guest ABR, e-PRO, GRI, Broker, Royal Advocate Realty Licensed Realtor® in Illinois, 847-381-6328 to list your property for sale or to buy a property in Barrington, Lake Barrington, North Barrington, South Barrington, Barrington Hills, Inverness and Deer Park, as well as Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer and Long Grove in Lake County Illinois.

Call me today at 847-381-6328. Contact me by email if you prefer by clicking on email me on the right side of this page under my profile.

Copyright © 2009 By Corinne Guest, All Rights Reserved. As a Barrington Realtor - Do I Practice What I Preach?

June 30th 2009 and I wonder if our summer is already over! At 65 degrees, almost 30 less than last week, we have all shut the air conditioners off, opened the windows, just a crack, & put jeans back on, but no worries it'll be back!

As a long term Barrington resident I know that when our summer truly is over, many local residents will flee to the warmer temps of sunny Florida for the winter. Whilst this may seem a long time away, I thought I would write this post to remind Barrington residents that if they are looking for a property manager to take care of their property whilst they are away, this is a service my husband and I offer just for single family homes in Barrington and Inverness.

We limit the property type to single family homes and to our local area.

Property management for homes vacant for 4 to 6 months is a little different than managing condo complexes. This service is not about finding tenants for your home and managing the rental income, which is what most property managers are hired to do. This is about taking care of your home while it is vacant and being on hand for any issues that crop up. So what services are provided?

• Regular visits to the home.
• Full property inspections during visits.
• Identifying problems and resolving.
• Preparing home for your return.
• Snow removal.
• Whole house property cleaning.
• Carpet cleaning.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, we are happy to discuss your individual needs. Prices are based on the size of the property and the services you require. Please note that we do not outsource these services, they are all carried out by my husband and myself, and our cleaner. As licensed Realtors we are legally allowed to manage properties in Illinois. As home-owners and avid D-I-Y ers we able to identify problems and in many cases resolve them. In the event that the services of other licensed tradesmen are required, your home will not be left unattended, we will remain present until the issue has been resolved.

Are you leaving the area for a new job and don't want your home left to fend for itself? Perhaps you have a 1 or 2 year assignment and have decided not to sell or rent. As local Realtors we can market your home for sale, manage it during your absence or both, just give us a call.
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Contact Corinne Guest ABR, e-PRO, GRI, Broker, Royal Advocate Realty Licensed Realtor® in Illinois, 847-381-6328 to list your property for sale or to buy a property in Barrington, Lake Barrington, North Barrington, South Barrington, Barrington Hills, Inverness and Deer Park, as well as Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer and Long Grove in Lake County Illinois.

Call me today at 847-381-6328. Contact me by email if you prefer by clicking on email me on the right side of this page under my profile.

Copyright © 2009 By Corinne Guest, All Rights Reserved. Looking For A Property Manager for Your Barrington Illinois Home During the Winter Months?