Northfield, IL

In the table below lists all of the single family detached and single family attached homes currently on the market in Northfield, IL The data lists available homes by price range with average time on market in each range.

Included in this list are many Foreclosures and Short Sales.

Should you have an interest in homes in a selected price range, send me your physical characteristics requirements. I will send complete details on those homes that meet your criteria.

Active Listings

List Price Range # Listings Avg. Days on Mkt $50,000 - $99,999 1 274 $100,000 - $149,999 5 478 $150,000 - $199,999 7 148 $200,000 - $249,999 2 634 $300,000 - $349,999 2 338 $350,000 - $399,999 2 219 $400,000 - $449,999 4 195 $450,000 - $499,999 9 337 $500,000 - $549,999 1 301 $550,000 - $599,999 8 419 $600,000 - $699,999 4 264 $700,000 - $799,999 2 239 $800,000 - $899,999 3 593 $900,000 - $999,999 5 311 $1,000,000 - $1,999,999 12 272 $2,000,000 - $2,999,999 1 239

Active Listings Summary

# Units Avg. MT Median List Price Avg. List Price Max. List Price Min. List Price Total Volume 68 322 $554,950 $692,956 $2,250,000 $69,900 $47,120,999

Have you heard about Trick-or-Trunk? I recently did and thought I would share a location with you if you are interested in doing this with your children.

Admittedly, Winnetka and the North Shore is an area where children can safely trick-or-treat on Halloween. The hours are set early, usually ending before dusk and most parents accompany young children on their forays through the neighborhoods.

But over the past twenty years or so, many people have soured on the concept of door-to-door candy raking, particularly if they live in areas with busy streets and lots of traffic, or from fears of tainted treats.

Enter Trick-or-Trunk where groups of parents set up their cars somewhere (a school or church parking lot for instance) and dispense their candy from the trunks of their cars. The children trick-or-treat from car to car all within sight of parents and other children. Obviously, this is for the very young candy getter - one who has not yet entered a roving pack of middle-schoolers bent on filling five pillow cases full of sugar.

I found one place locally that is hosting a Trick-or-Trunk - please note that it is not being held on Halloween, but on this Thursday evening from 6:00 to 8:00pm.

Where: Willow Creek North Shore
315 Waukegan Road, Northfield
Call for more information: 847-765-5000.

You don't need to register or call ahead - just pull up with your car full of little Lady Gagas and power rangers and a trunk full of candy and you're all set!

And if these times don't work for you - consider setting up your own trick-or-trunk with neighbors or friends.

*photos courtesy of Katerina Gassett

You earned it. You bought it. You loved it. Now you want to sell it. Your house in Northfield, that is.

Nothing can stop you if this is your must-have goal. You cannot test the market or dip your toes in the water. You have to go full throttle and pull out all stops to make your dream become a reality. Otherwise, you’ll just be spinning your wheels.

Listing your house for sale isn’t the same as selling your house

If you own a house in Northfield, consider yourself fortunate to live in such a vibrant and popular community. It may be ‘cooler by the lake’, but it’s still a hot real estate market. Northfield won’t ever go out of style.

During the last 30 days, these luxury Northfield houses were sold to the highest bidder.

Data provided by the Midwest Real Estate LLC (MRED) multiple listing service and includes properties listed and sold by various participants in the MLS. Data supplied does not reflect all market activity in the area.

Full speed ahead

Each and every homeowner who intended to sell quickly did. How can you tell? They sold in less than 2 months. In addition, these properties usually sold at a price within a few percentage points of their original list price.

These homeowners weren’t about to fool around. To a one, they prepared to sell … not just list … BEFORE they put their homes on the market.

Once the prep work was done, they didn’t sit back, sipping mint juleps on the porch. They put their best foot forward for every showing. For them, Open House happened every day of the week.

When offers came in, they negotiated in good faith. No offer was too low because every offer was a jumping-off point.

Ultimately, their goal was to move out and move on. They did just that. Some in days. Some in weeks. Others in a few short months.

Up to speed

Not all suburban communities are so lucky. In fact, not all Northfield homeowners have been as lucky. Many are still waiting their turn to sit at the closing table.

Currently, 18 luxury-priced homes in Northfield remain unsold. Some houses have been on the market for years. Yes, years!

The numbers reveal a 6-month supply. While 6 months isn’t something to ‘write home’ about, 6 months is as close to nirvana as you can get in this challenging market climate.

The ‘wow’ factor

Selling your luxury home always requires extra hurdles to jump over.

Buyers are looking for that certain je ne sais quoi. They’re expecting ‘whiz-bang’ for their buck. They don’t want to compromise. Price must always be justified by quality. If they’re going to mortgage their future, they want their investment to be a sound one.

Don’t be left behind

If you haven’t sold your house yet, but want to sooner rather than much later, don’t get stuck with one of those ‘unsold’ homes languishing on the market. Instead, make sure you understand everything before going into the selling process. Don’t try to hedge your bet. And understand that the homes that sell the fastest are the homes that meet buyer expectations.

To meet … and exceed … buyer expectations, homesellers should concentrate on these 3 selling points to create demand for their house.

Condition – A house worth a million bucks must be worth a million bucks. Leave no stone unturned or detail overlooked.

Presentation – Turn your home into a castle. A showcase. A property worthy of being featured in Architectural Digest.

Value – When your house stands out from the crowd, homebuyers know it, want to see it, and will put it at the top of their list.

To sum up, use this formula when you’re making plans to sell your house —

Condition + Presentation + Value = Sales Success

Champagne wishes and caviar dreams

In a real estate market where the number of anxious sellers far surpasses the number of serious buyers, homeowners can’t afford to kick back and rely on luck. They have to make sure their house tells a unique story to homebuyers that they, too, can live in the laps of luxury.

If you think you don’t have to worry about selling your Northfield home and moving on when the need arises, think again.

Every day means your house is losing value.

That’s right. Every single day.

Face value

Overall, economic and market forces continue to plague the real estate marketplace, and will for some time to come.

One of those market forces has to do foreclosures and short sales.

Short end of the stick

Over the past year, 12.5% of all single-family detached homes sold in Northfield were ‘distressed’ homes ... either foreclosures or short sales.

Digest this for a moment.

1 out of 8 homes sold in Northfield during the last 12 months was a ‘distressed’ home.

A ‘distressed’ home is one in which the homeowners experienced some kind of financial crisis. Either they lost their home to the bank. Or they sought permission from the bank to sell their home at a loss.

Data provided by the Midwest Real Estate LLC (MRED) multiple listing service and includes properties listed and sold by various participants in the MLS. Data supplied does not reflect all market activity in the area.

On the market

When 12.5% of Northfield homes are either foreclosure/bank-owned sales or short sales, it’s apparent that banks can influence the market value of your home.

What does this mean to you as a homeowner?

It means that often you don’t determine the purchase price. And neither do buyers. Banks do.

Every day, banks set and reset the market value of your home by determining how much they’re willing to sell their inventory of foreclosed homes for. Or what sale price they’re willing to approve short sale homes for.

A price above rubies

Typically, short sales go at a 10% discount of recent home sales. They have to. Otherwise, why would homebuyers want to wait 3 months, 6 months, or longer for bank approval?

Foreclosed homes typically sell even lower … by as much as 15 to 20% below recent sale prices of non-distressed homes. Or even more, depending on condition.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that foreclosed and short sale homes can’t possibly affect the value of your home. After all, your home is in perfect condition. It’s been lovingly maintained. It’s in move-in condition.

Unfortunately, appraisers don’t always see it that way.

Laughing Crying all the way to the bank

For argument’s sake, let’s say you put your house on the market tomorrow. Let’s say homebuyers see what you see … a perfect house in perfect condition.

Let’s further say that these buyers meet your asking price. Now they have to get a loan. And their bank has to make sure the investment is a good risk.

The bank hires an appraiser to make sure the buyers aren’t paying too much for your house. The appraiser pulls records of recent sales in your neighborhood. Unfortunately, 2 are foreclosures or short sales.

The appraiser should make an adjustment to account for the distressed status of those homes, but doesn't always. When she does, the amount probably won’t fully recognize the discount. That's because the appraiser can’t really know what the true condition of the house was, so she’ll err on the conservative side.

The appraiser must also err on the conservative side because she knows market values could very well get worse.

And bam! Your house isn’t worth as much as you or the buyer thought it was.

Are you stunned? Incensed? Confused? You should be.

But know this.

It happens. In this market climate, it happens all the time. Yes, homeowners can fight the appraiser’s opinion. And sometimes they can win, but not as often as they’d like.

If this happens to you … and you really want to move … you’ll be forced to lower the price so the buyers can qualify for their loan and you can close the deal.

Take it to the bank

So if you think foreclosures and short sales have nothing to do with you or your house, think again. They have everything to do with your ability to sell your house at a price that will allow you to move on. And you can take that to the bank!

Need to sell your home ... but can’t because it’s lost too much value?

Call Judy at 847.749.3811 to find out how you can sell your house as a Short Sale.

I list and sell Short Sales all over Chicagoland!

For more about Short Sales, visit ChicagoShortSales.com.

Is the market value of your Northfield house upside-down? Are you facing financial difficulties? Does it look like you could lose your home to foreclosure?

You’re not alone.

Crain’s Chicago Business recently reported that it takes banks nearly 500 days to process an Illinois foreclosure. This may give you nearly a year-and-a-half to sell your house as a Short Sale. But don’t get too complacent. A Short Sale can take 6 months or longer to process through your bank. Meanwhile, your bank could foreclose on your home in less than a year.

The long and the short

Maybe you haven’t heard about Short Sales. Or maybe you have but also heard that they don’t work.

Untrue.

Short Sales are different from regular sales and must be handled in a different way. But when handled properly, they can close over 90% of the time.

Learn more about Short Sales here.

Short circuit

In the last 12 months, 3 foreclosed homes were sold in the Northfield.

3 homes lost by people just like you.

3 homeowners paralyzed by fear.

3 homes that could have been sold as Short Sales.

3 homeowners who could have moved on with their heads held high instead of tucking tail and moving out in the dead of night.

Data provided by the Midwest Real Estate LLC (MRED) multiple listing service and includes properties listed and sold by various participants in the MLS. Data supplied does not reflect all market activity in the area.

Taking the shortcut

Meanwhile, 3 other homeowners decided to sell their homes as Short Sales. And succeeded!

If you let the bank to foreclose on your Northfield home, penalties could hound you for years to come —

• Your credit score could take a tumble of 250 or more points.
• Your foreclosure circumstance could stay on your credit report for up to 7 years.
• Your lender could go after you for their incurred losses.
• You probably won’t be able to buy a house, a car, or a refrigerator on credit for at least 3 to 7 years.
• You may jeopardize your employment status, particularly when it comes to financial or security positions.

Don’t sell yourself short

On the positive side, doing a Short Sale allows you to —

• Sell your house and start over
• Completely eliminate or substantially reduce your financial liability
• Minimize damage to your credit rating
• Recover from credit damage in months instead of years
• Purchase another house in as little as 2 years
• Protect your employment status, particularly when it comes to jobs involving security clearances or sensitive positions in investment or banking
• Look forward with a clear conscience instead of glancing back with worry and regret.

For more about Short Sales, visit ChicagoShortSales.com.

Want to find out if a Short Sale can work for you?
Call me — Judy Chapman — at 847.749.3811

I list and sell Short Sales all over Chicagoland!