Barb Van Stensel, Realtor - Chicago, Illinois

Hey Chicago, if you are late in your mortgage payments and you are receiving calls and notices from your lender or their representatives ..... THEN YOU NEED TO CREATE A MORTGAGE WORKOUT BOOK.

What's that? This is where you need to put everything that you receive, record every phone conversation with your lender's collection or loss mitigation department representative.

This is what you need to purchase:

• Three Ring Binder that is sturdy
• 8 Pocket dividers - Pockets are used to hold any paperwork that you receive
• Some plastic Sheet Protection Pages
• Notebook paper

Depending upon whether you have one or two lenders, make this notebook work for you.

How? When you get a call from a lender, then write the name of that person who called you and ask for them to repeat it twice so you have it, if they have an id# and put that down, their phone number, the date and time of the call and what the conversation was about.

You also want to write down what you are supposed to do or any "action" that was discussed during this phone conversation. Make sure that the "action" list can be from either the lender or you.

KEEP TRACK!

Take your papers and organize them according to lender and according to dates that you received them. Have all your insurance information in this book, along with leases (if you are an investment property), and property tax information. Water, gas and electric bills are critical as well.

When you receive a notice of collection - put it in your book of things to do.

If you don't have a calendar to keep track of your dates that you have commitments to financially or verbally, then go to Microsoft Office and download calendars that will work for you.

This is what you need to do in order to keep track of who has called you, who you need to call on what dates, etc. It's a way to help yourself and learn to fight to keep your property.

Need more ideas or help? Send me an email.

Hey Chicago, if you are a multi-unit building nad have been on the market or are considering going on the market soon, then pull out your leases and review them. Here's why:

The bank will base the value on the property off of these leases and the verbage that most Realtors put out there about "below market rents" just won't cut it with the lender. If you aren't at market rent and you have been giving your tenants a break in their rent for staying at the property for so long, that's great but it's not great to your property value. Your property value will be based off of the GRM (Gross Rent Multiplier) and the rents are what support that GRM.

Financing for your property, depending upon the price point, would be best to go under FHA financing. Why FHA? If you neighborhood has been experiencing a decline in value, like most, FHA would require a certain percentage down payment. With conventional financing, the lender will require 5% more down payment and it has been brought to my attention that PMI will no longer be available for investment properties. I would suggest you reach out to your banker or mortgage broker for the latest in guidelines.

And if you want to increase your rents, then increase your curb appeal. There is nothing like curb appeal and a property that has been maintained.

I do rentals in Chicago and I recently rented out two units for one of the neighbors in the Ravenswood GArdens/Albany Park borderline. He put roughly $800 in landscaping and because of that he got $300 more above the crrent market rent per month for the one unit and $150 more above the current market rent for the garden unit. That's $450 a month above the competition! In under two months, because this owner listened to me he netted $4,600 more in rent because of $800 in landscaping. Nice return on your investment, eh?

Hey Chicago, whether your home has been on the market or you are planning to sell this fall or winter season, here's some suggestions to help you sell your home before your neighbor does and for more money:

Curb Appeal: The weather is great right now so go out and rack your lawn. Sprinkle it with water first thing in the morning before you head out to work. Cut the lawn, one last time. Add some mums to your front yard "freshly trimmed" landscaping - not the small ones either. If your landscaping doesn't have any room, then put two at the front of your staircase or even maybe one at the bottom of the stairs and the other at the biggest section of your landing. It's a way of inviting the "eye" to look at your home.

Deck Area: Leave two lounge chairs out with a foot rest and again one or two colorful big $20 pot of mums on the deck. Lay a quality blanket over the arm rest of one of the chairs. What this does is gives the consumers the idea how great the back yard and/or deck area is for relaxing even during the fall.

Color: The fall is about color and bring it on! If your walls are somewhat dated, now is the time to add some zip and zing to those walls. I personally love Benjamin Moore Paint but also have found that Lowe's Paint is also extremely good quality and wears well. If you room needs some warmth, then add spice tones that naturally season rooms with warmth. If you have patterned accents either it be furniture or accessories, mix color with the pattern. It's a great way to pull the effect of "I just got to have this house". The fall colors I am seeing right now and find extremely appeal to the eye are Benjamin More Atrium White, Winter's Lake Blue and Davenport. Combine that with bright white trim and watch it "pop".

Chose at least three colors that work together and use them in different combinations. Play with lighter and darker versions of those colors to make it work for your house. Remember, you are not painting walls for your taste but to enhance the characters and quality, desireability of your house. That's the purpose.

Create a common thread using a single color on all trim to pull the whole project together. However, I have used a combination of using stained wood trim on walls that where wood will pull in the warmth as seen in this construction photo of a project that I designed at 5110 North Claremont. The staircase wall was all oak wood, doors were solid oak but yet I had an elegant french living room concept and so I installed painted 7 inch base moulding with 3/4" baseshoe and added painted crown moulding that pulled together the strength of the staircase wall and it's 6' long 4" stained moulding but yet created the elegance with the painted detailed base moulding in the living room and dining room areas.

This is just before the house was finished so the floors were not cleaned here.

NOW, if you have wood trim around your doors and base molding, let me show you the warmth that draws you into the kitchen and family room area.

Again, construction still going on. DID YOU KNOW .... that the kitchen is considered to be the strength and heartbeat of the home? Well it is so concentrate on your kitchen area first and then expand from there. Oh, by the way ..... that isn't a home that you are seeing in the back yard - it's the garage.

Why in blue blazes would I design a garage that looked like a house? Because there will be condominiums behind this property in the next five years and I wanted to (a) create some privacy for the new owner and (b) people tend too look at things that are "cute", "charming", "breathtaking" and will overlook a condominium building because of having a cute house garage in the backyard.

My disclaimer: I designed that garage for those reasons but also for the anquish that my father has had to go through the years because my mother never threw anything away and our basement was always full of "stuff". So, this garage has room for my Dad's things in the attic area.

I'm not telling you to tear down your garage and build a new one. When I sell properties I give the buyer's options of designs for garages and have them there and ask the family which one they like, on the count of three. Well, fingers are pointing at all different designs on my sheet of paper and my point is this, price the home for the cost of a new garage and let the new owner decide what he wants. You could put in a standard garage and that may kill the whole sale. The cost factor difference: "ZERO"!

Focus on adding new splashes of color into your home but keep it neutral. 17% of your selling price comes from your curb appeal. Start there and then work from the kitchen and then around to the other rooms. Organize your closets - Don't have them overstuffed with kids toys, shoes that you don't use any more or seasonal clothing.

Bathrooms - Get some expensive egyptian towels and have them displayed only for showings and open houses. Let the family use the regular towels.

Clear the clutter. Remove everything off the kitchen countertops - even that new mixer that you just bought! The more free you are of clutter, the more the consumer's mindset can be to free to put their personal touches in your home when they are visiting it.

Carpeting over Hardwood Floors: If you carpeting is worn out, dated or dirty and you have hardwood floors underneath - pull it out! The consumers are pushing for more of an environmentally, energy efficient home that is healthy. Carpeting is great for two reasons: (a) It retains the heat in the home and (b) it adds soundproofing.

What it boils down to, it doesn't matter who went on the market first, it's who gets sold first.

Hey America, and I mean it because alot of you will be visiting Chicago his weekend and you have some decisions to make here. Why? We've got the Bank of America Marathon (a/k/a Chicago Marathon). You are either going to be cheering (you have your designated areas to cheer), running (some great athletes), or you are going to be a non-spectator.

They anticipate 45,000 runners will be running the 26.2 mile race course and the main streets for a good part of the day.

The Run stretches from as far north as Addison (3600N) on the inner drive to as far south as 35th street (hovering around State Street area and going as far as Damen Avenue (2000 West).

If you are not doing and have never witnessed the awe and challenges of the Chicago Marathon, the weather is good and I say go, spend time with your family and support this event.

Check out this interactive course map.

Oh, by the way, they are giving away a free 2009 Volkswagon to the winner.

Hope to see you there.

What has the Chicago CTA has done better then New York City Metra - they have higher rate fares with less quality service!

Nice headliner coming from the Chicago Suntimes where it was reported today that while apartments, parking spaces and good theater tickets are more expensive in New York, the subway fares are not, well if the proposed CTA are hike goes through.

So, Mayor Daley is thinking about the plan but one of the issues that creates the necessity for the rate hike is that the real estate transfer tax revenue from April to September is almost half of what the City expected or anticipated. $22 million is nothing to laugh about but it was almost left then half and so now the City has to look elsewhere for the money.

Granted Gov. Blagojevich included free rides for seniors along with another free program for low-income disabled riders and a city program to give free rides to the military, which will cost the CTA or shall I say the riders of the CTA $35.8 million in 2009.

The disclaimer is that the CTA hasn't raised fares since January 2006 but the City increased the sales tax to 10.25% to cover these additional expenses or so I thought.

My disclaimer: The City raised the transfer tax stamp and because of those additional monies, they weren't enough. So where are they going to next? Back to the real estate taxes? It's almost like a ping-pong game.