Judy Orr

There was a beautiful Orland Park, Illinois home for sale that had originally been listed at $379,900 in May of 2007. I did not show it at that price and am not sure if the owners still resided in the home when it was first listed. MLS photos showed it fully furnished. It went through many price reductions and I believe when I first showed it, it was listed at $319,900 and was vacant.

This was a very grand looking home from the exterior and when you entered the home you were welcomed with gorgeous Brazilian cherry hardwood floors and an updated kitchen. The house was a very spacious quad level that had a lot to offer. (Note: the photo is clip-art I paid for and is not the actual listing, but reflects the nice brick home this once was).

My buyers did not jump on it and I showed them other homes, but they came back to this one. I told them how short sales worked and they seemed to understand as they had read up on the process. At the time, I thought the home was worth at least $300,000, if not more. I believe the price was reduced again to $314,900 by the time we wrote an offer of $285,000, which I thought might be too low.

The listing agent told us we had the high offer so far so we waited. He promised weekly updates that did not happen. Although my buyers seemed to understand the process they still called me so I would call the agent and hear the same old thing.

After more than 2 months of this I again contacted the listing agent who said, "I was just going to call you!" Yeah, right. The mortgage holder set their selling price at $315,000 and if my buyers wanted the house they'd have to come up to that price. They were not interested.

So the house sat. Obviously, no one else thought the house was worth $315,000. In fact, I showed it to another couple months later and was shocked to see how the once beautiful home had deteriorated. As we pulled up the once lush, green lawn was brown, overgrown and riddled with weeds.

As we stepped inside the floor was dirty with leaves and other dirt (the listing office was not in the area). But the worst thing was the smell that hit us as we walked in. It was mildew, and it wasn't there when I showed it to my first buyer clients.

The buyers I was showing it to didn't even want to see it anymore but I told them I wanted to check the source of the mildew and since we were there they accompanied me. We went into the sub-basement that was once used as a huge master bedroom by the prior owners. The black mold was visible on the drywall and the smell was so bad we had to leave immediately.

My first buyers still haven't purchased anything and I just got a phone call from them. They told me they drove past the house because they still liked it (but were hoping the bank would come down in price) and saw a sign on the door stating that it was now condemned.

I checked the MLS and saw that the listing was canceled by the listing agent. After 7 months at $214,900-$215,000, it was finally reduced to $299,000. No one bought, although some tried.

If the mortgage holder had accepted my buyer's offer maybe the problem that caused the mold would have been caught or maybe something happened simply because no one lived there and something leaked that went undetected.

Personally, I feel it's probably a good thing my buyers did not get the home because something caused that amount of mold and maybe it just wasn't noticeable when we viewed it. I have no idea if it was existing at that time. I don't know if an inspector would have found it.

My buyers called me to see if I knew anything and when I told them about the mold they were shocked. But I still think they had an interest. I told them to forget about this house and continue looking for something else.

It is off the market and condemned. The timing factor makes it seem like it has probably been foreclosed by now. The longer it sits, the worse it will become. I'm not sure how the village of Orland Park will handle a condemned house in foreclosure.

Orland Park is a popular Chicago suburb that was listed as one of the best cities to live in by Money Magazine. This home is situated among other homes worth in the $300,000's. The average price for single family Orland Park real estate in 2007 was $410,033. I'm sure the neighbors aren't too happy having this condemned home that is now an eyesore outside, too, on their block.

Note: Both photos are paid for clip-art and do not depict the property mentioned.

Covington Grade School located in Oak Lawn, IL, held a mock voting program for their students. My 6 year old granddaughter, Elle, attends the school as a first grader. I wasn't sure if all of the children were allowed to "vote" or if it was for the older students. I posted the article in Topix.com, where I am the editor for Oak Lawn, Illinois.

As I was getting ready to go out and vote today Elle asked me who I was voting for. She told me she voted for "the lady." I explained that the lady wasn't the Presidential nomination but the Vice President. I don't think she understood.

I also told her that her vote won't count because she needs to be 18. She wasn't happy about that and seemed disappointed that the voting held at her school wasn't real.

I thought about the conversation as I drove to the Village of Oak Lawn to cast my ballot. I didn't have to stand in line and it took minutes to vote.

On the drive home I couldn't help but smile at my granddaughter's desire to be heard. I hope she carries that right with her until she is old enough to make a difference. So I gave her the "I voted" sticker I received since in her mind, she voted!

Thanks to Bill Gassett's post about becoming an editor on Topix, Judy Orr, a long-time resident of Oak Lawn, has become the editor for Oak Lawn, IL. There were no editors for the village so Judy jumped in (even though multiple editors are allowed).

Judy already added one of her local blog posts about a quaint Oak Lawn restaurant called Millie's Ice Cream Shoppe and Deli. She will continue adding local blog posts and articles for the Oak Lawn page.

Judy invites you to view the Oak Lawn Topix page. Just visit Topix.com and put Oak Lawn's zip code in (60453) to view the page. Prior to Judy's involvement, a roboeditor selected news topics, some of which Judy deleted because they weren't really on topic.

Judy looks forward to keeping the village's page up-to-date and hopes to get some local interaction going. There are forums and many other national topics you can read. In fact, you could spend a lot of time on the site because it has so much information.

If you're thinking of buying and/or selling real estate in Oak Lawn or have any real estate related questions just give Judy a call at 708-536-8200 or use the Contact Form. Remember, Judy lives and works in Oak Lawn!

Friday's Home Section (10/10/2008) had a first-page article titled "A Tale of Two Orlands." It offers a little history, Orland Park amenities and a bit of Orland Park real estate info.

Judy Orr was interviewed for the article as her office, Classic Realty Group, is located in Orland Park and Judy has been selling real estate in the village since 1983. There were a few other locals interviewed for the article and it gives a nice community profile of this thriving village.

The article even mentioned that Orland Park has been on Money Magazine's list of the Top 100 Cities to Live In. I wrote a post about Orland Park in Money Magazine last year. In my opinion, Orland Park is one of the most popular southwest suburbs.

If you're interested in moving into this popular southwest Chicago suburb please read through the article. Check out the Orland Park MLS for all active real estate listings in the village.

I have a beautiful Orland Park property for sale that was a previously expired listing. The original pricing was in the $500,00's with a reduction to $499,900 before it expired. I took it at $489,900 and we quickly got two offers. However, neither of the potential buyers had their homes sold and neither had their homes up for sale. That along with offers that seemed low to my sellers, we turned down those buyers and waited.

The sellers worked with me by reducing the list price until we got down to $450,000. We got increased activity and received two offers in one day - a seller's dream in a market like this. In fact, one of the buyers couldn't believe that there was really another offer on the table. That buyer did not get his offer accepted.

Everything was working out. You see, I sold my sellers a home without a contingency on sale. They took a risk and got their finances in order knowing that they might face double mortgage payments for a while. But they didn't want to lose the home they wanted. So I was a hero that it was all working out.

Then we got the phone call

The selling agent called me on a Friday afternoon telling me that his buyer's mortgage company told him the house was on a flood plain and that flood insurance would be needed if they wanted to close. Naturally, the buyers and their agent were wondering why we didn't disclose this.

I immediately called my sellers who said something must be wrong since they didn't have to purchase flood insurance. They talked to their neighbors who all agreed that someone made a mistake. Being late on Friday there was no one else to call.

I then told my seller that I was going to be out of town on Monday (and Monday would be a heavy travel day where I wasn't sure how much phone access I'd have) and my seller said she would call the village of Orland Park to double check.

We found out the truth

As soon as my plane landed I called her and found out the bad news. The flood maps were revised on August 19th and none of the affected residents were informed. The village of Orland Park told my sellers that they were planning to fight for a revision of the map.

My seller was very upset and was ready to walk away from their purchase transaction as they figured their buyers would walk. They knew they would lose their earnest money and were wondering if the seller could sue them for more. I told them to call their attorney. I also called the attorney and left a voice mail explaining everything to him.

My trip was turning negative

I was so afraid to contact the listing agent of the home my clients were purchasing. The home owner was an elderly widow that was downsizing to a condo. I figured she had already made her plans and this would affect her badly. I am working for my clients but they chose not to use a contingency on their offer and I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I didn't want to be the messenger of that bad news. I was in Seattle heading toward Vancouver Island and had a black cloud over me now.

How phone calls can change everything

As I reached my hotel room I sat down to check my voice mails. The attorney gave me the best news of all. He arranged to have the sellers compensate the buyers an agreed upon amount of money to help defray the flood insurance. Everyone agreed and we moved forward. I was once again able to enjoy myself, although I knew we weren't out of the woods yet as everything was so new.

Another fork in the road

I was back home when I received another call from the selling agent asking for a Flood Elevation Certificate as the buyer's insurance company required it. We were told it would cost around $600.00. My seller called the village to see if they already had one but they didn't. I then got on the Internet and the phone to get quotes and timeframes as we needed this asap. I finally found a company that did it for quite a bit less than $600.00 and was told it would take a week for them to finish it. They got it done immediately!

We haven't closed yet but it's looking good

The buyer picked up the certificate from my office so he could take it to his insurance agency. They seem eager to close. The company that provided the certificate said that based on the elevation he feels this could be easily fought so the house could be removed from the high risk flood plain, making flood insurance unnecessary.

This will affect the entire area designated as high risk

I think that the only residents in the affected area that know are my clients and the neighbors they have spoken to about this. Until the rest of the area gets notified by the village of Orland Park or their mortgage company they won't know about this change.

My clients feel this happened because there is a different subdivision close by that has been affected by flooding in the past. Because of that small pocket FEMA designated a much larger area surrounding this affected subdivision as also being high risk. So now these residents will be forced at some point to purchase flood insurance that was not deemed necessary since their homes were built, most in the late 80's.

And being in an area not expected to be in a flood plain it will also affect future home sales unless and/or until they can remove their properties from the map. This takes time and money and to me seems very unfair to include outlying areas on these flood maps. These homeowners are suddenly being shown as "guilty" and now have to defend themselves.

If there had been past flooding I could understand completely. But limit the flood plain designation to the area that has been affected. Although Illinois is flat land there are lower and higher elevations. My clients feel that the affected area is at a lower elevation and that is why they've had problems in the past.

Now I know about this area but I doubt many, if any, other agents know. I've tried looking up maps on FEMA but they're difficult to read and I'm not sure they've been updated. It sounds like my story is going to turn out positively but that might not be the case for the next seller in this new high risk flood plain area. And it also makes me wonder what other changes have been made in the southwest suburbs since this map revision.