Judy Orr - SW & near West Chicago suburbs

I was happy to see that my hometown of Oak Lawn didn't do as badly as many other villages in the nation in the slowdown of 2008. Everything has decreased from amount of properties sold to sale prices, but all in all the figures aren't too bad.

Oak Lawn Single Family Homes for Sale

In 2007 there were 303 homes sold
In 2008 there were 268 homes sold showing a decrease of 11.6%

In 2007 the average sale price of homes in Oak Lawn was $268,994
In 2008 the average sale price was $237,064, showing a decrease of 11.9%

Oak Lawn Attached Properties for Sale - Condominiums, townhomes, duplexes, etc.

In 2007 there were 286 attached properties sold
In 2008 there were 175 attached properties sold showing a large decrease of 38.8%

In 2007 the average sale price of attached properties in Oak Lawn was $142,449
In 2008 the average sale price of attached properties was $142,005, showing a very slight decrease of .3%

Click the link to see Oak Lawn real estate sales statistics from 2005 to 2008.

Search the Oak Lawn MLS or get listings automatically sent to your e-mail by filling out the Automated Home Finder Form. Call Judy Orr, your Oak Lawn specialist, at 708-536-8200 if you'd like to view any properties in Oak Lawn or other southwest suburbs. Feel free to use my Contact Form

The new custom IDX on www.cook-county-real-estate.net offers a quick glance at a full search for all active Orland Park condominiums and townhomes for sale for any given day.  Click on the link to get to the page.

At the time of this post, there are currently 297 attached properties for sale in Orland Park, IL.  Prices range from under $100,000 to the high $500,000's.  This search combines condominiums, townhouses, duplexes and any other type of attached property.

This is a very general search.  If you want a search to fit your exact criteria you have a choice of either doing an Orland Park MLS search or filling out the Automated Home Search form. 

Either way you do it, happy searching! 

If you want to view any Orland Park real estate give Judy Orr a call at 708-536-8200 or use the contact form to the right.  Take advantage of today's low prices and interest rates!

www.cook-county-real-estate.net has a new, custom IDX search. You can see at a glance on the Orland Park homes for sale page how many homes are currently active. Today there are 245 single family homes available and 296 condos/townhomes.

Of course, you can do an advanced MLS search and choose any town, price range and other amenities. You can save your searches, see a map and get directions and figure out your mortgage payments on the calculator.

Some listings have multiple photos and virtual tour links. The main Orland Park page will also give you information on this popular southwest suburb.

With these low interest rates now might be the best time to buy - so start your search today! If you'd like to see any Orland Park homes for sale give Judy Orr a call at 708-536-8200 or Contact Her.

I was introduced to Topix here at AR. I joined as an editor for the area I live in, Oak Lawn, Illinois. In fact, one of my Topix posts caused my standalone blog to exceed its bandwidth. Unfortunately, it wasn't a post about real estate. But it did get some views!

My main office is located in Orland Park, so I thought it would be fitting to also be an editor for that village. Being an editor only takes a few minutes a day.

I use my own posts from my multitude of blogs or I'll read through Google Alerts for the towns. I don't like to put police blotter type links up as I like to post more important news. Some of the news is negative such as break-ins, shootings and robberies (there was a bank robbed in my town recently not too far from my house)!

I also like to put local good news stories in. These are stories looked over by many of the big newspapers and they can shed some positive feelings during these negative times. I'll also try to use graphics and photos but it's not always easy depending on the story.

When I joined the Orland Park, IL page there were already two editors listed but neither one was active. When I first joined my photo did not appear as an editor on the main page and I wasn't happy about that. But once I started submitting stories I now appear first.

Not only is it kind of fun posting stories but it also educates me on what's happening in the towns I live and work in. But I also would like to gain some recognition from it in the hopes that when I meet a local buyer or go on a listing appointment a prospect might have seen me on the site.

I'm not sure how many people actually read Topix but some do because there are forums where people can interact. It does seem like some of the forum regulars live on Topix, though! There is some flaming but I stay out of it. I can't control or moderate the forums.

So if you've thought about editing on Topix I recommend you give it a try. You can get links to your own posts, although I don't spam my posts and I mostly add actual local news stories. Also, I make sure any of my own posts I link to are relevant to the town I'm posting it in.

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.