Why I Hold Three Licenses Instead of One

My wife and I had a mortgage guy, an insurance agent, and a real estate agent. All fine at their jobs. None of them talked to each other, and not one of them asked where we wanted to be in five or ten years. They sold us the thing in front of us and moved on. The gap between those three people, the

Approved vs. Actually Affordable: Know Your Real Number

I had friends who got pre-approved for $450,000. The houses they wanted were in that range, and the temptation to just go for it was real. But when we sat down and ran their actual numbers, take-home pay, monthly expenses, what they wanted their life to look like after closing, the number that made

Should I Keep Renting or Buy a House in the Chicago Suburbs Right Now?

In the fire service, we have a saying: plan for the 90% but be ready for the 10%. What that means is you train hard, keep everything in working condition, and prepare for what you know is coming. But the 10%, the calls that are unlike anything you've trained for, that's what separates people who wer

Illinois Property Taxes: The Number That Changes Everything in the Chicago Suburbs

I have a friend, I will call him Perry, who bought a home in a Chicago suburb that had not been reassessed for property taxes in quite a while. His first year of ownership, two things happened at once: his individual property got reassessed, and the entire county went through a reassessment at the s