New Construction vs Resale: Do You Need an Inspection on a New Home?
You can buy new construction with the same protection you'd have on a fifty-year-old house. It costs about the same as the inspection you'd order anyway, and the timing is the only part most people get wrong. Here's the piece that surprises people. The village already inspected your house. So did th
What Is a Township in Illinois? (and Why Your Neighbor's Property Tax Bill Is Different)
If you own a house in Illinois, odds are a township set the value your whole tax bill is built on. If you live outside village limits, a township plows your road. And if that value looks wrong to you, your township assessor is the first person you call. Here's the part you almost never find out unti
How to Appeal Your Property Taxes in Illinois (and Which County's Rules Actually Apply to You)
You can appeal your assessment yourself. It's free at the first level, you don't need a lawyer, and if you win as an owner-occupant the reduction follows you for years, not just one bill. Here's what nobody tells you before you file. A Lake County homeowner appealed his 2021 assessment. His board of
Moving to Peotone, IL: Should You Buy a Home Here?
Two houses in Peotone, a few minutes apart, same village, same schools, same park district, same library, same county. One of them pays about 17 percent more in property tax than the other, every year, forever. The difference is not the house. It is which fire district the parcel sits in. That is th
Moving to Manteno, IL: Should You Buy a Home Here?
Fourteen parks for a village of nine thousand people. A splash pad, a skate park, a skate rink, pickleball courts, sand volleyball, bocce, shuffleboard, a sledding hill, and a downtown block with a jumping pillow and a zip line in it. And no park district on the tax bill. That is worth understanding
Moving to Shorewood, IL: Should You Buy a Home Here?
You get a 454 acre forest preserve, two interstate interchanges within minutes, and a village where roughly 97 percent of homes are owner occupied. You probably already know that about Shorewood, and it is why you are looking here. Here is what you may not realize. Two high schools serve this villag
Garbage, Recycling and Yard Waste Pickup in the Southwest Suburbs (and How Much Garbage Pickup Costs)
Every town out here picks up your garbage once a week. Every one of them takes your recycling. Almost all of them run a yard waste season that starts in spring and ends when your leaves are done. Here's the part that changes the day you move. In Manteno, you pay nothing for it. The village covers yo
How Do Property Taxes Work in Illinois? (and Why They're Different in Every County)
Every year the State of Illinois assigns each county a single number, and the county clerk multiplies every assessment in that county by it. It is called the equalization factor, and it is the number people reach for when the bill goes up and nobody can explain why. Here is what almost nobody who bl
Date Night Ideas in the Southwest Suburbs (and the Most Romantic Restaurants to Start the Night)
You may think a typical date night is dinner, some form of entertainment, and a drink. Out here, the entertainment has already closed. So you either reorder the night or you take the middle part outside. Every museum and every gallery in every walkable downtown in the southwest suburbs closes before