Living in Lincoln Park Blog

RISMedia - Residential Real Estate’s Largest Independent News & Information Service - Immediate access to industry news,top real estate professionals,and the nation’s most respected product and service firms real estate referral,real estate tr: “Most of us are mindful of protecting our credit card numbers and pin numbers although so many are still stolen every year.

Here are some suggestions on how you can protect yourself: “

Could it be true? Microsoft and AOL have merged…and all you need to do to help them with their market research is to forward an email? And then Bill Gates will send you a huge check to reward you for your services? And this time, it’s definitely real, because the person at the beginning of the email chain named “pdiddy234″ really did receive a check! It’s true!Whoa. If you believe this one, there are all kinds of unsavory folks out there waiting to dish you more of the same.

It’s just like Mom and Dad used to tell you - if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Scammers, spammers, phishers…they’re out there in full force, and waiting to jump into your inbox, hoping they can rope you, your friends, and your family into their nasty corral. They pull at your heart strings with notes about missing or sick children or money needed for seemingly good causes…but then may attempt to nab your personal information to take advantage of your great credit. And worse yet, they often do it so well that you feel the need to pass this “important” or dramatic information along to all of your friends, family members, colleagues, and sometimes clients. But what if you passed along information that created a financial hardship for someone you know? No matter how legitimate an email looks, it pays to do a little research and get the facts about emails before you hit forward.

Let’s take a look at two easy sites you can use to check those emails out…or just visit to see some of the funny, interesting, and downright scary spam emails currently floating about the net.

You can get all of the dirt on the emails that you are receiving with just a few clicks of the mouse. You can visit www.truthorfiction.com to check the story out quickly and easily. Categories of topics are clearly listed, along with their determination of if the email story is indeed Truth…or Fiction. This site also lists many of the current viruses and worms traversing the internet, and gives you tools and information to help remove them.

Another great site is www.snopes.com, helping you easily find out if the email you received is the truth, a hoax, or something in between. Simply hit the “Inboxer Rebellion” icon, then choose the topic that the email may fall under (e.g., boycotts, charity, missing and sick children, petitions, phishing expeditions, etc.), and each claim listed under that category will be marked with a color-coded indicator. For example: green identifies true statements, red identifies false statements, and yellow identifies statements of undetermined or ambiguous veracity. Treat the findings like driving a car, green means go and red means stop. So, if the email you receive is marked with a green dot, feel free to forward on, if red trash it, and if yellow, do a bit more research before passing it along…or do your email list a favor and just delete it.

Additionally, think twice before sending the poems, stories and clips that tell the recipient to send on to more people within a certain period of time, so that they will enjoy good luck, prevent disaster, meet the person of their dreams…etc. Do your friends really appreciate receiving these? And how does this reflect back upon you? It may be all in fun, but think twice before blindly hitting forward.

We all like to share valuable, interesting or funny information, or attempt to help someone who appears to be in dire need. And it is so easy to go into your address book, choose the emails of recipients and just hit forward. But taking the time to do a little research first and think twice before forwarding will save you money, time…and perhaps even a friendship.

Compliments of Jon Miller Chicago Bancorp

The sky is falling, the sky is falling!! as many of us remember Chicken Little yelling. This seems to be the same thing the media is saying in their own way today. If I were in the financial services arena, I’d be yelling back - sell sky, sell sky! But I’m in the business of helping people buy & sell real estate and I have to tell you that, in the Chicago market, it is an exellent time to buy or sell.

The key here is for sellers to be reasonable in their asking prioces and their expectations. If they base the asking price on what has sold in their neighborhood, there is a good chance that they might get multiple offers…I know, I had 3 buyers experience that. If they get ambitous and want to push the price, there is a good chance that the buyers will realize this and not see correlation between the price, condition, and value and not be inclined to make an offer. The home will languish on the market and that seller might end up chasing a downward market, since homes that come on the market after them will be priced lower. Not a great position for a seller to be in!

It’s also an excellant time to be buying. The market is pretty well balanced. Home prices are stable to declining and interest rates are stable with nomninal variations over the past weeks. There also seems to be a fairly sizeable number of vacant homes for sale because the sellers have already moved on to their new homes. Many of the buyers I am working with are hearing from their friends that they should wait until…December, Feburary, or some other later date…and they will be the only buyer out there. I tell them it’s better “the market that we know.” We don’t know where interest rates will be in the spring. But if they rise by any significant amount, there will be a downward push on the housing prices. While on the surface this sounds great, keep in mind that you’ll be spending around the same amount of money you would today, only more of it will be going to the lender and instead of the seller.

All that being said, if sellers price their homes fairly, and both buyers and sellers have reasonable expectations, the local market will continue to do just fine.