2009 was not an easy year. On a personal level, it was more like one of those years I’d quickly like to leave behind, and never look back at. A parent, as well as a friendship were lost this year, even though a few new ones were made. But I realize that these adversities may pale compared to the hardships many families are experiencing this holiday season who have lost their homes, their jobs, and perhaps their entire support systems.

I read upbeat stories such as home sales rising for the fifth consecutive month, but then I see images like the one below, depicting homes in pre-foreclosure status. Each one of those data points represents a family in financial distress. There are tens of thousands of them in the Chicagoland area alone.

Image courtesy RealtyTrac

It’s going to be a fact of life for our immediate future: Many more pre-foreclosures and foreclosures coming at us, from every angle. The real estate business has changed. Practitioners need to become educated on how to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Right now, the majority of real estate practitioners are not prepared for the onslaught of distressed properties and distressed homeowners that they’ll face over the next two to three years. I am fortunate to be part of an office whose agents are all trained as Certified Distressed Property Experts®. What we do as CDPEs is a topic that I’ll cover in another blog post, after the holidays.

Until then, also on behalf of RE/MAX Cityview in Edgebrook, my family and I wish you, our loyal readers, a wonderful holiday, as well as a healthy and prosperous new year. Thank you for your business, and for your companionship at 60646 Blog this year.

Last week, I switched from my RE/MAX office in Skokie, to the RE/MAX office in Edgebrook (YAY!) to which I will dedicate a separate post sometime next week. That’s not the point of this post. The point of this post is to let you know that my mazadeh[at]remax[dot]net email address is currently not working. Why, and how do I know this? I received a text message from a client who informed me that he attempted to send me an email which then bounced back, as it couldn’t be delivered. Ouch.

A call to my regional RE/MAX organization confirmed that the problem is located at the RE/MAX International HQ in Denver, CO. One office signs off an agent. Paperwork needs to be forwarded to HQ. The new office then needs to forward paperwork to HQ to inform HQ that the agent is now on board of a new office. RE/MAX is a big organization. Things take a little bit of time, to fall into place. A big ship can’t be stopped and turned around on a dime. But,…, here’s the good news: Bureaucracy can’t stop modern communication, as my client’s text message proved (thanks Kevin). There are a whole host of other ways you can reach me. If you need to email me though, until my trusty old remax.net email address is functional again, you can do so by firing your message to markazadeh[at]gmail[dot]com. That’ll reach me 100%. Every time. In the meantime, please accept my apologies for any inconveniences caused. But I’m on it now. Have a good one.

Update 10/25/09: My mazadeh[at]remax[dot]net email address is functional again, and I am now officially part of the RE/MAX office in Edgebrook.

Amid all the overwhelming news of deceased celebrities last week, the news about the passing of Chicago real estate developer Fred Koshaba, received only second billing in the Chicago media. Mr. Koshaba was a former client of ours. The condominium development at the southeast corner of Touhy and Caldwell Ave in Edgebrook was his project among some other successful condo projects he had previously completed in Chicago. Mr. Koshaba had initially approached us in 2005 and asked us to help him find a name for his Edgebrook project. Since the parcel was situated in the northwesternmost corner of Edgebrook, we suggested “Edgebrook Pointe”, a name he immediately and most enthusiastically adopted.

We were deeply saddened to learn over the weekend that Mr. Koshaba actually found his rather tragic demise in just the building in which he had invested a lot of his energy and resources. Our sympathies and condolences go out to Mr. Koshaba’s family and friends.

Comes this question from Linda H. via our “Contact Us” page:

Has anyone heard anything on the development of the ‘Shops at Forest Glen’..how long that will take or if it is even going to happen etc..?

What Linda is referring to, of course, is the parcel commonly known as 5353 N. Elston Ave. Chicago, IL 60630. Since it’s close enough to the homes of our Indian Woods neighbors, it might indeed be interesting to know what’s going on there. I’m sure our Forest Glen neighbors in Jefferson Park are just as eager to find out about the status of this project as well. Here’s what this fairly large parcel of land looks like, at the moment:

Future site of 'Shops of Forest Glen'

5353 N Elston Ave.

A quick peek at the permit that is attached to the chain link fence around this parcel indicates that the wrecking and removal of a 1-story warehouse was permitted on February 11, 2009. Well, that seems to be done and over with. The slate is clean, however, I wasn’t able to find a permit allowing the building of a new structure. And that may be just one of the reasons there hasn’t been any activity here, even though a Bobcat excavator is waiting patiently on the premises. The owner(s) may still be waiting for a building permit. Another theory might be that the current economic climate has not produced enough interest from prospective tenants, although the sign on the property indicates that “Garden Fresh Market” will be the anchor tenant at this property. I don’t have any definitive answer for you, at the moment, Linda. But if anyone does, please feel free to chime in in our comment section down below. In the meantime, I might just put in a phone call to Ald. Patrick Levar’s office to see what info they can provide us with.

This just in: Alderman Hospitalized After Fall
I had seen a “tweet” about this, earlier this morning, but couldn’t have it confirmed in any of the news reports out there, therefore, didn’t pay much attention to it. I guess, it’s confirmed now.

Supposedly, he’s being treated at Resurrection Hospital. Good grief, couldn’t they have taken him to Northwestern, or at least to Lutheran General?

photo credit: krisdecurtis

photo credit: striatic

photo credit: soulchristmas

photo credit: dfyoung

2008 is almost complete. Christina and I had our final two closings for the year, last week on Friday. By now, I have gone almost 19 hours without sleep, because I’m getting ready to catch a red-eye flight to some warmer climates for the next ten days. You know, re-charging the batteries, resting my aching back from three hours of shoveling snow this afternoon, spending time with my family, pondering new year’s resolutions… The bad news (for you) in all of that is that Edgebrook and Sauganash home inventories won’t get updated on 60646 Blog, for the next ten days. The good news (for you) is that Christina is still in town until I return on December 28, and will be able to help you out with anything that you need in terms of information about Edgebrook and Sauganash homes for sale. If you happen to wake up one holiday morning, and decide that it’s time to buy or sell a home in Edgebrook or Sauganash, pick up the phone and call her.
We wish you and your families safe and happy holidays, no matter what and how you celebrate. It’s 2:31 am. I’ve gotta go catch a plane.

Happy Thanksgiving, from our families to yours.

Image courtesy of Women, Fire & Dangerous Things under Creative Commons

This week, CNN reported that 80% of Americans are stressed about their personal finances and the economy, according to the annual survey conducted by the American Psychological Association. And, the most recent series of televised presidential and vice-presidential debates may or may not have made you feel better about the outlook for the housing market, the economy in general, or your personal finances.

Here now comes Ramit Sethi, a recent technology and psychology graduate from Stanford University who offers some straight talk about your money. Ramit’s blog is called www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com, which sounds a bit like a get-rich-quick type of scheme to me, but Ramit is quick to point out that “No, it’s not a scam, I’m featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, NPR and CNBC”. Well, alright then, I’m sold. Moving right along, Ramit offers some “politically incorrect” (his words) thoughts on “The Truth: What Obama and McCain won’t tell you about your money”.

I’m not sure, but after reading Ramit’s article, that 80% figure cited by the American Psychological Association might inch closer to 95% territory. Don’t take my word for it though, head on over to Ramit’s post, and decide for yourself, whether or not his observations hit the nail right on the head.

[via Lifehacker] [image courtesy Nauris]

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy…
Well, for a couple of days, at least. My family and I have been engaging in our annual Independence Day holiday ritual: Visiting extended family in the North Woods, where the air is clean, the boating is fun, kids’ laughter is contagious, and the darkness at night gives a whole new meaning to the term “black”. We’re re-charging our batteries, and I’ll be a new and improved Realtor, come Monday morning, no doubt.
To our readership, we hope that you may celebrate a happy and worry-free holiday weekend, and to our servicemen and women abroad and everywhere else, we wish you a safe Independence Day holiday. Thank you for all you do.

This post is not about 60646. It’s not even about real estate. This post is a product of anger and deep disappointment. No wait, deep disappointment and anger, in that order. What happened? Hannah Montana is coming to the United Center in Chicago to perform her “Best of Both Worlds” concert. And Ticketmaster let thousands of parents down. Again. They are the grinch who stole Christmas. And the joys of the upcoming new year.

Let me back up here for a minute. We have an 8-year old who, like millions of other American kids, is infatuated with Miley Cyrus (a.k.a. Miley Stewart) in the award-winning Disney television series “Hannah Montana”. Pre-teens and teens alike, adore this young lady who, in real life, is the daughter of the venerable Billy Ray Cyrus, the country singer who “achy broke your heart” back in 1992. Incidentally, Billy Ray plays the character of Miley Cyrus’ dad in the TV show, as well. But I digress.

This past summer, news broke that Miley Cyrus and her band were going to perform a concert at the Allstate Arena in November. My wife, her sister, her cousins and her female friend-moms were all over this news. Tickets to the show were supposed to be ordered online, through Ticketmaster, at a very specific date, and at a very specific time of the day. Pull up a chair in front of your computer, well ahead of time, and get ready to become a sniper, ’cause you know that hundreds of thousands of other parents in the Chicagoland area are doing the same thing, at that very moment. You snooze, you lose. Okayfine. 11:00am came, and my wife pulled the trigger. Unusually large amounts of bits and bytes were flying over the Internets. Adrenalin was flowing. Expectations were high. Then the disappointment: everything was sold out. Frantic phone calls ensued: Were you able to get any tickets? No, were you? No. How can that be? We were on time.

While the ladies were analyzing, for days, possible reasons for their failure to obtain tickets to the show online, CNN was delivering the explanation: Ticket brokers. Truly, an American tragedy. But we all got over it, eventually. Especially our kids, because they witnessed first-hand that it wasn’t for their parents’ lack of trying. And they understood (at least our daughter did) that refusing to pay a ticket broker $1,000 per ticket didn’t qualify as “lack of trying”.

Encouraged by their success, the Hannah Montana Team announced a couple of days ago that they’d be returning with their “Best of Both Worlds Tour” to our neck of the woods, this time to the United Center, in January of next year. Uh oh, here we go again. Wife got a hand massage and a manicure, in anticipation of some serious keyboard work to come. Same rules as before: Ticketmaster.com. Specific date, specific time. Fire. This time though, we had a slick new game plan: My wife would go to her workplace, and attempt to get tickets from her work computer, while I would be at home doing the same thing from the home computer. I believe that’s called “improving the odds”. Watches were synchronized, and we’re now in direct contact on speakerphone. The clock strikes 11:00am, and we’re both typing away. First, ticket quantities and seat preferences have to be specified. Then, we’re being directed to a screen where we’re required to type a security word (captcha) to let the system know that we’re indeed humans requesting tickets rather than software bots, or *GASP*, ticket brokers. The anticipation is now building, because the next screen shows this:

Then the letdown:

Say what? Couldn’t find tickets that matched my request? How can that possibly be? It’s not even 11:01am yet. My wife and I each are on a high-speed Internet connection, and there are what, maybe 20,000 tickets for sale for this event? We didn’t even specify any seats or prices. Anything is fine with us. Nose-bleed section, go ahead. $66, no problem. We’re like the customers who order Jambalaya soup from the soup-nazi in Seinfeld: Anything you wanna give us is fine, just let us see the concert. Pretty please. No soup for you! Next!

Ticketmaster. No more soup for you, buddy.

Update: Finally, without having to remortgage our house or to liquidate a few 401K accounts, we managed to purchase a couple of tickets from an acquaintance that wasn’t able to attend the concert. My wife was ill, so I took our daughter to the UC. She had a blast, and from all the screaming, she almost lost her little voice. As for me, the music of Aly & AJ, and Hannah Montana isn’t really up my alley, but every once in a while during the show, I caught myself shakin’ a tailfeather, but then quickly looked left and right to make sure that nobody was giving me the “act your age” look. Here are a couple of short video clips that I shot from Aly & AJ, and from Hannah Montana (the latter one is a little blurry).

Hannah Montana Image credit: Mike Schmid via flickr licensed under Creative Commons 2.0