Paige's Tips
What I'd tell you over coffee
Buying and selling guidance, market reads, and home care notes — written for Chicago, without the marketing gloss.
Paige's Tips
Buying and selling guidance, market reads, and home care notes — written for Chicago, without the marketing gloss.
Resource center
Featured guide
Ten steps from first research to closing day, written for anyone considering a home purchase in Chicago.
Featured guide
Eight steps from understanding your motivation to handing over the keys.
Buying · 6 min
Most buyers start with houses. Start instead with financing, timeline, renovation appetite, commute tolerance, and the one thing you will not compromise on.
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Buying · 5 min
Ice dams, tuckpointing, and how the back stairs handle salt. February showings reveal things a June showing never will.
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Selling · 8 min
Trades, paint, floors, staging, photography, and launch — in the order that keeps them from colliding with each other.
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Selling · 7 min
Paint and lighting return several times over. A high-end range in a mid-market kitchen does not. Here's where the line sits in Chicago.
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Market · 5 min
Inventory in January and pending-to-active ratios in February tell you most of what March will do.
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Market · 6 min
A rate change moves your payment; a price change moves your basis. Here's how to weigh them against each other honestly.
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Staging · 5 min
Editing beats decorating. Remove one-third of everything, fix the lighting temperature, and let the architecture speak.
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Staging · 4 min
Why the shoot should happen the morning after the trades finish, and never the same week you list.
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Home care · 6 min
Gutters in October, humidifier in November, tuckpointing inspection in April. Small habits that protect a large asset.
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Home care · 5 min
Masonry is the single most expensive deferred item in Chicago's housing stock. How to inspect it and what it costs.
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Frequently asked
Conventional financing starts at 5% for a primary residence, and 3% for some first-time buyer programs. But closing costs run roughly 2–3% on top, and condo buildings often want reserves. We build a real cash-to-close number before you tour.
In most Chicago price bands, yes — a non-contingent offer is materially stronger. There are bridge and recast strategies that let you buy first; we'll model both before you commit.
Roughly six to eight weeks in a normal market: two to three on market, then a 30–45 day close. Preparation before listing is what usually adds time.
Yes — and a real one, underwritten, not a five-minute online estimate. It changes how listing agents treat your offer.
Cook County effective rates typically run 1.6–2.2% of market value, reassessed triennially. Always check whether the current owner has exemptions you won't inherit.
Often, if you underwrite the rent conservatively and budget for vacancy and repairs. It's the most reliable way Chicagoans build early equity — but it's a job, not a passive investment.
Market updates
Inventory, pricing, and what it means for your block — no listings, no hype, no more than five minutes to read.
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