Champaign Real Estate Blog

Festival of Trees in Champaign

12/2/2008 8:03:00 AM

Champaign Illinois hosted Festival of Trees on November 19-23 at the Hilton Garden Inn and the Champaign Hilton Garden Inn. Champaign - Urbana Junior League sponsored this event. All proceeds are donated back to the Champaign Community. It was a great success. Since its conception it has raised over 1 million dollars for charities in the Champaign Community.

More details on the event.

We were so glad they were able to make good use of our moving truck to help in the transport of the trees and decorations.

New construction benifits when building a house

8/7/2008 8:01:00 PM

For many buyers who's price range is from $150,000 on up the option of buying a new home is a good option. Some of the reasons buyers choose to build is the ability to get have the amenities that they would prefer in there home. Being able to decorate your home to fit your needs can be very important. Using a builder who understands what products are available to save energy cost. A Geothermal heating system can significantly lower your monthly utility cost.

Another savings that is not always first thought of would be the reduced Real Estate taxes. The first year your taxes are based on mostly on your land cost, second year a prorated amount of your sales price, the third year is finally a true tax based on what was paid for your house.

Building time will normally depend on how large of a home that you build.and weather conditions. Time frame would be from 3 to 5 months. For many who decide to build the pride of seeing your dream home become a reality is well worth it.

If you are considering building your next home a sit down with one of our builders would be well worth your time. For more information contact Tom Cain at 217-352-5700 or email at tom@soltect.net

First time home buyers tax credit

8/7/2008 7:27:00 PM

On July 30th, The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 was signed into law. This law gives first time home buyers a tax credit up to $7500 towards there income tax return. If a first time home buyer had a tax liability owed of $5500 then the they would recieve a tax credit refund of $2000.

There are income restrictions, individual maximum income will be $75,000 and those filing joint returns have a maximum of $150,000. In order to use this tax credit you must have bought your home from April 9, 2008 through July 9, 2009. This tax credit is the hightest ever offered to first time home buyers.

This tax credit acts as a interest free loan from the IRS.The credit is repaid in increments of 6.67%. For those using the entire $7500 credit the payment would be $502.50 per year for 15 years. More information can be found at http://www.realtor.org/gapublic.nsf/files/hbtaxcreditqa2008.pdf/$FILE/hbtaxcreditqa2008.pdf

Tom Cain 217-352-5700 or tom@soltec.net

"Friends of Santa" Cash Bash

7/11/2008 5:01:00 AM

Many people have asked how "Friends of Santa" got started 24 years ago. Sonna and I one Sunday morning were having our coffee and reading the newspaper. An insert called the Parade Magazine front page was a picture of Santa Claus titled Elf Louise. http://www.elflouise.com/philosophy.php She was a college student in San Antonio, Texas. With no family to spend Christmas with away at school she decide to dress as Santa stand on a street corner ring a bell and people dropped money into her bucket. Next she contacted some grade schools and churches to see if there were children that would not be able to have a Christmas that year. That first year she delivered toys to 13 kids dressed as Santa she went to there house gave each child 2 gifts apiece one to unwrap while she was there and one to put under the tree if they had one. As I read this story out loud to Sonna I cried. I did not grow up rich but I wasn't poor either we always had gifts at Christmas. That first year Sonna contacted the schools and churches in Unit 7 and we found 43 children that needed a visit from Santa Claus. Sonna called each family to see what thier children wanted for Christmas and then went out and bought the gifts wrapped them, bagged them up. I was given the easier job of finding people to donate money. Each year the number of children range from 120-165.What started out as a handful of people became a whole community of people making sure that our kids in Unit 7 enjoy the spirit of giving during the Christmas holidays.

The story I always tell about "Friends of Santa" is that Christmas Eve morning we had a donated motor home loaded full of bags of gifts for all of our families. We started delivering about 9:30 am and would only take a break for lunch and reload the motor home with gifts. It was dark by the time we were finished our deliveries. As I enter our house I began to take off my beard and hair and I walk past our answering machine the light was flashing. I listened to the message and it was from a Dad who said I am sorry we were not home today when you stopped by but my 2 kids have been looking out of our front window all day hoping you were still coming. Beard and hair went back on we all got back in the motor home and drove over to the 2 kids house. When we were about a block from there house I could see the front porch light turning on an off the kids were still watching for us. As we entered the house there was no sign of Christmas. I sat down and put the 8 year old girl on my lap and gave her, her gifts she was very happy. Next I put the 5 year old boy on my lap and and he looked up at me and said "Santa I only want 2 things a ninja turtle and a pair of walkie talkies". I looked over at Sonna and she shook her head no but then Sonna snuck out of the front door and went to our motor home where she had a box of extra gifts. She looked through the box and did not find the ninja turtle or walkie talkies. Sonna then remembered the telephone call we got that morning from a single Mom right before we began our deliveries. She said that she had just gotten off the phone with her parents who lived in Florida and that they were leaving that morning and driving straight through the night and would be there on Christmas to bring there grandchildren Christmas presents so she thanked us and said please don't come to our house we are all right. So Sonna looked in her bag of gifts and found one ninja turtle and one walkie talkie. when Sonna entered the house her eyes were lit up happy. I put the boy back on my lap gave him his gifts and he was exstatic. The Dad started to hug me and cry and said "
God Bless you this is the Best Christmas we could ask for.

By participating in the Cash Bash, shopping for the kids, giving donations payable to Friends of Santa you can help us make sure kids in Unit 7 enjoy a Merry Christmas. For more information call Tom or Sonna Cain at 217-485-4440.

Changing Market

7/2/2008 9:50:00 AM

Up to March 2008 and for 18 months prior Champaign County was is in a Buyers market.. The way we know weather we are in a Sellers or Buyers market is by tracking the amount of inventory active versus sale pendings. When ever we have 6 months worth of inventory or more we are in a Buyers market. March of 2008 we dipped just under 6 months worth of inventory and have steadily depleted the active number of homes that are available. As of July 1st we have 4 months worth of houses available to buy. With the inventory of homes going down I have watched 4 of my newly listed homes sale in less than a week. I also had a listing priced at $285,000 it was on the market for 2 weeks with very good showings and that night I get 2 offers at the same time. I asked both Realtors to come back with there best and final offers. One came back at $295,000 and the other ended up buying the property at $300,000. I have not seen this type of market for since 2004. We are in changing market that seems to having houses sell close to asking price and fewer days on the market.

Short sales abundant in 2008

5/21/2008 4:33:00 AM

In my 20 years of selling homes this year is the first year that I have seen the need of helping people get there homes sold because they are behind in there house payments. It seems in the Champaign,Urbana area I am seeing that it is not only adjustable rate mortgages that adjust up and make the home unaffordable but serveral other reason. The reasons I have seen this year are medical, divorce, job lost, death of a spouse, vacantcies in there investment properties. All these reason's effect a persons bottom line. The common mistake I watch with people that are in pre-forclosers they wait to long before asking for help to get there homes sold. We specialize in short sales and are able to negoiate with the owners mortgage companies litigation departments. The end result for the home owner who is sucessful in completeing a short sale is house is sold at less than they owe on it without hurting there credit. If you wait to long and end up in forecloser your credit will be hurt for 7 to 10 years. Contact us if you are behind in your house payments and let us see if we can help you too.

Tom Cain

800-537-0217