Oak Lawn IL Real Estate News

With our current declining real estate market, many Oak Lawn sellers have turned into reluctant landlords.  If they can’t sell their properties and they’ve already made a move, the next step for many is to rent their place out.

Because they are not skilled landlords, they might not even be aware of the new Landlord Ordinance that was passed by Oak Lawn last year.  But they need to study it and learn the rules and possible liabilities.

I have written a couple of posts about the Oak Lawn Landlord Ordinance but I noticed the link I had used for the actual ordinance is now dead.  I’ll have to see if I can find a good link that spells the ordinance out.

I showed an Oak Lawn home for sale this year to a couple of prospects.  Neither was interested in the property and the listing agent informed me that the sellers were going to have to rent it out.  I mentioned something about the new ordinance and she exclaimed, “Oh my, I’ll have to tell them about it!”

I noticed the “reluctant landlord” situation after the completion of the first two condominium complexes built near the Metra train station off of 95th St.  Several so-called “real estate investors” bought up many of these units in the hopes of making a profit with a quick flip.  That didn’t happen.

You see, when these investors were waiting for the buildings to be completed, the real estate market was showing signs of slowing.  The market could not continue on an upward trend much longer because too many buyers were being priced out of properties.  The price of real estate was increasing at a quicker pace than people’s paychecks.  It had to stop somewhere.

Throw in sub-prime loans, fraud and cheap, easy money and the decline was just waiting to happen.  So a long time ago I wrote an article on these desperate Arbor Court Oak Lawn condo sellers.  Look at the date - it was written in September of 2006!  To me, that was the beginning of the decline, but sellers still are having a difficult time accepting where we have ended up.

And some are being hit hard with the reality.  They cannot sell their homes.  They have already moved and do not want to lose their homes to foreclosure.  So the only thing they can think of at this point is to get a renter in to help pay the monthly mortgage.  And this isn’t just happening in Oak Lawn.

If you are considering renting out your property you need to find out if there is a Landlord Ordinance in your area.  Chicago Ridge also created a new ordinance around the same time as Oak Lawn’s.

Many sellers don’t realize that we can list rental properties in the MLS (Multiple Listing Service).  If you need to rent your property out give Judy Orr a call at 708-536-8200.

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