Currently - a known methamphetamine lab in Illinois does not have to be disclosed...

I think disclosure should be required....

Thankfully - the Illinois House is considering a bill that would add “methamphetamine lab” to the list of disclosures home sellers and real estate agents must make to potential home buyers.

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Mike Smith, who says there had been a rash of meth lab discoveries and arrests in his district south of Peoria in recent months.

Representative Smith says he sponsored the bill because residue from meth labs can cause serious health problems, including cancer, neurological damage and damage to the

Currently, there are no real standards to determine how cleaned up a meth lab must be before the home can be returned to the market.

What should a buyer look for before choosing an agent to represent them?

What should a buyer look for before choosing an agent to represent them?

1. Ability to help a buyer evaluate homes
2. Skill in negotiation
3. Undivided Loyalty
4. Proof of savings and past client satisfaction.

An Exclusive Buyer Agent covers the negative aspects of a home as well as the positive - in a consultative role - versus a "sales" role. We give them the pros and cons of a property rather than trying to sell them one. I might show my buyer a number of homes in a given day - and it might be that I would not recommend any one of them (or unless the price came down to an acceptable level - as price fixes everything at some point.)

A couple of people who were referred to us - said that a past client (or past clients) - told them that we had told them when "not to buy a property" and that is what they were looking for.

An Exclusive Buyer Agent buyer agent is focused on:

1. Finding the best home for the buyer
2. Helping the buyer buy it at the best possible value (frequently aligning their compensation with the buyer's interests vs. adverse to their interests as is typical - ie - an agent representing the buyer getting paid more when the buyer's price goes up.)

3. Helping the buyer save money on a loan (shopping lenders) - vs. referring them to an "in-house" lender.


An Exclusive Buyer Agent's role is to consult and counsel and protect a buyer.

They typically have:

1. A higher level of experience serving buyers and better negotiation skills.

2. They also have unwavering/undivided loyalty to buyers - never having any "dual agency" conflicts of interest.

Questions to Ask Any Agent Before You Hire Them

The Ummel Verdict Is In - Buyers Need to be Careful in Choosing Their 'Buyer Agent'

The Ummel Verdict Is In - Buyers Need to be Careful in Choosing Their 'Buyer Agent'

Good article. Exclusive Buyer Agents go way beyond analyzing comps (which is a given) - to looking at recent market trends and statistics, neighborhood information, city plans, community plans, and helping the buyer do Due Diligence on other things.

Interestingly - the general public and many Real Estate agents - don't even know that Exclusive Buyer Agents exist.

Exclusive Buyer Agents are experts at collecting information on the seller's situation - while keeping their buyer client's situation confidential.

Because Exclusive Buyer Agents are specialists - they a very good at what they do.
Since they are generalists - some "buyer agents" may spend 95% of their time listing property for sale and representing sellers - or may have dual agency conflicts of interest.

Village of Deerfield Files Suit versus ComEd

Nothing like a city getting angry over the quality of power that it receives...
This is one thing to consider if you are planning on buying a home in Deerfield.
Perhaps it will get fixed due to the suit..... Time will tell.... Excerpt -

The Village of Deerfield filed a class action lawsuit today against Commonwealth Edison charging the utility company with gross violation of its agreement to provide reliable service to its 18,000 residents.

Deerfield officials say that during the period from 2000 until 2007, the village suffered 82,347 individual customer power outages during 1,377 separate electrical failures. They said "Only 13% of these outages were weather-related."

Steve Harris, Mayor of Deerfield said - "ComEd has given us no other option than to seek a legal remedy to their gross and willful dereliction of duty." "After years of patience while listening to ComEd's unfulfilled promises to fix these problems, we now turn to the courts to adjudicate our claims."

Reportedly - several Deerfield residents have been told by ComEd employees that the infrastructure in the Deerfield area "absolutely needs to be updated."

Judith Adamson, a Deerfield resident for thirty years said, "ComEd tells us that the problem is that our utilities are underground and connect to old above ground poles and switch boxes and it would be too costly to revamp the system."

The class action lawsuit filed in Lake County Circuit Court on Thursday charges that ComEd violated the Illinois Public Utilities Act and their franchise agreement with Deerfield and its residents by failing to provide adequate and reliable electric service and failing to maintain infrastructure necessary to provide that service. It calls for compensation for actual damages as well as punitive damages for ComEd's willful refusal to repair and maintain its electrical systems and circuits.

From 2000 to 2007, ComEd's Franchise Reports confirm Deerfield suffered 1,377 total outages that lasted 5,576 hours. The reports show only 13% were attributed to weather related causes. The Franchise Reports also show that the total amount of outages have increased steadily during the last three years. During this period, outages due to failure of ComEd's electric underground equipment have risen dramatically.

ComEd's Annual Reliability Reports cite ten circuits that serve Deerfield as appearing on their list of top 1% worst performing circuits in its Northeast service area from 2001-2006. In addition, these reports show at least one circuit serving Deerfield has been included as a top 1% worst performing circuit for ComEd's Northeast service area in every year from 2001 to 2006. Moreover, the report proves there are other circuits serving Deerfield that are performing even worse than those on ComEd's 1% worst performing list, but they do not appear on that list.

"I have been told by ComEd workers that the feeder to our area of the Village is very old and worn out and that is one reason for the outages," said Deerfield resident Richard Beaton.