Purchasing a Home in Illinois

When purchasing an Illinois property, many people decide to retain the assistance of real estate agents. Agents help you locate the best home for your needs as well as help resolve any complex issues that arise with your purchase of a property. Some particular benefits of retaining a real estate agent include:

Agents know the community, which includes market conditions and the average sale price of homes in the area
Agents can facilitate negotiating a final deal with the home’s seller.

Fortunately, working with a real estate agent often does not cost anything for the buyer. Instead, the seller often pays the entire real estate commission, which is on average between 5% to 6% of the sale of a home. Once the home you want is secured contacting a local real estate attorney is a must in order to make sure the transaction goes smoothly and your rights and contract terms are protected and carried out properly. A local real estate lawyer will also ensure you have ‘clean title’ to your new purchase.

Illinois state law requires sellers to provide purchasers with complete disclosure forms, which address details about defects or risky conditions with properties. Some common property qualities listed in disclosure forms include boundary line disputes, histories of termite infestations, and cracks in the foundation.

In addition to disclosure forms, sellers must provide radon disclosure. These disclosures play a critical role for buyers because often just looking at a property is simply not enough to determine what problems might exist there.

While disclosures play a critical role in the home purchase process, buyers should avoid relying solely on disclosures provided by a seller. Even sellers who have lived in a property are not likely to know about various defects that exist in a home.