Buying a Home in Chicago or the Suburbs: What Matters Besides the Price?
If you are buying a single-family home, condominium, or two-to-four-unit building in Chicago or the suburbs, most of your protection is decided in the first two weeks after your offer is accepted — not at the closing table. Ten issues worth understanding before you write an offer on Illinois residential real estate.
- What you should have ready before you write the offer
Lender preapproval, proof of funds, earnest money, and an attorney selected before submitting. Attorney-review and inspection deadlines can begin immediately after acceptance. Searching for counsel afterward consumes part of a limited window.
- The attorney-review provision
Five Business Days is not the whole story. Under the Multi-Board 8.0 contract, the parties' attorneys may approve, disapprove for a reason not based solely on price, or propose non-price modifications within five Business Days after the Date of Acceptance. Business Days means Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. The signed contract controls, and it does not automatically disappear at the end of five Business Days.
- The inspection contingency
Know which option was selected before ordering the inspection. Multi-Board 8.0 includes an inspection waiver, an inspection with specified repair-request and termination rights, and an inspection with a termination right but no right to demand repairs or credits.
- The mortgage contingency
A preapproval is not final loan approval. The financing contingency should match the loan you are actually obtaining — loan type, financed amount, interest-rate limit, grants, and approval deadline.
- The appraisal
A financing contingency and an appraisal contingency are not necessarily the same thing. If the property appraises below the contract price, the buyer may have to bring cash, renegotiate, or terminate, depending on the contract and any appraisal-gap provision.
- Earnest money
There is no universal date when earnest money automatically becomes nonrefundable. Protection depends on the attorney-review, inspection, financing, appraisal, and condominium-document contingencies — and on whether the required notices are actually served before the applicable deadlines.
- Buying a condominium
A condominium buyer is buying the unit and entering a financial relationship with the association. Review the declaration, bylaws, rules, insurance, reserves, financial statements, litigation, rental restrictions, anticipated projects, unpaid assessments, and special assessments. Under section 22.1 of the Illinois Condominium Property Act, the association must furnish the statutory resale information within ten business days after a written request. Ask the seller to start that process immediately.
- Buying a two-to-four-unit building
A two-flat, three-flat, or four-flat is also an operating rental property. Review every written lease, verbal tenancy, rent payment, security deposit, delinquency, prepaid rent, tenant dispute, and notice. Under the Multi-Board 8.0 Multi-Unit Addendum, the seller generally must provide specified lease and tenant information within five Business Days after the Date of Acceptance.
- Title, survey, and the final walk-through
The title commitment identifies recorded matters affecting ownership or use — liens, easements, restrictions, judgments. For non-condominium property, the survey can reveal encroachments, boundary problems, and improvements crossing legal lines. Under Multi-Board 8.0, the seller pays for the owner's title policy and the survey; the buyer pays for the lender's title policy if financing, and the recording fees on the deed. These are contract defaults and can be modified by rider, ordinance, or condominium rules. The final walk-through is not a second inspection — it confirms the property remains in the required condition, agreed work was completed, included items remain, and unwanted property was removed.
- What a buyer actually brings to closing
On a $400,000 Chicago purchase, buyer closing costs commonly run $5,500 to $8,000 — the city transfer-tax portion, the lender's title policy, recording fees, and lender origination and prepaids. Cash to close typically runs several thousand dollars higher than transfer taxes, recording, and attorney fees alone. Ask for a written estimate early rather than at the closing table.
Bottom line: the best time to protect a buyer is before the offer is submitted. The next-best time is immediately after acceptance, while the contingencies are still open.
Prepared by Lysinski & Associates P.C. — Established 2003 · Chicago, Illinois General information about Illinois residential real-estate transactions. Not legal advice concerning any particular property or contract.