On The Move - Ben Morgridge - Keller Williams Experience

🍾🍾CLOSED🍾🍾
Congratulations and welcome back home! My clients decided it was time to come back home to Chicagoland and we were able to find this new construction that checked all of the boxes (and then some!)
Very excited to have them back in the neighborhood!

🏡🏡 Welcome Home Mandy!! 🏡🏡
So excited for my client to find their FIRST HOME!! Mandy knew what she wanted, we found it, and got it for under list price!
Congratulations and thank you for trusting me with your first home purchase!!

📸📸Photo Day 📸📸
When you’ve got a half acre with a dream backyard, you’ve got to bust out the drone!

Hired some new summer helpers!

Congratulations to my clients and wonderful friends on their sale and purchase in Downers Grove!!

On The Move - Ben Morgridge's Newsletter - June 2024 Edition - https://mailchi.mp/7375cf7ed083/on-the-move-ben-morgridges-newsletter-june-2024-edition-16198530

"It's weird right now"

Daily, I get the question, "How's the market?" And the short answer is, "It's weird right now".

The long answer is…

In general, inventory is increasing but it sure doesn't feel like it to my buyers (note we are still at historically low levels of inventory) and my sellers have been seeing their properties move quickly....

It has been a busy week!
2 buyers under contract, 1 seller under contract, a referral listing in California went live, and a closing this morning!
Congratulations to my Geneva sellers who sold their property before even hitting the market!

Thinking of buying, selling or investing? (In Illinois or out of state!) Give me a ring and let me help you meet your goals!

Proud to sponsor such a fantastic piece of our community!

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our generous sponsors for their invaluable support. Your contributions have been instrumental in making our opening weekend a resounding success. We are deeply appreciative of your generosity and look forward to continued collaboration in the future.

Our Platinum Level Sponsors: Tony and Tina’s Deli, Bouna Beef, The Rainbow Cone, Ben Morgridge - Keller Williams Realty, Q Bar and Fry the Coop!

Our Gold Level Sponsors: The Dog District

Our Silver Level Sponsors: Benote Wimp Jr - State Farm, Island Fin Poke, and Chucks Catering & Banquets!

JUST LISTED!
Beautiful 2-flat in Logan Square. Reach out for more information!

Look who I found at picture day!

Picture day at an unbelievable 2-flat in Chicago. The details in the home are amazing.

On The Move - Ben Morgridge's Newsletter - May 2024 Edition - https://mailchi.mp/68b62f019c3a/on-the-move-ben-morgridges-newsletter-may-2024-edition-16192362
It feels like summer is finally here to stay! I hope you have enjoyed this amazing weather, and are gearing up for more to come!

The Morgridge family had an exciting last month, as we sold our personal home, and moved into the "forever home". As many know, we like to live the "flip and move" lifestyle, where we buy our home and it needs some updating. We then take on projects in the home over time while...

Inspection Day!

KW Red Day!
Every year all the KW offices close and the agents take time to give back to their communities!
This year KW Experience chose Sharing Connections Inc in Downers Grove to volunteer with.
What a fabulous organization, and fulfilling work!

Happy Wednesday!

🏠🏠"We want to go home" 🏠🏠
Today is the exciting day that my clients have been waiting for, they are "back home" in Evergreen Park.
Buying a home is tough enough in this market, doing so while having to sell your home, makes it harder, and timing it perfectly is near impossible, but we did it! And on top of that, my clients knew exactly what they were looking for, so we were able to find an off market property that checked their boxes and didn't have the headache of fighting off other buyers.
It's a great day!

🤹‍♂️🤹‍♂️ CLOSING DAY 🤹‍♂️🤹‍♂️
My toughest test yet, selling our personal property as a real estate agent.
As an agent, I am confident in my abilities to get us to the closing table. Staying calm and navigating the ups and downs with my clients is my job. But selling our home was a great reminder of the deep emotions that come into play as a buyer or seller.
Next stop

On The Move - Ben Morgridge's Newsletter - April 2024 Edition - https://mailchi.mp/4c47029834ca/on-the-move-ben-morgridges-newsletter-april-2024-edition-16192030

If it bleeds it leads...
The sensationalism around real estate headlines is truly like little else I have seen. This is likely due to so much of our world's wealth being tied up in this commodity, it draws a lot of eyeballs and makes for great water cooler speculation. However, as someone who studies the real estate market daily, I can tell you that the majority of these headlines are just to stir the pot...

Thank you for making the first quarter of 2024 AMAZING. We closed 6 properties ranging from first time buyers, to "forever home" buyers, downsizers, and investors.
Every one of these opportunities came from this amazing network of people I have in my life!
Even more exciting... we have 6 more homes currently under contract and set to close in the next 2 months, again, thanks to YOU.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your continued support and trust with your buying, selling and investing. My business wouldn't be successful without you all!

In case you don't communicate with the outside world... there is a Solar Eclipse today...
Here in Chicago, the moon will cover 94% of the sun from about 2:07-2:11, but you should be able to start seeing the eclipse as early as 12:51.
It should be a perfect day, weather wise, to see the eclipse!

When you’re walking through a creepy house for a showing, go into the VERY dark and dirty basement, and see this…
✌️✌️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🙅‍♂️🙅‍♂️

My listing appointment this morning had a Koi pond with 65 Koi!!
What do you think? Would you keep the pond? Personally I think I would, feeding them felt like being at the zoo!

📸📸 Picture Day in Downers Grove 📸📸
Talk about a perfect sky for pictures!!
Excited to bring this one to the market this weekend!

Keeping with my Sesame Street theme. My main message when making and receiving offers today was “BE NICE!”
Everytime I teach I’m reminded that I love it! (maybe because I love talking?)
Remember friends! BE NICE!

Teaching a class tomorrow for agents in my office and I had to put together a mock contract to review with them.
I hid a lot of good Easter eggs in the contract, I hope they appreciate it! 😂
Ps. Who knew Oscar the grouch had a girlfriend?!?

On The Move - Ben Morgridge's Newsletter - March 2024 Edition - https://mailchi.mp/cb1b74902372/on-the-move-ben-morgridges-newsletter-march-2024-edition-15586002

In February, I was able to travel to Keller Williams Family Reunion in Las Vegas to mastermind and learn with Keller Williams agents from all over the world. This year had 18,000 agents in attendance, networking and sharing best practices. I was able to sit in seminars with Tony Robbins, Mel Robbins, and Gary Keller to grow personally and professionally....

I started in Real Estate in 2021, right as we were dusting off from a little “Global Pandemic”. As the pandemic started, there was panic selling…for about a month…and then the market went into hyper speed. I remember talking to clients in 2021 who were nervous to buy in a hot market. Those clients, have seen 30-60% growth in the price of (and equity in!) their home in the few short years since.

Fast forward to 2023, when interest rates rose very quickly, back to historical norms, and the new prediction was that the new rates were going to crash the market. While the interest rates have slowed down the market, prices remained extremely resiliant and growth has continued.

So while I can totally understand the dream of picking up property during a “crash”, and then watching it skyrocket, that opportunity doesn’t seem to be in the tea leaves at the moment. Furthermore, the desire to buy property because of the financial growth opportunity it provides, speaks to the innate understanding that over the long term, real estate is a strong investment.

Let’s make a plan on the best way to enter the housing market, aside from hoping for a crash, and make sure we get you into the right home when the time is right FOR YOU!