Erica Minchella is our Real Estate Attorney member. Erica mentioned that over the past several years, 70% of her business came from handling foreclosure defense and short sale transactions. With the recent changes in the market, that has dropped to about 30%.

Erica has been doing a lot of speaking recently on the topics of “How to Keep a Real Estate Deal Together” and “Issues About Handling Foreclosures”. Erica mentioned that she is looking for additional speaking opportunities. She finds it refreshing to be working in the conventional market, but that still has its challenges. She mentioned that one of her current challenges is a home in Skokie that, because it has no basement, has been extremely hard to sell. In addition, the owners made improvements to the property (when the market was high) by taking out a 2nd mortgage. Currently the house is underwater and at sale, it will be difficult to pay the 1st and 2nd mortgage off from the proceeds. Erica is in discussions and negotiations relating to the owners structuring a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

In another case, Erica had to do the research to find the trust documents necessary to make sure that the sale transaction went through. She remarked on how the Chicago Real Estate market is changing. Remember Erica Minchella and Minchella and Associates when you hear your associates mention that they are involved in the purchasing or selling of their residential or commercial property.