First-Time Chicago Condo Buyer Checklist

These are different. A pre-qualification is a five-minute phone call where a lender takes your word for it. A pre-approval is a real underwriting pass against your tax returns, W-2s, bank statements, and credit report. In current Chicago conditions, listing agents in the target buildings will not take a pre-qualification seriously. Get the pre-approval before you go to your first showing.

The lender you pre-approve with does not have to be the lender you close with. You can shop later. But you need a credible pre-approval letter to get into the offer process at all.

This is where most first-time buyers get themselves in trouble. The mortgage payment your lender quotes is principal and interest only. In Chicago condos, your real monthly is approximately:

• Principal and interest (what the lender quoted)
• Property taxes, divided by 12 (varies by building, neighborhood, and exemption status; expect $250 to $900 per month on a $400K to $650K condo)
• Monthly assessments to the HOA (usually $250 to $700 on the same range, depending on amenities)
• Parking, if it's a separately deeded space with its own assessment
• HO-6 condo insurance ($25 to $50)
• Utilities you pay directly: electricity always, gas sometimes, internet always

Add these up before you fall in love with a unit. The list price is a partial signal at best.

In Illinois, a real estate attorney handles attorney review, title clearance, and closing. You will need one. The right time to pick one is before you write your first offer, not after. Ask your broker for two or three names you can interview by phone in fifteen minutes each. Pick one based on responsiveness and willingness to answer your dumb questions. Their fee will run $700 to $1,500 for a Chicago condo closing.

A unit can be renovated. The building cannot. Spend two-thirds of your tour time looking at the building itself: the lobby, the common hallways, the stairwells, the laundry room if shared, the parking arrangement, the trash room, the roof access if visible. Ask to see the boiler room and electrical room. Most listing agents will let you.

A pristine unit in a building with a thirty-year-old boiler and a leaky common roof is a money pit dressed up for a showing. A dated unit in a well-maintained building is the opposite, and usually a better buy.

Most listing agents will tell you what they know. Some deflect, which is a signal in itself. Ask:

• What is the current monthly assessment, and when was it last raised?
• Is there an active special assessment? Has there been one in the last five years?
• What does the assessment include? (Heat, water, gas, internet, scavenger, doorman, gym, pool. The line items matter.)
• What is the rental policy? Lease minimum, rental cap, owner-occupancy requirement?
• What is the pet policy? Weight limits, breed restrictions, count per unit?
• How many units in the building? How many owner-occupied?
• Are there any pending lawsuits involving the association?

Write down the answers. You will compare them to the 22.1 disclosure later, and discrepancies are useful.

In Chicago, condo parking takes three forms: deeded with the unit, leased from the association, or a separately recorded "parking unit" with its own PIN. Each has different tax and resale implications. If parking is deeded with the unit, ask the price allocation. If parking is leased, ask the term, the rate, and whether the lease can be revoked. If parking is a separate parcel, ask whether it's included in the listing price or sold separately.

In a walk-up with no on-site parking, the only option is street parking. Confirm what that actually looks like by walking the block at 8 PM on a weeknight before you write the offer.

Most first-time buyers anchor on the list price and offer a round number above or below it. That's not how to think about it. The question is: what did the last comparable unit actually close for, and what does this unit's days-on-market and price-change history tell you about demand.

Ask your broker for two specific things before you write:

• The last three closed sales in the same building (if any), with their list-to-sale ratios and days on market. Same-building comps beat same-neighborhood comps every time.
• This unit's listing history: original list price, any price reductions, total days since first list. A unit at 45 days with two price drops has different negotiation room than a unit at 5 days with no drops.

Two tactical decisions worth making before you write, not after:

• Escalation clause. Common in sub-$500K Lakeview and Lincoln Park condo offers. You offer $X, and agree to escalate by a stated increment above any bona fide competing offer up to a stated cap. Useful when you know there are multiple bidders. Not useful on a unit that's been sitting.
• Appraisal gap. If the appraisal comes in low, are you willing to bring extra cash to make up some or all of the gap? Deciding in advance (and making it part of the offer) is a stronger signal to the seller than negotiating it after a low appraisal hits. Your stance should be a deliberate choice based on how tight the market is and how much cash you have, not a reflex.

If you don't know the comps and the market conditions in the specific building, don't write the offer yet. That's the conversation I want to have with you before a number gets sent.

In Illinois, you offer earnest money with the contract, typically 1% to 5% of purchase price. It's deposited into the listing brokerage's escrow account. It is not a fee. It's your money, held to demonstrate you're serious.

It comes back to you at closing as a credit. If you walk away during attorney review or for a contingency-protected reason (failed inspection, failed appraisal), you get it back. If you walk away outside the contingencies, the seller can keep it.

The Illinois Multi-Board Residential Real Estate Contract gives both parties an attorney review period, typically five business days from contract execution. During that period, your attorney can request modifications to terms, walk you out for any reason, or do nothing. Most pushes are minor (closing date, prorations, repair caps). Some are major (an active special assessment that wasn't disclosed cleanly, a 22.1 flagging litigation).

Attorney review is your last cleanest exit. Use it consciously.

You'll want a five-day inspection contingency. A general home inspector runs $400 to $600 in Chicago for a condo. Some inspectors specialize in pre-war buildings (knob-and-tube wiring, galvanized plumbing, asbestos in original tile and pipe wrap) and are worth the extra $100 if your unit predates 1950.

Bring a notebook. The inspection report will be sixty to ninety pages and most of it is informational. Your inspector will tell you what actually matters during the walkthrough. Listen.

Illinois Condominium Property Act Section 22.1 (765 ILCS 605/22.1) requires the association to provide certain disclosures within thirty days of a buyer request. Your attorney will request it as a contract condition. It includes:

• Operating budget for the current fiscal year
• Most recent audited or reviewed financial statement
• Reserve study, or the most recent reserve information
• Statement of any pending litigation
• Statement of any anticipated capital expenditures
• Statement of the amount of reserve funds and where they're held
• Insurance information for the association
• Rules and regulations: by-laws, declaration, house rules

Read all of it, or pay your attorney to read it and write you a memo, which is what most attorneys will do for an extra $200 to $400. Worth it.

The HOA budget is the most common reason a closing falls through, or worse, doesn't fall through and shouldn't have. I wrote a separate guide on what to look for: Chicago HOA Budget Red Flags.

Go to the inspection. In person. If you absolutely cannot be there, ask for a video walkthrough of the actual systems. The inspection report is for the record. The inspection itself is for you to learn what you're buying.

After inspection, you'll have an inspection notice period. You can ask the seller to fix things, give you a credit, or you can walk. Pick your battles. A $400 plumbing repair is not worth blowing up the deal. A $4,000 electrical panel replacement might be.

Your lender orders this. You pay for it ($550 to $750 typically, rolled into closing costs). The appraisal can come in at value, above value, or below. Below is the only outcome that creates a problem: your lender will only loan against the appraised value, not the contract price. That means you bring extra cash to make up the gap, renegotiate the price down, or walk on the appraisal contingency.

In a tight market, this happens. Have a plan in mind before you write the offer.

Between contract and closing, your lender continues to monitor your credit, employment, and bank accounts. The final check before they clear you to close (usually three to seven days before closing) re-runs most of the initial underwriting. A surprising number of deals get derailed at this point because the buyer did something between contract and closing that tripped a flag.

Things not to do from the day you sign the contract until the day you close:

• Open new credit lines or apply for new credit cards
• Make large unexplained deposits to your bank accounts (a parent gifting down payment needs a documented gift letter, done early)
• Change jobs, even to a better one, without talking to your lender first
• Finance a new car or co-sign a loan
• Miss a credit card or loan payment
• Pay off an old collection without talking to your lender (it can temporarily drop your score)

Boring for thirty to sixty days. That's the game.

Real estate wire fraud is constant. The standard scam: someone (often impersonating your attorney's office or the title company) emails you with "updated wire instructions" the day before closing. The wire instructions look real. The destination account is criminal. The money is gone within an hour and rarely recoverable.

Defenses:

• Confirm wire instructions verbally with your attorney by phone, using a number you got from them in person or from their original engagement letter. Not a number from any email.
• Wire the day before closing if possible, not the day of, so a bank can flag and reverse it if needed.
• Send a small test wire ($100) first if your attorney supports it, then send the bulk after the test confirms.

This is the only thing in this checklist that can cost you the entire down payment in one mistake.

A government-issued ID. A second ID if you have one. The cashier's check or wire confirmation. Your attorney. Your patience: closing takes sixty to a hundred and twenty minutes of signing.

The Cook County Assessor's homeowner's exemption reduces your equalized assessed value by $10,000, worth roughly $1,000 to $1,400 per year on a typical Chicago condo, depending on the local tax rate. You file it once after your first full year of ownership. The Assessor's office typically opens the exemption application window in February each year. Set a calendar reminder.

If you bought from a previous owner who had the exemption, you'll get the prior owner's exemption credit pro-rated for your first partial year. You still need to file your own for the next year.

Cook County reassesses properties on a triennial schedule by township. Your specific property's next reassessment date is on the Cook County Assessor's website. In any year, reassessment or not, you can file an appeal through the Assessor's office or the Board of Review if you have grounds. The two most common grounds are uniformity (your assessed value is higher than comparable units in the same building) and recent sale price (you just paid less than the assessment implies).

Appeals are free to file. The success rate on a well-grounded appeal is meaningful, and the comparable-units analysis is exactly the kind of thing I can pull for you from the Assessor's records and the MLS. Ask.

In your first thirty days, get added to whatever the building uses for owner communication: portal, listserv, board email. Read the last twelve months of board minutes if you didn't request them as part of the 22.1. Know who the board president is and which email gets things done. Learn the building.