Maureen Mengel Blog

Is a Mutual Consent Divorce Right for Me? If you have decided to file for mutual consent divorce without the help of a lawyer, there are many important factors to consider. Mutual consent divorce is a “no fault” for absolute divorce and there are certain requirements and criteria you must meet if you plan to take this huge task on by yourself. Many people often choose this option because it is a money saver. However, you must also ask yourself whether you have the time and patience to handle everything that is involved in a divorce proceeding. Determine If You Qualify Each state has different requirements and you should know if you meet them before attempting to file a mutual consent divorce by yourself. You may be able to file yourself if: Your spouse is in full agreement to include custody, support, and division of property You believe the settlement is fair and reasonable If children are involved, you are comfortable with the arrangement for your children in terms of suppor...

Exterior of The Synagogue in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. FLATS Cedar Street Recently opened in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood,  The Synagogue ( 5029 N. Kenmore Ave.) marks one of the latest adaptive reuse projects from Chicago-based FLATS® , a Cedar Street Company . The award-winning FLATS Chicago first made a name for itself as a leader in developing stylish micro units.*  Over the past ten years, FLATS has evolved into what founding partner Alex Samoylovich refers to as "a lifestyle brand focused on finding new uses in historic preservation."  Historic details of The Synagogue exterior FLATS Chicago Samoylovich states that FLATS has "found a niche in adaptive reuse, taking obsolete structures and adapting them into our brand." In regard to The Synagogue project, the FLATS team was initially approached by a Chicago-based rabbi looking to preserve the century-old abandoned structure; the FLATS team also saw a means for reenergizing what...

Real estate brokerages are constantly evolving to better meet the needs of their clients and to differentiate themselves from the competition. Some are even changing their entire business model, offering homebuyers and sellers alternative ways to conduct transactions in hopes of becoming disruptive forces in the industry. But when it comes to buying and selling a home — typically the largest financial transaction of most people’s lives — clients are often better served by working with a brokerage that retains tried-and-true business practices. This isn’t the time to be risky. It’s just as important to know when to be smart and strategic. Here are four top examples of current industry trends and how resisting these can actually improve a brokerage’s reputation and help cultivate a better relationship with buyers and sellers: 1. Consolidation A number of national brokerage firms are actively seeking to increase market share through both consolidation (buying the competition) and t...

Phoenix, Ariz. is looking more and more like a buyer's market.  Getty All signs are pointing towards a shift away from the tight sellers' market we have been in for years towards one that gives buyers a little more negotiating power. Price growth has started to stall , inventory is on the increase  and if you look at data from a variety of real estate tech firms, their data start to reflect similar trends.  Redfin agents saw a large decrease in bidding wars for their clients, going from 61 percent in March of 2018 to only 16 percent for March of 2019; the ShowingIndex by the home showing booking firm ShowingTime indicates a slowdown ; and according to Zillow, March 2019 was the 7th straight month of inventory gains which hasn't happened since 2014. The biggest question on everyone's mind is where the markets are slowing down the most so the good deals begin to surface before any of the other cities. There are two places to look first to get a sense ...

Your kitchen is one of the busiest rooms in your house, and often a key determinant of its resale value. When building or remodeling, what you put into it matters. Over-invest and you’ll lose the excess investment and may not use all of the fancy features you installed. Under-invest and your space will fall short of competitive properties and may not meet your performance expectations. Regret is a somewhat regular feature of remodels, according to the Research Institute for Cooking & Kitchen Intelligence and its executive director, Brenda Bryan. Knowing in advance what to splurge (and skimp) on could be instructive for your home, or your clients’ homes if you’re in the construction or real estate fields. “The kitchen items clients splurge on most in a remodel, from a list of 14 tested, are countertops, cabinetry, refrigerators, cooking appliances, and flooring, according to professional kitchen designers,” Bryan notes. Of these, countertops are the most frequent splurge item,...

Historic RCA Victor Recording Studios on Music Row in Nashville. Elvis Presley,  Dolly Parton and many others recorded here at one time. Getty You don’t have to be a statistician to know that Nashville, Tennessee is booming. Cranes dominate the skyline and, every day, about 100 people move to the region. Visitors to the city have swelled from 2 million a year in 1998 to 15.2 million visitors in 2018. Not long ago, the city’s Department of Public Works commissioned a study to measure the foot traffic along Lower Broadway and on First Avenue on a typical Thursday and Saturday. Planners were shocked to discover that the number of pedestrians using those streets was comparable to foot traffic in Times Square. If those statistics don’t paint a crowded enough picture, just try to negotiate traffic on I-40 at rush hour. The supreme irony of Nashville’s mushrooming growth is that it endangers the historic center of the city’s music industry. “Music Row,” a one square mile neigh...