We buy houses in Des Plaines, flood zone included.

The river, and what it does to a sale

The Des Plaines River has flooded this city repeatedly and within living memory. 1986, 2008 and the April 2013 event are the ones people still talk about, and the response has run for years since: a city flood rebate program for homeowners doing their own mitigation, state and federal money for voluntary buyouts of the worst-hit properties, and levee and storage work along the river corridor.

For a seller, the practical consequences are specific. Flooding and water damage have to be disclosed under the Illinois Residential Real Property Disclosure Act, so it is going to come out. If the parcel sits in a mapped floodplain, a lender will require flood insurance whether or not you have ever carried it, and the premium comes straight out of what a retail buyer can be approved for. An elevation certificate can help and can also take weeks to get. Any one of those can be what stalls a Des Plaines listing in week six.

Tell us about it on the first call. A house that has taken water is not a house we decline, it is a house we price with the water in the number. What we will not do is agree on a price and then come back after a contract to renegotiate over something we should have priced the first time.

Post-war ranches and split levels on original systems

The bulk of Des Plaines went up in the 1950s and 1960s: ranches, split levels, Cape Cods and the occasional bungalow, mostly on generous lots for the era. The recurring pattern is a house that has been well kept by one family for forty years and updated once, in the 1980s.

That house is in genuinely sound condition and still cannot clear the bar a retail buyer sets today. The furnace is past its service life, the electrical service was never upsized, the roof has two layers on it, there is a finished basement nobody pulled a permit for, and the kitchen is original. Retail buyers here expect a house that is done, and the money to get it there has to come from somewhere. That gap is where a cash sale stops being a convenience and starts being the better net.

O'Hare, the noise contours and the buyers who self-select out

Des Plaines sits directly against O'Hare, and the runway reconfiguration under the modernization program moved the flight paths and the noise contours over parts of the city that had not been under them before. The residential sound insulation program has worked through a good deal of the affected housing, but the reputation moves faster than the mitigation does.

What this means in practice is that on certain blocks a meaningful share of retail buyers rules the house out before they see it, and the ones who remain expect a discount for it. A listing on those blocks takes longer and negotiates harder. We do not price on the flyover. We price on the house, the PIN and the comparable sales, and we will show you those comps whether or not you sell to us.

Cook County taxes, transfer stamps and the water reading

Des Plaines is Cook County, split between Maine and Elk Grove townships, and the township matters because Cook reassesses on a three year cycle township by township. Taxes are billed a year in arrears, so the bill on your kitchen table is not the bill the next owner gets, and the proration at closing is one of the line items people misread most often when comparing a cash sale against a listing.

Des Plaines also charges its own municipal real estate transfer tax on top of the state and county layers, and on a normal sale the municipal piece falls on the seller. Municipal rates change, so rather than quote one here, run your price through the calculator and see the three layers separately. On anything we buy, we cover the seller's side of the stamps and the title company's fees. Illinois transfer tax calculator

Like most Cook municipalities, Des Plaines wants a transfer stamp and a final water reading before a property changes hands, and the order those happen in is what decides whether your closing lands on the date you chose. We confirm the requirements for your specific address before we set a date.

Estates, landlords and houses that have been sitting

A city with this much long-tenure ownership produces a lot of estates, and the Des Plaines version usually involves heirs who live somewhere else and a house that has been closed up for a year with the taxes quietly running. We can handle the whole transaction remotely, we do not need the house emptied, and we will work to the probate court's schedule instead of pushing you to outrun it. More on inherited property

Vacancy is the part worth moving on. An empty house here costs taxes, insurance that may not renew, a water bill that runs regardless, and a winter risk that is not theoretical: a burst pipe in an unheated house can do more damage in a week than the house lost in five years. More on vacant property

And if you are a landlord who is finished, we buy occupied, month to month or on a lease, and we take the lease as it stands. You do not serve notice, run an eviction, or deliver the property vacant.

Our honest read on Des Plaines

Des Plaines is two separate sales problems wearing one town name. A dry house on a quiet block in decent repair should go on the market, and we will say so with the comps attached. A house with flood history, a noise contour, or forty years of original systems is one the retail market discounts harder than we do.

See exactly how the process works