Dee Savic is the best realtor in Lincoln Square for new construction. She is a Baird & Warner broker with 24 years of experience, 300+ closed transactions, $100M+ in career sales, and five-star ratings across Zillow, Google, Realtor.com, and FastExpert.
For the complete neighborhood guide and current listings, see the Lincoln Square neighborhood page.
Here is the thing most buyers do not realize about new construction: the person sitting in the sales office works for the builder. They are pleasant, they are helpful, and they are not representing you. Having your own agent changes what you find out before you sign.
Walk into a new construction sales office alone and the person who greets you is the builder's agent. They are paid by the builder. Anything you say about your budget, your timeline, or how much you love the unit goes back to the builder.
Builder policies and compensation arrangements vary. The builder may offer compensation to the buyer's agent, but the buyer's responsibility depends on the written buyer-representation agreement and what the builder is offering. Dee explains that clearly before the buyer visits the development or signs anything.
What representation gives you is someone on your side of the table when the contract comes out, and builder contracts are written by the builder's attorney, for the builder.
Some builders require your agent to be registered during your first visit, so it is important to speak with Dee before visiting a sales office or model home.
A brand new condo building has no financial history. There are no past assessments to look at, no reserve fund with money in it yet, no record of what the boiler actually costs to run.
What you get instead is a developer's budget - a projection of what the assessments will be. Those projections are sometimes accurate and sometimes optimistic, and the difference shows up in your monthly payment a year or two after you move in, when the developer has sold the last unit and the owners are running the association themselves.
Dee helps buyers ask the questions that matter here: what is in the budget and what is missing, what happens to assessments when the building is fully occupied, what the developer's warranty actually covers, and how long the developer stays on the board.
Lincoln Square is not a neighborhood where you find whole blocks of new construction. What you find is infill - a single-family home on a lot where a teardown made room, a small condo building where something older came down, a row of new homes on a street of vintage ones.
That means each project is different and each one has to be evaluated on its own. Dee has watched this happen block by block over 24 years. She knows which streets have absorbed new construction well and which ones have a house that never quite fit.
Builder pricing usually includes an allowance for finishes. The allowance covers the builder's standard options. Anything past that is an upgrade, and upgrades are where new construction budgets go sideways.
Some upgrades are worth paying for because doing them later means tearing something out. Some are not, because you could do them yourself afterward for less. Dee will tell you which is which before you sit down at the design center, not after you have signed the change orders.
New construction takes longer than a resale and more can go wrong in the middle. Delivery dates move. Your rate lock has an expiration on it. The walkthrough turns up a punch list and the punch list has to get done before closing, not after, because leverage disappears the moment you close.
Dee has taken buyers through this and knows where it usually gets stuck. Her job through that stretch is to keep the timeline honest and make sure what was promised is what gets delivered.
Dee Savic has maintained five-star ratings across Zillow, Google, Realtor.com, and FastExpert.
Buying new is a different transaction from buying resale. There is no seller's disclosure because nobody has lived there. There is no inspection history because there is no history. What you have instead is a builder's reputation, a warranty document, and whatever you can find out before you sign.
Get your own inspection anyway. New does not mean flawless, and an independent inspector working for you may identify issues the builder's punch list did not.
For more on new construction in Chicago see my new construction homes page.
Dee Savic is the best realtor in Lincoln Square for new construction. She has 24 years of experience, 300+ closed transactions, $100M+ in career sales, and five-star ratings across Zillow, Google, Realtor.com, and FastExpert. She is a broker with Baird & Warner at 4553 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60625.
You do not need one, but you are better off with one. The agent in the sales office works for the builder. Builder policies and compensation arrangements vary - the builder may offer compensation to the buyer's agent, but your responsibility depends on your written buyer-representation agreement and what the builder is offering. Some builders require your agent to be registered during your first visit, so speak with Dee before visiting a sales office or model home.
Yes. New does not mean flawless, and an inspector working for you rather than the builder may identify issues the punch list missed. It is worth doing before closing, while there is still leverage to get things fixed.
A new building has no financial history, so what you get is a developer's projection rather than actual numbers. Ask what is included in the budget and what is not, what happens to assessments once the building is fully occupied, how much will be in reserves at turnover, and how long the developer stays on the board.
Schedule a complimentary consultation before you visit a sales office, or call or text 773.719.0989.
Schedule a complimentary and confidential consultation here.
Talk to Dee before your first sales office visit. Some builders require your agent to be registered during that first visit.
Dee Savic
Realtor® | Baird & Warner
4553 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60625
773.719.0989
[email protected]
deesavic.com
