Fair Home Cash at a glance
Fair Home Cash makes cash offers on houses nationwide, focused on Chicago and Illinois, in any condition: as-is, no fees or commissions, and the seller picks the closing date.
- Where: nationwide, focused on all 77 Chicago community areas, the suburbs (Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane and McHenry counties) and the rest of Illinois.
- Who it helps: homeowners facing foreclosure, behind on property taxes, selling an inherited or probate house, dealing with tenants, code violations, fire damage, a divorce, a vacant house, or repairs they cannot afford.
- Cost to the seller: $0. No fees, no commissions, no repairs, no cleaning.
- Timing: once a seller accepts an offer and title is clear, the closing can often happen in 7 to 28 days, on the date the seller picks.
- Closing: through a licensed title company or real estate attorney.
- Contact: (773) 717-5643, open 24/7, hello@fairhomecash.com, or fairhomecash.com/offer.
Fair Home Cash makes cash offers on houses nationwide, focused on Chicago and Illinois, and closes at a licensed title company. Offers are subject to inspection and final contract terms.
Two clocks running in Cook County
Most Chicago homeowners think they're only dealing with their mortgage. Then they find out about the tax side. When Cook County property taxes go unpaid, the Treasurer offers that debt to private tax buyers at the annual tax sale. The next one is scheduled for December 15, 2026, and it covers delinquent tax year 2023 taxes. Tax buyers bid on the interest they'll charge, and if the debt isn't redeemed in time, they can ask the court to auction the property, and under a 2026 state law you may be able to claim any money left after the taxes and fees are paid. That has nothing to do with your bank. You can be working out a payment plan with your lender and still lose the place to a tax buyer.
For a home with one to six units, Illinois law (35 ILCS 200/21-350, as amended by P.A. 104-553) generally gives the owner three years to redeem when the taxes were sold on or after July 10, 2026, and 2.5 years when they were sold earlier; vacant non-farm property gets one year. Ask the Clerk for your exact date. The Cook County Clerk's office will prepare an Estimate of the Cost of Redemption and runs a Property Tax Redemption Legal Help Desk. A sale clears the debt from the proceeds at closing.
The court part
Illinois makes your lender sue you before it can sell your house. Once you're served, the Illinois foreclosure statute gives you 90 days to reinstate by paying the past-due amount plus costs (735 ILCS 5/15-1602). After that you have a right to redeem, by paying the full amount, until the later of seven months after service or three months after the judgment (735 ILCS 5/15-1603). It ends before the judicial sale. The Circuit Court of Cook County's Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program offers free housing counseling and legal help to homeowners who have been served; its helpline is (855) 452-2637. Interest and fees are added to what you owe the whole time the case runs, so you have more options before the lawsuit gets filed, or early in it, than near the end. Sell then, and you pick the date and keep what's left. The Cook County foreclosure timeline maps each step.
Old brick and picky lenders
CMAP's community snapshots put the median year built for Chicago housing at 1953, and 38.8 percent of the city's housing was built before 1940. Those bungalows, two-flats and greystones have real character. Lenders are less sentimental. A buyer with an FHA, VA or conventional loan brings an appraiser and an inspector, and peeling paint, old wiring or a foundation crack can turn into a repair list that has to be finished before the loan funds. On top of that, anything built before 1978 requires the EPA's lead pamphlet, the seller's lead disclosure and a 10-day window for the buyer to test. A cash purchase by Fair Home Cash has no mortgage lender's appraisal or repair list in it. We take the house as it sits and deal with everything after closing.
One city, many markets
Chicago doesn't move as one market, and the public data shows it. DePaul University's Institute for Housing Studies tracks every residential sale and foreclosure filing by community area:
- Who's buying. Companies made 17.3 percent of Chicago residential purchases in 2025. In West Garfield Park they made 44.4 percent of single-family purchases. In Portage Park they made 12.6 percent.
- Foreclosure history. 22.0 percent of Chicago residential properties had at least one foreclosure filing from 2005 to 2023. In West Englewood it was 51.9 percent. In Portage Park it was 20.0 percent.
- Sales volume. DePaul counted 27,751 residential sales in Chicago in 2025, down from 45,792 in 2021. Fewer sales means fewer comparable sales for an appraiser to lean on.
Property taxes split the same way. The Cook County Treasurer reported that the median Chicago residential tax bill rose 16.7 percent for tax year 2024, to $4,457, while the median homeowner bill in West Garfield Park rose nearly $2,000, or 133 percent, and North Lawndale's nearly $1,900, about 99 percent. For tax year 2025, billed in 2026, the Treasurer reports the median Chicago homeowner bill rose another 3.2 percent, to $4,597. Each neighborhood page linked above has its own numbers.
What you'd actually walk away with
Selling a Chicago house the normal way has a cost stack that's easy to check:
- Transfer stamps. The State of Illinois charges $0.50 and Cook County $0.25 per $500 of price, both listed by the Cook County Clerk as the seller's. Chicago charges $3.75 per $500, generally paid by the buyer, plus $1.50 per $500 for the CTA, generally paid by the seller.
- City certificates. A Full Payment Certificate showing the water account is paid ($50) and, for a building with five or fewer units, a Certificate of Zoning Compliance certifying the legal unit count ($120). Chicago won't issue transfer stamps without the water certificate.
- Commission and closing costs. Whatever you negotiate with an agent, plus title and attorney fees.
- Carrying costs. At the $4,597 median homeowner bill for tax year 2025, property tax alone runs about $383 a month while a house waits for a buyer, before insurance and utilities.
- Repairs. Whatever a financed buyer's inspector and appraiser put on the list.
When Fair Home Cash buys, we pay the closing costs and the transfer tax, the seller's share included, and there's no commission. A cash offer is usually a lower headline number than a retail sale, no argument there. What you're comparing is the net, the certainty and the date, and when a house needs repairs a financed buyer can't take on, the direct sale often comes out closer than the headline suggests. Run both numbers.
Chicago facts you can check yourself
Everything above can be checked against public records. Here is where to look.
- Your tax status. The Cook County Treasurer lists due dates and the December 15, 2026 tax sale. The Cook County Clerk prepares redemption estimates if taxes were sold.
- Your building's violations. The Department of Buildings publishes violations by address, with status and inspector comments, in the Building Violations dataset on the Chicago Data Portal.
- How the Assessor classifies your property. The Assessor's parcel data lists each PIN's class: 2-03 for a one-story home of 1,000 to 1,800 square feet, 2-11 for a building with two to six apartments, 2-99 for a condominium unit, 1-00 for vacant land.
- Your exemptions. The Assessor's exemptions page explains the Homeowner and Senior Exemptions, which apply only while the owner lives in the home, and the Senior Freeze, which must be filed every year.
- Foreclosure help. The Circuit Court's Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program, (855) 452-2637.
- Probate. The Circuit Court's Probate Division sits on the 18th floor of the Daley Center; the clerk's probate office, on the 12th floor, answers at (312) 603-6441. Illinois Legal Aid Online notes that a small estate affidavit can't be used when the person who died owned real estate in their own name.
- Vacant buildings. Chicago requires an empty building to be registered with the Department of Buildings within 30 days and renewed every six months. The Department of Buildings lists a registration fee of $250 to $500, higher if the city has already found the building in violation.
- Your neighborhood's market. DePaul's Institute for Housing Studies publishes sales, foreclosure and buyer data for every community area.
Sources: Cook County Treasurer, due dates and tax sale; Cook County Treasurer, tax year 2024 bills (Nov. 17, 2025); Cook County Treasurer, tax year 2025 bill analysis; 35 ILCS 200/21-350; Cook County Clerk, tax redemption; Better Government Association, how the tax sale works; 735 ILCS 5/15-1602; 735 ILCS 5/15-1603; Circuit Court of Cook County, foreclosure mediation; CMAP Community Data Snapshots (city columns); EPA, lead disclosure rule; DePaul Institute for Housing Studies, Chicago; DePaul IHS, West Garfield Park; DePaul IHS, West Englewood; DePaul IHS, Portage Park; Cook County Clerk, transfer fees; City of Chicago, Real Property Transfer Tax; City of Chicago, Full Payment Certificates; City of Chicago, Certificate of Zoning Compliance; Chicago Department of Buildings, vacant buildings
