Country Club Hills inspects the house before the sale and issues its own transfer stamp, and the water account has to be cleared before the deed can move.
Fair Value Investments is a private real-estate investor buying for our own account. We are not a broker, lender, attorney, or government agency, and we charge no fee to make an offer.
| Requirement | In Country Club Hills | What that means, and where we read it |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-sale inspectionDoes the town inspect the house before it changes hands? | Required | Country Club Hills requires an inspection of every home, condominium and townhouse before sale and transfer of title, and the City Clerk verifies with Community Development that it passed before any transfer stamp is issued. Source |
| Transfer stampDoes the town sell a stamp the deed cannot be recorded without? | Required | The transfer stamp is a seller liability in Country Club Hills, only the City Clerk or a designated assignee may issue and record it, and every outstanding lien on the property has to be paid in full before the process can go forward. Source |
| Final water bill or account clearanceDoes the town want its own accounts settled first? | Required | All outstanding water and sewer charges must be paid and a meter reading arranged with the Water Department before the stamp is purchased, and service stays billed to the seller until the buyer files a water and sewer agreement. Source |
| Vacant building registrationDoes an empty house have to be registered? | Not confirmed | We could not confirm this for Country Club Hills. Ask Country Club Hills's building and code department whether an empty house has to be on a register there. |
| Rental licence or registrationDoes a tenant in the house bring its own paperwork? | Not confirmed | We could not confirm this for Country Club Hills. Ask Country Club Hills's building and code department what a tenant in the house changes about the sale. |
Every "Required" and "Not required" above links the page we read it on, checked 2026-09-23. Fees, deadlines and the exact wording live on those pages and change without notice, so we do not reprint them here. For Country Club Hills itself, start with Country Club Hills's building and code department.
Country Club Hills runs its own housing inspection program and treats condition as a municipal matter, not a private one between two parties at a closing table. The City's own transfer stamp procedure opens with the point: every home, condominium and townhouse in the city is required to have an inspection tied to its sale, rental and transfer of title. That single sentence sets the order of everything else. The inspection comes first, the transfer stamp comes after the inspection has passed and the liens and water are clear, and the certificate of occupancy comes after the stamp is bought.
If your house needs a roof, or has knob and tube wiring, or has been sitting closed up with the utilities off, that sequence is the whole problem. You are not just finding a buyer. You are producing a result the Community Development Department will sign off on, in an order the City sets, with a deadline created by your own contract. Code Enforcement sits inside Community Development, so an open case and a pending sale are handled by the same building, which cuts both ways. Nothing gets lost, and nothing gets overlooked either. If you have an active case, our general notes on selling with open code violations explain how a municipal file usually travels through a closing.
The seller or the seller's agent applies for the inspection. One fee covers the initial inspection and a reinspection, with a charge for each inspection after that, and the City states the fees are not refundable. That matters on a house with real repair needs, because a punch list you only half finish sends an inspector back out again at your cost, and each trip burns calendar you may not have.
The City is also direct about what the inspection is not. Its published disclaimer says inspections are performed for public health and welfare, not for the benefit of the owner or the purchaser, do not amount to a promise of compliance, and create no liability for the City. Read that as it was written. A passed inspection is permission to transfer, not an opinion that the house is sound.
The certificate of occupancy issues after the transfer stamp is purchased and it carries an expiration date. If your closing slips and the certificate lapses, you begin again. That is the single most common reason a Country Club Hills sale that was almost done goes backward.
The transfer tax here is charged per thousand dollars of value or fraction of it, with a floor, so even a small transaction pays something, and transfers claimed as exempt still carry a processing fee. The City is unambiguous about who carries it: liability for the transfer stamp is borne by the seller. Only the City Clerk or a designated assignee may issue and record stamps, and they issue on weekdays during the City's posted business hours.
Before any of that, the seller contacts the City Clerk's Office or the Water Department to find out whether the property carries outstanding liens. All liens must be paid in full before the process continues. That is the step that surprises people. A municipal balance you had forgotten, or never knew about, sits quietly until you ask for a stamp, and then it is standing between you and a recorded deed.
The declaration itself has to be signed by at least one seller and one purchaser, or their agents, and it states the full consideration, the property index number, the common address and the names of grantor and grantee. Exemptions are listed on the reverse of the declaration form. The City's transfer tax procedure sheet is worth reading in full before you set a closing date.
All outstanding water bills must be paid. Separate from that, the seller notifies the Water Department in advance of buying the transfer stamp so a meter reading can be taken, and pays for consumption to date at the time of the stamp purchase. That payment is separate from the inspection fee and separate from the stamp itself. Three payments, three purposes. The City Clerk confirms with the Water Department that consumption has been paid before releasing the stamp.
Two duties survive the closing. The seller has to tell the buyer to sign a water and sewer agreement with the Water Department, because until that agreement is on file the service remains in the previous owner's name and all charges for water service are billed to the previous owner. And the seller has to leave a forwarding address so the final bill, covering the stamp purchase date through the closing or move date, can reach them. Skip either one and you receive bills for a house you no longer own.
For the inspection, the code file and anything about the condition of the building, call the Country Club Hills building and code department, reachable through Community Development. For the stamp, the lien check and the declaration, the City Clerk's Office. For water, the Water Department.
The county half sits elsewhere. Property tax bills and the annual tax sale run through Cook County's treasurer. Redemption of taxes already sold is handled by the county clerk, which is also where recorded documents and liens live after the Recorder of Deeds was folded into it. Court matters go to Cook County's circuit court, seated in Chicago, and your property is assessed in Bremen Township. Our Cook County page lays out which office holds which record, and if there is a tax balance in the picture, start with taxes owed on the property.
We buy Chicagoland houses for cash, for our own account, in the condition they are in. We look at your house as it stands, with the repair list intact and the code file open, and we either come back with a number or we tell you it is not for us. We do not list it, we do not advise you and we do not take a fee. As the buyer we sit on the other side of the table from you, and you should read our offer that way.
Where money is owed, the title company pays what is owed at closing from what the sale produces, which is how liens, water balances and taxes normally get cleared without you funding them up front. We handle the inspection and the stamp work that falls to a buyer, and cooperate with what falls to a seller.
A cash offer on a house that needs work is usually less than the same house would list for after it is repaired, marketed and shown. That difference is the price of not doing the work, not carrying the house while it is done, and not having a contract collapse because a certificate expired. Take our number to an agent or an attorney and compare it against what a listed sale would net you after repairs, carrying costs and commission. If listing wins, list it. If you do list it yourself, note that a yard sign in a residential area here needs a City sign permit and has size and placement rules.
No. The City requires an inspection of every home, condominium and townhouse tied to its sale, rental and transfer of title, and when the seller applies for the transfer stamp the City Clerk checks with Community Development to confirm the inspection passed. Without that confirmation, no stamp issues, and without a stamp the transfer cannot be recorded properly.
The seller. The City states that the ultimate incidence of and liability for payment of the transfer stamp is borne by the seller, and only the City Clerk or a designated assignee may issue and record stamps. Even a transfer claimed as exempt carries an administrative fee for processing the exempt stamp.
Because the stamp cannot issue until water and sewer consumption to date is paid, and the meter has to be read before that can be calculated, so the Water Department needs notice ahead of your stamp purchase. Afterward, service stays in your name and keeps billing to you until the new owner files a water and sewer agreement, and you need to leave a forwarding address so the final bill through the closing date reaches you.
No repairs, no fee, no obligation. See the number, then decide.