When Jennifer and Mike Heinze bought their two-story condominium in Rolling Meadows less than two years ago, they thought they would be living there for a long time. That was before their property value took a significant jump. Now they are seriously thinking about cashing in their equity and applying it to a single-family home.
”We need more space,” says Jennifer. ”We could use another room and maybe a garage. This place has a lot of storage but there isn`t any place for our bikes.”
The Heinzes make do by stashing their cycles half-way into the utility room and leaving the door open.
They like their location-close to the train station and Woodfield Shopping Center-and the floor plan. On the first floor are the step-down living room, kitchen/dining area and powder room. On the second, two bedrooms, full bath and utility room.
Jennifer has done a considerable amount of decorating to their colorful taste since moving in. The previous owner put in a red and white ceramic floor in the kitchen, which Jennifer highlighted with a contemporary wallpaper print. In the master bedroom she papered a subdued stripe beneath the chair rail and a striking print of cabbage roses above on the headboard wall.
Red and blue
All of the rooms are wallpapered-some by Jennifer and some by the previous owner, who also painted some of the woodwork either red or dusty blue. The wall-to-wall carpeting is a medium blue.
What needs to be done to sell the condominium? she asked Robert Stefani, sales manager for Baird & Warner Real Estate in Arlington Heights.
”There are two ways to live in a home,” he told her. ”One is to live for yourself and enjoy your colors and the other is to live for eventual resale.”
For the latter goal, Stefani is a believer in neutral colors.
He cited the example of large corporations taking over the sale of a transferee`s house. Not wanting to be in the real estate business any longer than necessary, they generally go in and paint the walls off-white and lay beige carpeting.
For the Heinzes, neutralizing the walls and woodwork is especially important because replacing the blue carpeting will be too expensive a proposition.
Stefani advised repainting the blue doors and red trim white, and removing the cabbage rose wallpaper.
”Do I have to take down this wallpaper?” Jennifer asked in reference to the soft mini-print in the second bedroom.
Neutrals attract
”You don`t have to do any of it,” said Stefani, ”but the more neutral you are the more buyers will be attracted and the faster you`ll sell.”
The previous owners, who used the second bedroom as a nursery, had pasted large decorative stickers on the ceiling. When Jennifer removed them, patches of drywall came off, too. Stefani advised that the ceiling be sanded and repainted, a project Jennifer plans to tackle.
Another challenge to the couple will be creating a feeling of spaciousness, he said. Although the master bedroom is large enough for a king- size bed, the four storage pieces dwarf the room. He advised removing two of them until after the condominium is sold.
Stefani also would like to see a rearrangement of the living room furniture, which consists of two sofas, a large chair, piano and television.
”I know we have a lot of stuff,” said Jennifer. ”Before we got the piano you could dance in here.”
The dining table, which seats six, is angled to fit, giving little room to walk around it. Perhaps they could make a temporary trade with a friend or relative, said Jennifer.
”You`ve told me pretty much what I expected,” she told Stefani, ”but I wanted to hear it.”
