After living in their Park Ridge condominium for 21 years, Marilyn and Don Freitag have been kicking around the idea of moving to larger quarters. They’d like to have a basement and they’re interested in locating a bit further northwest.
“If you look under the bed or skirted tables, you see stuff,” Don recently confided to Gretchen Gullo of Gillick Realtors in Park Ridge. “At the moment there is nothing behind the fireplace screen.”
The Freitags are in no hurry to move but are mentally prepared to do so if they find something they like. The physical preparation is another matter. Marilyn wrote Selling Points and asked for advice on readying their home for market. In turn, we arranged for Gullo to tour the property and answer their questions.
The Freitag’s community, Park Lane, was built in the late 1970s. Their third-floor unit features two bedrooms, two baths, an eat-in kitchen, a living room with fireplace and a dining room. It comes with a utility room, two storage lockers, a balcony and underground parking. The foyer sports a marble floor. Carpeting flows everywhere else, including in the bathrooms and kitchen. The living and dining rooms are rimmed with molding. Double doors open to the master bedroom and private bath with dual vanities and walk-in closet.
The Freitags have decorated the unit to their tastes, which includes groupings of antiques, wallpaper and low lighting. The living and dining room walls are medium brown. The wallpaper in the dining area of the kitchen is a red mini-print. They know they have many possessions and that their appointments may not be to everyone’s liking. But how far do they have to go in changes to make a sale? they asked Gullo. They’ve considered replacing the carpeting, which is primarily celadon. In the second bedroom, used as a den, it is red.
The broker’s initial reaction was mixed. “I’m having a difficult time because what is here is very nice in the way of country traditional,” she said. “I’m a person who loves color but I’m seeing a lot of dark here. What we see selling is light and airy. I know that is what sells even though I like what you’ve done as an individual. Everyone says, `Remove clutter, remove clutter.’ But to me, this is charming.”
“We did it because it has a warmer feeling,” Don explained.
After careful consideration, Gullo came up with several ideas to combine elements of the couple’s decor with current buyer preferences.
She definitely would recarpet, using one color throughout the home, Gullo said. However, she would favor a light beige or tan carpet–to best harmonize with the furnishings–instead of the cool off-white the Freitags were considering.
Gullo also said she would eliminate the carpeting in the bathrooms and kitchen. She’d like to see ceramic tile in the baths and hardwood or perhaps white vinyl in the kitchen. “If we recarpeted, we were going to put tile in the master bath for sure,” Marilyn said. They’ve also thought about offering the next owner a carpeting allowance in lieu of recarpeting themselves.
“I believe people who move into Park Lane expect the best and want to walk in and have everything done,” Gullo said. “Or you get bottom dollar so someone else will do it. To me, to update makes a whole lot of sense.”
Because most of the wallpaper is subtle, Gullo found it unobjectionable. She also liked the red mini-print in the kitchen, which flows well with the decor.
Potential buyers might have a problem, however, with the overall darkness of the kitchen, she added. White kitchen cabinets are very popular today, she noted, and the Freitags’ cabinets are of dark wood. They are also beautifully finished, so neither the broker nor the couple favored painting them.
Instead of changing the cabinets, the couple could replace the tan kitchen carpeting with a white vinyl and remove the red wallpaper. These moves would be less drastic and would add considerable brightness to the room, the broker said.
Collectibles aplenty
The master bedroom is staged with a canopy bed, pillows, breakfast tray and an array of collectibles from yesteryear.
“I feel I’m in one of those little Long Grove antique stores,” Gullo said as perused the room. “Your placement is very attractive.” She would leave everything as it is, she added.
Marilyn Freitag accepted the praise modestly. “You make the mistake of telling someone you’re going to collect teddy bears and you get them” in abundance, she said.
Gullo also suggested increasing light bulb wattages, putting away the treasures that are valuable and could easily be broken and leaving the dining room wallpaper below the chair rail but painting the wall above it a lighter color.
“You want to make it so someone who is more contemporary-minded doesn’t discount what you have because it’s so traditional,” she said.
