A condominium was fine when they were newlyweds but it isn’t the kind of home where Diane and Chris Carniello envision raising a family. Their son, Louis, is a year and a half, and they’re thinking about moving.
“Our neighbors are terrific and we like the neighborhood but we think it’s important to be able to go in the back yard and play,” Diane said. “We’re thinking about schools, too.”
Since their condo in Rogers Park was converted from an apartment 2 1/2 years ago, the Carniellos have made few changes. Now they’re wondering if they should. They want to make a quick sale, particularly if they find something they like first.
After Diane asked Selling Points for help, we put her in touch with Frank Maguire of Baird & Warner’s Lincoln Park office. He recently checked out the unit and offered a few tips.
The unit, one of six in the building, features two bedrooms, one bath, a living room, a year-round sun room, a kitchen and a dining room. There’s also a back porch, alarm system, storage and parking space. The all-new kitchen has oak cabinets, a breakfast bar and laundry facilities. The floors are hardwood.
“The good news is, the unit has been upgraded recently,” said Maguire. “The physical space is in great shape. One of the things I tell people is that when you live in an older building you have to get used to things that just don’t work but I don’t see anything specific that needs to be fixed.”
The decor is primarily neutral in color and uncluttered by extraneous possessions.
“We didn’t put many pictures on the walls because we didn’t know what we liked,” Diane explained to Maguire.
“It’s better to keep things spare,” he replied.
The room with the most personality–and the one Diane is concerned how buyers will feel about–is the master bedroom. The walls are painted hunter green and are trimmed in a burgundy floral border. The quilt and area rug are in the same colors.
“It’s not neutral,” she noted.
“If you want, you could neutralize, but it’s not necessary,” said the broker. “The colors are in style and they are a nice complement to the floors.”
His one criticism of the room is that the jewel tones darken the room. Adding a torchiere or another lamp or two will both enlarge the room and better showcase it, he said.
Another place he’d like to see the lighting upgraded is in the long hallway that runs the length of the unit. The broker recommended increasing the light bulb wattage in the sconces and installing inexpensive track lighting along the ceiling.
The bathroom, which was remodeled when the building was converted, sports an aquatic motif.
“You’re going to make me take the fish off the wall,” Diane predicted.
But Maguire didn’t. The walls are white, and the half dozen or so fish Diane painted on one of them don’t overpower the space.
“I personally feel the bathroom is very cute,” he said.
A chore he did suggest is to compile a list of all the improvements made to both the unit and the building as well as the years they were made. Buyers will want reassurance that the building–about 75 years old–is sound and will wonder about repairs and upgrades that might be coming their way in the future, he said.
One question Diane and Chris has wrestled with is whether to spend the money to have the fireplace in the living room–now purely decorative–hooked up so it can be used with gas. It was an option they passed up when they bought the unit.
“We’ve thought about it,” said Diane. “We’ve just hemmed and hawed and didn’t make up our minds.”
The answer isn’t an easy one, said Maguire. To determine whether the expense will be worthwhile, the couple should get a firm estimate at today’s prices and compare the cost to the selling prices of similar units in the neighborhood. If they plan to live in the unit for a while and will enjoy having a fireplace, perhaps it’s not a bad idea. If they are doing it merely to sell the unit faster, they may not be making a wise investment.
At the very least, they should have the estimate available for potential buyers who might consider having the work done themselves, Maguire said.
