Forty years ago, Sylvia and Earl Bush bought a modest trilevel in north suburban Skokie. They raised six children there and entertained frequently. As their needs grew, they expanded the house.
Today the four-bedroom house, with a dining room that comfortably seats 16 and an in-ground swimming pool, is toto big for the two of them. Their idea of a retirement home is a downtown condominium.
“I want to be where you can get a cab when you walk out,” Earl said.
Because they have never sold a home before, Sylvia wanted a professional assessment as to how their’s will appeal to prospective buyers. She asked Selling Points for advice and we put the couple in touch with Lisa Gendel of Prairie Shore Properties in Evanston. The broker recently toured the home and answered questions about the selling process.
“I want help,” Sylvia told Gendel. “I don’t know if the house is too old-fashioned looking the way I have it decorated. I thought you could give me suggestions on what we have to do to sell.”
Hardwood floors
Built on a double lot, the home features hardwood floors throughout, including parquet on the street level. The floor plan includes formal living and dining rooms, an eat-in kitchen with cherry cabinets, a family room and two full and two half baths. The bedrooms are upstairs and a television room is in the finished lower level. At the back of the home is a stone patio, a full-size pool with diving board and a detached two-car garage. The living room, which has nearly two walls of windows, overlooks the back yard.
The addition, put on about 15 years ago, doubled the size of the house.
“You know how it goes,” Sylvia said with a smile. “You start pushing out a little bit here and a little bit there and pretty soon I have a big house.”
The house is in exceptional condition, Gendel told the couple. “Your room sizes are unbelievable. It’s surprising from the outside. Everything is spotless. My first suggestion to anyone I list is to neutralize every room as much as you can. You’ve done that. Someone coming in will see a very white, neutral palette.”
They’ve kept up the property, Sylvia noted. “Nothing in this house is 40 years old except me and I’m older than that.”
Because she and Earl are a bit fuzzy on when they did what to the house, Gendel suggested they go back through their records and reconstruct the details. Then they should make a list of improvements and replacements to give prospective buyers.
“The second owner will appreciate knowing whether the furnace is 2 years old or 5 years old,” she said.
The bedrooms are carpeted with a rust-colored shag over hardwood. A daughter had told Sylvia to replace it.
The broker concurred that the carpet should go. “It’s the only thing that stands out to me,” she said. But rather than replace it, she said, she would simply remove it and leave the wood floors.
“Someone else might come in and carpet the rooms but it’s their choice and their color,” she said.
“I like that,” Earl said.
One selling obstacle she said the couple should be mentally prepared for is the swimming pool. The size of the house will attract someone with a family but the yard may not.
`Adult back yard’
“You don’t have a grassy back yard,” she said. “You have an adult back yard. People with young children don’t want pools.”
“I know, they may not like it,” Sylvia said.
“It seems to me there is a small group of people who really want a pool,” Earl said.
He’s right, said Gendel. “It may take longer and you may not get as many showings but the people who come here will want to see a pool.”
“We’re not in a hurry,” Sylvia added.
On the one hand, Sylvia would like to have the home on the market when buyers can see the pool open and the landscaping in bloom. On the other, she’d heard that February is the best time to sell.
“It would look beautiful to have the pool open and it would be a selling point, but the spring market is in February and March,” said Gendel. “You won’t have the pool open until May and that means you’ve missed the spring market.”
