Archive for Selling your home
A Perfect #10 in the West Loop!
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No. 10 Lofts
Urban Courtyard Lofts with Terra Cotta appointed brick façade No. 10 lofts is located at 1040 W. Adams between Morgan St. and Aberdeen Ave
The West Loop has an abundance of timber lofts. This neighborhood should be your 1st choice if you are passionate about loft living. Since there was so much industry and manufacturing in this area, there are now many choices for loft living.
You will pretty much find all of the usual suspects at No. 10 lofts, high ceilings, timber beams or concrete columns, sandblasted exposed brick, stainless steel or black appliances, oak hardwood flooring, gas fireplaces, balconies and in some cases private patios, in-unit laundry, party room and garage parking.
But No. 10 Lofts doesn’t stop there, they offers some pretty amazing extra amenities. Starting with an elegant lobby, they also feature a yoga and pilates studio, private big screen DVD theater, party room with full kitchen, pool table, fitness center with state of the art equipment, 24 hour doorman and a business center.
You also get ample square footage in this building, the one bedroom homes start at 840 o 1250 sq. ft., two bedrooms range from 1200- 1500 sq. ft. and 3 bedrooms 1380 – 1840 sq. ft.
There are 259 homes in the building and currently 21 are for sale, 11 one bedrooms, 9 two bedrooms and 1 three bedroom. Priced from $237k – $425k. For more info on sales and rentals available in the building go to:
http://www.no10lofts.chicagoloftsandcondos.com
Even in this challenging real estate market the sales have remained strong at 1040 W. Adams, with 9 units being sold in the last 6 months alone & 20 in the last 12 months.
The market times ranged from 18 days to 305 days with the average days on market at 165. With most buildings in the West Loop have minimum market times of 6 month’s, No. 10 lofts is selling faster than the average of other buildings in the West Loop.
Ideally located for anyone working in the loop, on a nice day you can walk the 10 minutes to downtown or catch a bus right outside your door. Union and Metra stations are 5 minutes away. You are also only 3 blocks from hopping on the Eisenhower, Dan Ryan or Kennedy Expressway.
Going to sell the house? Don't wait for 'spring' in February
Posted by: | CommentsBy Mary Umberger
January 10, 2010
The busiest season for home sales traditionally begins the day after the Super Bowl. But putting off getting the word out about your property would probably be a mistake, some experts say.
Reporting from Chicago – It’s nearly spring — at least that’s the case in the parallel, slightly weird universe of real estate.
Traditionally, the “spring” home buying season, theoretically the busiest time in the marketplace, begins the day after the Super Bowl. Why this is so has never been clear, but it probably has something to do with finally being able to pry spouses off the couch to tour houses.
This year, “spring” arrives later than usual: The big game is Feb. 7.
But if you’re thinking of selling, waiting to list until the bowl festivities have passed probably is a mistake in the current market, according to some experts.
If you’re new to the selling game or haven’t sold a house in years, here are a few thoughts:
* Think about planting that “for sale” sign in the yard before your neighbor gets around to doing the same thing.
“We’re going to see a lot of property coming on the market,” said James Kinney, vice president of luxury home sales for Chicago-based Baird & Warner Real Estate. “We’re going to see everything that people took off the market in the fall, knowing they were going to be back in the spring.”
Plus there will be genuinely new listings in addition to the continuing cascade of foreclosures and short sales, he said.
* Don’t be surprised if, in determining an asking price, listing agents emphasize how much the competition is asking, rather than relying solely on data for recently sold homes.
Agents have always at least considered what else is on the market in setting an asking price, said Jim Merrion, regional director of Re/Max Northern Illinois.
“Now there’s more weight being placed on the current inventory, because in many cases it’s pushing prices to lower levels,” Merrion said. “I don’t know if it’s the effect of HGTV shows or what, but now we’re seeing agents taking sellers right into active listings” to get a true comparison of what they’re up against. “That never used to happen.”
Still, there’s a danger in relying too much on what the guy down the street is asking.
“An awful lot of listings are wrongly priced,” Kinney said. “If people use those as a guidepost, they could get into trouble. Do a combination of historical data and looking at who you’re competing against, once you’ve determined whether they’re valid prices.”
* And then there’s the thorniest issue: Most people have inflated notions of their home’s value in this boom-gone-bust market.
Experimenting with trying to net a price that’s rooted in the past can taint a house as an “old” listing, Kinney said.
“If you’re asking a price commensurate with or higher than prices achieved in 2006 and 2007, you’re incorrectly priced,” he said.
Umberger writes for the Chicago Tribune.
How to Sell a Haunted House
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And you think you’ve been having a tough time selling your home …
By Geoff Williams
Farkas says that he has been able to communicate with ghosts since his 20s, but he recently started to make a full-time living out of it. It isn’t always a matter of getting rid of a specter, but negative energy, for instance, the type emitted in the house due to ongoing bad feelings of a divorce. But he does claim to be able to talk to the beings most of us will only admit to seeing on TV and in the movies.
Ghosts, says Farkas, are really just like us, except for the problem about not living. He recalls one of the first ghosts he spoke to, where he asked the poltergeist if he knew he was dead. The answer: “Well, that would explain a lot.”
“Ghosts — they don’t have a clue,” Farkas says. “Many have stayed behind because they believe they have unfinished business. Or sometimes there are unresolved feelings, and they just wind up staying. But most of the ghosts don’t know they’re dead, or once they do know they’re dead, they may not have the energy to try and leave.”
Most ghosts, like most people, are friendly and just want some attention, he says. Some aren’t so nice. He refers to those as demons but clarifies, “To me, it’s a technical term like a bacteria or virus. They’re parasitic and opportunistic where they feed on negative energy and create more and more chaos.”One can chuckle, of course, but according to Farkas, any snickering stops after he has “cleared” a house of the dead. Frequently, after he has come and gone, people have sold their house in a matter of days. While Farkas may be one of the few ghostbusters making a living at what he does, there seems to be a demand for his profession.
“I’ve definitely had to bring in the hired help,” says Nicholas, who figures that on a dozen occasions at least, in the last 25 years, he has hired priests and “spiritual persons” to bless the house and, of course, home stagers to “brighten it up and make it cheerful.”
Step 4: Rest in Peace After Last-Resort Tactics
If you’re quite desperate, you might even want to consider changing your house’s address if it’s been severely stigmatized by a murder, says Michael Soon Lee, a real estate broker and consultant for 30 years in Dublin, Calif. He says that was done at the house where child beauty queen Jon Benet Ramsey was killed.
And if there are some serious concerns among a jittery public that something wicked might be living in your den, lying low and waiting to attack a hapless new homeowner?
“You may have to bring the price down, way down,” says Nicholas, who suggests going as low as 20 percent to 25 percent off the selling price. “You may have to make it attractive for an investor, not for someone who will live there, but someone who will want to scrape the house and build anew.”
Staging may be just the edge that you need…
Posted by: | CommentsStaging or preparing the home, both inside and out, to create the biggest impact and best impression can draw in buyers and up sale prices, often for minimal cost to homeowners. As we all know, the first step when preparing a home for sale is to clean up and clear out. The goal is to help homes sell quickly and for as much money as possible. Staged homes sold in half the time and for about 7% more, according to a 2004-5 survey of 200 homes. Please take advantage of www.stagingchicago.com
Lauri Krakora, head interior designer, has over 22 years of experience creating interior solutions in Chicagoland. She was chosen the 1999 “Designer of the Year” by D. Edmunds Interiors. Having grown up in her family’s interior design business, Lauri has also taken formal art and design classes at the University of Illinois, and studied design in Rome, Italy.
Here is a good video about what staging can do for you…http://www.homestagingresource.com/homesellershow.html
