Chicago Seller Tales: Albany Park Bungalow
/4940 N Whipple Ave
Seller Tales of An Albany Park Bungalow
Represented by Samuel Ciochon, Chicago Lifestyle of Compass
Last fall, I got a wonderful phone call from Jessica Rosien, who is a rockstar North Shore agent that I met over five years ago when we both were at Coldwell Banker prior to both of us coming to Compass. That phone call was to refer me a fun, young family that she had the pleasure to start working with in the North Shore. Since Jessica didn’t know Albany Park, she called me. She clearly heard about my obsession for this worldly neighborhood.
That week, we set up a meeting for me to view this Chicago relic. Getting to know the Kiefer family on that first meeting was such a thrill. They are such genuine, interesting and passionate people - the kind of family that you feel like you won the lottery to work along side. However, the cord that struck me the most with the Kiefer family was how much love they had for their first home. See, living in a 100 year old bungalow in Chicago is special, especially when it was owned by very few owners prior to you. The extensive list of upgrades that they made to the home, including all new plumbing and electricity, was impressive. Yet, for historic homes, it is common in today’s society to see upgrades that don’t keep the integrity of the original home. The Kiefer’s did it so spot on that you want to give the motion chefs give by kissing their fingers after they complete a perfect pasta dish. Luckily in Chicago, there are so many avenues you can go to for assistance and advice. Amy relied on the helpful advice from the Chicago Bungalow Association and became actively involved in the Facebook groups for Chicago Bungalow.
Timing for most sellers is a huge issue, especially when you are buying another property. When you have put so much love into a property, you also want to finish the main part you had planned on doing. For the Kiefer’s, that project was the kitchen. The original kitchen just didn’t chalk up with the home values we wanted, so some slight improvements including new counters, new lower cabinets from Ikea and painting the original upper cabinets gave the facelift needed to compete. Doing this, kept the renovation costs under $15k for a kitchen.
Again, timing is the most important part of real estate. With the start of Covid and the shut downs occurring, we were slightly nervous about listing. However, the silver lining was that there was 1 month of inventory of single family homes in good shape under $750k in a mile radius. If we waited, we may get a better price, but we would also be subject to more listing potentially. A rock and a hard place essentially. Needless to say, we wanted to move forward, so preparation into getting marketing materials was our next step.
Covid threw another wrench into the mix with showing a home. Shut downs all over the state were going into effect, so we weren’t sure that we would even be able to show the home. Problem: no showings. Solution: 3 D video tours. The other issue was that when most people think bungalows, they look across the river for homes that are $1M plus. Albany Park is a quiet neighborhood, so we wanted to draw light to everything it has to offer! The best way to do this is through video. Ultimately, the goal during this time is to make a buyer feel 100% solid about the home, even if they never walked through it.
Luckily, a lack of inventory helped sell this house. Using the Top Agent Network, a portal for the top 10% of agents to network listings and buyers, we were able to target 3 or 4 buyers that were interested in a property that matched this criteria. This started to spearhead the frenzy for showings even prior to coming on the market.
Showing during Covid was unique. Our biggest priority was the safety of the agents, buyers and the Kiefer family. Masks, social distancing, Clorox Wipes and one party at a time showings helped us solidify an offer within the first week.
During economic uncertainty, low ball offers are a consistent thing. Some buyers will try to get the deal of a lifetime preying on a seller who is too eager to unload in the fear of the “what if’. However, using facts and persuasion you should be able to get most buyers to align with your thought process on pricing, which is what we did. While negotiating, make sure that everything is communicated in writing. At the beginning, we wanted to offer a credit for trim work prior to receiving an offer. Miscommunication left the buyer not conveying that they wanted the credit, so we negotiated net price. We ultimately settled at $513,000 which didn’t include the credit.
Inspections on 100 year old homes with a pair of first time home buyers is a deadly combination, which resulted in an ask of $25,000 in inspection items. Throughout my career, a majority of my clients are first time buyers, and for the most part, they don’t understand the cost of repairing items. By educating and getting quotes, it helps reduce the overall fear to help minimize the credit required. Ultimately, we ended up giving the buyer $7,000 for necessary items.
Difficult buyers are always hard to deal with. Sometimes as the Kenny Rogers song quotes, “you got to learn how to hold them and you got to learn how to fold them”. Getting on the same page is a huge asset in fighting for every dollar you deserve as a seller. The same message needs to be conveyed by all - seller, agent, and attorney.
Ultimately, the transaction was incredibly challenging yet fun. Transactions like this help you grow as an agent and discover your divergent human traits that rarely see the light of day.
I wish the new buyers the best and hope they create so many amazing memories in the home.
My sincerest gratitude goes out to Matt and Amy Kiefer for being amazing clients throughout this process.
Sold Date: 6/26/2020
List Price: $525,000
Sold Price: $513,000
“Samuel is simply the best. We were referred to him to sell our Chicago Bungalow based on his expertise selling Bungalows in our neighborhood. He was wonderful to talk through staging out historic home without making us paint all the walls and trim white. He was also very careful to explain where to best put our money to get the best return on investments. Once we were ready to list our home, his marketing was spectacular! He put together a beautiful package to sell our home. Selling our home during COVID-19 was rather nerve wrecking. He was responsive to all of my concerns and questions throughout the entire process. We were able to get an offer on our home after only 4 days! And once the process began he was excellent at talking through contract negotiations and stood up for us every single time. Our buyers were very unreasonable and downright difficult. He was always there to talk through the next steps and help me navigate what we should do next. He went above and beyond what was expected and even continued to check on us after closing. I highly recommend Samuel for anyone looking to sell their home during this difficult time.”