Sale fell through on a hard to sell home primarily because of items in and condition of basement

[Imp4]

Here’s just a couple of simple suggestions. Get rig of everything in the basement. Make it spotless. Hire someone to apply epoxy paint to the floor. ( I assume it’s plain concrete). That will boost the wow factor a lot.

This is the way.
One man's treasure is another man's T-R-A-S-H, no matter what the value of the items.
Get every single thing out of that basement.
There is a very small number of buyers that want to move into a house with somebody else's stuff in it, as is evidenced by the fact that it's been on the market for 13 years.

 

[GON]

This is the way.
One man's treasure is another man's T-R-A-S-H, no matter what the value of the items.
Get every single thing out of that basement.
There is a very small number of buyers that want to move into a house with somebody else's stuff in it, as is evidenced by the fact that it's been on the market for 13 years.

Yes, the message from the BITOG master mind group is clear.

Here are just a few of the GON treasures I am starting to box up. When I get to the pex a stuff, I will be overwhelmed. Likely have 10k worth of pex a fittings.

 

[PimTac]

That mother in law setup could be easily changed into something else. Throwing some ideas out, a bar, a fitness area with juice bar, a place to watch games, and so on. It has possibilities that should be in the selling points.

I agree on the stuff in the basement. Give it to the Salvation Army or other thrift outlets. Stuff like the paint should be used or sent to the dump.

 

[JustinH]

basement is fine get a new realtor. Everything has a price so drop the asking price. It will sell.

Every house I owned in NY was no where as nice as that one, and I could call your basement almost tidy.

 

[SR20DE]

The house looks pretty nice. What's with the deck? Seems like a liability just for house showings!

Edit: I see in the first post "I hired someone to tear down the 600 sq foot deck and update it, the deck failed inspection".

 

[mk378]

Foam in a can has a shelf life. Shake one of those cans, is it even liquid inside any more? Trying to use old paint or foam is a bad idea you may have to redo the whole job.

 

[javacontour]

I hired a broker to sell the home, he is here now. He has two assistants with him, a photographer and a drone operator. Pretty impressed. One drove up in a BMW, next arrived a Mercedes, and the broker in a full size range Rover. I will post later why this is important.

That's Kane County! Depending on where you lived, there is some money in that place.

oilBabe's late GMA lived in Geneva and was selling real estate into her 90s when she finally sold off her agency.

I always loved a visit to The Little Traveler when we would visit.

 

[JayhawkRoy]

If you need to donate these items, contact the local Habit for Humanity Restore. Some of them will come pick up large amounts of items from your location. They may be interested in the PEX you have.

 

[GON]

That's Kane County! Depending on where you lived, there is some money in that place.

oilBabe's late GMA lived in Geneva and was selling real estate into her 90s when she finally sold off her agency.

I always loved a visit to The Little Traveler when we would visit.

Geneva is a awesome town, a rare gem in Chicago area. This home is in west Dundee, a nice town but the town next to west Dundee annexed mega farm land and allowed it to be developed with zero master planning. The shopping centers have huge vacancies, banks shut down and vacant, even a newly built Ashley home center quickly shut down.

Illinois overall is very troubled. Safeway, the monster nationwide grocery chain excited the state not selling any stores, just shut down and left. Bank of America just did the same thing. Shame, very good people in Illinois.

 

[GON]

Just for finished phase one of two phases of the basement clean up. If all things, the trailer is key to being able to do this. Living 2,000 miles away and not having friends/family in the area, I have few options. Of fun note, with my SUV getting the transmission repaired, my construction vehicle is a avis Kia Rio!

 

[RamFan]

Geneva is a awesome town, a rare gem in Chicago area. This home is in west Dundee, a nice town but the town next to west Dundee annexed mega farm land and allowed it to be developed with zero master planning. The shopping centers have huge vacancies, banks shut down and vacant, even a newly built Ashley home center quickly shut down.

Illinois overall is very troubled. Safeway, the monster nationwide grocery chain excited the state not selling any stores, just shut down and left. Bank of America just did the same thing. Shame, very good people in Illinois.

Illinois being doom and gloom is a conversation for another day.

Your home is a lovely home, West Dundee is a cute town. We bought about 45 minutes North close to the WI border. We'll be moving soon and renting out our house, if we were staying locally I'd seriously take a look at your property as I want a bit of land like you have.

Best of luck!

 

[loneryder]

My sister had a step down living room like that and I almost killed myself every time I visited. So did my Dad. When all the flooring is the same color, it's hard to notice the step.

 

[Wolf359]

Just for finished phase one of two phases of the basement clean up. If all things, the trailer is key to being able to do this. Living 2,000 miles away and not having friends/family in the area, I have few options. Of fun note, with my SUV getting the transmission repaired, my construction vehicle is a avis Kia Rio!

You're getting there. I only buy what I need for my rental properties with maybe one or two spares. You've got too much stuff stored, ever wonder how much you'd have if you had invested the money instead of keeping all that stuff stored over the years? If you have a few items at the end, you could always as the realtor to dump it for you at the end. I've done that a few times, but nothing crazy just a few pieces. Otherwise I just offer to call one of those junk places like 800gotjunk and those guys aren't cheap. Had them clean out a basement room once that was full of stuff and it was about 2k. Some of it I thought was good too but I had no use for it and I told the guy that hey that's good stuff, you sure you don't want it? He said if you don't want it, we don't want it either which I thought was a good line from a junk guy.

 

[GON]

Foam in a can has a shelf life. Shake one of those cans, is it even liquid inside any more? Trying to use old paint or foam is a bad idea you may have to redo the whole job.

Yes, this foam never worked well according to the reviews. I used some yesterday, see pics. About two thirds of the can came out. So, for my purpose it worked, but not as well as the other popular brand. These are the pics from yesterday, yes I know the job is sloppy, I was trying to get into deep crevices and the foam was not flowing so well.

 

[GON]

First load of stuff out near the street. It will be gone today. Anything I put near the road gets picked up.

 

[ecotourist]

Yes, this foam never worked well according to the reviews. I used some yesterday, see pics. About two thirds of the can came out. So, for my purpose it worked, but not as well as the other popular brand. These are the pics from yesterday, yes I know the job is sloppy, I was trying to get into deep crevices and the foam was not flowing so well.

Sorry but I wouldn't see this foam application as an improvement. Suggest you just get rid of the foam.

 

[dishdude]

I'm so glad I'm not a hoarder, I have the opposite problem - I can't stand keeping stuff around that isn't being used or won't be used in short order.

 

[CKN]

I'm so glad I'm not a hoarder, I have the opposite problem - I can't stand keeping stuff around that isn't being used or won't be used in short order.

I hear you-It seems nonsensical to drag stuff all over the country as well. Maybe one needs "thousands" of pex material. IDK.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Real estate professionals will tell you that to show a home you need the bare minimum of furnishings and nothing else—no clutter, stored items, any of that. Once it's time to sell, even the bare minimum of furnishings goes.

 

[dishdude]

Real estate professionals will tell you that to show a home you need the bare minimum of furnishings and nothing else—no clutter, stored items, any of that. Once it's time to sell, even the bare minimum of furnishings goes.

Yes, you want it as sterile as possible so they can picture themselves living there. No family pictures, etc...