Answering Your Moving Questions!
Q: Are you staying in Chicago? A: YES! Of course. We are moving to the West Lakeview neighborhood!
Q: What are you doing with your loft!? A: I’m keeping it & renting it!! If you’re interested, head to THIS POST for all the information! It’s a 2 bed 1 bath loft in a doorman building on the West side of River North! Looking for lease to begin between 8/1-9/1! Need more info? EMAIL ME at aligartenstone@gmail.com with subject: LOFT FOR RENT
Q: Is the buying experience as bad as everyone says in Chicago? A: It’s very competitive right now but I wouldn’t say it’s bad! I think it’s important to set your expectations realistically and work with a realtor who will be honest and upfront and help walk you through the process. Demand is high and inventory is low so you just have to be patient and be ready to jump when you find the right place!
Q: With the sellers market right now, did you have to go way over the listed price? A: Short answer, yes. Long answer, after looking for a while and losing our first home by an offer WAY higher than ours, we decided to lower our ceiling of places we were looking at. We knew we would have to put an offer in over asking price so we dropped the price point of homes we were willing to look at to make it work.
Q: How did you find reasonable contractors? A: we crowdsourced! We asked our realtor and all of our friends in the city for their recommendations! I always prefer working with someone who comes recommended anyways so that felt good! I will ask the people who we ended up hiring if they’re ok with me sharing their info!
Q: How are you budgeting? A: Sam and I sat down before we started looking to have a real conversation about what we could make work with out over extending ourselves. We had it all laid out ahead of time and decided how much of our savings we were willing and able to spend and went from there. It was important to us that we could still live our lives with a new home so that’s where the budget really came in to play. Also, Sam is really good with budgeting so I’m very thankful that he’s helping to manage this stuff.
Q: Who was your realtor? A: Natalie Renna! She helped us sell & buy! She sold Sam’s place in FOUR DAYS after we finished attorney review on our house. She was always super patient and never pushed us on ANYTHING. She was always down to go see any place we wanted even when we knew from the get-go that it wasn’t for us. We wanted to be sure when we found the one that we were ready to pounce so we looked at EVERYTHING to know what we liked and what we didn’t.
Q: How did you know what to do? A: We didn’t! It’s important to work with someone reputable and make sure to ask them to walk you through every step! Have mortgage rates, offer process, contracts and every single step explained to you!!! If it’s not explained or you EVER have a question, ASK before you move on. Natalie and the team at Dream Town also was able to give us a recommendation for a mortgage broker who was amazing. They also gave us the information for the roofers we’re using to do the roof (yes, the house needs a new roof and gratefully, yes, the sellers gave us a credit to cover that cost).
Q: Did you know what you wanted when you started looking? A: Actually, not at all. Sam wanted a house and I wanted a newer condo. I was pretty convinced I wanted a condo in an old renovated building (still obsessed with St. Boniface- the church in Noble Square being converted to condos). In time, and after looking at a lot of places, I started realizing what I did and didn’t want. In time, I knew I wanted an older home with charm and I didn’t want to HAVE to do renovations the day we moved in. In time, I really look forward to making changes to make this place feel more like us, but it doesn’t NEED anything day 1.
Q: Are you doing any renovations when you move in? A: As mentioned above, it was important to us to not NEED to do anything major to the home we purchased right away. When we move in, we are painting, changing light fixtures, building some shelving in my office as well as Sam’s and replacing the tile in the entry way. That’s it for now! I can’t wait until we do a big reno- I’ve always wanted to!!!
Will keep you updated on ERRYYTHANGG!!
xx Ali