lake zurich...and beyond

There was in OURS...until today that is.

When we purchased our home in 2001 our home inspector found some mold in the attic. We weren't overly concerned at the time (mold wasn't the issue it has become today) and we knew it could be fairly easily remedied, so we purchased the house and planned to take care of it eventually.

Anyway, you know how some things get put on the back burner? Our attic mold was largely forgotten until this past spring when we noticed some water staining in the foyer ceiling. It had been a very harsh winter here in Northern Illinois and we thought that maybe we had an ice dam caused by the buildup of snow and ice on the roof during the winter or that our gutters had become clogged. A quick check of the gutters showed no issues there, so we called in Precision Roofing & Siding, Inc. to take a look at our roof.

After checking over the roof from top to bottom, the roofers couldn't find any leaks or potential problems. The roof had been replaced shortly before we purchased the house in 2001 so it has plenty of good life left. But when the roofers took a look inside the attic, they noticed a build up of condensation on the interior roof sheathing, which was causing the problem we noticed in the foyer. And there was that darn mold.

The roofers also noticed that one of our upstairs bathrooms was vented directly into the attic. In addition, the baffles used to keep the soffit vents clear of insulation were installed incorrectly and the soffit vents themselves had been painted over so many times over the years that they weren't adequately venting the attic. These things were causing the excess moisture to build up in our attic, causing mold growth.  

In Illinois, we have a mold disclosure for sellers to fill out along with the rest of the disclosures. It is not a mandatory form at this point, but of course, once you know you have mold you must disclose its existence and what steps were taken to get rid of it. We consulted several mold removal specialists to get quotes and determine how to best handle the problem.

Generally speaking, most of the experts agreed that attic mold is not necessarily toxic. It does not necessarily need to be removed. It will not necessarily enter the living areas of your home or cause a problem for the occupants of the home. But mold should not be taken lightly as it has the potential to become dangerous or toxic. We thought it best to remove the mold and fix the source of the problem both to keep it from getting worse and also to make sure we have a healthy house and the documentation to give to potential future buyers of our house for their peace of mind when we sell some day.

The first step in our MOLD ERADICATION PROCEDURE was to have the roofers install two roof mounted power attic ventilators by Air Vent, Inc. which have both a humidistat and thermostat which will automatically turn them on to remove any excess moisture or heat from our attic. The roofer also properly vented the bathroom to the exterior of the house. 

As for the mold remediation, we decided to hire American Air Improvement Resources to handle that part of the process. They cleaned, disinfected and treated all mold affected roof sheathing and joists, using Fiberlock mold disinfectant and Fiberlock After Shock Fungicidal Protective Coating. They also cleaned our exterior soffit vents and properly installed our soffit baffles to ensure good airflow up there. All of their work was done under negative air pressure containment to ensure that mold spores would not find their way into the living areas of our house. American Air Improvement Resources provides a 15 year warranty which is transferable to any new owners of the home. So if the mold comes back, they will come back and take care of it, which is a huge relief to me since we plan on selling our house within 3 or 4 years.

Here are some AFTER photos of our attic.

The white substance is the Fiberlock Protective Coating which was applied after the mold was disinfected and scrubbed away.

As you can see, some dark staining remains even after the mold has been removed. At the upper left of this photo is one of the new attic vents.

Make sure you keep your soffit vents clean and free of paint!

The baffles should be installed correctly to ensure good air flow to the soffit vents.

Areas that were not affected by mold are not treated (not white).

So the mold is now GONE and the CAUSE of the mold growth has been REMEDIED. Since you are probably curious as to what all this COST to have done (I know I would be), here are the facts:

Installation of two power attic ventilators, venting the bathroom to exterior:   $800.00

Cost of hiring electrician to wire the power attic ventilators:   $160.00

Mold remediation, cleaning soffit vents and fixing soffit baffles:   $1813.00

TOTAL COST OF MOLD ERADICATION:   $2773.00

KNOWING THERE'S NO MORE MOLD IN MY ATTIC:   PRICELESS!!!!

If you have mold in your attic or if you are considering purchasing a house that has mold in the attic, don't be overly alarmed. Contact Precision Roofing and Siding and American Air Improvement Resources and let them (the experts!) tackle the problem for you. I'm glad I did, and I'm sure the future buyers of my house will be glad I did as well.

I cringe nearly every time a so-called TV real estate expert comes into a house that has been on the market for several months giving their advice for preparing the house to sell. They are (more often than not) OBNOXIOUS (which makes all real estate agents look bad, IMO) and walk around the house criticizing everything from paint color to furniture placement. Many of these tips are VERY good ones, but some are UNNECESSARY and will cost sellers quite a bit of time and money; and in a market like this YOU MAY NOT GET THAT MONEY BACK.

The truth is, 99.9% OF THE TIME all that is necessary is a REDUCTION IN PRICE. Most of the time these homes are on the market FOR SALE BY OWNER, and the PRICE IS TOO HIGH, and that is why the house has not sold.

In REALITY, as helpful and EFFECTIVE as staging can be to help a home sell for more money and in less time (and staging does work!), the PRICE of the home is the MOST IMPORTANT element. And sometimes, totally neutralizing a home does more harm than good because it just doesn't POP anymore and is so PLAIN JANE that there is nothing for a buyer to get excited about.

Over the past several years, I've had the pleasure of selling homes that had some rather dramatic paint colors and because the homes were so STRIKING they sold faster than the BLAH neutralized homes of the competition.

Above is a photo of one of my listings that SOLD quickly when the competition had been on the market for months and months. These sellers are happily settled in their new home in Georgia, while their competition still sits on the market.

Was our price dramatically lower than the others? NO! The reality is that the home sold quickly because it was both PRICED CORRECTLY and was GORGEOUS and therefore stood out amongst the crowd of boring beige. COLOR IS NOT (always) YOUR ENEMY! Just think about this for a second...do builder's models have boring beige walls? NO! They have life and color, sometimes they even have wallpaper (GASP!) and they have (fake) family photographs as well to make you feel like it's a real home.

So take some of these shows with a GRAIN OF SALT and consult someone like myself, who is both a PROFESSIONAL REAL ESTATE AGENT and ACCREDITED STAGING PROFESSIONAL who can give you the real lowdown on what you SHOULD and SHOULD NOT do when preparing your home for sale. Like everything on TV, remember that what makes for good television may not be REALITY.

Since I work at home, I'm lucky enough to be able to take Zoey on walks at least twice a day. Last night, I failed to grab a bag before we headed out the door. The walk was a last minute decision and she had already "done her business" so I figured (wrongly) that she wouldn't need to go again. Well, you know what happened next. About a block from home.

Now, as a responsible pet owner, I am usually armed with bags and ALWAYS pick up after Zoey. So imagine my complete mortification when I realize I don't have any bags with me! I was forced to leave it there, hoping that nobody saw me fail to pick it up. Of course, as soon as we got home I hopped in the car and went back to pick it up, so if anyone did see me leave it - I hope they saw me return to pick it up as well!

Which begs the question (no pun intended): Are you a responsible pet owner?

Someone in my neighborhood sure isn't. Twice in the past few weeks I've found a big pile of you-know-what in MY front yard. Now, Zoey is hand-walked out into the back yard every time to do her business and we immediately pick it up. We don't have a fence and therefore never let her out without a leash. So it isn't hers. Plus, she is a little dog and these are, how else do I say this? BIG poops. (sorry)

To my unknown and irresponsible neighbor-who-owns-a-big-dog: Why did you let your dog go on MY lawn and fail to pick it up? Are you really that lazy? Because the "I ran out of bags" excuse is NOT an excuse, especially when you allowed your dog to do it on TWO separate occasions! YUK!

To all Lake Zurich dog owners: May I remind you that picking up after your pooch is not just good etiquette or common courtesy. It's important for the environment and the health of our children and pets. It is unlawful, smelly and polluting our community.

So be a good neighbor dog owner. Pick it up, please.

Many of today's sellers have painstakingly prepared their home prior to listing. Inside, they've buffed, polished, scrubbed, painted, cleaned carpets and staged. Outside, they've trimmed, weeded, mowed and mulched. They've struggled (sometimes for months) to keep their home and yard show ready at all times for their prospective buyers.

Finally, all that hard work paid off in a signed contract for the sale of their home! 

Now, Sellers: Don't drop the ball!

One of the things I've noticed is that many sellers feel that their work is over once they have a signed contract for the sale of their home. IT'S NOT! While sellers can relax a bit once their home is under contract, they are still obligated to maintain the property in the same condition it was at the time of contract acceptance.

Paragraph 22 of our real estate contract, CONDITION OF REAL ESTATE AND INSPECTION, states the seller's obligations very clearly: 

"Seller agrees to leave the Real Estate in broom clean condition. All refuse and personal property that is not to be conveyed to Buyer shall be removed from the Real Estate at Seller's expense before possession. Buyer shall have the right to inspect the real estate, fixtures and personal property prior to possession to verify that the Real Estate, improvements and included personal property are in substantially the same condition as of the Date of Acceptance, normal wear and tear excepted."

The final walkthrough is the buyer's opportunity to inspect the condition of the property as well as to make sure that everything is in good working order and any necessary and agreed upon repairs have been made. The most important thing sellers can do to ensure a smooth closing is to make sure the house is clean, the yard mowed, the weeds pulled and the trash removed. 

Not only is it a contract obligation, it is simple common courtesy. However, many sellers overlook this tiny detail and end up with irate buyers at the closing table. Buyers who can and do refuse to close unless the seller pays for cleaning, yard maintenance and trash removal. 

Sellers, don't jeopardize your closing by dropping the ball. Maintain your property until the day of closing and leave it in good condition when you walk out the door (for an extra-nice touch leave a bottle of wine or some snacks in the refrigerator for your buyers along with a few good wishes). Your buyers will thank you and you'll be repaid with a smooth closing!

If you live in Lake Zurich or the surrounding communities, it's time to get blogging with Kelly!

Since ActiveRain launched the new Localism, I've noticed an increase in posts with purely local content. Market reports, restaurants, subdivisions, local events...you name it and it's making it's way into posts all over ActiveRain.

This is all well and good (and valuable of course), but I miss the posts about buying and selling! Staging! Pricing! Listing presentations! Mortgage information! Coping with the market! I even miss the posts about nothing in particular!

So as for me and my readers, I intend to keep writing about my take on the local real estate market as well as tidbits about my favorite people, places and things to do in Lake Zurich and the surrounding communities. After all, I'm a real estate agent, not a travel agent or member of the local Chamber of Commerce. I don't work for the Lake Zurich Alpine Lions Club or the Lake Zurich Community School District 95. They all do a fine job promoting our wonderful community. While I am happy and pleased to be able to share information about my community from time to time, my main objective is to provide real estate related information to my readers.

The name of my blog may have changed from http://activerain.com/blogs/getmovingwithkelly to the much simpler and easier to remember www.getbloggingwithkelly.com but my blog itself remains essentially the same. After all, when readers mention my blog they most often remark on my posts that showcase my real estate expertise...not my ability to pick a good restaurant.

If it isn't broken, I don't plan to fix it. What do you think?

When Brian and I were in Italy last September, we fell in love with the charming, intimate restaurants in Rome, Florence, Tuscany and Venice (not to mention the delicious food). Luckily we can now get a little bit of Italy locally - at ZaZa's Tavola Italiana in Lake Barrington.

The decor of ZaZa's and the small size of the restaurant are what charmed us initially. I, personally, love the mixture of dark wood, white tablecloths, venetian plaster and black and white vintage photography. It's not stuffy or pretentious but it is classy...the perfect place for a romantic dinner for two...but families with small children are also welcome. It is not what you expect being tucked into a strip mall near Lake Barrington Shores, that's for sure.

The Northern Italian food is simply delicious. Last night I had the Penne con Pollo, which is penne pasta with chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, peas and broccoli in a white wine garlic sauce topped with fresh-shaved parmesan cheese. It was absolutely delicious and I even had enough left over for lunch today (i.e the portions are huge). We've been there several times now and we've tried several different meals and they've all been delicious. The menu changes occasionally to feature different items at different times of the year and there are nightly specials, which is a nice touch. The bread is crusty and fresh and there is always olive oil on the table for dipping.

ZaZa's has a cozy bar and live entertainment on Thursday evenings. If you go early, you probably don't need to make a reservation, but if you want to arrive a little later in the evening you might want to call ahead. Of course, you can always quench your thirst a the well-stocked bar while you wait.

If you crave a delicious meal in a fantastic Italian atmosphere, try ZaZa's today! ZaZa's Tavola Italiana is located near Lake Barrington Shores at 5047 Shoreline Road; call (847)381-1333 for reservations or visit their website here for more information, to view the menu and see photos of the interior!

Buying a house is a lot like finding a life partner. You search and search for "the one" and you only know it when you get that special feeling inside.

Just like when dating, many people get impatient and settle. While no person or house is perfect (in fact the right house may be downright UGLY, but more about that later) one should never settle. If you do, you will regret it!

This I learned from personal experience. Not on the relationship front, for my husband and I have been happily married for 21 years and counting, but we once settled for a "not-quite-right" house simply because we felt pressured into making a decision.

Let me tell you about our big mistake, in the hopes that you can avoid making a similar mistake when you purchase your next home.

When my family and I relocated to Illinois from Michigan, we quickly discovered that houses in Illinois were much more expensive than comparable houses in Michigan. We were paired with a real estate agent who was nice enough, but who we could tell quickly grew tired of spending weekend after weekend looking at homes with us. Brian was already here in Illinois living in an apartment provided by Motorola, and I was back in Michigan with the kids and would drive to Illinois nearly every weekend to look at house after house. The housing market at that time was a strong sellers market and the best houses would already be sold prior to my weekend house-hunting trip. On top of that, it was the middle of winter.

So December then January and February came and went. The pressure to get the family back together and get the kids enrolled in school was mounting; it was stressful. We decided to concentrate on a particular community known for its popularity and good school system. We eventually found a "not-quite-right" house that met most of our criteria in terms of bedrooms, bathrooms and school district scores. There was no excitement about the house, no emotional connection, but the pressure to buy (both from the agent who was tired of driving us around and our own desire to get settled) pushed us into making a decision.

We bought that house despite our reservations (we settled) and spent the next several months gutting it and updating it throughout, trying to make the best of it. It was an attractive enough house, but it just wasn't home. Try as we might, the house, the neighborhood, even the good school system just wasn't the right fit for us. I think we moved into that house in March, and by October (when Halloween failed to illicit even a single trick-or-treater!) we knew it was time to move on.

We started our search for a new home by December of that year, with a new real estate agent (who eventually became one of my very good friends) who understood exactly what we were looking for and didn't pressure us. We did a lot of research, looked at a few houses in different neighborhoods, and eventually discovered the perfect neighborhood for us: Chestnut Corners in Lake Zurich.

At that time, we were still in a strong sellers market so we listed our "not-quite-right" home for sale, got pre-approved to purchase an new house without having to sell our current one (just in case) and looked at every house that came on the market in our target neighborhood. One house in particular caught our eye but needed a lot of work so we passed it over and kept looking (we were understandably a little gun-shy). It took several months but we finally found ourselves going back to the house we had passed over previously. It simply felt right. It was far from perfect (read Go Ahead...Buy that UGLY House!) and we would spend several years updating it from top to bottom. But we did get that feeling that it was home. The neighborhood, school district, floor plan, square footage, etc. all combined to make it "the one" and we were really excited about moving in and making it our home.

On the surface, it seems like a nice happy ending, after all, we did eventually find the right house and it has appreciated quite a bit throughout the years. But in reality, this was an expensive lesson in many ways. First of all, although we were lucky enough to sell our "not-quite-right" house in only 3 weeks and for a reasonable price (remember multiple offers?), we barely broke even because we had spent so much time, energy and money updating that house from top to bottom. We then had to pay the moving costs themselves, and we also had to transfer the kids to a new school district, which is always traumatic at best. Did we learn a valuable lesson? You bet. One I want YOU to avoid. 

Now, you could search forever and never find the "perfect" house. This is not about finding the "perfect" house. This is about finding "the one", the "right" house. There is a difference. If you have champagne taste but a beer budget, you may not get everything you want in a house, particularly in your first house. I don't consider that to be settling, as you have to be realistic about what you can afford and pick "the one" from what is available all things considered. The bottom line is that you'll know it when you find it.  

Last week I was on vacation in Northern Michigan and pretty much unplugged from the world of real estate, mostly because cell phone and internet service was spotty at best and completely unavailable unless I drove about 30 minutes to the closest "big" town. Since I spent the week prior to leaving in a flurry of activity tying up loose ends and making sure my back-up was informed just in case anything would be needed on the home front, I was able to actually relax by the lake for a few days without worries. Now I'm back and plugged back in...and reminded anew that there's no place like home.

What I've come to understand over the years is that it's not the house itself, which however nice is really just sticks and bricks; it is the little things that make a house a home. It is my own pillow, a full sized shampoo bottle, the ability to grab a soda out of the refrigerator when I'm thirsty. It is sinking into my favorite spot on the couch and being able to find just what I am looking for when I need it. It is walking to the mailbox and waving at a neighbor, and making my own coffee in the morning. It is the way the light shines through the window while I work which brightens my day. It is the overall comfort of being surrounded by family and memories and my favorite things.

Real estate agents are in the business of helping people find the sticks and bricks that make up the house they will eventually fill with all the things that truly make a house a home. I guess that is why I take such care to help my clients find the right house for them. I don't want them to buy the "okay" house. I want them to buy the house that makes their heart sing. The one they mentally place furniture in after the first few minutes and can imagine spending many happy years in. I can see it in their eyes from the first visit; they don't have to look for reasons to like the house or talk themselves into it, they just feel that it's right. If I don't see that in their eyes, I encourage them to keep looking.

No house is ever perfect, of course, but it's generally not perfection that buyers are seeking. Usually it's a feeling, almost as if the house speaks to them. Perhaps it is the back porch like the one grandma used to have, or the climbing tree in the front yard. Sometimes it is the new kitchen or granite countertops. It might be the tree-lined street and sidewalks. More often than not, however, the right house is a mixture of bits and pieces of the house they grew up in, which is why finding the right house is such a personal decision. While I will absolutely guide you through the process and help educate you about the plusses and minuses of each house, I will never put any pressure on you to buy.

Your right house is out there. Let me help you discover that there's no place like home.