Selling a Home in the Lakewood-Balmoral district of Chicago

Selling a Home in the Lakewood-Balmoral district of Chicago

If you are planning to sell a home in the historic, tree-lined Lakewood-Balmoral district on the north side of Chicago, there are a few things you should know to help make the process go smoothly.

Understand the local real estate market

Here are some key factors to consider when analyzing a local real estate market:

Supply and demand: The balance between supply and demand is a critical factor in determining the health of a real estate market. A strong market can drive up prices and lead to a seller's market. Conversely, there may be more supply than demand, leading to lower prices and a buyer's market

Home prices: Knowing the median home prices in the area and how they have trended over time can help you determine a reasonable asking price if you're selling or make an informed offer if you're buying

Days on market: Knowing the average number of days that homes stay on the market can provide valuable insight into whether homes are selling quickly or whether homes are staying on the market for an extended period. The former may indicate a strong seller's market. However, the latter may suggest a weaker market.

Local economy: The overall health of the local economy can have a significant impact on the real estate market. A strong job market, low unemployment rates, and a growing population can all contribute to a robust real estate market that can raise housing prices.

Interest rates: If interest rates are low, it can make it more affordable for buyers to purchase a home, which can increase demand and drive-up prices. On the other hand, if interest rates are high, it can deter buyers and reduce demand, leading to lower prices.

Inventory: If there is a limited supply of homes for sale, it can create a competitive market and drive-up prices. In contrast, if there is an oversupply of homes, it can lead to lower prices and a buyer's market.

 A Bergenfield agent has valuable insights into the market conditions and up-to-date information on these real estate market trends in Lakewood and can help you make more informed decisions.

Price your home appropriately

A Bergenfield real estate agent can help you price your home appropriately and market it to potential buyers. Our agents have experience selling homes in the Lakewood-Balmoral district and have an excellent reputation in the community. Your Bergenfield real estate agent can help you determine a fair market value based on local market conditions and recent sales of similar homes in the area.

Marketing your home.

Staging your home to make it look its best is one of the key elements in finding a buyer. Your Bergenfield agent can guide you through the staging process and make sure you don’t overlook anything

Here are some of the best practices for staging a home to sell quickly:

 

Clean and make necessary repairs: A clean and well-maintained home is more appealing to buyers. Fixing leaky faucets or replacing broken light fixtures and painting the exterior and interior of the house enhances its salability.

Declutter and depersonalize: Remove any clutter and personal items from the home, such as family photos and personal decorations. This will help potential buyers envision themselves living in the house.

Highlight the home's best features: Showcase the home's best features, such as a fireplace, large windows, or hardwood floors. Use furniture and decor to highlight these features and create a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere.

Enhance curb appeal: The exterior of the home is the first thing potential buyers will see, so it's important to make a good first impression. Enhance the curb appeal by mowing the lawn, trimming hedges, and adding potted plants or flowers.

Use natural light and add lighting: Use natural light to enhance the space and add lighting to areas that may be dim. A well-lit home is more inviting and makes the space feel larger.

Stage each room: Stage each room to show how it can be used and create a cohesive flow throughout the home. Use furniture and decor to define the purpose of each room and create a welcoming atmosphere.

 

By following these strategies, you can stage your home to sell quickly and attract potential buyers. A well-staged home can also help you get a higher sale price and reduce the amount of time your home spends on the market. You can count on a Bergenfield agent to help you market your home to its fullest market potential.

Advertising your home effectively:

Your Bergenfield agent will help you advertise your home to potential buyers through various channels, such as online listings, open houses, and print advertising.

Bergenfield real estate agents have access to multiple listing services (MLS) and other marketing channels that can help your home reach a wider audience of potential buyers.

Without a Bergenfield agent, you may have limited exposure to buyers, which can make it harder to sell your home quickly and for the best price. Selling a home requires a range of skills, from pricing and marketing to negotiation and closing. Your Bergenfield real estate agent has the expertise and guidance to help you navigate the process and avoid common pitfalls.

Avoiding Potential Legal and Financial, and Emotional Risks

Without a Bergenfield agent, you may be more likely to make mistakes that could cost you time and money. Real estate transactions involve a range of legal and financial considerations, including contracts, disclosures, and negotiations. Without an agent, you may be at greater risk of legal and financial problems, such as disputes with buyers over contract terms or failure to disclose important information about the property. A Bergenfield agent can help you avoid legal and financial minefields.

Moreover, selling a home can be an emotional process, especially if you have lived in the property for a long time or have personal memories attached to it. A Bergenfield agent can provide a level of objectivity and help you make decisions that are in your best interest. Without an agent, you may be more likely to let emotions cloud your judgment, which can impact the sale process.

Be prepared for the closing process:

Once you have accepted an offer on your home, you will need to prepare for the closing process. This can involve coordinating with the buyer's agent, providing necessary documents and disclosures, and ensuring that any repairs or other contingencies are satisfied. A Bergenfield agent is an expert in expediting the closing process.

Overall, selling a home in the Lakewood-Balmoral district of Chicago can be a complex process, but with the right preparation and guidance from a Bergenfield agent, such as Randy Zabukovek, you can achieve a successful sale.

John Landon

 

 

Title:Wheelchair Nonprofit Delivers Hope After Devastation
Written by Jon Landon
Hashtags: bebrave, disability, lifetransition
Topic: REV Originals

 “We always said we were never going to leave anyone behind, and until now, we’ve kept true to our word and no one has ever left with their hands empty.” 

 These words, by one time President of Living Hope Wheelchair Association, Noe’ Ramirez, reflect the credo of the organization: For more than 15 years it has committed its energy and talents to improve members’ access to needed medical and human services, promote the inclusion of people with disabilities, foster independence, enhance mobility, and demand equality for those with spinal cord injuries. They have been able to develop a community of hope, confidence, and aspiration to overcome the feelings of isolation, depression, and the many devastating barriers to their participation in society. The organization empowers each person’s sense of agency, immediately granting a sense of belonging while also providing roles for each person’s unique gifts and capacities. There is no room for self-pity here; rather than acting as a temporary buttress for survival, Living Hope conceives of itself as a vehicle for permanent change.

How the Organization Began

In December 1997, Noe’ Ramirez, crossed the Mexican American border by clinging to the undercarriage of a rail car as it perilously raced for hundreds of miles northward. His plan was to work for a year in America to save money for a new taxi to support his wife and daughter back home in Mexico. He landed a job working at a restaurant in downtown Houston. Merely ten months later while riding his bike to work early one morning, he was struck by a hit and run driver, ending up with his chest and spine crushed, and quadriplegic for life.

Doctors sent Ramirez to the Quentin Mease Community Hospital, part of the Harris County Hospital District in the Houston metropolitan area, which didn’t ask for proof of citizenship at the time.  There he met other patients with spinal cord injuries who were also undocumented, and they created an informal support group to help each other through their life-changing traumas. However, in the year 2005, Harris County Hospital District decided to stop providing necessary medical supplies to people with spinal cord injuries that were non-Medicaid eligible.

In need of medical supplies that cost as much as $400 out of pocket each month, the group officially formed, moving to the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center, a recreation center run by the Houston Parks and Recreation Department for people with disabilities. They commenced fundraising for the association’s needs by selling roses on street corners and at intersections. They had carwashes., They sold homemade food and held raffles at local churches where they raised money from TVs, microwaves, and other household appliances that their friends and supporters had donated. This money was then used to purchase medical supplies in bulk, such as catheters, diapers, and rubber gloves, which they apportioned among themselves every month.

Noe Ramirez guided the association through these early days as its president. Having stepped down, he is currently a member of the “Quality of Life Promoter” committee. Having often considered suicide in the early days of his condition, he now visits hospitals and homes every week to meet with people in the early days of their crisis to try to talk them through their trauma, to advise them on practicalities, and on their rights. “People are very thankful about what we are doing,” Ramirez said, “because they feel we care about them”. The work of Living Hope goes beyond just material assistance. The association, from its leadership to its new members, provides each member with invaluable friendship, loyalty, encouragement, and strength. “The work is everyone because if it wasn’t for them, we are nothing, you know? The work is all of us”.  

Humble Results in the Early Going

At first, they were only able to supply enough catheters to provide a small fraction of the 180 or so that each member needed every month, but for the past seven years, they have been able to distribute sufficient supplies and medical equipment to meet all 30 plus members monthly needs. Now, on distribution day, the second Wednesday of each month, the organization’s warehouse teams, from floor to ceiling, with medical supplies. Volunteers, many in wheelchairs, collate materials for each member as they scoot around the floor, handing out knuckle-bumps to each other while they maneuver around the warehouse, taking from the shelves the supplies that make a crucial difference in their lives. In 2018, Living Hope distributed almost $110,000 in medical supplies and $28,000 in medical equipment. Today, the association’s program consists not only of monthly distribution of supplies, but wheelchair repair and maintenance, and the distribution of new wheelchairs, scooters, and hospital beds as well as other needed medical equipment.

At its core, Living Hope is a mutual aid society, dispensing equipment and supplies, while providing emotional support to those with spinal cord injuries and other disabilities.

Living Hope, which is almost entirely run by those who themselves have been disabled by injury or disease, has become a civic pioneer, a voice of advocacy, and, perhaps most crucially, a family for persons like Guillermo De La Rosa, Francisco Cedillo, and “Maria” (last name not provided due to undocumented status). 

Guillermo, just 19-years-old at the time of his injury, was helping a friend remove an engine from a pick-up truck when it began rolling off the ramp. As he tried to get out of the way, an iron rod sticking out of the truck penetrated his neck, piercing his spinal cord. Doctors told him he would never be able to move anything beneath his shoulders again.

Francisco was in a pool hall in 1999 when he was alerted by a waitress that some guys at another pool table had gone out to meddle with his car in the parking lot. He went out to see and discovered that they had broken in and were attempting to steal his car stereo. He confronted them and they argued fiercely. Suddenly, one of them got behind him and he felt a blow on his back. It was a tire iron, hitting him on the vertebral column. The next day he was told he would never walk again. His fiancé broke off their engagement within weeks.

Maria was in a car accident with her boyfriend, their wedding a month away. She broke two of her vertebrates while her boyfriend died en route to the hospital.

“When you have an accident,” says Guillermo, “the first thing you think about is wanting to die. Living Hope has helped many people continue living.” He is now the organization’s communications lead, performing community outreach and responding to the calls of the newly paralyzed. Francisco helps to remedy the legal, cultural, and linguistic obstacles that impede those in need from receiving services. Maria is now mother to a precocious four-year-old and Living Hope’s data navigator – she locates food banks, rental assistance, free medical care, and anything else that can help fill the security gaps.

“After an accident, we are born again,” says Guillermo. “It is as if we are children again. The new life may be more difficult, but we can live it well and we can be useful to humanity. Sometimes you are at home in pain, depressed, and you come here and forget everything,. Everything changes when I arrive at the office and work with my colleagues.”

 These are just a few of those members whose lives have been forever fractured by spinal injuries that make up Living Hope.

Although Living Hope had from its beginnings a political impulse to spur social and legal change for the disabled, the group’s efforts during Hurricane Harvey in 2017 abruptly provided it with a mandate to speak out about the social injustices they saw inflicted upon their community as they took part in the recovery efforts from the storm. In the aftermath of Harvey, members witnessed the manner in which emergency information often failed to reach immigrant populations.

 They saw also that the government-provided shelters were not sufficiently equipped in most cases to accommodate the wheelchair-bound. Of grave significance was the fact that the catastrophic economic damages wrought by the hurricane, such as the destruction of the trailer parks in which many of them lived, and the wheelchair ramps that they depended on, didn’t meet the minimum dollar amount necessary to qualify for government reconstruction aid. Around them, hundreds of handicapped people were caught in flooded and ruined homes with no safety net to turn to– their inability to flee and their physical and social isolation compounded by their undocumented status and the fear of contacting the official rescue channels.

Living Hope’s volunteers sought out those who were slipping through the cracks. Volunteers hunted up cash grants for those whose houses had been ruined. They found case management workers for them and established better support systems. They found and matched partner organizations to coordinate rescues and distribute medical supplies. They provided legal counsel when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had been contacted.

Volunteers gained confidence and political fluency in exposing the public policy barriers to meaningful recovery, including a lack of affordable and safe housing, a lack of shelters equipped for persons in wheelchairs, the fear of ICE enforcement that discouraged those in need from seeking refuge in a shelter, language barriers for those seeking food, outdated processes for receiving recovery aid and a preference for homeowners over renters.

Providing a Life With Dignity to Its Members

From their own experience, the leadership knows that isolation and access to medical supplies, special equipment, and quality health care are the main barriers that must be overcome by the wheelchair-bound community to have a good quality of life. Living Hope has come to provide a spiritual haven where members find culture, recreation, community, faith, and friendship. . But it also has grown to provide access to employment and job training. It now counsels members on how to create small businesses and organize a cooperative. It connects them to adequate housing and health services. It facilitates family support coaching for the newly disabled, guides its member to education opportunities, trains them in leadership development, and spearheads policy campaigns to rectify problems in public transportation, immigrant rights, worker rights, and disability rights. 

For more information on the next distribution date or to request or donate supplies please email lhwa@lhwassociation.org or call their office at 281-764-6251.