Dining Room Inspiration for Chicago Condo – Neutral, Wood, Iron, Black Dining Room Inspiration.
Can we talk real estate?
Because I thought I knew little something about real estate.
Silly, naive me.
I mean, am I the only one among us who stalks Redfin and Zillow to check out the listings in our neighborhoods?
In my mind all that stalking gave me an inflated sense of my real estate knowledge. I mean, I had a good(ish) idea about the worth of our home as a tear down.
Isn’t that all you need to know?
Turns out no. No, you need to know much, much more.
I also (briefly) toyed with the idea of doing a For Sale by Owner.
Ha!
Silly, silly, naive me.
I also thought I had a good idea on what the profit on our home sale would/could be.
Ha!
Silly, silly, silly, naive me.
Thankfully I wised up quickly. Because For Sale by Owner would have been disasterous.
And stressful.
On top of the whole selling and buying stress part. Because (trust me) it was stressful.
Lot’s of nights tossing and turning.
And I grossly underestimated the closing costs. It’s not just paying off the mortgage, covering inspections and legal costs, and the realtor commission.
There’s the property taxes that need to be paid forward, because we’re always six months behind. That line item was particularly painful.
And then there’s something in Chicago called the Real Estate Transfer Tax. Which included payments from both the buyer and seller. That was a double whammy since we were both selling and buying.
Oh and don’t forget the title insurance. And closing fees to the title company. And county and state recording stamp fees. And a bunch of other $100 here and $50 there.
Needless to say, it was a humbling and sobering experience.
Well, maybe not so much sobering. There was a lot of wine consumed in January. And February. And March. 😉
I’m thankful to our realtor. And I’m thankful to be settled into our new home. And I’m thankful I get to do the fun parts now …
like buying furniture and decorating the dining room!
I’ll have pics and sources of the decorating-in-progess dining room for you next week.
P.S. Here’s a before pic of the dining room space …
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