Written by Wena Roeloffze I Realtor I Realty Club 74 I Brokerage by Coldwell Banker Realty

Here at Realty Club 74, we refer resources for local home services to our Wisconsin Sellers, Buyers, For Sale by Owners and Out-of-State Investors. These range from lenders, title companies, painters, and plumbers to anything else that directly or indirectly affects the sale or the purchase of a home, remodeling or necessary repairs.

There are many moving parts to a transaction that we sometimes become project managers, or like we call it: home sale or purchase coordinators. It usually happens that work needs to be done quickly, efficiently and cost-effective.

Which brings me to having access to a networking directory of professionals that proved their professional worth, their great service and good pricing. Someone you trust that will uphold your reputation as the go-to specialist. Realty Club 74’s resources page is a mix of vendors and service providers we happily refer to sellers, buyers, FSBO’s and iBuyers. Question is however: would I personally use them myself and would my team be using them? No doubt that I will use them! However, will I be happy, just as our clients have been?

My husband and I decided (after much deliberation) that we should update our home. Not for selling in this hot market, but to “correct” a few things we don’t like. The equity we built up supported this decision. Our purpose was clear – not a remodel, just an “aesthetic tweak”.

This “tweak” composed of 3 major components:

Getting rid of old flooring and a very ugly carpet on the main floor. The two did not match at all in our opinion and was very dated and gross. Now I know a few people will tell me that pink and brown are great companion colors, but for us, it was just one eyesore. Yes, we survived 7 years of it, but the carpet has always been a thorn in my side. We inherited a somewhat drenched cat and dog carpet, if you can smell where this is going. Two sets of steam cleans later and I still could not make peace with the darn carpet;

Painting the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry. Before you want to stone us to death for painting over wood, hear me out. Our kitchen layout is most probably the weirdest ever. If I ever get to meet the guy that designed that stupid kitchen, he will be brought to justice! So, with no space or option to re-design without breaking the bank, updating the look of the cupboards seemed like the right decision;

Updating appliances. Both me and my husband had 7 years of hitting our heads with the freezer door of our deep fridge. Many curse words were uttered. And when the dishwasher was on, you could not hear your own thoughts.

The time factor for a complete main floor, working in between and getting all the tools made us decide quickly that we will go with the trusted resources on the Realty Club 74 website, whom I so eagerly refer my clients and customers to. But before we got them to give us estimates, we had to rethink the space and decide if anything added or removed would be of value to the home, to us and provide us with the result we were aiming for plus saving us some money in the process.

So, of course, the one thing led to another and other small “tweaks” were made. Luckily, my husband is a handy guy and we added one cabinet to an open space which will house our trash and recycling bins out of site. We also decided to remove a hip-height room divider wall, which made no sense in keeping if we were re-doing the floors. Another task was replacing the old hanging lights with LED can lights.

Fast forward and now we have 2 estimates, one for flooring and one for painting. We also have a time frame set-up and know how long each project should take and in which order. Flooring first, then cabinets and then appliances. We had to pivot somewhat on the countertops and back splash, because of the added cabinet and a bigger stove, but that is a completely different story for another day.

Flooring was chaos on day 1 with dust EVERYWHERE, throughout the whole house! We cleared as much as possible, but those dust suckers sneaked into every crevice known and unknown to mankind. Floor Coverings International is Realty Club 74’s go-to resource. We referred them to a few clients and customers and got great reviews back. Now it was my turn to test the reviews and my resource.

Dave Paeske and his team is just so amazing to work with. Communication was clear, the team was on time every day and we knew all the what’s, where’s, how’s and when’s. Because they are working in a client’s personal space, they really worked well to get things done and get out, without rushing the job. Dave under-promised and over-delivered on our project.

Next up was Adelmo Castillo and his helping hand for the painting job. As stated above, my handy hubby took the time to take off our cupboard and closet doors to save time and to mark them for future reference. This saved a lot of time for Adelmo in the preparation phase. If you ever tackled a painting job, you will know that most of the time is spent on the prep for the painting and not the painting itself. We had 2 days of chaos where we could not cook or prepare food in the kitchen. Thank goodness for restaurants, take outs and friends! Excluding the preparation time, painting was a quick turn-around. In fact, it took my husband longer to put the hardware on the cupboard doors than painting. I love working with Adelmo and completed a few projects with him on other homes. He follows instructions precisely and deliver a great end result.

Remodeling or just “tweaking”, are stressful events and not knowing what to expect from the contractors are enough to give everyone sleepless nights. And, of course now that I was faced with my own choices, it became an even bigger challenge for me to provide resources that will lessen the stress and anxiety. We want our clients to feel secure about the changes they make and also about hiring a contractor that would fit the bill for them.

Remodeling, tweaking, repairing and beautifying your home or making it look different, doesn’t have to break the bank. All of the above provide 3 benefits:

1.       Increases the value of your home (if done correctly);

2.      Makes your living space a sanctuary, and not just 4 walls;

3.      Provide value to future buyers by keeping up with trends.

Whether you are a Seller, a For Sale by Owner or just a Homeowner wanting to improve or repair, go visit the resources page and see if there is a professional vendor listed who can help you with what you need.

If you are contemplating a sale and wants to know which kind of work will provide you with the most value and cash back, get in touch for a no obligation consultation. Realty Club 74 has extensive experience in value-driven upgrades and fixes. Out of state Buyers/Investors, we can help with managing your project and Buyers, if you need anything done before you move in, visit the resources page.

Since we are affiliated with Coldwell Banker Realty, we also offer a RealVitalize program to fix up your home with no money down. A no obligation consultation will provide you with the details and if your home will qualify. Buyers, you have many options these days to have a renovation and mortgage loan rolled into one! The home you have been eyeballing with the good bones, can be renovated to meet your requirements.

If you don’t see anything that falls into your requirement, give us a call, text or email and we will find the right person for you. We are your one stop real estate service provider here in Milwaukee and surrounding counties.

And this brings us to whether I can still refer the excellent resources on my website, and the answer is a resounding YES! So why don’t you have a quick look at what we offer with regards to resources for everything real estate?

Contact us for more information here.