Realtor in Elmhurst, IL - and my desk is on Addison.
I work out of the Ellyn & Main office at 100 N Addison Avenue. When you want to sit down with somebody about your house you are not booking a call with a stranger in another suburb. Elmhurst holds about 45,000 people, and most of the sales I handle here are not routine - they are something that changed.
Most Elmhurst sales are not a plain move-up.
This town keeps people. Families buy in for the schools and the train and then stay twenty years, so when a house finally comes up there is usually a reason behind it - an estate, a separation, a job that moved, a staircase that stopped working. Those sales carry a different set of problems than "we found something we like better," and price is the smallest of them.
- The housing stock runs from pre-war frame houses to new construction on the same block, so a comparable sale two streets over can be a useless guide.
- A lot of my sellers here are selling a house they didn't buy but rather inherited or were awarded in a settlement.
- Elmhurst sits in both DuPage and Cook counties. Which side your parcel is on changes the tax bill and the buyer pool.
- Buyers are often coming from the city and comparing your house to a condo they can walk away from. Condition carries more weight here than it does further west.
The whole move, not just the listing.
Comparable sales in writing, adjusted for the block and the county line, rather than a portal estimate built on town-wide averages.
Which fixes return money in this market and which ones you will never see again. The list is almost always shorter than people expect.
Whether you list now or in ten weeks, based on what is actually on the market against you rather than on a season.
If you are staying in Elmhurst, sequencing the sale and the purchase so you are neither homeless nor carrying two mortgages.
Estates, divorce sales, relocations and tenant-occupied rentals each run by their own rules. Each has its own page here.
You get me on the phone. Not a coordinator working from a script.
Want to know what your Elmhurst house is worth?
Send me the address. You get a real number from comparable sales, in writing, with no obligation to do anything about it.
I do not cover all of Chicagoland, and that is deliberate.
I work Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn, Wheaton and the DuPage towns around them, because knowing a market means knowing individual streets and what sold on them. An agent who claims the whole metro is telling you they will look it up when you ask. If your house is outside where I actually work I will say so, and point you at somebody who does work there.
I am the one who picks up the phone.
I'm Maureen - but everyone calls me Moe. I have been selling homes in DuPage County since 2019 and I recently joined the Ellyn & Main team at KW Premiere Properties. Estate sales are slower, sadder and more logistical than a normal listing, and they need somebody who will answer when the attorney calls on a Tuesday afternoon.
"If waiting six months makes you more money, I'll tell you to wait six months. I'd rather have your next three moves than one commission."
The ones people actually ask.
What is my Elmhurst house actually worth?
The honest answer is a range until somebody looks at it. A written comparable analysis gets you a real number, and there is no obligation attached to asking for one. What I will not do is hand you a flattering number to win the listing and then spend three months talking you back down off it.
Am I in Cook County or DuPage?
Elmhurst sits in both. It matters, because the two counties assess and bill property taxes differently and buyers absolutely notice. I will tell you which side your parcel falls on and what it means for who shows up.
Should I fix things before I list?
Some things, not most things. Kitchens and bathrooms rarely return what you put into them right before a sale. Paint, flooring and anything that will surface on an inspection usually do. I will walk the house and give you a short list rather than a wish list.
How long do houses take to sell here?
That depends far more on price and condition than on the calendar. A well-priced Elmhurst house in decent shape moves. One priced on what a neighbour got in a different market sits, goes stale, and then sells for less than it would have.
Do I have to move out before it sells?
No. Most people sell while living in the house. If it is occupied by a tenant rather than by you, that is a genuinely different situation with its own rules, and it has its own page here.
Can you help if I am selling because of a divorce or an estate?
Yes, and a large share of what I do is exactly that. Those sales come with extra parties and extra paperwork. They each have their own page here so you can see how I handle them before you ever call me.
What does selling cost?
Commission is agreed in writing before anything is listed, and it comes out of the proceeds at closing rather than out of your pocket now. I will walk you through the full cost of selling - commission, transfer taxes, attorney, title - so the number at the bottom of the closing statement is not a surprise.
Plenty of Elmhurst sellers are right-sizing rather than leaving the area.
Are you actually in Elmhurst?
Yes. The office is at 100 N Addison Avenue. You are welcome to come and sit down rather than do this over email.
Tell me about your house.
No obligation and no drip campaign. If the answer is that you should stay put a while longer, I will tell you that.
Related situations
Whatever put you here, there is a decent chance one of these fits better.