ShowCase Magazine:A Little Work Goes a Long Way

When Stan and Sue Pennock finished moving their mom to assisted living at Wesley’s Tehaleh location, they next had to tackle the sale of the residence she had lived in for 47 years. “This was a house that needed lots of work because over the years my parents only did maintenance work, not improvements, and it still had the original appliances,” said the Pennocks.

There were decades of items collected that needed to be sorted and the house made ready for sale. This huge task was made easier when Christine Tremain referred the Pennocks to Kathy Kleber and her Team RED approach.

“Once we called Kathy, she got the ball rolling with an informative presentation showing what Team RED’s services included, followed up with a pre-inspection report that gave us options, and gave us estimates for improvements,” Stan said.

Kleber explained that sometimes doing just a little work can yield the best return on investment. With the Pennock’s home, it was decided that upgrading anything without upgrading everything would not bring the best value, so they made a list of projects that were most important for a safe and healthy house.

Team RED started by coordinating the completion of estate dispersal—auctioning, donating, or discarding things that were no longer needed. Once the house was empty, they focused on making the house sparkling clean, staging it to look warm and inviting.

The house was put on the market on a Thursday, with open houses over the weekend and an ‘offers accepted date’ on a Tuesday that yielded multiple offers well above asking price and a quick closing date. “Kathy’s advice on which offer to accept made everything go so smoothly,” said Sue.

According to Kleber, “Project managing the process so that Stan and Sue could step away from what had already been a huge job moving their mom was our first task.” Team RED then helped the Pennocks determine the right work to complete to add the most value with the least expense and effort. “Getting this project done was something only experience could guide, and we were so glad to help them every step of the way.”