It is time to reveal what Kuochun and I have been working on these past couple of months. We are selling our Mount Prospect home and will be downsizing to a small home in Prescott, AZ. Our original thought was to sell the Mount Prospect home in early spring 2026 and then look for a home in Prescott after that. However, we took a trip to Prescott before we came back to Mount Prospect for the summer just to revisit the area since we had not been there since December 2022. I wanted to see what it was like in a different season. I have been looking at Prescott real estate near the downtown area (I figure the more populated the area, the less critters to deal with) as is the case in Scottsdale. Prescott is a charming mountain city at mile-high elevation with a mild four-season climate. They average about 20 degrees less in temperature than the Phoenix valley, which is most important in summer. The air is clear and the nights are cool, even if temperatures approach the 90-degree level during the day. They have an amazing downtown with tons of fun shops and restaurants and it is only a 2-hour drive northwest of south Scottsdale, where we are located. It will be a lot easier on us not to have homes so far apart. It will be very similar to what my parents had when they lived in Park Ridge and Northbrook and had their lake home in Oconomowoc, WI - also about two hours away. The area has just about every type of store you can think of, there is a Trader Joe's and Sprouts but no Whole Foods. There is a TJ Maxx but no Marshalls or HomeGoods. I thought I would not be able to handle the elevation but I have not had a problem with it, although I did have allergies kick in. Critters in the area include javelinas which are part of the rat family but look like giant pigs, coyotes, bobcats, bears and deer.
I have been keeping my eye on Prescott real estate for about a year and a half and a few months ago came across this cute bungalow which had been totally remodeled. On our visit, Kuochun and I decided to contact the realtor (she and her husband were the contractors as well) and have a tour. The house was adorable but the next door neighbors (to the left in this photo) were a disaster. The main home was abandoned and the yard was filled with junk. They choose to live in a shack which is elevated and in the back of the property. The home we looked also had space that could be developed right next to the shack. The husband had great ideas for it - to build a two-story apartment or office space and at that elevation it would have great views. However we could not at all get past the condition of the property next door and from what the couple said, the neighbors were never going to leave. The couple was really nice but the realtor did not really express any interest in showing us anything else. She told me to go home and sell Mount Prospect first. It was Thursday evening and we were scheduled to leave Saturday morning. That evening I pressed a button on a listing on Redfin and that changed everything.
Victorian is not normally my style, I am a mid-century modern gal but there was something about this home that I was drawn to. I pressed the red button on Redfin to see if an agent could show us the home and we were connected with Paul from Century 21. He is such a nice guy with a very calm demeanor. He did happen to have time the next day to show us some homes, including this one. I did not think I would love this style home but it was just so darling. We looked past the fact that the kitchen was the size of a shoebox with no dishwasher and that the second bedroom was pretty well non-existent. It was turn-key and had room to build a guest house on the property.
Plus, it had this little "she shed" which I did not know what to do with but it sure was cute. The home had been on the market for 30 days and no offers so I figured it was about time for them to do a price reduction. I offered $15,000 below asking and as it turned out they received two additional offers that weekend. We ended up being the second choice and agreed to be the backup.
We did look at some additional homes that day and nothing was quite right - the homes either needed a lot of work but were still pricey or we did not like the location so we headed back to Scottsdale. We were going to drive home from Prescott originally but something told me not to leave the area yet. It turned out that another home came on the market nearly a week later. This home was right up my alley so back up the mountain we went to look at it!
It is a 1952 California bungalow, 840 square feet which was last used as an Airbnb investment. Prior to that, in 2021 the second previous owner did a complete remodel, bringing the home up to modern style. The last owner did make some great improvements including replacing the mulch with stone which is way less maintenance than a grass yard and installing lots of brick pavers.
This is what the home looked like in 2021. I did think the fencing was cute but it was removed. I am glad the mulch is no longer there. Since I had mulching done this year in Mount Prospect the girls have been dragging it in on their legs numerous times a day.
Now this is what the home looked like prior to the first remodel! The home is just what I wanted - close to downtown to minimize on critters and maximize value, easy to live in, small and cute. It was also what Kuochun wanted - very walkable for the girls.
It also has a very large, narrow backyard and plenty of safe space for the girls to run around in. The turf is artificial.
The garage is on the right and the entrance is on a tiny side street with three other homes on it. The garage is large enough to hold four cars (two rows of two in tandem) but there is only the one garage door.
The layout of the lot is interesting - much more land than the neighbors and well thought out. We are very close to neighbors so I hope we like them! Prescott is known for having very friendly people but is a staunch red area politically.
I made a full-price offer (because I noticed that the asking price was $15,000 less than the purchase price and expensive improvements had been made) and the offer was accepted. We ended up making a third trip to Prescott for the inspection and I was glad we were present. It turns out that I will want to make some additional improvements and I found a designer on Houzz who specializes in helping entrepreneurs and maximizing ROI with home improvements. Also, although I was discouraged to get a radon test this is what we do in our area so I went ahead with it. They said that yes, Midwestern people always ask for a radon test. It turned out that although the radon levels were not totally alarming, they were higher than they should be so there will be some remediation in our future.
Currently there is a mini-split system in use with one unit in the dining room and one in Kuochun's bedroom. They work great but this means no climate control in my bedroom! The good news is that there is ductwork throughout the home and an HVAC system in the attic although it needs to be replaced. I am going to get the HVAC up to speed and then use the mini-splits in other areas. The garage with its interesting split design is going to be officially split in half, so half will be for the car and half for my jewelry showroom. A double door will be installed on the showroom side so customers could park on the little side street and access the showroom through those doors. The girls should never hear them. There is no direct access from the garage to the home because the space was originally a carport and it backs up to my bedroom. I will also need to have gutters installed because there are none and unfortunately the bathtub will need to be replaced with a walk-in shower. The bathtub is so tall it is not safe for Kuochun to use.
Originally the dream was to have a separate guest house but it turns out the city will not allow one to be built in the backyard, the space is too narrow. So as an alternative I asked about an Arizona room which could be extended partially into the backyard and I could use as an office. The Arizona room will be approximately 18x12 feet which is much larger than I expected and much larger than my Mount Prospect office which is only 10'9" x 10'2".
We will never know or understand what happened with the Victorian home because their first choice deal did go through at $20,000 less than we asked. I always feel that homes were meant to be. While the Victorian home was idyllic, Kuochun calls it the "dream home" it was not nearly as practical as the home we ended up with. It was also significantly more expensive. The neighborhood has sidewalks but it is not as large of a walking area as where we will be. There are many homes in Prescott with no sidewalks so this eliminated many homes because that is a dealbreaker for Kuochun. He will have a kitchen he can fully cook in and every inch of the space in this home will be maximized. The deal did not go 100% smoothly - the buyer ignored my reasonable request for a few fixups due to the results of the inspection report and when our realtor pressed them about it the response was he was not going to fix anything because he is losing $45,000 on the deal. To top things off, as I was doing the final walkthrough by FaceTime, I quickly saw that all of the furniture was gone! The home was supposed to come fully furnished. I was going to have a moving-in sale with the furniture as the highlight, which was worth a good $3,000-$4,000 and that at least would have helped with the inspection report items. The buyer did not do anything about that either. He also stopped any maintenance as soon as we signed the contract and I had to have landscapers treat all of the weeds that grew to the tune of 40 gallons of weed killer. In the end though, overall this is a great home in a convenient location walkable to downtown and near major streets but the traffic noise cannot be heard. There is also a charming old-fashioned park down the street. Sounds just like Mount Prospect! The property tax and landscaping cost will be a fraction of what I pay now. The only thing that will cost more is homeowner's insurance because the area is in a 100-year flood zone. Even though the insurance cost is double, the property tax savings more than makes up for it.
I have been hearing that the bottom is going to fall out of the real estate market for sellers next year so it sounds like 2025 was the right time to make a change. Buying and then selling has been a very stressful process and on top of it, we are normally slow with estate sales at this time of year but it has turned out to be extremely busy.
For Mount Prospect, this is definitely the end of an era. My life was completely different when I moved here, I was newly divorced and still working a corporate job which I hated. I ended up leaving the job a year later and although it was scary and there were lean years, I was able to hold onto my home and eventually find the right career path so I could earn a full-time income on my own. Dad believed in me and bought me my sweet Ruby, my first dog. Kuochun recently scattered Ruby's ashes in the backyard because this was always her home. I always thought I would be here forever but never imagined that I would lose both Mother and Dad already and that my closest friends would move out of state. Rachel has been in New York a long time so I have no family here anymore. It is expensive to maintain this home when we are not here more than half the time and it is time for new folks to carry on the legacy.
We had four showings for the home after it went on the market Thursday evening July 31. Two showings were Friday and two on Saturday. We received two offers from the two Saturday showings and in the end both parties put forth the best and final offers. I ended up choosing the lower-priced offer because the other offer was contingent on the buyer prepping, listing and closing on her Wisconsin home in a month. She happened to be from Hartland, which is close to Oconomowoc. My uncle and cousin lived there when she was in high school. Because I had to completely finance the Prescott home, there are conditions to the down payment (bridge) loan and it just so happened if this deal fell through and we did not find a new buyer two weeks after that I would have to drastically lower my asking price. Things have gone smoothly so far except that although the buyer promised to purchase the home as-is and not share the inspection report results with us, they ended up asking me to pay to have the sewer line rodded. I was not happy because I spent a lot prepping the home for sale and had a very expensive oven repair pop up. But it is in everyone's best interest to have the deal go through so I agreed to have the job done. Now we are waiting for the results of the appraisal which was last Thursday and should be the final hurdle to get over. Both parties loved the home and the way it was decorated but the buyers I chose said more than once that they love everything exactly the way it is and are not planning to change anything. That makes me very happy.
I am still going back and forth about whether or not to have a moving sale. I love all of my furniture and hate to give any of it up but I will need to because I am downsizing substantially from about 1,800 square feet plus a more than 1,000 square foot basement to 840 square feet and no basement. Even though time is short I will probably end up having a moving sale and hope the treasures I do not have space for will find new homes.
Well, I think this is plenty to talk about for one week. Next week I will catch up with online selling and Whatnot news as well as the decision as to what will be done about the moving sale.
