Caring Transitions of Chicago

Terrible communication as soon as the contract was signed. False reporting of sold items. Bruce Treadway is not a person I would have enter my home, let alone sell anything out of it!!!

Gail Hampton and her team at Caring Transitions of Chicago were a lifeline when my father died unexpectedly, and I had to clear out and manage his house. The categories available on Angie?s List under which I?ve reviewed this company--auction services, organization?home and garage, home staging, and moving?do not come close to what this company does (which is why I?ve written such a detailed review). Although I did not need this service, they also offer downsizing and moving help for seniors. Caring Transitions is a national company, and Gail is the Chicago manager. On her section of caringtransitions.net, she says, ?We are passionate about serving our clients.? This is no marketing verbiage?she really cares. My house was an especially challenging job for several reasons: 1) Because my father died intestate, I did not actually inherit the house and have the legal right to work on it until a year and a half after his death, so it had been long unoccupied; 2) I live 300 miles away from the house and had to make several trips to work on it before I could even get Caring Transitions started; 3) My father was something of a hoarder; 4) There was no water service because the pipes had frozen and burst. There was not enough ?good stuff? in the house for a conventional estate sale on location, so Gail arranged for online listings of the big-ticket items and successfully sold several of them. She donated what did not sell and what was usable from the rest of the contents, and gave me a meticulously detailed receipt for my taxes. There was an enormous amount of sheer trash, and because the house was no longer occupied, there was no City trash service and it all had to be disposed of off-premises. Several times I had to arrange for repair people to come to the house, and Gail?s team always met them to give them access and to work with them. She periodically sent a member of her team to check the exterior and make sure it was secure. Finally, when my realtor advised me to sell the house as-is except for having all the ancient wall-to-wall carpeting removed, Gail?s team did this project. It turned out to be a ghastly mess, because the carpeting was so old that the padding underneath had rotted away and either disintegrated into powder or fused to the floor. Gail?s team was very careful, and the hardwood floors were revealed needing only sanding and refinishing to be beautiful. In order to do a final damp-mopping, the team brought in their own water. My realtor met with Gail to do a final walk-through to see if anything else should be done before the house was listed for sale (which Gail offered to do free of charge). The realtor didn?t see any other needs and told me the team had done ?a magnificent job.? Originally worn and sad, the house was now a diamond in the rough. The punch line is that after the long and difficult process of getting the house cleared out and ready to go, the house sold in just over 24 hours for 60% more than my asking price. (I also had an awesome realtor, Nancy Perlman, whom I found on Angie?s List.) Gail supplied ongoing progress reports, detailed photos of the work in progress and of the final results, detailed descriptions, receipts for any supplies the team had to purchase, and any other documentation I needed. My only note about working with her is that she does not always answer emails immediately (though she does always answer), but if you need to contact her right away she always returns phone calls within a few hours.