1960 Bethalto Bungalow with Hardwood Floors, Sunroom, and Heated Garage — $145,000

The sunroom is where this house earns its keep. French doors open from it straight onto a deck, so you get that indoor-outdoor flow without anyone having to squeeze past furniture or prop a screen door. For a 1,144-square-foot house, that's a real addition to how the place actually lives.

The hardwood floors are original and were recently refinished. They look good. There's a built-in electric fireplace in the living area, which adds something without demanding anything from you maintenance-wise. Fresh paint throughout. The kitchen got a proper update: new cabinets, new countertops, stainless appliances. It's a small kitchen by the numbers, but the work done in it is clean and current.

The bathroom was updated too. The agent copy calls it a touch of luxury, which it probably isn't, but a refreshed bathroom in a house this age means you're not walking into someone else's 1970s tile situation on day one.

The yard is fenced with a newer black chain-link fence. Chain-link is chain-link, but newer is better than rusted, and enclosed is useful if you have a dog or a reason to care where the yard ends.

Then there's the garage. Detached, two cars, with a heater attached to it. That's the detail that changes how you use a garage in Illinois winters. You can actually work in it in February. A lot of garages in this price range are cold storage at best. This one functions year-round.

Built in 1960, so the house has age to it, but the updates inside land in the right places. Floors, kitchen, bathroom, paint. The bones of a small postwar house with the rough edges addressed. At 1,144 square feet it's two bedrooms and one bath, which is what it is. The sunroom adds usable space without adding square footage to the count, so the house lives a little bigger than the number suggests.

$145,000 in Bethalto for something this tidy and this finished, with a heated two-car garage attached, is worth a look.