The kids are gone (or should be) and yours don’t really need an office or hobby room. A smaller place would be easier to maintain, and pulling some equity out of the old homestead offers some appealing options.
Is it time to downsize?
Whal’s all involved?
Here’s a guide.
Advantages of Downsizing Your Home
Equity and financial benefits
Anyone considering downsizing likely has been in the house for years and built up quite a bit of equity. That could mean stashing away your home equity wealth for retirement, taking trips or buying toys that long have been wanted but unaffordable, or buying a smaller home for cash, It can make your financial life much less worrisome and more comfortable.
Financial Pros and Cons of Downsizing Your Home – Experian
Upkeep
Two bedrooms and a smaller yard are much easier to keep up than four or five bedrooms and a great room, dining room and bigger yard. What will you do with that time and/or expense of cleaning, fixing, mowing – geezo, it never ends.
Housing Costs
A smaller house costs less to own and operate, including utilities, property taxes, insurance, maintenance. HOA fees are likely to be less as well.
Fewer potential roommates
Your now-adult children (or others in your cohort) would be less likely to just move back into the old room for their own lifestyle and financial reasons, particularly if you didn’t have empty rooms just sitting there. The new joint wouldn’t be as familiar or comfortable – or perhaps nearby.
Ability to travel
A smaller house with a smaller yard is easier to lock and leave, making travel for short or long duration trips much easier (which means you might do it more).
Health or mobility considerations
If the old homestead is a two-story or has different levels, just navigating it could be troublesome as we age and become more infirm. You could move into a home that would allow you to age in place, and get one set up for that rather than trying to retrofit the current abode.
The pros and cons of downsizing in retirement – Edward Jones
Disadvantages of Downsizing Your Home
Lifestyle and entertainment
If you like to entertain a lot and have larger gatherings, a larger house makes that more possible. With the great weather much of the year in Arizona, folks like to par, ty in the back yard using the pool, barbecue, firepit – whatever features your larger home offers. A much smaller house limits that considerable.
Privacy
Larger houses with larger lots have larger spaces between them and neighbors or passersby. That would particularly be the case if the downsized house were to be a townhouse or condo. To some people, this matters considerably.
“Home” sentiment
Remember those holidays when (fill in the memory). The kids took their first steps here, and we like the neighborhood and (at least some of) the neighbors. We know where the stores and our favorite restaurants are nearby, and the place just fits like your favorite sweatshirt. All the memories wouldn’t be lost, but the comfortable, everyday reminders would be in the rear-view mirror. It just feels like home, and for the entire tribe. That’s the hardest thing to get past for many pondering such a move. Can you give up hosting Thanksgiving and other key family events? It’s more than just a real estate decision.
Clean up, fix up, throw away
Guess what? If you’re going to sell it, you have to (finally) clean out the garage, those former kids’ bedrooms that got filled with boxes and whatnot have to be gone through, the “keeps” and the “throw-aways” sorted. There could be painting, repairing, replacing, removing, boxing and storing in your future. (Someone will have to do this eventually, but do you want to do it now?) Selling a house requires quite a bit of advance work.
Pros and Cons of Downsizing in Retirement – SmartAsset
Going through the sale
If this is on your ponder list, it’s been quite a while since you last went through a home sale. That means keeping the place spotless, leaving for potential buyer visits, negotiating, having strangers wander through your castle. It’s a headache, to say the least. And that’s not to mention the whole moving thing, which we all love.
Buying another one
Buying a house is less headache than selling one, but it is work and takes time. And can you afford to purchase a new house before you sell the old one, and if so, how are you going to manage that timing and where you live/put your stuff. It happens every day so it’s certainly manageable, but it’s been a while since you’ve done that and it’s going add a bit of stress. (It can also be fun and creative.)
Market conditions
It might be a buyers’ market when you want to sell. And if you wait too long after selling, it could be a sellers’ market when you want to buy. It’s best to sell in a stable housing market.
Legacy
Some families want to pass on the family home to the next generation. If that’s the case with you, expect a bit more drama in this move than previously.
Property value
Larger homes tend to appreciate better than smaller ones, and even if the percentage of equity growth it the same, a more valuable property will gain more equity dollars than a less valuable one. Now, that’s not money you can spend today, but it’s there.
By Hal DeKeyser
The post Thinking of Downsizing Your Home? Here’s a Guide first appeared on Arizona Realty Network.
