Downsizing, anyone?

Parent Cafe
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<p>Lately the hubby and I have been fantasizing about a smaller house on a bigger plot of land in a more rural part of our region. Anybody else? Has anybody actually made a move yet, and what did you look for in the new smaller house?
We’re thinking one level brick ranch, 3 acres, room for the dog and a garden. I’d like to keep chickens. WOuld add about fifteen minutes to our commutes.</p>

<p>WOuld love to hear other’s stories – and descriptions of dream homes!>>>>>>>>>>>>>></p>

<p>That sounds like what I’d like except it would be after commuting days are over.</p>

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<p>@bookworm: I hope you’re right! It’s great that your buyers bought some of your furniture. We had a previous buyer ask for an old quilt and another who wanted a pool table (a cheap one for the kids - not a nice one) and a few odds and ends. I’d be happy to sell the next buyers anything they want except for a few small things inherited from my grandparents and dad. I told dh that I’d be fine with only taking what will fit in our cars.</p>

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<p>We have just started the discussion about downsizing and moving closer to our family. Hubby will be retiring in about 4 years so we have time to plan. I’ve started to declutter our house. We have accumulated so much stuff. I have been donating stuff (books, toys, clothes etc) almost every week. The tough part is bringing the stuff up from the basement. I figure in 4 years I will have the majority of stuff gone and I don’t plan on moving much of our furniture except for some sentimental pieces. </p>

<p>We are trying to decide whether to go for a 55+ community or not. The 55+ communities we are looking at doesn’t have a lot of “schedule” activities. They just have the age requirement plus handle all the yard/snow maintenance. The question is should we sell our house first then buy the next place or vice versa? </p>

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<p>We built sold our “big” house two years before DH retired. We rented a small house just a couple of miles away from our old house. So glad we did it that way. Took a lot of worry out of the process. Also since we went from a larger home to a small rental, it forced us to clean out/get rid of all our accumulated stuff that we didn’t need. So when we did move (this past May), we didn’t have to stress over what to do with the “stuff”. It was already done.</p>

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<p>We have so much stuff in storage! When we sold our Ohio house to move to DC, we didn’t know what we would buy/what we would need. Our new condo is SO much smaller but so far we really like it–we have room only for what we really love, no room for clutter. I do miss my gargantuan kitchen, though–especially because we have double of everything, as we keep kosher in our home.</p>

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<p>On a practical note, my sense is that interest rates will start rising again at some point fairly soon. We’re feeling a bit of pressure to actually find the next house before that happens – turns out our new smaller home might actually cost more than our current monstrosity (often referred to as ‘the barn’ because it’s so big and bare and noisy) because of the land involved. We have a 15 year mortgage that will be paid off by the time we’re sixty-two, but would probably sell and move before then, meaning we would have another mortgage, I guess.
Anyone care to share financial details – did you get a mortgage? pay cash? worry about interest rates?</p>

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<p>We have a large 4 bedroom house and have thought of downsizing. However when we talked with our financial planner she pointed out it would be more costly for us to get what we wanted in a smaller home. I also wanted to have enough space that we could have family stay with us and since I love to entertain I want to be able to host family/friends for dinner . H’s parents downsized to a small one bedroom condo years ago and they feel they missed out on being able to have family gatherings for holiday dinners or having family come and visit. </p>

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<p>When we downsized, we had enough in equity that we were able to purchase our smaller house for cash and also have some left over for upgrades. I like not having a mortgage; it makes our cash flow needs less. And until DH and I start taking Social Security, cash flow is irregular.</p>

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<p>In-laws did the big city-to-rural move ten years ago. Really rural–as in “helicopter is needed to get to mediocre small-town hospital.” This year? Moving back to a small city and a small apartment. Health crises have made that essential.</p>

<p>DH and I moved from Seattle suburbs to Portland-close-in-but-not-center six years ago now and I continue to be glad we did. Less work to maintain (although I still have enough land for my dogs). I would like to have slightly less house, but this is okay. </p>

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<p>Also interested in how you handle the financials, I am thinking we could probably take out another mortgage for the new place while the house is for sale. Then once the sale goes through, we could pay off the new mortgage. Still trying to figure it out and would be interested in hearing how you all have handled it.</p>

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<p>Because we knew our house could take a while to sell we decided not to break ground on the new house until the old one had closed. We’re moving to a rental for a year and I am really looking forward to having a break from all the maintenance. We’ll take out a small loan for the new house but will be able to pay it off quickly since the principal will be small and our monthly maintenance and utility costs will be much lower. The new house will not be that much smaller but we’ll have everything we need on the main floor and just heat, use, clean the (walkout) lower level when we have guests.</p>

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<p>We got a construction loan for the new river house we built. Then when we sold our big suburban house (which was paid off), we used the proceeds to pay off the construction loan. We knew we couldn’t make loan payment when DH retired. Our goal was to step into retirement debt free.</p>

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<p>It does feel good to not have a mortgage or other debt when one retires–much more freeing and less stressful.</p>

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<p>Really interesting thread! I have the feeling that what I would want would also be more expensive than what I have, location-wise, and hence would not be downsizing at all.</p>

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<p>I could go smaller… I don’t understand people wanting to live rural when they are aging. 45 minute drive to the grocery store or doctor? Ouch!</p>

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<p>That 20% of what furniture cost you is more than if you keep it and have to accommodate it or, heaven forbid, pay to store it. </p>

<p>Since someone though my last post had some useful ideas here are more.</p>

<p>I love kitchens but was willing to have a smaller one, however we got lucky with this house for size and layout (we renovated- got rid of a lot of PINK- cabinets, counters, floors, walls). We were looking when the market was just recovering. Our old house was on the market 2 1/2 years- we had the luxury of not needing to get out but finally moved once we found this house. We are fortunate to live beneath our means and have had plenty of money to pay more for a smaller place and pay taxes on the old one. Wouldn’t you know, an offer came one week after we moved (thank you to friends and family who took stuff we left behind for when we visited)- a poor offer, but an offer. We had considered renting while still house hunting but got lucky the “perfect” house became available. Life is too short to wait forever, we got lucky the first house we made an offer on did not go through (several months later it sold for what we would have paid- the owners based their asking price on what they owed on it, not its current market value).</p>

<p>Things to consider. Even when paying cash have the house appraised. We did and negotiated a lower price (the elderly lady wondered why we were willing to pay more but then not as much after the appraisal), we paid a bit above that but knew the market was improving here. We also knew if for some reason we had to sell right away we would not get the original price and we knew anyone needing a mortgage would pay less.</p>

<p>We had an inspection of course- but we were not here for it (1300-1400 miles is a bit far for that). We had the owner fix things and give us an allowance for others. We had excellent realtors who took care of the inspection and its second round, looked after the house the month or two before we actually moved et al. The team selling you your out of area place can be a gem. You do not want to move to an entirely different area/climate and need to fix things you have no clue about or know who/where to get things done. We knew some things were getting to replacement stage- just about everything will be done in the next year or so.</p>

<p>You have to plan on moving expenses. We did a lot of packing ourselves (the moving company rep knew H and we got free used boxes, which we then gave to some new neighbors who were moving the next month instead of going the distance or paying to have them picked up). However, we let them pack the dishes, glasses, pictures (and we had to replace two picture glasses- at their expense). We waited to have furniture cleaned until after the move- it can get dirty from short term storage at their facility and used cloths. </p>

<p>Even though we eventually replaced a lot I cleaned cabinets, the 25 year old carpeting (had furniture done then also). We needed to thoroughly clean 25 years of living from closet door louvers as well as wire closet shelves (much cheaper than replacing!). I still need to do more with the old landscaping (waiting for winter here instead of summer there).</p>

<p>We looked at the library system, nearness of a U and a host of other factors. We would have been so out of place in a conservative/Republican over 55 community. Likewise we don’t fit some areas’ religious ideas and made sure we were below the Bible belt. We found we needed a certain sized house to get our comfortable (upper middle?)middle class area. At least we didn’t need to care that much about the best schools, distance to work or any urgency in moving. You need to pay attention to the community, you don’t want to be hermits only enjoying your lot and the weather. Since you will have free time you can’t just bury yourself in your work and ignore where you are.</p>

<p>Do consider costs of living. FL has no state income tax and we found property taxes lower but groceries are higher. House and car insurance are other factors. Water, electricity bills. HOA fees. Paying a lawn care, lawn and house pest control, pool guy are costs we did not have up north. Saving on lot on clothing- think summer casual everywhere!</p>