If you’ve thought about downsizing, you’re not alone.
We always have a steady stream of clients looking to scale back the size of their homes, simplify their home maintenance, and reduce their expenses by downsizing their primary properties.
Unless you have just watched a marathon of Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up on Netflix, downsizing feels like a daunting task. Deciding what to keep and what to get rid of can be overwhelming and paralyzing. Moreover, rethinking how you want to live your life in a smaller space requires recrafting what already may feel perfectly comfortable. However, with some forward thought and planning, the process can be both positive and liberating.
The first thing to do when considering a downsize move is to establish why you want to do so. Maybe downsizing allows you to work less or retire earlier. Perhaps the move will allow more time for family or resources for travel. Maybe the change will simply provide peace of mind.
Our clients who have established their goals and focused on them have found happiness in the downsizing process. Moving because you think you should is never as inspiring as moving because you want to have the capacity to do something more.
Secondly, think about how you are going to use your home in the next five to 10 years, and then prioritize your wants and needs. Perhaps you love to restore cars and a three-car garage is a priority. For someone else, a gated community, with included yard maintenance, is key because they desire to travel more. Another person may just want to eliminate the mortgage to have more financial freedom.
The challenge with downsizing is that most clients have everything they want in their current home. So, the process of giving something up feels uncomfortable.
Next, evaluate the costs. If you are downsizing to reduce expenses, carefully consider your current home expenses. Run scenarios for what costs might be associated with a move and establishing your next home (we can help with this).
Perhaps your idea is to move from a single-family home into a condo. This sounds like a great idea. However, will it really be less expensive? HOA fees in condo communities normally are much higher than traditional HOA fees. So, it is worth taking the numbers into account.
Also, smaller homes are in demand, so sometimes it costs the same amount to move into a smaller, newer home than it would to stay in your existing home. Because of this, many clients who start out with the intention of downsizing have found that it makes more financial sense to stay put, do a remodel and hire a maintenance service.
After answering the why, how and where questions associated with your situation, we recommend starting with a pre-move to prioritize what items in your home you wish to keep. When downsizing, it usually is not possible to take all the items from a 3,500-square-foot, three-car garage home and comfortably fit them into a 1,600-square-foot condo with a two-car garage.
We will admit this part of downsizing can be a difficult process, but try to focus on keeping the things you love and will use every day and not as much on the items you might need one day or should keep.
One of our clients, who recently downsized, told us that she got rid of her everyday dishes and decided that from now on she would just use her Waterford glasses, fine china and sterling silver. “With our luck, our kids will just donate the lot to Goodwill,” she said. “So, we may as well enjoy our beautiful things every day starting now.”
In addition to slowly starting the pre-move, it is critically important to get out and start looking at what type of housing options are available. We find that clients often need six months to a year to wrap their heads around what they are looking for and what compromises they are willing to make, and blend that with what actually is available in the marketplace and within their budget.
While it all sounds daunting, we are here to help. Don’t hesitate to contact us at (480) 568-8680, and let us help you talk through the downsizing process and make a plan.
John Karadsheh is the Designated Broker for KOR Properties. He has been a Multi-Million Dollar producing agent for more than 16 years, and is an Accredited Buyers Representative (ABR) and Certified Residential Specialist (CRS). In 2014, John was voted the No. 1 Real Estate Agent in Arizona by Ranking Arizona. You can reach John at (480) 568-8684, or visit his website at KORproperties.com.
KOR Properties is a boutique real estate brokerage serving the Valley of the Sun, and the creator and founding sponsor of Mesa Food Truck Fridays.