Downsizing: choose your next life before your next floor plan
By Jo Wright, Real Estate Broker · Right At Home Realty, Brokerage ·
Downsizing sounds straightforward until you start doing it.
You’re choosing a home, sorting through years of belongings and deciding whether the dining table deserves to dictate the next chapter of your life.
Sometimes it needs a firm talking-to.
Start with what you want to make easier
Less maintenance? Fewer stairs? More freedom to travel? Being closer to family, shops or the places you use every week?
Those priorities should guide the search.
A smaller home can still involve stairs, gardening or awkward storage. A condominium may reduce some maintenance responsibilities, but you’ll want to understand its fees, rules and how the building operates.
“Smaller” and “simpler” don’t always mean the same thing.
Test the layout against an ordinary day
Think about carrying groceries inside, doing laundry, having visitors and getting out for a walk.
Where will the things you use regularly go? Is there room for a guest, a hobby or a quiet corner? If you have dogs, how practical is getting outside several times a day?
A floor plan needs to work on a wet Tuesday as well as it does in the listing photographs.
Look at the full financial picture
Consider selling and moving costs, the purchase costs of the next property and its ongoing expenses. If releasing equity is part of the plan, work through the figures with the appropriate advisers before assuming what will be available.
Give the decisions some breathing room
Start sorting before a moving date turns every cupboard into an emergency.
You don’t have to decide everything at once. A clear picture of the next home makes it easier to decide what comes with you.
The question you should have asked: What do I want my next home to make easier?
If a move is on your mind, we can start there.
Jo Wright, Real Estate Broker
The Wright Move Team | Right At Home Realty, Brokerage
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