Tales of a Veteran Home Buyer: Deciding to Downsize

Editor's Note: We've decided to launch a "spin-off" series of blog posts, following up on our popular Tales of a First-Time Homebuyer series written by our multi-talented commercial inspection report writer, Paul Picard. This will look at the process of selling and buying a home from the perspective of a family who has been through it several times before.

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Preparing to sell a home is never an easy choice or chore, especially in today’s market. Heartstrings are tugged when thinking of moving from a home where you’ve raised your children, built lifetime memories, and established friendships with neighbors.

My husband and I have looked at this from several different angles. From a financial point of view, the timing is right for us. We have enough equity in our house to sell it and pay cash for a smaller home. We both really like the idea of not having a mortgage payment, a very sweet spot. It’s most definitely the right time to buy as we’re seeing great properties at great prices.

From a real estate market point of view, it’s not the best time to sell. There are no guarantees that we’ll sell the first week, the first month or the first year on the market. There’s no guarantee we’ll get an acceptable offer as I’m sure most buyers (myself included) would be looking for a place they love at a bargain. And, as most sellers are probably thinking, I don’t want to sell my house for a bargain.

From a personal point of view, we’re still a few years away from being empty nesters. Right now, four of us are sharing 3500 square feet, more than enough. What we would look for now would be different say in three years when it’s just the two of us. Will it be a condo, a patio home or a cute smaller home of say, 1500 square feet?

So, we’ve decided to start working on the house to place it on the market. Truth be known, he’s more excited and pumped about it than I. The thought of simplifying and getting rid of clutter sounds wonderful, but simplifying can be bittersweet and frankly, I just like my stuff.

Come follow me as I blog my journey in preparing my home for the market. Yikes!