Downsizing 30

What is Downsizing

In essence, downsizing means moving to a smaller house, often out of your family home. Downsizing for retirement is a great way to save money on mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, utility costs and more. But what downsizing truly means is that you’re gaining freedom, following a dream, exploring new opportunities, adapting your place to suit your stage of life, and creating a new life for you to enjoy your golden years. It’s about making a fulfilling and enjoyable new start!

Make the decision

To know whether you need to downsize or not, give yourself some time, discuss and share your thoughts with your family and friends and gather different points of view.  Over time, as individuals become families, and their income grows, a multi-bedroom home becomes the property of choice.

Later in life, children move out, and the home is filled with memories rather than people.  Typically, at this point, there is no longer a need to pay the expenses that come with a large home.

Considering all the reasons that make you want to downsize is essential. They could be linked to financial or lifestyle factors. You might want to downsize to:

  • Reduce your debts,
  • Reduce the maintenance linked to your current home,
  • Move to an urban area,
  • Change of climate,
  • Rearrange your living areas…
 

These reasons and decisions are very specific to you, your lifestyle, and your needs. You should not do it if you feel pushed, rushed, or uncertain.

We also recommend that you get legal and financial advice before making the decision as not only the emotional aspect of the decision needs to be considered but also the financial one.

Decluttering

Declutter

As downsizing means moving to a smaller property, de-cluttering your house is one of the most critical parts of the process.

Going through our belongings can be a highly emotionally charged stage as this is about “letting go” of items and furniture you may have had (or have been hoarding) for many years. For this reason, we recommend that you don’t rush and rather start each area at a time, organising your belongings into three different piles: “keeping”, “giving”, and “selling”.

You might want to keep or give specific things to which you have a strong emotional attachment and sell the other ones.

During this phase, you will probably discover that you have accumulated much more things than you would have suspected. Thus, working with a decluttering expert can be extremely beneficial as it will give you valuable tips and advice while helping you throughout the whole process by forcing you not to create a “might want to keep” option.

We work with a range of decluttering experts and professional organizers to help our clients simplify their lives and decrease stress in this area.

real estate agent

Finding the right selling agent

Downsizing can be liberating. Selling your family home involves a huge effort, particularly preparing your home to look its best for sale. 

Engaging a knowledgeable and experienced selling agent that understands your needs can be one of the best tools for success.

Your selling agent can also act as a market reporter and provide valuable advice.   As the property market moves in cycles that bring prices up or pushes them down, it’s important to understand the market, the national macro trends, and the trends in your local area. These trends will set the price expectations for your property sale.

A professional real estate agent would be engaged in their local market every day, giving you access to insider knowledge to maximise the selling price of your property – no matter the market conditions.

We recommend interviewing 2-3 of the top local agents in your area before deciding whom to engage.  Don’t feel pressured on choosing between agents.  Select the agent that you connect with most who you feel has your best interest in mind.

To make things easier for you, here is a selling agent interview questionnaire you can download to assist with your selection process.

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Home improvements

Before putting your property on the market, consider making improvement and repairs as a business decision.   

You must always consider if the renovations will add value to your property immediately and will you be able to sell the property for a higher price?

Remember, you are not renovating your home so you can enjoy the end result, you are purely doing it to attract more buyers and add value. That also means that you should not renovate with your personal taste in mind, but with what the market expects.

Renovations before selling are all about following the crowd, playing it safe, not overspending and never allowing your personal tastes to dominate. It is about giving your buying audience what they want.  Your selling agent will be able to guide you through this process as they understand what buyers in the market are looking for.

staging

Staging - styling your home for success

Home-staging is arranging furniture and decorations in a way that makes the home appealing to the highest possible number of potential buyers. This leads to an increase in competition, which drives the property value up and leads to a quicker sale for a higher price.

A recent survey from the International Association of Home Staging Professionals shows that staging helps sell homes between 3 to 30 times faster than the nonstaged competition. Further, staging can help increase the sale price by up to 20% on average.

Staging your home with an experienced stylist give you the best chance to make your listing stand out, sell your home faster and for the highest possible price.

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Building and pest reports

A building and pest report that follows Australian Standards and Quality Guidelines provides the seller with a guide on what they need to repair prior to listing the property for sale.  Once the repairs are complete another building and pest report can be undertaken to provide evidence that the property is in good condition.            

A building and pest report is very important information for a potential buyer to ensure there are no readily identifiable issues such as mould, structural damage, rotting timber and pests, etc. This provides the buyer with assurance the property is in good condition.

 

With a building and pest report in hand, the seller portrays a strong sense of honesty and good will.

realistic

Be realistic

During the whole downsizing process, be realistic!

The price you are asking for your property is a key decision when selling your home. The property market is very price sensitive at this point in time and many buyers will overlook a property if they feel it is overpriced.

However, it can be very tricky determining and pinpointing the value of individual properties in the current climate and it certainly demands expertise and experience to price realistically and correctly.

If your home is priced too high, you may price yourself out of the market and may not sell it for a long while.  If the price it too low and you may miss out.

Choosing the right estate agent is vital as a good agent should be setting a price that is as high as possible but one that will still attract the right buyer.

Being realistic also applies to every area of the downsizing process including de-cluttering and your budget for styling & home improvements.

lifestyle

Finding the right place to buy

While looking for the right place to buy, consider the lifestyle you are seeking!

This will be one of the most important decisions you will take, so make a list of what you absolutely cannot live without to find a place where you can live in total comfort.

To do so, you will need to consider your needs and wants, your hobbies and daily routine, and the major elements that make you want to downsize, whether it is because you want to get closer to your family, live in a community, go beach walking, be located closer to shops and transport, etc.

The retirement living and aged care industries are a rapidly growing market that offer a well-balanced lifestyle with a strong emphasis on community and care.   Major real estate directories such as realestate.com.au and domain now offer search filters for retirement living to assist downsizers on finding the right place to buy.

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Moving Out & In

Last but not least, the final step is Moving Day!

This day should be planned well in advance with the right removalist to make the whole process runs smooth and easy.  

A professional moving service knows the most efficient way to pack your belongings to prevent breakage and make things easier to find.

To be well managed, you can create a moving checklist from the pre-move stage, to sorting and packing, and finally moving day. Your removalists will systematically move larger items first, so that you will have plenty of space to place your furniture at its exact place, before moving smaller and decorative items.

To ease the unpacking process, a small tip for you is to pack similar items together using stickers and colours.

And don’t forget less is more!   

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