Long term planning of selling your home?

[Sigarms]

Had a somewhat serious discussion with the wife about selling our home to downsize in the future.

This will be a major pain in the butt process.

Wife is looking at retiring in the next 5 years or so, and that is when we no longer want to be in our current home. Me, I just love to work and will probably do so for another 10 years.

This has been the only home I've ever bought. Would be my wife's second as she bought when she moved to NC and I rented. House is WAY to big for us now that we are empty nesters, and it gets harder and harder to keep up with the work around the place on either of our ends.

Thought process is to get a paid evaluation on the home in the market place, what recommended work needs to be looked for a quicker sale vs increasing the value of the home and plan on that work over the next 5 years.

Looking at the rate of inflation from when we bought the house and seeing what's in the market now, given the house and property size, I'm thinking that should not be a problem.

Then the question becomes do we buy land and build new, or look around in the meantime to see if something appears that we could buy?

House and land is paid off, and if we were to buy, we could pretty much afford 20% down or buy a couple of acres with the plan to building a smaller house.

Here is the key question... if you're looking at selling your home in 5 years, exactly when do you start the process and plan? Reality is real estate market could be completely different in another 5 years and I'm kind of scratching my head on exactly where to start and when.

Just looking from advice from people who have been down this road.

Thanks!

 

[riptides]

...

Here is the key question... if you're looking at selling your home in 5 years, exactly when do you start the process and plan? Reality is real estate market could be completely different in another 5 years and I'm kind of scratching my head on exactly where to start and when.

...

Personally we have not planned to move or have made a move in 30 years.

But speaking from experience with current and past family members, the sooner you start making formal plans to move the better. For you, that seems like now. One does not want to get to a point where one has to:
- move because of medical or financial issues
- move because they just cannot keep up with home ownership
- move because the homestead/area can no longer support the person

Downsizing and getting rid of stuff looks to be a common thread in all my families moves.

Finding out exactly where they want to be is turning out to be elusive. One family member retired, relocated and built their new retirement home. They now are looking for a different property.

One has to take a final stand somewhere, best you can check off all the needs and wants soonest before someone or something else makes or forces you to make the move.

Start now, best of luck! Five years is no time at all.

 

[mikester]

I don't buy the "spend money to renovate to sell the house" plan because the buyers will likely tear everything you added out and replace it with something to their own taste. Renovating and hoping to please an unknown someone else is good money thrown away IMHO.

I'd recommend renovating now for YOU to enjoy your home for the next 5 years. Then sell. Re-paint before you list.

Or sell now and buy/build new. That will give you 5-10 years of no to low headaches. If you are still spry then do it again, else buy a condo and only worry about the paint on the inside walls.

 

[Hay Dude]

I’m selling my home right now. We are going to probably rent, wait for the upcoming financial collapse (which I hear from reliable sources is going to be epic) and then buy when the RE market bottoms out.
I somewhat missed the peak of the market last year, but am still going to do pretty well. We can pay our rented house monthly rent with interest on the money from selling our home almost in perpetuity.

 

[riptides]

Rent prices exceed mortgage amounts in my area right now. A decent apartment will run one close to 3k a month. Availability exceeds supply.

I'd say another factor in the OP choices is employment. That could dictate area/location and quite possibly size of homestead.

 

[Oaktree]

I don't buy the "spend money to renovate to sell the house" plan because the buyers will likely tear everything you added out and replace it with something to their own taste. Renovating and hoping to please an unknown someone else is good money thrown away IMHO.

I'd recommend renovating now for YOU to enjoy your home for the next 5 years. Then sell. Re-paint before you list.

Or sell now and buy/build new. That will give you 5-10 years of no to low headaches. If you are still spry then do it again, else buy a condo and only worry about the paint on the inside walls.

Agree with most of what you said. I shake my head when I see these articles online about "dated" features in houses, and what you should do to make it more appealing to buyers. Thing is, you won't get most of that money spent back and no guarantee it will make the house easier to sell.
Totally different if the house needs a new roof or something like that, buyer could easily make a sale contingent on those repairs.

As far as building new, not for me. For one thing, I find most new houses very boring, cookie-cutter and kind of sterile. I also rather strongly dislike the continued sprawl, of what was once open space being carved up into building lots...I'm not going to contribute to that!

Rent prices exceed mortgage amounts in my area right now. A decent apartment will run one close to 3k a month. Availability exceeds supply.

An apartment pretty much implies living in town. Are you going to be happy living like that?
Personally, I plan to stay in this house until they take me out in a body bag.

 

[andre3k]

I can't see selling a paid off property only to have a mortgage at today's rate when I'm retired. When I'm retired the one thing I definitely don't want is a mortgage. How big is your current home and property?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Rent prices exceed mortgage amounts in my area right now. A decent apartment will run one close to 3k a month. Availability exceeds supply.

I'd say another factor in the OP choices is employment. That could dictate area/location and quite possibly size of homestead.

I see that here also. People can't even find places to buy or rent, and they are building like crazy. Where are all these people coming from?

 

[sandman2234]

We purchased our retirement home 2 years ago and have it rented, so that we will have a place to move to once we get tired of climbing stairs in our 2 story home!
David from jax

 

[Rustyiron]

Have you thought about selling and holding the mortgage?
I did this after renting it for 15 years of mostly income. This was a "gentleman's farm" of 130 ac. But it's providing almost a 5 figure monthly income that will probably end up belonging to the kids.
The buyers hopped right on 6% owner financing as it would have a different threshold for qualifying being considered a "jumbo" loan.
There are tax benefits as well.