Downsizing Your Home Without Regrets

No matter how magnificent or how exceptional your house may be, you’d have to release it at a point and use the funds realized to move on and hang your hat in a new place.

It seems that all generations are making these decisions today. The aging population is downsizing faster than a speeding bullet. Households, where kids are leaving to college, don’t need those empty bedrooms. And people of all ages and income brackets are opting for the minimalist lifestyle. Millennials are especially open to living small so that their lives are big.

The truth is, at retirement, the government’s pension scheme may not be sufficient to satisfy us for the rest of our lives, and so, we look sideways for extra income.

Our property such as homes could be in consideration at this point because it is one of the biggest investments we’ve made in our lives.

When critical moments of needs arise, the idea of downsizing your home may not be a totally bad idea.

You can sell that family home of yours for top dollar or sell it below market to an iBuyer who will gladly resell it for a handsome profit.

Since we all value our long-time family homes and wouldn’t want to incur much loss and other forms of regrets upon selling, here are some critical downsizing mistakes you be aware of and work to avoid:

It is a common thing for us humans to be very slow in making decisions that have to do with our past lives. For example, this is your family house. You’ve lived here ever since you were a kid. Your parents died in that house, you got married, gave birth to your kids while living in that house, and other memorable events took place in that same house. You have become totally emotionally attached to your history with the house. Downsizing your home would almost become an impossible idea.

How Do You Cope with This?

Firstly, you have to accept reality and disconnect yourself from any form of emotional attachment. You should accept the reality of your present situation and be prepared to break any sort of emotional attachments. We can achieve this by writing down your plans and carry them out swiftly. You should keep in mind that the past is gone and you can’t catch up with it anymore. If there’s anything, you will need to catch up with, its the future. Never let any sort of emotional attachment stop you from downsizing your home at moments when it is very important especially after retirement or when a need arises. Make the decision and swing into action as fast as you possibly can.

We know the phrase by heart “proper planning prevents poor performance,” but we almost never put it into use. The key to downsizing your home quickly by taking proper decisions can only be possible if you have effective plans on ground. Planning effectively starts with writing down your thoughts according to their weight of importance and executing them one after the other.

In What Ways Will This Help You?

I. It will bring all your attention to a focus. You will know exactly what to worry about and what not to. How much to sell your house for? How do you get an agent? What is your new environment like? etc. When you plan this way, you will know where your real headache is, they’ll become so visible that you’ll know exactly what to do. Hint: declutter, box up those belongings, and call your local trusted real estate advisor.

II. Planning effectively will make downsizing extremely easy. When you plan, make a list of all you would do ranked according to importance and urgency, e.g., what am I going to do first. After that, what next? In case this doesn’t happen, what do I do? Etc.

After you have planned this way, take swift actions. Since you have identified your problems and ranked them according to their demands, when you focus and take actions, everything would fall in line because the solution to a problem will pave the way for the next making the process a lot easier.

Downsizing is not an easy task. When you fail to plan effectively, a fault in your plans might ruin the whole process. Perhaps this is why some people freeze up and stay put even when it’s obvious that they should have moved years ago.

You may have succeeded in downsizing your home. What about your lifestyle? Did it downsize as well? Your lifestyle is actually important, don’t live a boring life in your new environment. Lifestyle will generally mean the way you live, what you enjoy doing and how you relate with your environment. How will your new life be? What will it look like? Like most retirees, would you like to move to a community of older residents?

Would you still want to do what you love? For instance, in your present home, you jog every morning. When you get to your new home, will the busy neighborhood still permit you to jog? You have to put this into consideration as well. You must find the best fit environment before you downsize your home if you don’t want to have regrets later on.

Since you are in your latter days, you will undoubtedly have friends in your age group as well. Probably some of your friends would have had the same experience in the past. You can ask how they successfully downsized their homes and how they managed the process. This certainly would provide you with better ideas of likely things you are about to face and experience.

Seek help from good and reliable agents about sales of homes, getting a new and comfortable home, about the best environments to live in, etc. The advise you receive here will be very useful if you are barking up the right tree. Just make sure you are reaching out to the right people before you start etching your plans in stone. You will gain insight into some hidden factors you have may have neglected to notice. Once you have figured this out, fix them into your plans and execute them accordingly.

There’s every probability that you might have few of your kids still living with you. If this is the case, the sooner you begin to involve them in the plan the better. You know kids, they can be so used to the environment, close door friends and all. Relocating all of a sudden can rattle them, and nags of going back to your previous house might be an emotional jolt that derails your well-laid plans for their life.

Before you go on with downsizing your home, make sure you give proper thought to all the factors above. When you do, you should feel good about downsizing your house successfully without having regrets.

You can also choose between plenty of cheap moving supplies when you are completely decided. As we know moving is one of the most difficult tasks.

How to Overcome the Fear, Stress, and Pain of Downsizing – by Eileen Anderson

Tips for Downsizing Your Home – by Debbie Drummond

Tips for Downsizing Your Home – by Petra Norris

Downsizing Mistakes to Avoid – by Bill Gassett

When You First Move Into Your New Home? – by Geoff Southworth