By Brendan Leahy, Naked Real Estate®
I get paid when you list, so of course I would rather you moved sooner than later. Bear that in mind while you read this, and note that most of what follows is about not rushing.
This is the question I get more than any other from Hills owners in their seventies and eighties.
How am I ever going to get used to something smaller?
You have a big block. You have space you never think about. And somewhere down the hill is a house that would suit you better, on land you can actually manage, but it feels like giving something up.
Do not overthink it
My advice is always the same. Start looking. Do not commit to anything. Just look.
You will be surprised what is out there, and you will know the right one when you walk into it. It just feels right. That sounds soft for a bloke who deals in numbers, but after more than 1,500 personal sales since 2002, it is what I have watched happen over and over.
There are two things people find hardest, and it is worth naming them now.
Neighbours being closer. Smaller rooms.
Those two take time to get your head around, and that is normal.
Why this is not a logical decision
Here is the part most agents get wrong. They treat downsizing like arithmetic. It is not.
You look out the kitchen window and you see John climbing the tree and falling out and hurting his knee. Mary tripping over skipping on the path. Water bombs in the pool. The dog running around the back lawn.
Those memories are not distant. For most of us, including me, they feel like yesterday.
So no, you should not be rushed. Anyone who rushes you is thinking about their own diary.
The Mount Nasura sale that made the point
I sold a home in Mount Nasura for a lady in her late eighties. Two thousand square metres, a five by two with a lovely Hills outlook. She and her husband had built it, and she raised her family in it.
The family knew the home had become too big for her, now that she was on her own. Her children had looked after both her and the property beautifully, but they had their own families to look after as well.
She was still very active. Her friends were nearby, along with her church group and her quilting club
She had three worries.
She did not want to leave the area or her community.
She wanted room for the grandchildren to stay.
She wanted an outlook, and somewhere she felt safe.
We did not have to rush, and that changed everything
Because her children were local, she had a fallback. If we sold and had not found anything, she could stay with one of them while we kept looking.
That one fact took all the pressure off. She was not going to be forced into a decision by a settlement date.
As it turned out, the week we got an offer on her place, I listed a home in Seville Grove. Quiet cul-de-sac, public open space directly opposite, five hundred square metres, a four by two. Room for the grandchildren. Room for her quilting machine. And nothing to spend on it. She could move in as it was.
She was still close to her friends, her church and her quilting group.
She lived there happily for the rest of her life.
The part nobody expects
The best thing about it was not the house.
Before the move, every time the family came over there was something to do. The old house always needed something. Two thousand square metres does not look after itself. Visits turned into work.
Afterwards, they could turn up, cook lunch or dinner with her and the grandkids, and just enjoy themselves.
That is worth more than the difference in the two prices.
The mistake I see most
It is not choosing the wrong house.
It is not choosing at all.
The decision gets put off, sometimes for years, usually for a mix of reasons. Emotion. Fear of the unknown. And money: what will we sell for, what will we buy for, and will there be enough left to live on?
Then there are the parents who start thinking about leaving something for the children.
My answer there is usually the same. Worry about yourselves at this stage of life. Your children can look after themselves.
There is one situation where that answer is not good enough, and I will not pretend otherwise. Some parents have an adult child with a disability still living at home, and they need to make provision for them. That is the hardest version of this conversation and there is no easy answer to it. What I say is to talk to a solicitor and a financial adviser who deal with this properly, and to get advice from the support services in that area, before making any decision about the house.
What I would actually do
Look without committing. Give yourself months, not weeks.
Work out if you have a fallback, somewhere to stay if the sale happens before the purchase. It takes enormous pressure off.
Be honest about what you actually need. Room for grandchildren, an outlook, somewhere you feel safe, a shed, a spot for the quilting machine. Write it down. It is a shorter list than people expect.
And think about who does the work on the garden. If it is your children, every visit, that is part of the equation too.
Thinking about it in Bedfordale, Roleystone, Kelmscott, Mount Nasura, Mount Richon or Seville Grove?
I will tell you what I think your home is worth and what I would do, including if I think you should wait.
Book a free Perth Hills and Foothills property appraisal
Truth. Strategy. Sold.
About the author: Brendan Leahy has been selling homes throughout the Perth Hills and Foothills since 2002, with more than 1,500 personal sales.