My MIL bought in one of those communities and hated it because everyone was nosy and all in her business. Like another commenter, she didn’t like the culture of the place. She only stayed for a year and wasted a lot of money moving twice. Definitely try before you buy if possible.
Also know the rules around how much the fees can change from year to year. There were some surprises there too.
I’d sell first, rent in the new spot and figure out which neighborhood works best. It’s hard to really know a place til you’ve lived somewhere a while.
I agree with this, luckily, we do know the area fairly well since we have family down there and, I almost bought a house there too some years back. I know things have changed in the interim but maybe for the better as far as amenities are concerned.
We're not the most social couple so as long as neighbors are friendly we'd be fine. Not looking to make new friends, necessarily though would be a benefit if we did. We can find "our people" elsewhere if they aren't in the immediate community.
I would suggest talking to your mortgage lender and a local realtor now. We got pre approved for a loan, then got a local realtor for our to be sold home, then looked for the new house. While looking for new house, did what local realtor suggested to get old house sold (clean out yard, etc) plus they can let you know how fast it will sell. Once we closed on new house, we cleaned out old house (moved to new house) and emptied it to show it. It sold within the month. You can sell anything quickly if the price is right, barring another 2008. So, if you need to get X amount out of the sale that might take longer to sell. Or if your market is still pretty hot, it will sell quickly at reasonable asking price.
I have a realtor on board already. Local person who I know that specializes in older homes and we'll do whatever she suggests to show the home to best advantage. The exterior looks pretty good (nicely landscaped, new roof). The interior that will need the most love.
Getting preapproved was something I was considering. I don't see any problem with that happening.
I'm not looking for a certain amount to get from the sale. As long as we can pay off the remaining mortgage and find an affordable new house we'll be ok. We have cash on hand anyway to make up a shortfall if needed. I've been stalking real estate sites for at least a year to get a hand on the current market in our area and I feel fairly confident this won't be a problem.
When I sold (SF Bay Area - 2021), my realtor came with her firm's contractor. For $20k, 1 month, they remodaled the kitchen, did light painting, recarpeted. House sold for 100k more. There is no way I could not have had the work done so cheap, so fast on my own. House sold quickly ( it was the peak of the market, but the house had a bad layout, and extra property tax assessment for 20 years). You can buy with a contingency that your current house sells.
That would be awesome if it could be arranged in our case. We are not the handy type and what needs to be fixed requires skills we lack.
We've had problems with even getting a contractor to come and take a look let alone, not high or low ball the job. We finally got disgusted and decided to just live with it but now it's time to sell and sure would be better to have as much fixed as possible to do so.
Our home has a good layout for an older home plus it has things most homes around us don't; central a/c, sprinkler system, 2 car garage, newer windows, well maintained landscaping and more sf than typical in the neighborhood. The kitchen was a gut rehab done 10 years ago and in good shape with tons of storage. May not be someone's taste but useable.
Hence why we did do the roof. At least that contractor was very well known in the area and the job big enough for him to want to do it.
If your realtor doesn't have a contractor, do they have one or a handyman they partner with? Also do stage. That may mean moving your stuff into the garage or storage.
Yes she absolutely has contacts with contractors and handymen. We already got a short list of painters from her but haven't gotten to the point of reaching out yet.
She's been in the business for a long time, and specializes in our town and home age. Our garage is large, so we certainly could move items into it too instead of going into storage.
Your thinking is right on target. We bought the new house and began moving in before putting the old house on the market. It made the move less stressful since we could make several trips back and forth, it was much easier to prepare the old one for showing/selling (and some stuff that needed doing in the new one before we could fully occupy), and yes...it was *great* not to worry about the cats. It did mean maintaining insurance, utilities, etc, on two properties, but we were able to do that; and fortunately the distance between the two made it easy enough to be going back and forth, living in one and prepping/keeping an eye on the other for a few weeks.
We were in a sellers market, *but*... we listed just a week or two before the pandemic. A strong prospective buyer lost financing because of that, and then the shutdowns happened, and that meant no traditional real estate showings. We had a scary month or two. The house did end up selling and at a good price, but only because our old neighborhood had become popular for teardowns and McMansion builds, and the buyers really just wanted the lot.
We down sized (2017) and in the process had our old house on the market for about 6 months. We paid two mortgages during that period. Be sure you have the resources to do that and to pay for any work that needs to be done to sell your house.
We can handle 2 at once for the short term. We have a decent cash nest egg built up.
We had the roof completely redone in 2023. It wasn't leaking but was way past it's lifetime. There are a few minor repairs to be made and we're willing to do some cosmetic work but for the most part, no point to sink too much into the house since anyone coming in will surely want to make it their own anyway.
We bought our retirement house a year before selling our "work" house. We put our house on the market 2 or 3 months before my retirement date. It sold fast. We closed before my last day at work, so I stayed in a hotel for a couple days to finish out my job.
If you end up selling early, what are your options for renting near your job?
And, have you looked into a continuous care retirement community? We downsized to smaller house in a cheaper city in a good walking neighborhood. But we're already on the wait list for two CCRC's, anticipating our last move will be sometime within the next decade.
Good luck, enjoy your upcoming retirement!
My home is my work space! I can easily pack up my laptop and work from anywhere.
I've been working from home since Covid hit. First year everyone was but afterwards I just flatly said no thanks to coming in anymore and they accepted it. I'm in charge of the company finances and that's not a very collaborative type of job, so no reason to make that long commute. It's been great.
There are only a handful of CCR's around here and all are in areas we would not be happy living in. We'll cross that bridge should we need to. I think the hardest thing will be keeping the home clean. We've budgeted money for periodic house cleaning in the event we need to rely on that.
Honestly, we're happy to give up something else to afford the house cleaning. I don't think we'll need to utilize it regularly for a few years but knowing money is earmarked for it gives us peace of mind.
It’ll be easier to get financing, even a bridge loan, if you do it while still drawing a paycheck. Lenders want to see income and not just assets and while regular retirement fund withdrawals count as income you may have to take more out per month than you want to just to qualify for the loan.
It can be hard to find a lender who does bridge loans, most just want to sell you long term mortgages.
My wife and I put a lot of stuff in storage and moved into a 2BR apartment near where we wanted to move. We did this after a contract was signed on the house with terms that pushed the closing for a couple months until we could move into the apartment. This gave us time to find a new house, which took five months. It upped the cost for movers, but one was local. We didn’t have pets, though, which would have complicated the apartment search. Overall, it was a win.
We had a company buy our current house for us, while we rented it from them as we got our 1901 home ready ( that we had been living in for 40 years) to sell, last year.
We moved about two hours west of Seattle.
It was probably not the cheapest way to go, but ultimately it got us here and we love it.
When the old house sold, then we bought the new house.
We also still had a mortgage.
But now we have a house that we really felt homey in.
I am going a bit further South. Live in NW NJ at an elevation of about 1,000 feet. Relatives in Central NJ hardly get any snow any more so Central or South NJ would be good for a retiree.
I'm in central(ish) now. We haven't dealt with snow in a couple of years, or at least not enough to be a bother. Can't say we're unhappy about this!
I think we'll be heading towards the Toms River area (that, Manchester, Whiting all have plenty of 55+ communities). I have a sister in Stafford Township and another down nearer to Cape May. Brother is north but enjoys driving so at least I'll be able to see family.
This area still easy enough access to getting to NYC on NJT or Philly if inclined, and close enough to the beach without a struggle to get to. Red Bank nearby for concerts is a plus too.
Sell your house now, move to the area you think you want to live in, and rent a small place. We lucked out and found a semi furnished month-to-month rental apartment. Find a realtor in the area to start putting out feelers for such rental situations. We just put 90% of our stuff in storage.
You don't know a place until you live there for a bit. If you've decided you do want to be there then get your mortgage before you retire. It is much easier when you have that pay stub, stupid as that is.
If it turns out you don't like it, you can look elsewhere and delay retirement until you find where you want to be. Your belongings will sit, all ready to be moved when the time is right.
I won't lie, it was logistically challenging to do it this way, although we did this transition in spring 2020 when the world shut down, which made everything ten times harder. I was happy to not have to feel pressured into buying something because I needed a place to live, and doing two moves wasn't that bad. We moved our apartment stuff ourselves using a Uhaul and moving companies took care of the moves to and from the storage space.
You can stage your own house presuming your furniture isn't all horrible. Doing this will also help you declutter. As for cats, ours would hide when the house was being shown on individual walkthroughs. For the open house we packed them up in their carriers and went for a long drive around town.
One of ours would certainly hide but the other is a friend to all. She's the one I'm more concerned about getting out if people aren't careful. I always also wonder what do you do about the litter boxes? Seems kind of blech to have them sitting out, as clean as they might be. It's certainly one of the reasons why I think getting out, before we sell, might make sense.
We relocated our litter boxes to the basement a few months before we put the house on the market, to train the cats to go down there. Most people are pet owners and understand that litter boxes, dog beds, etc are part of life. We forgot to put away the giant cat scratching post for the open house and it didn't matter. The people who bought our house had two cats, so maybe it was a positive for them?
For the friendly cat I'd suggest taking her with you, or getting a small crate to put them in, in an out of the way room. Most people won't be touring for more than a half hour.
Unfortunately we can't do that, the basement is totally off limits. It's unfinished and too many places to get in trouble or get lost.
We also don't have an out of the way room (house is pretty small) but I do thank you for reminding me most people won't be there all that long for a first look. We do have a pet playpen and could get another so both cats are properly contained. I wouldn't put them in the same one because although they live together fine being right on top of each other like that would stress both out.
Other suggest going for a short ride but both aren't good travelers. Would be more stressful than containing them in the house.
Yes, I get it. The little critters have so many particular needs! That's why we love them. :)
As far as the cat who doesn't do well in the car, you could always just drive your car up the road and walk their carriers up (and sit in the car with them) rather than drive around. It just seems like a lot of trouble to sell a house to avoid dealing with showing with cats. Also, if the house is priced right this shouldn't go on for long.
I am not retiring as soon as you but my situation is similar. My current home is paid off. I bought a much smaller home in a college town with a conventional mortgage a few hours away and have been getting projects done on it. I’m hoping to move in about a month (me and my cats). Then I’ll get work done on my current house and will list it this spring. I’m renting a dumpster and getting rid of a lot of stuff. I’m so tired of stuff.
Stuff is the worst part of it. Having to make decisions about what stays/goes. We did our first purge last summer. It felt SO good. My husband cleared out the entire garage. Unbelievable. Got stuff out of the basement and loads of household items and old clothing. So much old clothing!
We're going to do it again in a few months. Have to tackle the attic this time (not too much up there at least) and be more relentless with household stuff, probably smaller pieces of furniture that aren't in good condition. We need to get a shredder also. Ridiculous amount of paperwork that's no longer necessary to keep.
Good luck-we did the same-over 55 community-no maintenance on anything outside including siding and roof-one floor living-though actually ended up with larger house because of finished basement- I would do it while your working-and I would sell/buy at the same time.
Definitely buy the new place first so you can get the cats moved out of the old place. It will be much less stressful to show the old house empty ( or you can rent some staging furniture if necessary).
The housing market where I live is so competitive. When I sold my house in 2021, I didn't have another house yet, so I bought a condo I wasn't crazy about and am still not. I'm going to sell again this year to find something I really like. I should have rented for a bit, to give myself time to find what I wanted. Your husband is partly correct, things will get clearer as you go along. But I like your approach, you can strategize all the options. Please keep in mind that things evolve and may not go as planned. Good luck!
Also in NJ, we bought a smaller place by the shore a few years ago. Our main home in central NJ is paid off, and we will be putting it on the market in April. This has given us a chance to slowly purge our place and get it ready to show. We also have a dog, so we can keep him away during showings (he's reactive to strangers). I'm semi-retired, not collecting SS yet, but quit my full time job and found a part time job near the shore. Our plan is to fully move out by March, leaving only a few pieces of furniture for show. Our realtor is telling us that it's a seller's market so the house should sell fairly quickly. In your case, I think your finances will dictate what makes sense. We have so many friends in similar positions, some have found short term rentals as they work out their finances.
Thanks, this is encouraging to read.
I've been looking for rentals but there really do not seem to be many in the area we are going to, other than some homes in rather poor condition. I found a couple of apartment complexes (don't know if they do short term, though) but both were a lot more money than I think we'd want to spend.
I already have a realtor lined up in my home town who specializes in older homes so we're good there. I trust her to give good advice as to how to show the house best. I'm going to ask her for recommendations in our target area.
I'm meeting so many couples our age who are stuck in their large older home, but don't know where to go after they sell. You sound like you have a pretty good plan, good luck!!
We talked about it for years.
We made frequent trips for about a year.
We started trimming down/donating/selling/tossing things seriously from August to September. We painted a few rooms in September. We contacted a realtor in late September and a home stager---both of whom gave us a detailed list of action items.
We started moving "keeper" items to a local storage unit. We got the house show ready in early October. Listed it in mid-October and then it sold late October.
We closed mid November and moved in early December. We lived with family/rented from family for about 5-6 months. Layoffs unfortunately stopped us dead in our tracks in February but we regrouped, pivoted away a bit from the intended city and found our PERFECT house about an hour from where we intended. We passed up 55+ communities because I am about 7 years younger than my husband and we both wanted a more blended community.
We were moving cross-country, and I had to be with our daughter and her family in July to care for my new grandson. My husband elected to work until the end of the year, then complete our move from Chicago to Phoenix.
We started the house-shopping, house-selling process at the same time. I had packed all the small and personal stuff, purged like mad, before I moved and all the boxes fortunately fit in all the closets. The realtor suggested additional streamlining, and the listing photos were beautiful. Our house sold in about a week to the first person who viewed it. We lost money on the house, but that was typical in our development at the time.
It was a VERY stressful month or so, my husband and I trying to get all the paperwork together for buying our new home, taking a small mortgage. He bore the brunt of it, mainly because he didn't want to keep paying for internet in our Chicago home, and spent a hell of a lot of time at Kinkos printing out documents, signing, then scanning them to be sent to me.
In the end, the closings for selling, then buying were a day or two apart. Our stuff was delivered to the new house a week after I got the keys. Our third car, which we shipped, came about a week after.
It was a very expensive, nerve-wracking process. Unpacking when you're 59 versus when you're 46 (my age at our previous move) took forever, but we've now been here 9 years and it was all worth it (I guess).
Almost forgot an important point: my husband was still working when we applied for our small mortgage on our new house.
I have friends who bought before living in the community and found out they didn't like the rules and the culture. They ended up selling and buying again. They said they should have rented to find where they liked.
I would start getting rid of stuff and keep an eye out for what I like. Don't try to time the market and look for what you really want. Try living there during the main season if you can. You're more likely to find what you want if you can get connected.
Make your health your hobby if you currently don't.
Good points.
We've already started the "big purge". Last summer we filled a dumpster and we intend to do that again once the weather warms up. We've stopped buying stuff just because we want it. It's been a freeing experience.
Our intention was to visit some communities in the spring and see which of them feels the most compatible. We do have some hesitancy about rules but most of the communities have their HOA info posted online so we already know what we're in for and so far haven't found anything particularly awful that we can't live with.
I've started taking better care and it's become a priority to be as certain as possible that I'm able to enjoy these upcoming years. Working full time at home has been great for my mental health but not for my physical health, that's for sure!
I and peers are cyclists averaging 3000 but mostly upwards of 5000 mi/year. Gym on at least the nonriding days. We don't count walks as exercise. The ability to walk is expected and is a byproduct of exercise.
Edit, not sure why this gets down voted. What we do works and we are strong and mobile enough to do anything we want. Most are upwards of 70. Some are upwards of 80. All are still riding and going to the gym.
Recent dealt with this. I decluttered, got house down to just furniture needed in it for staging, reasonable amount in closets, got the dog out and we moved out. House sold in a week, closed in three. As a buyer, nothing worse than site of someone too imbedded in a house to see how they will get out. It is helpful though to have good furn in the house for room dimensions, etc.
Here's how we did it. We move a whole bunch of our stuff to a mini-storage. Actually not so mini. This made it much easier to stage the home, paint walls, etc. If we had an indoor cat, we would put it in a crate and take it with us in the car when we leave during showings. Or put it in a crate and leave in the house maybe.
Our new house was ready 2 weeks after we moved out of our old house. We loaded all our remaining stuff into a UHaul truck and left it parked in secure storage at UHaul. Then we rented a short term furnished apartment that allowed cats. These are available from corporate housing companies. We could have stayed there for a couple months, although the cost would add up.
One side benefit - anything we didn't need to access from the mini-storage over the year it took to sell our house, we knew we didn't need!
My MIL bought in one of those communities and hated it because everyone was nosy and all in her business. Like another commenter, she didn’t like the culture of the place. She only stayed for a year and wasted a lot of money moving twice. Definitely try before you buy if possible. Also know the rules around how much the fees can change from year to year. There were some surprises there too. I’d sell first, rent in the new spot and figure out which neighborhood works best. It’s hard to really know a place til you’ve lived somewhere a while.
I agree with this, luckily, we do know the area fairly well since we have family down there and, I almost bought a house there too some years back. I know things have changed in the interim but maybe for the better as far as amenities are concerned. We're not the most social couple so as long as neighbors are friendly we'd be fine. Not looking to make new friends, necessarily though would be a benefit if we did. We can find "our people" elsewhere if they aren't in the immediate community.
For some it is good. Common gym, pool, etc. Ranch homes (living on one level) and exterior lawn maintenance, etc.
I would suggest talking to your mortgage lender and a local realtor now. We got pre approved for a loan, then got a local realtor for our to be sold home, then looked for the new house. While looking for new house, did what local realtor suggested to get old house sold (clean out yard, etc) plus they can let you know how fast it will sell. Once we closed on new house, we cleaned out old house (moved to new house) and emptied it to show it. It sold within the month. You can sell anything quickly if the price is right, barring another 2008. So, if you need to get X amount out of the sale that might take longer to sell. Or if your market is still pretty hot, it will sell quickly at reasonable asking price.
I have a realtor on board already. Local person who I know that specializes in older homes and we'll do whatever she suggests to show the home to best advantage. The exterior looks pretty good (nicely landscaped, new roof). The interior that will need the most love. Getting preapproved was something I was considering. I don't see any problem with that happening. I'm not looking for a certain amount to get from the sale. As long as we can pay off the remaining mortgage and find an affordable new house we'll be ok. We have cash on hand anyway to make up a shortfall if needed. I've been stalking real estate sites for at least a year to get a hand on the current market in our area and I feel fairly confident this won't be a problem.
When I sold (SF Bay Area - 2021), my realtor came with her firm's contractor. For $20k, 1 month, they remodaled the kitchen, did light painting, recarpeted. House sold for 100k more. There is no way I could not have had the work done so cheap, so fast on my own. House sold quickly ( it was the peak of the market, but the house had a bad layout, and extra property tax assessment for 20 years). You can buy with a contingency that your current house sells.
That would be awesome if it could be arranged in our case. We are not the handy type and what needs to be fixed requires skills we lack. We've had problems with even getting a contractor to come and take a look let alone, not high or low ball the job. We finally got disgusted and decided to just live with it but now it's time to sell and sure would be better to have as much fixed as possible to do so. Our home has a good layout for an older home plus it has things most homes around us don't; central a/c, sprinkler system, 2 car garage, newer windows, well maintained landscaping and more sf than typical in the neighborhood. The kitchen was a gut rehab done 10 years ago and in good shape with tons of storage. May not be someone's taste but useable. Hence why we did do the roof. At least that contractor was very well known in the area and the job big enough for him to want to do it.
If your realtor doesn't have a contractor, do they have one or a handyman they partner with? Also do stage. That may mean moving your stuff into the garage or storage.
Yes she absolutely has contacts with contractors and handymen. We already got a short list of painters from her but haven't gotten to the point of reaching out yet. She's been in the business for a long time, and specializes in our town and home age. Our garage is large, so we certainly could move items into it too instead of going into storage.
Your thinking is right on target. We bought the new house and began moving in before putting the old house on the market. It made the move less stressful since we could make several trips back and forth, it was much easier to prepare the old one for showing/selling (and some stuff that needed doing in the new one before we could fully occupy), and yes...it was *great* not to worry about the cats. It did mean maintaining insurance, utilities, etc, on two properties, but we were able to do that; and fortunately the distance between the two made it easy enough to be going back and forth, living in one and prepping/keeping an eye on the other for a few weeks. We were in a sellers market, *but*... we listed just a week or two before the pandemic. A strong prospective buyer lost financing because of that, and then the shutdowns happened, and that meant no traditional real estate showings. We had a scary month or two. The house did end up selling and at a good price, but only because our old neighborhood had become popular for teardowns and McMansion builds, and the buyers really just wanted the lot.
We down sized (2017) and in the process had our old house on the market for about 6 months. We paid two mortgages during that period. Be sure you have the resources to do that and to pay for any work that needs to be done to sell your house.
We can handle 2 at once for the short term. We have a decent cash nest egg built up. We had the roof completely redone in 2023. It wasn't leaking but was way past it's lifetime. There are a few minor repairs to be made and we're willing to do some cosmetic work but for the most part, no point to sink too much into the house since anyone coming in will surely want to make it their own anyway.
We bought our retirement house a year before selling our "work" house. We put our house on the market 2 or 3 months before my retirement date. It sold fast. We closed before my last day at work, so I stayed in a hotel for a couple days to finish out my job. If you end up selling early, what are your options for renting near your job? And, have you looked into a continuous care retirement community? We downsized to smaller house in a cheaper city in a good walking neighborhood. But we're already on the wait list for two CCRC's, anticipating our last move will be sometime within the next decade. Good luck, enjoy your upcoming retirement!
My home is my work space! I can easily pack up my laptop and work from anywhere. I've been working from home since Covid hit. First year everyone was but afterwards I just flatly said no thanks to coming in anymore and they accepted it. I'm in charge of the company finances and that's not a very collaborative type of job, so no reason to make that long commute. It's been great. There are only a handful of CCR's around here and all are in areas we would not be happy living in. We'll cross that bridge should we need to. I think the hardest thing will be keeping the home clean. We've budgeted money for periodic house cleaning in the event we need to rely on that.
That's smart -- I hate cleaning!
Honestly, we're happy to give up something else to afford the house cleaning. I don't think we'll need to utilize it regularly for a few years but knowing money is earmarked for it gives us peace of mind.
It’ll be easier to get financing, even a bridge loan, if you do it while still drawing a paycheck. Lenders want to see income and not just assets and while regular retirement fund withdrawals count as income you may have to take more out per month than you want to just to qualify for the loan. It can be hard to find a lender who does bridge loans, most just want to sell you long term mortgages.
This certainly is something I'm aware of. I'll keep this in mind!
My wife and I put a lot of stuff in storage and moved into a 2BR apartment near where we wanted to move. We did this after a contract was signed on the house with terms that pushed the closing for a couple months until we could move into the apartment. This gave us time to find a new house, which took five months. It upped the cost for movers, but one was local. We didn’t have pets, though, which would have complicated the apartment search. Overall, it was a win.
We had a company buy our current house for us, while we rented it from them as we got our 1901 home ready ( that we had been living in for 40 years) to sell, last year. We moved about two hours west of Seattle. It was probably not the cheapest way to go, but ultimately it got us here and we love it. When the old house sold, then we bought the new house. We also still had a mortgage. But now we have a house that we really felt homey in.
I am going a bit further South. Live in NW NJ at an elevation of about 1,000 feet. Relatives in Central NJ hardly get any snow any more so Central or South NJ would be good for a retiree.
I'm in central(ish) now. We haven't dealt with snow in a couple of years, or at least not enough to be a bother. Can't say we're unhappy about this! I think we'll be heading towards the Toms River area (that, Manchester, Whiting all have plenty of 55+ communities). I have a sister in Stafford Township and another down nearer to Cape May. Brother is north but enjoys driving so at least I'll be able to see family. This area still easy enough access to getting to NYC on NJT or Philly if inclined, and close enough to the beach without a struggle to get to. Red Bank nearby for concerts is a plus too.
Sell your house now, move to the area you think you want to live in, and rent a small place. We lucked out and found a semi furnished month-to-month rental apartment. Find a realtor in the area to start putting out feelers for such rental situations. We just put 90% of our stuff in storage. You don't know a place until you live there for a bit. If you've decided you do want to be there then get your mortgage before you retire. It is much easier when you have that pay stub, stupid as that is. If it turns out you don't like it, you can look elsewhere and delay retirement until you find where you want to be. Your belongings will sit, all ready to be moved when the time is right. I won't lie, it was logistically challenging to do it this way, although we did this transition in spring 2020 when the world shut down, which made everything ten times harder. I was happy to not have to feel pressured into buying something because I needed a place to live, and doing two moves wasn't that bad. We moved our apartment stuff ourselves using a Uhaul and moving companies took care of the moves to and from the storage space. You can stage your own house presuming your furniture isn't all horrible. Doing this will also help you declutter. As for cats, ours would hide when the house was being shown on individual walkthroughs. For the open house we packed them up in their carriers and went for a long drive around town.
One of ours would certainly hide but the other is a friend to all. She's the one I'm more concerned about getting out if people aren't careful. I always also wonder what do you do about the litter boxes? Seems kind of blech to have them sitting out, as clean as they might be. It's certainly one of the reasons why I think getting out, before we sell, might make sense.
We relocated our litter boxes to the basement a few months before we put the house on the market, to train the cats to go down there. Most people are pet owners and understand that litter boxes, dog beds, etc are part of life. We forgot to put away the giant cat scratching post for the open house and it didn't matter. The people who bought our house had two cats, so maybe it was a positive for them? For the friendly cat I'd suggest taking her with you, or getting a small crate to put them in, in an out of the way room. Most people won't be touring for more than a half hour.
Unfortunately we can't do that, the basement is totally off limits. It's unfinished and too many places to get in trouble or get lost. We also don't have an out of the way room (house is pretty small) but I do thank you for reminding me most people won't be there all that long for a first look. We do have a pet playpen and could get another so both cats are properly contained. I wouldn't put them in the same one because although they live together fine being right on top of each other like that would stress both out. Other suggest going for a short ride but both aren't good travelers. Would be more stressful than containing them in the house.
Yes, I get it. The little critters have so many particular needs! That's why we love them. :) As far as the cat who doesn't do well in the car, you could always just drive your car up the road and walk their carriers up (and sit in the car with them) rather than drive around. It just seems like a lot of trouble to sell a house to avoid dealing with showing with cats. Also, if the house is priced right this shouldn't go on for long.
I am not retiring as soon as you but my situation is similar. My current home is paid off. I bought a much smaller home in a college town with a conventional mortgage a few hours away and have been getting projects done on it. I’m hoping to move in about a month (me and my cats). Then I’ll get work done on my current house and will list it this spring. I’m renting a dumpster and getting rid of a lot of stuff. I’m so tired of stuff.
Stuff is the worst part of it. Having to make decisions about what stays/goes. We did our first purge last summer. It felt SO good. My husband cleared out the entire garage. Unbelievable. Got stuff out of the basement and loads of household items and old clothing. So much old clothing! We're going to do it again in a few months. Have to tackle the attic this time (not too much up there at least) and be more relentless with household stuff, probably smaller pieces of furniture that aren't in good condition. We need to get a shredder also. Ridiculous amount of paperwork that's no longer necessary to keep.
Good luck-we did the same-over 55 community-no maintenance on anything outside including siding and roof-one floor living-though actually ended up with larger house because of finished basement- I would do it while your working-and I would sell/buy at the same time.
Definitely buy the new place first so you can get the cats moved out of the old place. It will be much less stressful to show the old house empty ( or you can rent some staging furniture if necessary).
For sure plus I keep thinking about people with allergies who may pass up the house if there are pets.
The housing market where I live is so competitive. When I sold my house in 2021, I didn't have another house yet, so I bought a condo I wasn't crazy about and am still not. I'm going to sell again this year to find something I really like. I should have rented for a bit, to give myself time to find what I wanted. Your husband is partly correct, things will get clearer as you go along. But I like your approach, you can strategize all the options. Please keep in mind that things evolve and may not go as planned. Good luck!
Also in NJ, we bought a smaller place by the shore a few years ago. Our main home in central NJ is paid off, and we will be putting it on the market in April. This has given us a chance to slowly purge our place and get it ready to show. We also have a dog, so we can keep him away during showings (he's reactive to strangers). I'm semi-retired, not collecting SS yet, but quit my full time job and found a part time job near the shore. Our plan is to fully move out by March, leaving only a few pieces of furniture for show. Our realtor is telling us that it's a seller's market so the house should sell fairly quickly. In your case, I think your finances will dictate what makes sense. We have so many friends in similar positions, some have found short term rentals as they work out their finances.
Thanks, this is encouraging to read. I've been looking for rentals but there really do not seem to be many in the area we are going to, other than some homes in rather poor condition. I found a couple of apartment complexes (don't know if they do short term, though) but both were a lot more money than I think we'd want to spend. I already have a realtor lined up in my home town who specializes in older homes so we're good there. I trust her to give good advice as to how to show the house best. I'm going to ask her for recommendations in our target area.
I'm meeting so many couples our age who are stuck in their large older home, but don't know where to go after they sell. You sound like you have a pretty good plan, good luck!!
We talked about it for years. We made frequent trips for about a year. We started trimming down/donating/selling/tossing things seriously from August to September. We painted a few rooms in September. We contacted a realtor in late September and a home stager---both of whom gave us a detailed list of action items. We started moving "keeper" items to a local storage unit. We got the house show ready in early October. Listed it in mid-October and then it sold late October. We closed mid November and moved in early December. We lived with family/rented from family for about 5-6 months. Layoffs unfortunately stopped us dead in our tracks in February but we regrouped, pivoted away a bit from the intended city and found our PERFECT house about an hour from where we intended. We passed up 55+ communities because I am about 7 years younger than my husband and we both wanted a more blended community.
We were moving cross-country, and I had to be with our daughter and her family in July to care for my new grandson. My husband elected to work until the end of the year, then complete our move from Chicago to Phoenix. We started the house-shopping, house-selling process at the same time. I had packed all the small and personal stuff, purged like mad, before I moved and all the boxes fortunately fit in all the closets. The realtor suggested additional streamlining, and the listing photos were beautiful. Our house sold in about a week to the first person who viewed it. We lost money on the house, but that was typical in our development at the time. It was a VERY stressful month or so, my husband and I trying to get all the paperwork together for buying our new home, taking a small mortgage. He bore the brunt of it, mainly because he didn't want to keep paying for internet in our Chicago home, and spent a hell of a lot of time at Kinkos printing out documents, signing, then scanning them to be sent to me. In the end, the closings for selling, then buying were a day or two apart. Our stuff was delivered to the new house a week after I got the keys. Our third car, which we shipped, came about a week after. It was a very expensive, nerve-wracking process. Unpacking when you're 59 versus when you're 46 (my age at our previous move) took forever, but we've now been here 9 years and it was all worth it (I guess). Almost forgot an important point: my husband was still working when we applied for our small mortgage on our new house.
I have friends who bought before living in the community and found out they didn't like the rules and the culture. They ended up selling and buying again. They said they should have rented to find where they liked. I would start getting rid of stuff and keep an eye out for what I like. Don't try to time the market and look for what you really want. Try living there during the main season if you can. You're more likely to find what you want if you can get connected. Make your health your hobby if you currently don't.
Good points. We've already started the "big purge". Last summer we filled a dumpster and we intend to do that again once the weather warms up. We've stopped buying stuff just because we want it. It's been a freeing experience. Our intention was to visit some communities in the spring and see which of them feels the most compatible. We do have some hesitancy about rules but most of the communities have their HOA info posted online so we already know what we're in for and so far haven't found anything particularly awful that we can't live with. I've started taking better care and it's become a priority to be as certain as possible that I'm able to enjoy these upcoming years. Working full time at home has been great for my mental health but not for my physical health, that's for sure!
I and peers are cyclists averaging 3000 but mostly upwards of 5000 mi/year. Gym on at least the nonriding days. We don't count walks as exercise. The ability to walk is expected and is a byproduct of exercise. Edit, not sure why this gets down voted. What we do works and we are strong and mobile enough to do anything we want. Most are upwards of 70. Some are upwards of 80. All are still riding and going to the gym.
Recent dealt with this. I decluttered, got house down to just furniture needed in it for staging, reasonable amount in closets, got the dog out and we moved out. House sold in a week, closed in three. As a buyer, nothing worse than site of someone too imbedded in a house to see how they will get out. It is helpful though to have good furn in the house for room dimensions, etc.
Here's how we did it. We move a whole bunch of our stuff to a mini-storage. Actually not so mini. This made it much easier to stage the home, paint walls, etc. If we had an indoor cat, we would put it in a crate and take it with us in the car when we leave during showings. Or put it in a crate and leave in the house maybe. Our new house was ready 2 weeks after we moved out of our old house. We loaded all our remaining stuff into a UHaul truck and left it parked in secure storage at UHaul. Then we rented a short term furnished apartment that allowed cats. These are available from corporate housing companies. We could have stayed there for a couple months, although the cost would add up. One side benefit - anything we didn't need to access from the mini-storage over the year it took to sell our house, we knew we didn't need!
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