Top Five Reasons To Downsize Sooner, Rather Than Later

In this episode, Dennis and his co-host Judy Gratton discuss the top five reasons why starting the downsizing process sooner rather than later is important.

This episode discusses the financial and practical benefits of downsizing your home during retirement. It covers the costs associated with maintaining a large home on a fixed income and the financial flexibility gained from moving to a smaller or rental property. The current real estate market conditions are also explored, including the difficulties in selling a poorly maintained home. Additionally, the video emphasizes the importance of starting the downsizing process early to maintain control over decisions and avoid burdening family members.
They highlight the importance of reducing the burden on loved ones and finding a balance between preserving memories and practical downsizing.

Transcript

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00 The Financial Burden of Maintaining a Large Home

Dennis Day 0:00

Hello everyone . This is Dennis with Getting Downsized in .

Dennis Day 0:03

Home and Life podcast . I hope your day is going well . We have a fabulous show for you today . We're going to share the top five reasons why you should consider downsizing sooner than later . I'm here with my co-host , judy Gretton , from Long Beach , washington . How's it going ?

Judy Gratton 0:25

It's great , Dennis . It's always great when I'm in Long Beach . Thank you so much . How are you ?

Dennis Day 0:31

Really excited about this show because we get this a lot in our business , where people really struggle to make the decision to finally do the downsize Correct . We're going to give you some reasons why you should consider downsizing sooner than later . Here we go with top five reasons . Number one your children won't forgive you for leaving so much work for them , and I've got experience with this , judy , and we see this a lot in our business since we work with a lot of seniors . If you love your children , you will start your downsizing process and leave as little work for your children as possible . They've got busy lives , working may have children , and one of the last things they want to do is sort through your old stuff .

Judy Gratton 1:22

You're not going to be happy when they do , because they don't put any value on it at all . You put a lot of value on it , and so there are ways to achieve a happy medium with that . Dennis , I would love for you to talk about your mother and the pie plates .

Dennis Day 1:41

Yeah , father , I had experience until my dad passed of quite a few downsizing adventures and she finally had to move from independent living to assisted living . Part of assisted living is you can't have a working stove because it's not safe . She had these pie pans and no oven or anything to cook with . She was holding them tight to her chest and saying , oh , it's so hard . She hadn't cooked pie for years but those two Pyrex glass which you can get anywhere for about $10 , were just precious to her because it was all those Thanksgivings and Christmases and birthdays where she made pie for the family . Pie was one of my father's favorite things and even though she wasn't actively making pie , just the thought of giving up those pie pans was breaking a family tradition . It was breaking the memory of all that family history .

Judy Gratton 2:51

Yes , and we run into that a lot . I personally know how that feels , because when you build a life which we all do , and as we get older , the story of that life is attached to so many different things in your home and every time you pick something up it has a memory attached to it and I've watched clients go through this where they'll pick something up and they've got a whole story behind that one thing . So what I found and what was suggested to me because I'm trying to go through downsizing right now myself is that you take a picture of the thing and then you could print it out and put it on a card , turn the card over and write the memory down , or you could put it in a PDF and store it on your computer . But tell the memory , tell the story , because when you're gone that will be so precious to your family . The memory that went with even the pie pans . A picture of those pie pans and talking about why they were so important , why they were part of your family , will bring back wonderful memories for children , will give your grandchildren a chance to see , and it will have so much more meaning than the pie plates themselves which , like you said you can get them anywhere and they don't tell a story when you're gone . So I'm trying to do that .

Judy Gratton 4:26

And the other thing that we run into a lot is because these have such good memories and because at the time you got it it was probably more expensive and you had less money because you were new or whatever . Like China is a big one and everybody thinks their China is worth a fortune because they probably paid a fortune for it . China is worth nothing . I talked to an estate sale person the other day and they said I have had Noritake China from occupied Japan after World War II and that was my great aunt's and nobody wanted it . And I finally had a friend who wanted it and so I wrote out a little thing for her who it came from originally and then how it finally got to her . And I just said I really hope that you will in turn find somebody else who really wants this china , and if she throws it away it doesn't matter , because I gave it away . So I have to let go of it . I have pictures of it and I wrote the memory .

Dennis Day 5:44

A little tip for those who are helping someone downsize be patient . I was not . I just could not understand what my these are common Pyrex . They were not antiques , they were nothing special , they were just glass and I couldn't understand how important this was . I couldn't the feelings she was having , understand how important this was . I couldn't have feelings she was having and I have since learned that it is very important to be patient and understanding and help them figure out a way to keep the memory , but get rid of the thing .

Dennis Day 6:17

Get rid of stuff and your children . If you do this and help your children that they don't have to garage fulls of stuff , then they'll be much , much happier with you . Let's move on to downsizing sooner rather than later . You'll have better health and more options . When healthy , you can have more choices , like doing the RV trip , going to the vacation property that might not have really fast access to health care , or you just bring in so many choices . When you wait , your choices diminish . You end up doing something that you don't really want to do but do because you're of your health . Something that you don't really want to do but do because you're of your health . Go rather than later . You'll have more options and you'll be healthier and you'll have more time to enjoy being out of that big house that takes so much time and so much energy and so much money to keep up . Three Downsizing will improve your financial flexibility . Why is that , judy ?

Judy Gratton 7:27

For one thing , maintaining those large homes costs money . They cost a lot of money and I don't know if a lot of money or you don't have a lot of money . Generally , when you retire , you're on more of a fixed income , so for a lot of people it becomes harder and harder to maintain that home . It becomes harder and harder to maintain that home and the cost of the maintenance is it can just sometimes be a burden , a really heavy burden on people . If you can get out of the larger , more expensive thing to maintain and get into something that's smaller and not so much , doesn't cost you as much money to maintain , or maybe nothing to maintain , depending on if you go into a rental or something like that it's going to give you more financial flexibility .

Maximizing Equity and Financial Flexibility

Dennis Day 8:15

Yes , Hopefully , you have accrued a significant amount of equity which can help you purchase the next place , or you can do something like rent for a while . So you make a plan of what you want it should the sale of your home should increase the equity . You should get a good payout from the sale of your home and that will definitely increase your financial flexibility .

Judy Gratton 8:43

Absolutely

The Real Estate Market and Home Value

Judy Gratton 8:44

. Right now the real estate market is great and the value of homes are varied because there's a shortage of inventory , Even though interest rates are higher than they have been in the past five years but they've actually come down . Still , with the lack of inventory , homes are selling oftentimes especially if they're in good condition for much higher than even asking price . If they're priced right in good condition , the problem comes you have not been able to maintain the home and now you have a home in need of repairs and you don't have the money to do it . You are not going to make top dollar for the home and that's very hard to explain to some people that see that homes in their area are selling for a lot more than you're telling them their home to sell for . But the problem is their home has . They have not been able to maintain it .

Dennis Day 9:41

How many

Challenges of Home Maintenance

Dennis Day 9:42

have done for the upgrades keeping the roof correct , new gutters , clean and good repair ?

Judy Gratton 9:48

paint . As you get older , you can't take care of the garden the way you used to , and so now the yard doesn't look good . It's just owning a home is . It takes a lot of work to keep it up yeah , what would you want to ?

Dennis Day 10:03

is that what you want to spend your time on ? Spend all your weekend ? No , sometimes it's time to let that go away . Let somebody else take it . On . Data number four Downsizing will be easier now than later . You'll have more energy to do it and probably more time to do it . You can do it in a slow process if you start early . It's just so hard when you get to the point where you can't do anything and you're relying on your family or paid vendors to help you . Correct , just go ahead .

Judy Gratton 10:43

And it doesn't matter how old you are . It's not going to get easier later . It may not be as easy now as it was 10

The Benefits of Downsizing Early

Judy Gratton 10:51

years ago , but it's not going to get easier later .

Dennis Day 10:54

Got to do it again because I forgot to resume .

Judy Gratton 10:56

Okay , sorry easier now than it will be later . If you look back , it would probably have been easier to do five years ago than it is now . I realize we don't start at 20 , but if you're even got an inkling that downsizing is in your future , get started .

Dennis Day 11:17

Get started , your health will be better , you'll have more options of places to go to and you won't have if you do it within a slow process then you won't have to rely on family and friends or pay somebody to help you do it Correct . It's a big job , there's no question about it , and as the years go by , it gets harder and harder to do Our recommendation . The years go by , it gets harder and harder to do Our recommendation . Ready for the last one , judy ? Yes , all right . Oh , yes

Taking Control of Your Future

Dennis Day 11:52

, number five , you will be in the driver's seat . This is where really the big piece is . People wait and then they have to go , and they have to go on terms that they don't want .

Judy Gratton 12:09

No .

Dennis Day 12:10

Your health is so bad you have to go into assisted living .

Judy Gratton 12:14

Then your family , sometimes the state that you live in , depending on how disabled you are , will start making those decisions for you , and I've never met anybody who's ever been happy in that situation . It's really a sad thing to deal with . So you will have no decision-making powers . The longer you wait , the older you get , the less capable you are , the more someone else is going to be taking care of all of this for you .

Dennis Day 12:44

If you want to be the driver of the decisions about your life , then getting ready , downsizing , starting that process or going into it just really adds to your personal ability to control the situation . Waiting until a decision has to be made by family and then you don't have much say no .

Dennis Day 13:11

It's really sad and I see seniors who are in that situation . They're depressed , they're angry , they're frustrated because it's not what they want to do , but they have waited so long . There isn't any other option If you really want to be in control of what happens and where you go . Get busy on that downsizing .

Practical Downsizing Tips

Judy Gratton 13:36

And the thing is , like you mentioned earlier , that even if you're looking at it five years down the road , if you start thinking about , do I really need this thing , is this really , am I using this thing ? And if it has memories behind it , like we talked about , take a photo of it , write the memory down , save it in a file but start little Downsize work on a drawer , work on a cabinet , work on a roof , do it a little bit at a time and when you let go of something it's gone , it's not yours anymore , so where it goes from there , it should just let it go , because you still have the memory of .

Dennis Day 14:16

That's important , yeah , and you'll have the options of what to do with these things too . If you wait too long , then you're going to have somebody come in and start making decisions about your stuff for you , and that can be really upsetting to people pull .

Judy Gratton 14:39

We've all seen . We in the real estate industry , especially those of us that do a lot of work with seniors see that a lot and it is tragic .

Dennis Day 14:45

The earlier you begin and more planning you do , the more you're going to have control of what happens , and then you can feel good about where you're at All righty

Expert Advice and Contact Information

Dennis Day 15:00

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Judy Gratton 15:00

Just a reminder . If you're in Washington state and you would like for us to give you some idea of the value of your home or just talk to you personally about some of our knowledge on downsizing , please feel free to reach out to us . Our phone number is right here . Our email address is , I think , right there .

Dennis Day 15:20

It's our website .

Judy Gratton 15:22

Our website and you can contact us through that . So please don't hesitate . We're here and it's free .

Dennis Day 15:30

It's free . Asking advice or questions is always free , and getting an idea of what your home is worth can help you start that planning process . And we do that . Give you a competitive market analysis to find out what your home is worth as a snapshot right now , and there's no charge and there's no obligation but getting . I think that would be if I was to give advice to people who are considering downsizing . That would be the place to start Find out what your current home is worth and find out how much equity you have and then start working on a plan Correct . Yeah , so we are the downsizing experts . Folks , we'd love to hear from you . Go ahead and like this podcast and YouTube channel , subscribe , leave some comments . We'd love to hear what you think and hope to hear from you . Anything else , judy ?

Local Events and Closing Remarks

Judy Gratton 16:24

Just going to go have some more beach time here .

Dennis Day 16:27

Beach time . How was the Blues Festival ?

Judy Gratton 16:30

The Blues Festival was absolutely fabulous . That was on Saturday . That's the day we attended last week and it was great . The kite festival is going on . The International Kite Festival is going on right now . Our weather is a little bit iffy , very northwest weather . It could be raining , could not be raining , be sunny . So we see the kites in the sky . I haven't really been down there yet to see what they're doing , but if you've never been to the international kite festival , it is absolutely amazing .

Dennis Day 17:03

thousands of kites in the sky I have not experienced it , but I've seen video and pictures . It just looks beautiful , incredible people from all over the world yep all . That's it for this episode of Getting your Edge Out to Resize your Home and Life podcast . I hope you enjoyed it , learned some things from it and we will be seeing you next time . Don't hesitate to call the phone number 206-204-5372 or go to edgegroupteamcom . Thanks so much for watching and or listening . Bye .