A little background....Dave and I were babies when we got married; I was 24, he 25. We paid for our own wedding very frugally and had money left over. Not only that, I was one of two people in the world (Mark Zuckerberg being the other person) who made money while in college. I didn't party; I didn't go out; I made my own meals; and I had a paying internship. I was a hoarder - a hoarder of money. :) So after the wedding we had enough dough left over to put a down payment on a house. Sure, it wasn't 20%, but it was something. Not only that, but being that we were both working as engineers, we had the funds to buy a very nice house that we built from scratch in a developing neighborhood. We have been living in our house now for nine years, but we have become a little antsy. First, we think the house is a little too big. Yes, we would like to downsize. The house is around 2000 square feet. We are currently occupying only the first floor while the second floor is basically being used as storage. Also, we've become a little disenchanted with the neighborhood. We've had some run-ins with the HOA, which we hate with the greatest of hatred. In addition, there has been lots of development in our area which has been both good and bad. We're just ready for a change.
Although we were talking about all this, we haven't really been taking it seriously. Until yesterday.
I was riding my bike to work for the very first time and I take a little bit of a different route than I would if I were driving. Luckily, my commute is small - 6.3 miles by car or 7.5 miles by bike. The bike path takes me right through the middle of town, parts I have seen 5 million times as I've lived in this community for 30 years. Every once in a while something will catch my eye that I never even noticed. Like this gem:
And it's for sale!!!
Two bedroom. Two bath. Around 1300 square feet. Sits on nearly an acre. Two car garage. Full basement. Back deck. Newly renovated. Backs right up to the school fields. Bike path goes right through the front yard. And the price is amazeballs.
I immediately texted Dave. Then I sent an email to my realtor. Now we have a showing tomorrow afternoon.
And then I panicked.
How in the world are we going to sell our house? Are we crazy to downsize? What if we need more space in the future? I've never lived anywhere else! I've never sold a home! I've never lived in a house that we didn't build, what's wrong with this house? Why are they selling? Why would we want to move when we have a perfectly good house? Why would I want to move a whopping four miles away? (Seriously, see my graph below.) And on and on and on.
So what do you think? Would you move just to move? Would you ever considering downsizing? Have you ever sold a house? Are we insane?
6 comments:
We have sold a condo. We were thankful that we had the help of Ford to set up everything and cover our costs of a lot of stuff. Since you are moving since you want to and not have to, you are in a nice situation where you don't have to be forced to take a lowball offer just to be rid of the place. The biggest costs that Ryan and I had from moving (aside from the massive loss we took that Ford covered), were just the incidentals. Like window treatments, rugs, towel bars, paint, ect. We probably spent around $5000-$5,500 on what you would call a "move in ready" home, because we replaced all the carpet (only one room was really a necessity), almost all of the window treatments including curtain rods, rugs, and towels. We moved to a bigger home, so we had the challenge of needing some additional furnishings to fit in more rooms, but I didn't really include that. Also, we had professional movers. We didn't have to pay for them, but it was AWESOME! I am sure that cost a ton of money. So, I guess look at the savings you will get from a smaller home and then the costs of moving, and then go from there. It is fun. I wished we could have moved just a few miles while we were living in MI and not had to come all the way to KY to get our of our previous place. This is a nice time to buy and sell. Call/email me if you have any specific questions.
Yes I would move if the situation was right. There's something to be said about less upkeep inside, a bigger yard outside, fields and bike paths nearby, etc. I say go for it.
We sold our house, in November of all times, in two months. It can be done. Price it right and you should have no problems!
Very exciting Meredith... keep us updated!
I say do it! If you downsize, then you do not have to wait so long for your treadmill. In addition, why continue to *pay* for space that you do not use? (Unless of course you hate the interior :P )
you dorque. you're supposed to move to cali so we can run the mountains.
i applaud the downsizing encourage getting out from underneath an hoa.
I would HATE having an HOA, so if you can get rid of that, I say do it. Also, there is nothing wrong with downsizing -- less upkeep, cheaper heating/cooling bills, you don't have to shout at each other all the time... I say do it. I know that I would prefer a small house with a big yard (and close to the bike path!) over a big house with a small yard.
There's nothing wrong with moving! And if you're not using the upstairs it's silly to keep.
However... a 2 bedroom? I assume you'd still want a home office, so what happens if you end up hearing the pitter patter of little feet in the not-too-distant future? That would be my biggest reservation in that size for you guys. Although I guess you could potentially put an office of some kind in the basement if needed?
Based on the map, it seems sorta close to 161. Stop and stand by it for awhile to see if you get traffic noise. That definitely drives down the value of a home.
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