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When It is Time to Downsize Your Home in Sacramento
Home sellers nearing retirement age across the country will soon get a chance to hear this Sacramento REALTOR‘s personal views about downsizing, i.e. moving into smaller quarters. Of course, you won’t hear all of it, like you would in my blog, because most reporters don’t send interview subjects a draft for approval prior to publishing — because that would not be called journalism — unless maybe they were writing for an online newspaper or a national magazine pandering to a subscriber base.
Although this particular reporter did sent me a draft of his article for approval and asked a few more questions he forgot to cover. He mentioned that in his review, it seemed his article wasn’t quite balanced enough and he wanted to cover a few more points about the downside to downsizing and discuss why a person might not want to downsize. He could not print the additional comments I sent in their entirety because his editor would most likely edit them, he explained. His reasoning was their readership has about $35,000 tucked away for retirement, and he didn’t want to offend their readers.
I can see that. I can see that they have far more problems than my comments about a mobile home if all they have is $35,000 in the bank. What I said was not everybody needs to consider downsizing: People who are already living that dream, even if it’s living in a broken-down old tin-roof mobile home on the side of a river bank, should stay put. If you’re happy catching catfish off that dock, who’s to say you need to move? But apparently the aforementioned comments, which I pulled outta thin air, were too close to home, and will never see the light of day except for here.
This is what I get for watching that last episode of HBO’s True Detective — with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey down in Louisiana.
For others, those who can see the future and want to change that vision, downsizing is the way to go. When I retire, I plan to downsize as well. I don’t need all that space I have now. Personally, I believe most people have too much crap and need to get rid of it, and downsizing gives you a reason to dump much of it.
A potential seller in West Sacramento called a few days ago to talk about her own downsizing situation and that of her mother, who lives in Greenhaven. She wants her mother to move and her mother wants to stay put. Turns out her mom is 79 and has lived in that home for more than 3 decades. You know what? She ain’t moving. See, now I saved this daughter all of that grief of pleading and begging. Ain’t gonna happen.
Home Buying and Selling at the Same Time in Sacramento
For the past 8 years, the market has been so depressed in Sacramento that it was fairly uncommon to find anyone buying and selling a home at the same time. That’s because many sellers were doing a short sale or had walked away from their homes due to the falling market, while other sellers didn’t have the equity they desired. It was actually the perfect time to sell a home and move up because the move-up price was so much lower back then but people feel uneasy during challenging times and tend to do nothing.
Now that we have a somewhat stabilized market and prices have increased over the past several years, in some areas as much as 40%, there is more movement. Much of it, surprisingly, is in downsizing. Sellers are taking their equity and moving it into a smaller home. But they still need have a plan for home buying and selling at the same time if they don’t want to move twice.
There are many ways to accomplish this task, but the most common way to buy a home contingent on selling an existing home is to use a Contingency of Purchase addendum to the purchase contract. Agents would be wise to thoroughly read and familiarize themselves with this particular document because it has changed, and I’m not kidding you, it is complicated. It is so complicated that recently Sacramento real estate agents argued over its contingency period because it appeared unclear.
The COP by default will allow the seller to keep her home on the market during the contingency period of 17 days. It gives the buyer 17 days to get her home into escrow. If during this time period of 17 days, the seller receives, say, a non-contingent offer, the seller is free to ask the existing buyer to remove the contingency to sell. If the buyer refuses, the seller can give the buyer 3 days and then cancel the buyer so the seller can accept the new offer. It’s a first right of refusal clause for a buyer.
Confused yet? It’s almost an art to engage in home buying and selling at the same time.
Of course, it’s easier for a buyer to first sell her home, put it into escrow, and then look for a home to buy, contingent on her home closing escrow. Or, a buyer can sell her home, close it and rent back for a while as she looks for a new home to buy. Or, a buyer can enter into a long escrow period, say 60 days, to give her plenty of time to buy another home.
However, with limited inventory on the market, the buyers with an existing home who will have the easiest time are those with cash in hand after closing or a loan preapproval letter and no home to sell (or a home she doesn’t need to sell to buy). Yet, it’s not impossible to project a successful outcome for home buying and selling at the same time. You just need to hire a real estate agent who knows how to do it for you. You can call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. I answer my phone.
