Posts Tagged “challenges”
The average Canadian love owning their home. If you happen to be hooked on shows such as Property, Brothers, Love It Or List. It, or Holmes On Holmes, you know, quality renovations can pay off big when you sell, so updating your kitchen to gourmet status, opening up the floor plan, and investing in costly remodels seems like the thing to do. But, is it?
In Canada, money is cheap, and banks are willing to lend money to homeowners. If you are a baby boomer or senior citizen, there are several things you should think of before you go running to the bank to upgrade your home to make it livable for years to come. Not all renovations give you a great return on your investments.
Renovation Spending At An All-time High In Canada
When you look ahead to see where you want to live in a few years, borrowing to make the house suitable for aging in place seems like a great idea when the banks are making it easy. Recent statistics show that Canadians spend about $64 billion last year on a renovation, a figure that is double yearly expenditures in the late nineties and equal to about 4% of Canada’s GDP.
This spending reflects an extremely vibrant housing market, full of buyers who are willing to pay more to get a house in a desirable area that has popular upgrades. Some economists fear that either an increase in interest rates or a decline in housing prices will leave would-be sellers left with houses that are overpriced for the market. No one wants to owe more than the value of their home.
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Will Your Renovations Increase The Value Of Your Home?
While it is generally true for any home that has been renovated, the chance that you as the seller might not get a good return on your investment increases along with the amount you spent. If you added improvements that cost $80,000 in hopes of adding another $100-120,000 to the selling price, you might not get back any of your investment should the market tank.
Some renovations that homeowners add to their age in place property like ramps and walk-in baths pose additional problems for home sellers. While home buyers might be enthusiastic about buying a home with a first-floor master or new granite counter-tops, custom, dark wood cabinets, and stainless appliances, they may not want a ramp or elevator, lower counters, a walk-in bath, or other adaptations specifically made to accommodate disabilities or mobility issues. Upgrades like this can actually lower the value of the house. Transforming a property and removing these modifications can be costly to the seller or buyer. Who will pay for it? A huge unsightly ramp could detract from your home curb appeal and repel buyers.
Does Renovation Make Sense versus Selling Your Home?
When you are at a crossroads of deciding whether to sell your home or invest in renovations, these concerns can be boiled down to three questions that you need to ask yourself:
Are your desired renovations in line with what others in the neighborhood have done? Will they keep your home competitive without overpricing your home?
Are the renovations you want and need to make ones that would help or hurt your chances of selling a home, regardless of the market?
Homeowners need to ask themselves these questions, getting the answer right is especially important for seniors. For help in evaluating your housing choices, contact Roy Thomas, who can give you the facts and help you sell your home. If you are ready to sell your home for maximum value, the best place to start is by clicking here and scheduling an appointment.
Looking to sell your home? Give me a call today.
Roy Thomas SRES® (Senior’s Real Estate Specialist) is a REALTOR® with Sutton Group Professional Realty. Since 1991, Roy specializes in helping retirees with their later in life real estate transactions. Call Roy at 902-497-3031 or contact Roy here
An often cited perk of home ownership is that you have a source of cash when you need to sell it. As you age, you may realize that your home no longer provides a convenient, affordable place to live. When you own a home, you have options that you can rely on to obtain the housing you need.
Senior Living Can Be Costly
For some seniors, modifying their home to make it safe and accessible is an option, made possible by taking out a loan from the equity in the hands. In many cases, however, renovations are not feasible or not cost-effective. In that case, your best option is moving and having a house to sell can provide you with the funds you need for your new housing. According to the senior living specialists A Place For Mom, housing options can be costly, especially if you need care in addition to living space.
In Canada, the national average for renting a one-bedroom apartment or studio in a facility that includes one meal per day is $1,995, in a price range of $1,400-$3,500 per month. For supportive living, retirement homes and senior lodges, the costs paid in $1,500- $5,000 per month, while residing in a center that provides care for dementia or Alzheimer’s averages $3,477, with the range of $3,000-$7,000.
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Paying For Senior Living
All of these options are private pay, which means that even after Old Age Pension, Canada Pension, other pension income, and savings, you may be in need of a source of funds to meet your housing needs.
In addition to current income, many people find themselves needing to take other measures such as selling off life insurance policies or relying on support from their families to cover the costs of senior living. Unless you have a long-term care insurance plan in place, selling off real estate may be the best place to start to provide funds for the next stage of life. There are several advantages to taking this approach:
– The expenses of homeownership, such as taxes and home-repair, improvement, and upkeep costs immediately end.
– You do not have to immediately exhaust other resources such as savings accounts or life insurance policies.
– Even if you have a mortgage on your home, you will reduce debt and pull out the cash equity from your home.
– The new home you select can have all the services you need in place, rather than you or your family having to piece together home care, meal delivery, and a visitation schedule to provide for you.
If you are ready to sell your home for maximum value, the best place to start is by clicking here and scheduling an appointment.
Looking to sell your home? Give me a call today.
Roy Thomas SRES® (Senior’s Real Estate Specialist) is a REALTOR® with Sutton Group Professional Realty. Since 1991, Roy specializes in helping retirees with their later in life real estate transactions. Call Roy at 902-497-3031 or contact Roy here
Whether you’re a baby boomer approaching retirement or a senior citizen facing health issues, you will eventually question whether your current home will continue to work for you as you age. Are you able to get in and out easily? Can you manage the steps up to the bedroom or down to the laundry easily? If you need to use a wheelchair, can you maneuver into rooms with your mobility device? When the answer to one or more of these questions is “no,” you might consider whether to modify your home to age in place, or whether to move.
The High Cost Of Transforming Your Home
The ideal location for many people who have mobility or other health issues is a home with a first-floor master bedroom, a bathroom, and laundry. If your current home does not have these amenities, you may consider adding them if you love your home and don’t want to move. Unfortunately, adding on what makes a home easy to manage for seniors requires a large outlay of money.
Take, for example, what is required to create a bedroom, bathroom, and laundry facility on the first floor. If you have space on your main floor that you can convert to a bedroom and a bathroom, your cost may be minor, but when you’re talking about adding an addition, your project can cost thousands. You may be talking a minimum of $25,000 for a bedroom addition. Converting existing space to make way for a new bathroom might cost a minimum of $3.000, but if you’re adding an addition to your home which includes a bathroom, the cost is much more.
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Moving the laundry to the first floor can make your life easier, but ensure you have enough floor space for your washer and dryer. The cost to do the plumbing might be a minimum of $2,000, but the figure can rise if you are moving the laundry up to the second floor. If you have room to put laundry appliances on the wall adjacent to a bathroom where there is already plumbing, your costs might be less than if you had to run water lines up a flight or two.
Other Issues To Consider
Remodelling projects are expensive, but the high costs are just one thing that you have to think about. You also need to ask:
– Is there enough room on your lot to expand your structure?
– Will the city approve your plans for expansion?
– Will expanding and renovating make your home too costly for the neighborhood?
When you count these costs, you may realize that looking for another home is a smart idea. Your Realtor® can help you find a place that has the main accessibility features you need already included for the price you can pay, without the hassle of major construction, zoning board hearings, permits, and lots of cash. Before you decide to remodel, carefully count the cost.
Looking to sell your home? Give me a call today.
Roy Thomas SRES® (Senior’s Real Estate Specialist) is a REALTOR® with Sutton Group Professional Realty. Since 1991, Roy specializes in helping retirees with their later in life real estate transactions. Call Roy at 902-497-3031 or contact Roy here
As you get older, you may realize that surrounding yourself with a lifetime of memories has a cost to you. Your home may be so cluttered that downsizing to a smaller house, senior apartment, or assisted living facility is an overwhelming project. Even if you want to stay in your current home, you may need to clear space so you can move through your home in a wheelchair, or you may need to accommodate a live-in caregiver. When your home is overloaded with too much furniture and clothing or too many knickknacks and treasures from the past, you may find yourself feeling stuck.
The Challenges of Decluttering
When you try to approach the clutter yourself, you can find plenty of resources that suggest how to plan a decluttering project. Start with a room at a time, the articles say, or do little work each day until you have a manageable amount of possessions. Call in a relative to help make the job easier. For seniors, these suggestions might not be workable, especially if you are not in good health, if you have no relatives able to help, or if you need to make a quick move.
For most people, one of the hardest things in parting with possessions that DIY approaches do not address is that “things” acquire emotional value beyond their monetary worth. While looking over boxes of old memorabilia that chronicles your life or the early life of your children can bring closure, the decluttering process can be time-consuming and not extensive enough.
Hiring The Pros Can Get the Job Done
One of the most effective ways to whittle your possessions down to size is to obtain help of professionals who specialize in decluttering. As an objective third-party, the professionals do not have the same attachment to your possessions as you do, so they can move through your house quickly and help you decide what to keep, what to throw out, and what to donate. A good decluttering firm is respectful of your memories while getting the job done. Whether you are trying to make more room in your current location or you need to move to a smaller space, the pros have the experience to know exactly what will fit. They can do the job quickly and at a reasonable price.
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Who to Call
While you could run a classified ad in Kijiji one of the safest ways to obtain the help is to hire a professional organizer. There are several local firms that specialize in decluttering in Halifax. When you hire a firm, they will take care of arranging to have your unneeded possessions hauled away.
Looking to sell your home? Give me a call today.
Roy Thomas SRES® (Senior’s Real Estate Specialist) is a REALTOR® with Sutton Group Professional Realty. Since 1991, Roy specializes in helping retirees with their later in life real estate transactions. Call Roy at 902-497-3031 or contact Roy here
When you are retired and have less income to meet emergencies, take vacations, or handle a big-ticket repair, keep in mind that you have a ready source of cash at hand: your house. Your home is likely the largest financial asset you have. You can put your home equity to work for you.
You may have approached retirement with no plans to sell your home, especially if the mortgage is paid off. When you own free and clear your costs to live there are vastly reduced, although the taxes, repair and maintenance costs, and utilities bills go on. Your home is an asset that can be tapped to improve your quality of life. You should think carefully about how to use the value of it when doing financial planning and develop a strategy to access your home equity if you need the funds by either selling the home or borrowing against it.
When You Might Want To Sell
Does your home still work for you in your senior years? Is it where you want to be? Is it too big? Does it accommodate your physical needs? You may realize it is too big for you or not near enough to the kids. If your health is failing, you may need to consider assisted living or at least find a home that is a better fit to your needs. Selling the home will free up cash.
Thinking of relocating? If you move to less expensive home or condo, you could purchase with cash and have money left over to help fund your retirement.
Becoming a renter. This gives you the option to take all your home equity and invest it to produce a monthly income. You can also pay off any mortgage debt you may have. Plus you eliminate the ongoing expenses of property tax, repairs and maintenance.
When You Might Want to Borrow
If you aren’t ready to sell, you have alternatives that allow you access a lump sum of cash or an ongoing stream. Taking a home equity line of credit (HELOC) can offer you access to cash for emergencies. Assuming you qualify for a home equity loan, a HELOC is a good way to put on a new roof or take the trip of a lifetime.
If you need to supplement your monthly income, a reverse mortgage will pull cash from your home that does not have to paid back until you sell the house or pass away. You can choose either to receive a lump sum or monthly payments, or both. Your home equity is your money and having it in hand can relieve the stress of daily living.
Should You Access Your Home Equity?
The family home should be part of your retirement planning. Using the equity to improve your retirement years is something you have earned. There is no benefit to struggling financially while hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity sits unused in your home.
Looking to sell your home? Give me a call today.
Roy Thomas SRES® (Senior’s Real Estate Specialist) is a REALTOR® with Sutton Group Professional Realty. Since 1991, Roy specializes in helping retirees with their later in life real estate transactions. Call Roy at 902-497-3031 or contact Roy here
If you have decided to downsize into a smaller place, you’ve already made the difficult decision to sell your home. The next set of difficult decisions involves what to take with you. In your new home, you won’t have the room for everything you own. Also, you have made the decision to downsize your living space, so it makes no sense to be overcrowded from day one. You have to approach the process as one of getting ready for your new life, not shutting down the old one.
In most homes, you can get rid of 30% of its contents and never miss it for a second. How much could you live without it your new home?
Deciding What Makes The Cut
Discarding, selling, or giving your possessions away can be a grueling experience, as for most of us clothes, knickknacks, and other items can be like old friends we don’t want to part with even if we have nothing more in common. When you know you’re going to move, here are a few things that you can do to make decluttering and downsizing less painful.
– Take time to grieve. Give yourself time to go through the decluttering process so that you can unemotionally part with what you know you need to part with.
– Break your decluttering down into small projects. If you mark on your calendar to clean out old cosmetics in the bathroom one day, purge your CDs and DVDs the next, and tackle the bookshelf on another day, you will feel less overwhelmed and have a sense of satisfaction when you are done for the day.
– Make every item pass the test of “Will this contribute to my new life? “If not, delegate the item to the pile of things you are discarding. Not sure what to give away and are what to pitch? Ask yourself “will this item contribute to someone else’s life?”.
– Leave no stone unturned. Keep in mind that no area of your possessions should be safe from the evaluation. If you have prided yourself on your good cooking all your life, you are not obliged to keep every cookbook you’ve ever bought. Keep your favorites or pass them on to your kids, and pack up the rest. If you love kitchen gadgets, seriously consider what you use. If that pasta maker or ice cream maker has years of dust on it, it’s time to pass it on.
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– Give yourself a few breaks. If you come across something you love but don’t use, you may let it slip into the pile of items to take. If you do that too much, your pile won’t shrink enough to fit into your new home. You can however put a few items aside to reevaluate later down the decluttering process.
– Take it away. Nothing makes it easier for you to second-guess yourself than to have boxes or bags of unwanted items hanging around your home. When you have a few breaks, get them to their destination. You won’t be tempted to pull items out of the discard pile and will see the results of your hard work.
Looking to sell your home? Give me a call today.
Roy Thomas SRES® (Senior’s Real Estate Specialist) is a REALTOR® with Sutton Group Professional Realty. Since 1991, Roy specializes in helping retirees with their later in life real estate transactions. Call Roy at 902-497-3031 or contact Roy here