Posts Tagged “preparing to sell your Halifax home”
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
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
There was a time when “home automation” meant lying in bed and turning off the light using The Clapper. Now, modern Halifax homeowners can have lights, music, home theater, garage door operation, climate control, security systems, and more all controlled on a phone, iPad, or tablet. You can control as little or as much as you want to make your home more comfortable, more secure, and more convenient. If you are a senior who lives independently, a home automation system can enable you to live safely while assuring your kids that everything is under control.
Halifax Homeowners Love Home Automation Systems
While home automation may have started as a popular way to make life easier for people with disabilities, it is becoming popular with homeowners of all ages. Depending on how extensive your system is and what rooms it controls, a home automation system can:
– Increase the temperature in your home so that it is comfortable when you get home.
– Verify that you remembered to lock the back door and even lock it if you forgot.
– Let you know if you left the faucet running in the bathroom or if you have a leak in the basement.
– Close the shades and curtains at bedtime – and reverse the process in the morning and of course, turn off the lights.
You may already have appliances, sprinkler systems, and entertainment systems with built-in timers that employ some concepts of home automation. A home automation system takes things to the next level to coordinate what’s in your home with your arrival or departure. If any of your devices have remotes, a home automation system can control it all.
How Home Automation Systems Help Seniors
If you are a senior or have elderly parents you worry about many things and home automation systems offer many benefits. A home automation system lets you see or hear who is at the door, so you can sit on your couch and turn away unwelcome guests or even unlock the door for someone you want to let in.
With access to your login codes for the system, your kids can see that you are okay if your system is camera-enabled. The system will notify someone if you have intruders, smoke or fire, leaks, or other hazards.
Home automation systems can function like medical alert devices to let your kids know that you are okay or need help. You can even have your phone programmed to admit caregivers or call preprogram numbers if you need help.
You can schedule basic functions such as turning lights off or on, turning the thermostat up or down, or opening or closing shades and curtains. These features will not only help you remember routine tasks but make it easier if you have arthritis or some other condition that restricts your motion.
The system can even notify you if the door opens to alert you that someone is entering or leaving – an asset if someone in the home is prone to wandering.
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Is A Home Automation System Right For You?
Home automation systems vary in price according to how much they control. They can be valuable tools to assure your peace of mind whether you are a homeowner looking for convenience, a person looking out for an elderly relative, or a person others are concerned about. As you look at different systems, you will become more aware of what’s possible vs. what you want or need.
You need to be clear about your expectations and ask yourself a few questions. Is the system easy to use? Is it affordable? What features are “must-haves” and what are extras you’ll never use? Are you “techie” enough to be willing to give it a try? Does your home have enough electric capacity to sustain the system or do you need wiring upgrades?
As with any major purchase, shopping around is key. Since you can buy just what you need even on a low-budget, a home automation system can be a perfect solution that will keep you 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
For some people, moving from the family home is something to do only when you can no longer manage where you are. There is a certain amount of nostalgia built around staying in the Halifax home where you raised your kids, and where you created many of the most important memories of your life. Even as you move through your Boomer years and well into your senior years, you might modify your house to age in place. You think that if you manage to make it through your older years without a lingering illness, you can even stay there until the end.
This can make a certain amount of sense, but it can also deprive you of many of the pleasures of your senior years if you hold on to your house too long. Often, moving to another residence can net you a lump sum of money and reduce your monthly living costs.
“Wait,” you are thinking, “my house is paid for. How can I really be money I had if I sell my home and buy another one or even rent a place?”
A Lesson In Retirement Math
According to Stephen Sass, an associate director at the Boston College Center for Retirement Research, many seniors have the math all on. With thinking about downsizing, “if it makes sense, don’t wait,” he says.
It may seem like a bad move to leave a house with a paid off mortgage for rental, smaller house, or condominium with maintenance or association fees, but living in a house involves paying for repairs, maintaining the yard, paying utilities, and of course, paying taxes. If your family home was in an area with a great school district, paying those taxes made sense when your kids free on now, you can move to a place with lower taxes and with many living costs included.
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“Preparing to Downsize” Report
Rental units and even condominiums cover many maintenance costs, landscaping costs and often even utilities in rent and association fees. Though you might still have to put in a water heater or a new stove when you need one if you choose a condo, you do not have to pay directly for major outside repairs. What’s even better than not having to write the check for repairs and maintenance? Having to worry about those things! You won’t have to spend a minute trying to find a handyman or hoping your son will be able to cut the lawn this weekend.
Big Annual Savings From Downsizing
As Sass puts it, about 30% of the average retiree’s monthly expenses go for housing. If you move from a $250,000 house the one costing 150,000, you might clear $75,000 after you pay out moving expenses. That would enable you to bolster your nest egg in case you need it later, or to withdraw an extra $3,250 from savings each year. That means if you want to take a trip or buy a new couch, you can do it without worrying that something important won’t get paid. When you throw in the savings on utilities and other expenses from a bigger house, you might be able to save an additional $3,000 per year, for a total of $6,250.
Some people with out of town children and other relatives don’t want to leave the family home because it is a refuge for them when they come home to visit. When the kids come home, they can stay with other relatives or at a hotel. If you feel you want to pay for the lodging, you will be able to use a little bit of the money you’ve saved to contribute toward the cost.
Why Wait To Move?
Besides the monetary savings, other experts point out that finding new housing can mean a whole new world. If you live in the suburbs where young families are replacing many of your old neighbors who have moved or passed away, you can acquire a new peer group if you move to a senior community. If you leave the suburbs where everything is spread out to settle in urban area, you can have instant access to restaurants, culture, shopping, and even amenities such as indoor parking and the doorman. The sooner you move, the sooner you can start reaping the economic and social benefits you seek.
The Time To Get Move Is Now
It makes good sense to downsize your home when you retire. Now is the time to start thinking about the possibilities ahead if you live in a less costly place with lower expenses.
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
Here are some things you can do to make the bathroom safer. Some are obvious, some are cheap, and some represent more of an investment.
Keep the floor free of clothes and towels. Are you finding it difficult to bend down to reach things? Have one of those “grabby” devices that enable you to reach items above or below you.
Make sure that bath mats and rugs have rubber backs or other fasteners to keep them in one place. Rinse off shower mats after used to prevent soap scum from making them slippery when you use them again.
Add wall-mounted safety or grab bars around the shower, toilet, and other places in the bathroom. Make sure that they are installed correctly so that they are firmly mounted on the wall and will not pull away when force is applied to them.
Consider a taller toilet or at least an elevated seat with grab bars. Add a built-in shower seat and or a shower stool specifically designed to allow bathing from a seated position and ensure that the armed models can support you as you rise.
Equip the bathroom with a handheld showerhead to allow showering even when sitting. Opt for a unit that is mounted on a sliding bar to allow for adjustments and that the showerhead has the controls to adjust the water right on the handheld part.
Make sure that the shower has a pressure balance valve installed to prevent accidental scalding from hot water. Consider whether the bathtub will still be convenient.
Some people have difficulty getting in and out or have trouble pulling themselves up from a seated position and a powered bath lift that makes it easier to get in and out of the water.
Another approach to easy bathing is a walk-in bathtub that has a door cut in to allow a user to enter and exit without climbing over the side.
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Is The Cost Worth It?
With the exception of the walk-in bathtub or replacement of the tub or shower, all the other upgrades or modifications suggested above are low-cost.
If you are considering making modifications carefully what the impact of more serious renovations will be on what happens next if the modifications are not enough to keep you or your relative in the home.
Some upgrades, such as walk-in bathtubs, ramps, and stairlifts can impact the resale value of the house. Some younger buyers might not even like the grab bars. Removing modifications can be costly for the buyers.
Ask for Advice
With this disclaimer in mind, adding safety features to the bathroom and other rooms in the home can make a beloved home useful and manageable for a long time.
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