10 Benefits Of Downsizing The Family Home For Seniors

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  • Post last modified:November 24, 2022

Your home has been a pivotal part of your life. You know the benefits of keeping it are few but are there more benefits to downsizing the family home?

Downsizing the family home frees cash by removing higher utility costs and maintenance fees. A smaller home mortgage will cost less than the price received from selling a larger one. This means unleashing a ton of equity that you can use for other things. You can live off of the sale price as a secondary income while spending less to maintain the house. 

Moving to a smaller space has big benefits including:

  1.     More disposable income.
  2.     Able to purchase better health insurance and senior life insurance.
  3.     Less stress and higher quality of life.

If you are debating selling your home, you have come to the right place. We’ll show you some great reasons to downsize your family home, plus bonus tips on how to sell to maximize your cash profit.

Benefit Of Downsizing: Free Up Cash To Generate Secondary Income

While most seniors own their homes when they go to move, some do not. Investment property loans are a great way to bridge that gap to help you sell your home and generate secondary income. Downsizing offers a host of monetary benefits for seniors.

  • You will receive more money from the sale than the cost of your downsized home.
  • You will buy less stuff to fill your space since your space will be smaller.
  • Utility costs will be less.

TIP When Downsizing: Cut Closing Costs When Selling House In Down Market

Nobody likes closing costs when selling a house. It takes a huge chunk of the sales price away from you. If you are preparing to sell your home, here are a few tips to help you cut closing costs:

  1. Stage yourself: The costs of stagers can take a huge chunk out of your sale. Instead, set your home up yourself to save money.
  2. Deep clean yourself: Professional cleaning services can set you back financially. If you have the ability at home or friends and relatives in the area to help you, cleaning yourself will save you a lot of money.
  3. Sell without a realtor: For Sale By Owner prevents you from having to give 5% to 6% of your sale price to an agent.
  4. Request a cash offer: Investors who pay with cash will often help you cover closing costs.
  5. Competitive pricing: If you list your house for less than similar homes in the area, buyers will recognize a great deal and will help cover closing costs.

You can easily beat pesky closing costs by making a few simple choices, thus selling your home quicker and freeing up more income for your future home.

Benefits Of Downsizing: Greater Buying Power For Senior Life Insurance

Downsizing homes for seniors helps them have more income available to upgrade senior life insurance plans. Life insurance for seniors is important to help pay for final expenses after you have passed away.

By downsizing and cutting closing costs, you’ll have excess money that you can use to create a difference between the plan’s face value vs. death benefit. Check out seniors united reviews to learn more about the right service.

Tips To Sell Without A Realtor For More Profit

A realtor takes up to 6% of your sale price, meaning they take $18,000 out of a $300,000 sale. Selling without a realtor means more work for you, but it pays off in the long run.

  1. Prep your home: A pre-inspection, complete with repairs, goes a long way to convince a buyer to purchase your home if you sell without a realtor.
  2. Advertise your home: Advertise by listing your house on multiple websites to reach more potential buyers.
  3. List an in-depth description of your house: Along with plenty of interior and exterior photos of your home, you should list the age of the house, location, price, and the number of standard rooms, bedrooms, and bathrooms.
  4. Sell at a realistic price: Avoid selling your house for more than it’s worth. Check the cost of comparable homes in your neighborhood, or use an online price calculator to help you set a realistic price.
  5. Be patient: It may take extra time to sell your home without a realtor, but you can always revisit your price and update market materials if you want more potential buyers’ attention.

If you were wondering how to sell a house without a realtor, it’s more doable than you might think!

Benefits Of Downsizing: Costs Less To Maintain

Maintaining a large house can be costly. The costs pile up between gardening costs, yard work, replacing filters, and more.

Easier Maintenance In Smaller Space

  • A smaller garden is a big benefit: You will have less garden space to maintain in a smaller house. If you choose to live in a townhome or apartment, often they have people who do your yard work for you.
  • Fewer things to repair and clean: You’ll have fewer windows, doors, and flooring to maintain. Cleaning times will be quicker, and repairs will require fewer materials.
  • Size of air conditioner/heater: Larger homes require bigger AC/heating units, meaning that when they break, the maintenance takes longer and costs more. A smaller space will have a smaller machine that will be easier to maintain.

Convenient Way To Sell Home: Selling For Cash

Homes used to sell in seven days or less, but now they stay on the market for thirty days or longer. Try to sell your house fast for cash.

A cash offer from a legit home buyer helps you get a great sales price even in a down market.

Selling To A Legitimate Company That Buys Homes For Cash

Selling your home to a legitimate company that buys homes for cash, AKA a cash home buyer, can take a lot of pressure off.

  • It’s more likely that your home will sell no matter what: If your house has notable deterioration, it may not sell to a regular home buyer. Legitimate companies that buy houses purchase homes of all kinds, including older homes with damage.
  • It makes selling your home much simpler: Choosing to go with a home-flipping company means you do not have to worry about repairs when you sell.
  • There’s only one decision for you to make: Home selling requires a lot of decisions- what repairs to focus on, how much to sell your house for, etc. The only decision you have to make now is choosing which “We Buy Homes” will buy your home.
  • Less paperwork for you to wade through: Going the “For Sale By Owner” way can be full of paperwork and financial headaches. The easier route is to sell to a legitimate home-buying company.
  • Easy closing process: Most home flipping companies purchase with cash, making the transaction easier to complete.

Selling a beloved family home for cash is not for everyone, but if you want to hedge your sale price in a down market, cash is the best choice.

Conclusion

Downsizing the family home is a serious decision but comes with much more financial freedom. By selling your home, you’ll have access to more income and fewer fees, which means you have greater power in choosing your life insurance plans.

The selling process can be daunting, but you can cut fees by selling the house and taking care of maintenance work. Choosing to sell your home for cash will also ensure that the home sells quickly

Linda Chavez

I'm a burial & senior life insurance expert, independent agent, Founder & CEO of Seniors Life Insurance Finder. I have been working in this sector since 2004 and established my own company in 2014. I have a team of seven members, and we are trying hard to share the knowledge we've gathered. We know how difficult often it is to find an affordable policy. Hence, we are doing our best to help you.