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WHEN I LAST REPORTED on our retirement journey, we’d decided to put our search for a second home on hold. Well, in the immortal words of Saturday Night Live’s Emily Litella, “Never mind.”
We looked at many properties in several communities earlier this year, but we didn’t find anything we wanted to purchase. We decided on a cooling-off period, while we pondered what our next step should be. We kept a casual eye on properties coming up for sale, but nothing grabbed our attention.
One Sunday morning in mid-July, my wife received a Zillow notification that a property in a desirable 55-plus community had just been put on the market. There was to be an open house that afternoon. We had nothing better to do, and it was a cloudy and rainy day, so we jumped in the car.
To make the trip more enticing, we’d get to see two of our grandsons, ages seven months and three years old. We found two other open houses nearby that also seemed worth a visit. The first two homes we toured were single, ranch-style homes. Both were nice, and would have been great for a young and growing family. But they were more house and property than we need at this point.
The last property was a townhome in a 55-plus community. It had a large first-floor master bedroom, upgraded kitchen, hardwood floors and a big two-car garage. The second floor had a large bedroom, bath, storage area, and huge loft area that could easily accommodate an office, sitting area and additional sleeping. The unit had a private deck looking out onto woods. The community had a pool, community center with fitness room, and courts for tennis and pickleball.
The realtor running the open house lived in the community, and spoke glowingly about it and its residents. After talking to her for a bit, we determined that she was originally from the Philadelphia suburbs, not far from where Vicky and I grew up. This led to an extended conversation about life in the community. She was a great salesperson.
We were very interested, as were several other couples who toured the property while we were there. Apparently, this community is popular with downsizers leaving the New York City area. We had seen a unit for sale back in March, but it was small and dingy, with an unappealing layout, plus the asking price was $749,000, which seemed high.
The asking price for this unit was $745,000. The most recent sale in the neighborhood was a few months back, at $770,000. That unit was slightly larger than the one we saw, and pristine. The dingy unit we saw back in March eventually sold for $723,000.
We decided to put in an offer. We knew there would be other bidders. We spoke with our realtor, and discussed recent sales and how they compared to the property we saw. I recalled the article that HumblerDollar’s Dennis Friedman wrote about the sale of his wife’s house. It was useful, because I thought we were in a similar situation. The asking price felt low for a property in great condition in a desirable community. I thought the seller was encouraging over-asking price offers. Our realtor agreed. We were the first bidders on the property, submitting an offer that night of $770,000—$25,000 above the asking price.
Two days later, we were told our offer hadn’t been accepted. Our realtor said we had one more chance to counter, but she felt we had made a very strong offer. We discussed it and decided to take one more shot, offering $799,000. Later that evening, we heard that the seller had decided on another offer.
We were pretty disappointed. But it gave us an opportunity to revisit our thinking. We agreed that the original reasons we wanted to move nearer to our children still existed, and had actually strengthened. Spending half the summer in our crowded beach community also reminded us of how much we prefer the town in the off-season. Imagine if your quiet little town went from 11,000 residents to 150,000. That’s what it’s like to live in a popular beach town.
A few days later, we saw a listing for a townhouse in the same community where our younger son and his family lived. It’s about a 50-minute drive from our older son and family in New York City. It looked in great shape. We contacted our realtor and asked to set up a showing.
Before we called the realtor, we spoke to our son and daughter-in-law to gauge their feelings about us living that close. They were supportive of us moving to the area, but this would be closer than any of us had anticipated. Their only concern was that we would expect them to be our only social life. We understood that concern and emphasized that wasn’t our intent.
With that resolved, we set up a showing. We liked the house very much, and decided to put in an offer. The listing price was $795,000. We thought that was high, so we came in with an offer of $750,000. The seller countered at $779,000, and we agreed to their price if they included the dining room and living room furniture. They said, “yes,” and we had a deal. We settled in mid-September.
When we told friends and family that we were buying a home, they were uniformly happy for us, but some were also confused. The confused folks were those who’d read my previous article. Several politely asked what changed. I told them that nothing had changed. The reasons we wanted to be closer to our children and grandchildren were just as valid—and perhaps more so. For instance, during the cooling-off period, our eight-year-old grandson joined a travel soccer team. We want to attend as many of his, his brother’s and his cousin’s games as possible.
The layout of the house doesn’t meet a couple of criteria we’d set. It’s a three-bedroom townhouse, with a basement and detached one-car garage. One of the best features is a two-story sunroom off both the living room and master bedroom.
But it doesn’t have a first-floor master suite—instead the master bedroom is on the second floor—and the laundry is in the basement. We’re very capable of navigating stairs. But we have experience with aging and infirm parents, and know that can change rapidly. My wife accurately captured the risk-reward nature of the purchase when she told a friend, “We are buying a lifetime of experiences, and a house comes with it.”
We’re considering what to do with our current home in a Jersey Shore beach town. We’d like to keep it, and I’m working to figure out how to structure our finances to our best advantage. We will likely rent it out for the summer season, and use it in the offseason. We have experience owning a seasonal rental property, and I’m confident we can manage it. There are some interesting tax ramifications when converting a vacation home to a primary residence and then back to a rental property. But that’s a subject for a future article.
Richard Connor is a semi-retired aerospace engineer with a keen interest in finance. He enjoys a wide variety of other interests, including chasing grandkids, space, sports, travel, winemaking and reading. Follow Rick on Twitter @RConnor609 and check out his earlier articles.
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Congratulations Rick & Vicky. Atleast you can’t say you had paralysis due to anslysis. Making the decision to move into that next phase house closer to family is the absolutly the right thing to do.
Thanks Mark. It’s already paid dividends in time with grandkids
I don’t think the stairs are a deal breaker. But I would find a way to move the washer/dryer to the second floor. We lived in our house for over 30 years with the w/d in the basement. But about 6-7 years ago, a number of neighbors did remodels that allowed the machines to move upstairs. The fairly recent ability to stack larger size w/ds facilitated this. I did some measuring after seeing the neighbors’ arrangements — and found our bathroom would accommodate the pair.
I would have to say that the move was the BEST improvement we’ve ever made in the house. I estimate my time savings to be close to an hour a week. And having the machines upstairs does improve safety. My husband and I have no problem with the stairs– the house is 2 1/2 stories above the basement. But carrying baskets of laundry up and down increases the risk of falling.
If stairs ever become a problem then there is always the option of a stair glide chair. My aunt has utilized one for decades allowing her to stay in the home in which she raised her family.
Thanks for reading and the thoughtful comments. We looked at that when we purchased the house and think we could fit a stackable W/D in the master bathroom. If we converted the large double vanity we might fit full size appliances.
How old at this point?
80 and 81; my neighbor across the street is about to turn 86 and lives in a full 3 story house!
Congratulations on your new casa, Rick. It sounds great.
We plan on remaining in our home of 35 years, and it’s 2-story. I’ve thought if that becomes a problem, a stair lift or even an elevator would be cheaper, and less hassle, than moving.
Andrew, thanks for reading and commenting. We were able to make changes to our 1965 colonial in PA to handle my parents needs, but it wasn’t easy. A stair lift worked, but took up a lot of the stairs. I built a ramp when my mom was in a wheelchair. A bigger issue was smaller bathrooms and doorways. Most older homes just weren’t designed with ADA specifications in the plan.
It often isn’t difficult to widen a bathroom door by converting it to a pocket door.
Mazel tov on the new home, Richard.
Funny how the right one comes along at unexpected moments. It happens with spouses and jobs too.
Mike, thanks for reading and commenting. It is funny how things often work out!
I hope you and your spouses’ legs last longer than our late 60’s (in age) legs have.
We moved so we would have “one level living”. A bit less than 1/2 the space we had before.
It has been quite an adjustment. I’m still feeling the pain, My wife … not so much.
Winston, thanks for reading and commenting. I hope you adjustment continues successfully. Since we downsized significantly a few years ago, this hasn’t been too bad. The new house is actually an upsize, with significantly more closet and storage space.
Beware of the last sentence 🙂
I hope you are happy in the new place and the stairs help you stay fit rather than becoming a problem. I can only say that the year my stairs were a serious problem I was only 70. (Finding the right medication “fixed” the problem, but you can never count on that lasting.)
Thanks Kathy. Glad you fixed the stairs problem.
I fixed it permanently by moving to one level living. The year I broke my ankle I was 60 and coped, but I knew then I would have to move. It only took me fifteen years….
As a follow up, the house we were outbid on eventually sold for $840,000 – $95,000 over asking!
By the way Richard, 50 minutes away from children is not being too close. In fact, you will be saying – as you are called upon for help – “I wish this wasn’t such a long drive”
Dick, I agree. That’s our older son and older grandsons. Our younger son is about a long par 5 away. That’s the family were concerned about being too close. So far it has been great – we respect each other’s privacy, but we’v enjoyed many a visit so far.
Best of luck Richard, but I have a few words of wisdom- perhaps a few for your wife as well.
First, don’t underestimate the risk of stairs. The less than desirable up and down, especially the necessity of going to the basement can creep up very fast.
Second, the grandchildren. I know your goals and share them. We have been fortunate to live within an hour of our children and 11 grandchildren before and after our move to a 55+ community.
Enjoying time with them, going to their activities has been a big part of our retirement lives. In fact, we drove 50 miles to see a ten minute cross country race for a 6th grade granddaughter yesterday.
But something has happened. They are all growing up, they have their friends and more activities than you can imagine. Time for Ma and Pa is waning. Finding time to do things together is becoming more difficult by the hour.
Every other year most of the family spends Thanksgiving on the Cape. It used to be a long weekend. They came in Wed and left Sunday. Not this year. Between sports events, SAT courses, etc. one will come on Wed and leave Friday another Saturday and one even arriving Thursday morning.
Enjoy it all while you can Richard, but be prepared for change and perhaps another hunt for single floor living.
By the way there is always a condo in our community for sale 28 miles West of Manhattan😎
Dick, thans for the congrautalions and words of wisdom. I completely agree there is a window of time when the grandkids are available. The oldest is ten and already talking about college! I think we have at least ten to 15 years of activities to attend, and this helps us with that. We understand that the kids are busy and will get busier, so we need to be available and flexible and go where they are. It’s what our parents did for us and our kids, and what we plan for our family. We spent a beautiful Sunday afternoon in East Harlem at a 8-year old baseball game.
I also have a similar thought on travel – we plan to do as much as possible in the next five years while we feel great.
Our community has a nice mix of retirees, near-retirees, and young families. There are a number of retired couples, significantly older than us, in great shape who walk everywhere. They inspire us. But I understand things can change quickly and this may not be our last home. I could easily see us looking at a condo 10 years down the road. The stairs are interesting. They are a wrap-around configuration – 6 stairs and then a large landing. Not too steep and with strong railings. This includes the stairs to the basement. So they are safer than most staircases I’m familiar with. I also know healthy seniors who think that the regular use of stairs kept them in better shape.
And keep that condo ready, we may be looking in a few years.
I have a 100-year-old neighbor who insists that climbing up and down stairs to her bedroom on the second floor is her necessary daily exercise.
My current home, purchased with advancing age in mind, is a small one-story with one bathroom and three small bedrooms. It was smaller than what I wanted, but with limited housing stock in my little village, especially for one-story homes, I grabbed it. Finishing the basement and adding a full bath down there has almost doubled my space and was cheaper than buying a larger house. With the laundry room down there and a microwave in the laundry room ( plus enough room to add a refrigerator), I could actually move into my basement, if necessary, and have my caregiver live on the main floor or the other way around.