A Big Little Move (by Dana/DrLefty)

A couple of years ago, as I started to plan my retirement, I published an article called “When and Where?” Later, I followed up with a post explaining that I’d chosen the “when” (July 1, 2025) and that my husband and I were still thinking about the “where” but were inclined to stay put in the college town in Northern California where we’ve lived for almost 35 years.

One option we’ve been seriously considering is purchasing a home for ourselves with a floor plan that could accommodate our adult daughter, who’s struggled with unemployment and underemployment, if she runs out of options at some point. Our three-bedroom condo, while it has a guest bedroom and bathroom, is not really laid out well for long-term success in multigenerational living.

So for a while (going back as far as fall 2024), we’ve been looking around our area, specifically at homes with Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) or with a separate wing or even downstairs ensuite bedroom with an upstairs–something that would allow some separation and privacy for all of us. But we wanted the home to be something we would like, too, and that would fit within our financial parameters. We signed up with a buyer’s agent in fall 2025 and got pre-approved for a new mortgage so that we could move quickly in case we found that perfect unicorn property.

We had almost given up on the idea of finding the right place in the town where we live. The housing market is tight and there just aren’t tons of options. We looked and looked at open houses and with our agent, but nothing seemed right–until one month ago today.

A house was listed on February 26. I saw the listing and our agent texted us about it, too. I wasn’t initially that excited. It has an ADU and it’s in a very desirable part of town, but it was old (more on that below), and, I thought, priced a bit high. But on February 28, we went out to lunch and then my husband said, “Is there an open house today?” There was, we went to it, came home, and my husband looked at me and said, “That checks all the boxes.” We texted our agent and went back with him the next day. He explained that given how popular that particular neighborhood is in our town, the property wasn’t actually overpriced. A few days later, we made an offer, actually bidding a bit under the asking price on our agent’s suggestion. The sellers countered, still below asking price. Our agent said it was a great deal and we should grab it. We were literally at a baseball game in Scottsdale, Arizona, when he called and said “Get on your phones NOW and accept the offer before the sellers get another one!”

So…we’re now buying a house and getting ready to sell our condo. We close on the house on April 6 and agreed to let the seller stay another month, so we’ll move there in the second week of May. I’m sort of out of breath at how quickly this is all happening. Even though we were looking/pre-approved, we’d just about given up on the idea, and our agent even admitted he didn’t think we were going to find something.

Here are the pros and cons of what we’re doing:

• The house is only about a mile from where we live now, but it’s closer to downtown, campus, the large community park, and the library. Very walkable. If we could have pre-selected what part of town we’d like to buy in, this would have been it. The neighborhood is, we hear, very cohesive, and there are retired professors (like me) right next door!
• The ADU is a lovely little guest cottage with a bedroom, bath, small living space, a full kitchen, a little bistro set on the patio in front of it, and even its own separate entrance and street address. The current sellers have been making over $40K/year running it as an Airbnb. In our college town, places to stay, both short-term and long-term, can often be hard to find. They are also selling us all the furnishings for a very fair price.
• The house has a gorgeous yard with redwood trees, a large covered patio, and beautful landscaping. The yard is probably our favorite feature of the home.
• There’s an oversized secondary bedroom in the main house off the front door that we’re going to turn into the Peloton room/home gym. I’m very excited about that.
• We’re going to get a dog as soon as we’re settled!
• OK, now the “cons,” such as they are: The house is old. It’s a mid-century modern home built in 1965. I was very nervous about this, but our agent, who has general contractor skills himself, walked us point by point through the inspections and told us the place is in quite good shape. This style of house is very popular with many, especially in our town, but I’m used to a brand-new condo with all the work done. This is definitely a pivot, especially at our age (we’ll turn 66 this year). “Good shape” or not, it’s going to take more work and attention to maintain it. (I guess another pro is no more HOA. On the other hand, the HOA takes care of a lot of things.)
• The kitchen and master bath are both cramped (that’s putting it politely), as things were back when the house was built. We’ve already met with a contractor and are going to have work done on the house within a month or two of moving in. So there will be that effort, expense, and disruption. (On the other hand–hey! We’ll have an ADU we can stay in or at least cook in while the work’s being done!)
• Maybe the biggest con, or at least implication, is financial. We were living very comfortably in our condo with a manageable mortgage payment at 3% obtained in 2020. Even without our (high) HOA dues anymore, our housing costs will double. We also are using cash we’ve been sitting on since our previous move to the condo to come up with the down payment before selling our condo first. Once we get the money out of the condo, that can be used toward our remodeling plans. We’ve crunched the numbers and can afford the increased house payment, especially if we add possible income from the ADU. But we’ll have to watch our budget more closely than we do now. I’d be lying if I said I’m not a tiny bit anxious about this.

So it’s a “little” move (only a mile) but with big implications. Instead of drifting along comfortably in our condo, we’ll be moving, remodeling, getting a puppy, and possibly learning how to be Airbnb hosts. (We may also consider renting the cottage to longer-term tenants, but Airbnb allows us flexibility to use the space for our daughter if she needs it.)

I have lots of thoughts about what I’ve learned about buying, living in, and (hopefully) selling our condo, but I’ll save that for another day.