Downsizing
As we reach a certain age, many of us feel a natural tendency to downsize our lives.
With our kids grown and (hopefully) gone for good, we start to realize a certain accumulation of stuff that we had not previously been cognizant of.
Rooms full of furniture, mementos, knick-knacks, you name it, it seems that we are suddenly Alice in Wonderland, feeling very small in a house far too big for us.
Getting rid of our extra stuff can come via various routes: offering items of particular sentimental value to family can be a great start, although that can sometimes lead to unforeseen conflict. Having a garage sale, or a series of them is always a great way to get rid of unwanted items. Not only are you practicing the mantra of “out with the old”, but you’re likely to turn a handy little profit along the way. Or, there’s always the donation route, by which your valuables and not-so-valuables that don’t have a place in your life anymore can be re-purposed to any number of worthwhile causes and families in need.
Once the stuff is gone, we naturally tend to seek out a smaller, cozier environment to call home. This can be an interesting time in our lives, as many of us live in the same house or at least the same type domicile for most of our adult years, and suddenly being back in the real estate market can sometimes be a daunting prospect. Buying a smaller house or some sort of condominium property seems like the natural thing to do, but that sort of decision can be more binding and difficult than we might think. From my personal experience, my parents moved out of the suburbs upon early retirement in their mid-50s and bought a three-story townhome. Those beautiful balconies started losing their appeal a decade later when Mom and Dad’s aching knees and joints were walking up three flights of stairs to the master bedroom every night.
As more and more Baby Boomers reach retirement age, there appears to be a shift in the way that seniors approach their living arrangements. According to a recent study done by the Joint Center for Housing at Harvard University, the number of adults between ages 50-75 who were renting their primary homes increased between 2004 and 2013.
Renting Offers
A big reason for this upsurge is the flexibility that renting offers. Some retirees move to different states, different cities, or just different parts of the same city, but the last thing you want to do as you enter your golden years is live somewhere you don’t like or aren’t comfortable in. Signing leases from six months to a couple of years means that even a bad move isn’t a bad long-term move, and you retain the flexibility to make a quick exit if you so choose.
This sort of flexibility is also built into our leasing agreement at Rittenhouse Village. The last thing we want is for a resident to be unhappy with the decision they’ve made to join us, which is why we offer an unprecedented 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. If at any point for any reason you are unsatisfied with your suite during your first 90 days as a resident, we will release you from the terms of your lease, return your processing fee, and refund your money. Try to find that in an apartment complex!
Another great reason to sell your home and move to a renting or leasing situation is because the older we get, the more things take a toll on us. If you’ve ever sold a house, you know that it can be a painstaking process, even with a real estate agent on your side. Between abruptly leaving your home so it can be shown to signing endless reams of paperwork to timing your departure from one home to the arrival at another, the overall experience can be a wearisome one.
We all hope to maintain our zeal and health for many long years, but the unspoken truth is that at some point we will become more weary than we once were, and that’s no time to have to deal with a complicated matter like selling the house. For many seniors, doing so while they have the energy and dedication to doing it fully and doing it right, makes a lot more sense than entrusting it to someone else years down the line.
Rittenhouse Village At Valparaiso provides a range of senior living programs to help support a healthy and happy lifestyle for our residents. We also offer several senior living options for our residents to choose from. Contact us today at 219.531.2484 for more information.
