|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
stepping down
Carol Schell is selling her ranch house
by
Jim Lewis
:
3/3/2010
In Lebanon County for something a little smaller, a manufactured home in a complex only a couple miles away where she will pay a maintenance fee to have the grass cut and the driveway plowed after snowstorms.
Her two daughters have moved out on their own. Schell, 62, and her 77-year-old husband, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, need a home without stairs that is easier to keep up.
So she put her Annville Twp. house up for sale this month, hoping to raise the money to buy the smaller house nearby. She would lose a little living space - her current home has a full basement and about 2,000 square feet, while the new home has about 1,500, all on one story - but would benefit in other ways.
No more traipsing up and down steps to do the laundry. No more driving 5 or 6 miles to the grocery store and church - she’ll be much closer to both. No more 1- 1/2 hour sessions with the mower, cutting the lawn. The time that she will save can be spent with her husband.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a year,’’ said Schell, a nursing supervisor. “I had to decide what was the best option, and the best direction to go.’’
Nationwide, others are choosing to downsize, opting for smaller homes and yards. According to a survey by Better Homes and Gardens magazine, more consumers say their next home will be smaller - 36 percent of those polled last year, compared to 32 percent polled in 2008.
The National Association of Home Builders announced that the average size of a newly-built home dropped in 2009, the first time in 27 years that the size of new homes decreased by a significant amount, reports MarketWatch.com. A new home completed in 2009 averaged 2,480 square feet, compared to 2,520 square feet in 2008, the association says.
A tough economy has blunted the trend to downsize, said Michael Ivankovich, a Doylestown consultant on downsizing living space. Many senior citizens have decided to stay in their homes because of a soft real estate market - they can’t sell their digs for enough money to afford the cost of retirement communities.
Some have seen the price of their homes fall as much as 50 percent during these tough times, said Ivankovich. Others have gone forward with selling and downsizing their living space, fearing real estate prices will get worse, he said.
“Something eventually forces you to make a move - illness or death, or you come to the conclusion that you should do it now before the market gets worse,’’ said Ivankovich.
For Schell, her husband’s Alzheimer’s was the catalyst for searching for a home that was easier to keep. She considered retirement communities, but “most of them were out of our price range,’’ she said. A residential unit in a nursing home was another option she rejected because “I’m not quite ready for that.’’
The manufactured home she chose has a large front porch and a patio - two features that her husband loves, she said. She won’t miss the stairs on laundry day. And her current home, a 30-plus-year-old house that she and her husband have owned for 14 years, needs improvements that she would rather not finance if she can find a new place.
The only challenge is purging her house of unnecessary possessions so she can fit the couple’s belongings into their new home. Some furniture will have to go. For many couples, it’s a difficult step. Not for Schell.
“I think it’s going to be easy to get rid of things,’’ she said, though she admits it will be more difficult for her husband.
Ivankovich, the downsizing consultant, has seen some couples get cheated by unscrupulous appraisers when they’ve purged their belongings to move into a smaller home.
He offers this advice:
“If you’re in doubt, don’t sell it,’’ he said. “I’ve seen too many people get screwed by the people telling them what it’s worth and buying it from them.’’
Ivankovich, who also is an auctioneer and appraiser, has written a book on downsizing, “Home Downsizing in Four Easy Steps,’’ which promises to help readers sell their larger homes for smaller venues “for the greatest amount of cash, with the least amount of work, in the shortest amount of time.’’
His book, as well as some downsizing tips, are available on his Web site, HomeDownsizing4EasySteps.com.
Jim Lewis: 717-944-4628, or
jimlewis@pressandjournal.com.
Print this story
|
|
|
|