7. Selling Your Home When Downsizing: Maximize Value & Minimize Stress

Downsizing often starts with one big step—selling your home. But where do you begin? How do you make sure your home sells quickly and for the best price?

In this episode, we break down everything you need to know about getting your home market-ready while navigating the emotional and logistical challenges of downsizing. Whether you’ve lived in your home for decades or just a few years, these expert tips will help you transition smoothly into your next chapter.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The must-do repairs and updates that make the biggest impact on buyers
• How to declutter and stage your home to attract top-dollar offers
• The most common mistakes sellers make (and how to avoid them)
• How to balance selling your home while planning your downsized move
• Insider tips from real estate professionals on timing, pricing, and negotiation

Key Questions We Answer:

• Should I sell first or buy first when downsizing?
• What upgrades are worth the investment before selling?
• How do I handle the emotional side of leaving a longtime home?
• How can I make my home appeal to modern buyers?
• What are the best strategies to sell quickly and for top dollar?

Why You Should Listen:

• Get actionable steps to start preparing your home for sale today
• Learn how to boost your home’s value with simple, cost-effective changes
• Feel confident about selling your home and moving into your next chapter

If downsizing is on your horizon, this episode will help you sell smarter, stress less, and move forward with confidence.

🎧 Listen now and get expert advice on selling your home for the best results.

#SellingYourHome #Downsizing #HomeSellingTips #RealEstate #StagingToSell #DeclutterYourHome #MoveSmart #SeniorMoves #RealEstateAdvice

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to leave us a review and Follow our show so you never miss a new episode. We’re here for your downsizing questions — on the podcast, in your community, and when you’re ready to move. As Realtors®, we can connect you with the right specialists to make your next chapter smoother. We’d love to hear from you!

Get connected here ➡️ https://downsizingroadmap.com/help/

Download our FREE Downsizing Guide: https://downsizingroadmap.com/guide/

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Let’s simplify, declutter, and create space for your next chapter—together!

Transcript

Jodi Rosko 0:01

Welcome back to another episode of the Downsizing Roadmap Podcast with your hosts Jody Roscoe and Heather Fisher. We're talking about all things downsizing, from our own experiences with clients to guest experts. Let's make downsizing easier, one conversation at a time. Hey, welcome back to Downsizing Roadmap. Good to have you all here. I'm Jody Roscoe. I'm Heather Fisher. And today we're going to talk about preparing your house for downsizing.

Heather Fisher 0:29

Yes, an area we have a lot of expertise in.

Jodi Rosko 0:32

Yeah, yeah. So we're real estate agents, and that's our main job. And so we talk to people all the time about what they should be doing with their house to get it ready for for sale. Downsizing is sometimes a little bit different because honestly, there's just more in the house often. There's just more things in the house, and um whoever's getting downsizing is likely going to a much smaller space. And so there's some work to be done to get the house ready to let go of some of those things first.

Heather Fisher 1:02

Yeah, and I think lots of our episodes are on the stuff and and getting the house down to just the house. And then today we'll spend a little bit of time talking about the house itself.

Jodi Rosko 1:14

Right. Once you've had your dreamy, you know, time and you've decided what your future is going to look like and you're ready to move towards it and you've sorted through your things. And now what are we going to do with the house specifically to get it ready? Yeah, absolutely. So I think there are um we we come across a couple kinds of houses, right? We come across houses that um are ready to move in, that don't have a lot of of changes that need to be made. Uh house number two is kind of houses that um might be the big the big things have been done, the windows and the and the roof and the plumbing might have been updated or whatever, but it they're dated.

Heather Fisher 1:55

Yeah, I think we work with a lot of clients that are from a generation where um you know they're very good at maintaining the the mechanicals. The furnace is always serviced and updated, and there's good records, and the bones um get done when they should and and quality items put in. But because um of that mindset, the kitchen works just fine, the bathrooms work just fine. So they're in great working order, but the finishes might be, you know, what would not be as appealing to a current buyer because it just feels dated, although it's in very good condition.

Jodi Rosko 2:36

Right. And then the third type of house is something that has some deferred maintenance for whatever reason, maybe may not have been able to keep the house up. Um, and so we'll talk about each of those kinds of houses and what we should do to get each of those ready. Yeah. So let's start with the move in ready house. So that one's already in good condition, uh, may have been updated, um, probably pretty neutral in color. Flooring has probably been replaced and looks good. Of course, still all of the mechanicals are good and all of that. So um those are those are probably the easiest ones, right? So the for the seller anyway. It's always a job between the two of us as a real estate agent and a seller to work together to get the to get to the place where we are ready to sell the house. So um if you've kind of stayed up on all of your things, then that just makes your work less. And if you have deferred your work, then you have more work now.

Heather Fisher 3:34

Yeah, and I think the deferred um, you know, is back to what we've talked about before, but it's that creep that um it's just gotten harder to maintain, you know, if if someone in the house was the handyman and was the person that did things, as those become harder, um, they get done less and and it it just happens over time. And it's it it's okay. That's the situation lots of times, and um you just have to go forward from there and and get things back to the best place for it to sell.

Jodi Rosko 4:07

Yeah. So if the house is already pretty, pretty kept up, then really the things that need to happen are decluttering and depersonalizing, uh, which needs to happen with every house, whether that's a downsizing house or not. You know, take the pictures of the family down, um, take the personal things down. I'm very specific when I um want pictures taken because um when you go and have pictures taken of your property, uh things that would look normal in it um not in a picture do not look normal in a picture. So even if you would normally have soap on your counter in your kitchen or in your bathroom and you can have that for the showings and you can put it back, for pictures, it it's like a focal point because you're just looking, that's the only thing to look at on the counter.

Heather Fisher 4:50

So you just typically a random color or um, you know, even something decorative that's just a a very bold choice or too much, that's what takes people's attention and they're not looking at the house itself. So um we definitely feel for photos, less is more clean, empty surfaces.

Jodi Rosko 5:13

Yeah, take take everything off all of the surfaces. And even even like if uh in the kit in the family room there's bright throw pillows that might be fun in a picture, those might be just really stick out in a way that uh you know doesn't look good. It just kind of looks like a just giant distraction. And so um pretty neutral, uh think model home. Nobody lives like that, so don't think, oh my gosh, why doesn't it look like that? Well, it doesn't, because we all live in our houses and so it doesn't look like that all the time. So there's a little bit of work to be done, but for pictures, um, de decluttering, taking all the things. You're gonna move anyway, right? So start packing in the boxes or letting things go.

Heather Fisher 5:54

Yeah.

Jodi Rosko 5:54

Uh one way or the other.

Heather Fisher 5:55

Packing the boxes for donation. Yes.

Jodi Rosko 5:57

Right. Um deep clean everything. Yeah. I think that um even in the cleanest houses, when you move furniture and things, um you see dirt that you didn't know was even there.

Heather Fisher 6:10

Um I think two things personally that I have seen witnessed being just the best investment that are not super expensive is carpet cleaning by professionals and a deep cleaning by a professional. Number one, because you just don't want to. You're tired. You've already been packing boxes, you've moved all the things. Someone that that that does that can do it faster and better. And um, you know, like Jody said, it's not a reflection of the house and its upkeep. Everybody has, you know, the dust behind things you haven't moved in a while, and baseboards and fans, and inside appliances, and wiping out inside all of the cupboards and drawers that are empty now. Um, you know, it's a different kind of cleaning. It's a different type of cleaning, and I feel well worth the investment that you'll pay to have someone do it. Um, so I would highly recommend that. And then carpet cleaning by um some, you know, professional company that does a good job, uh, get those references for that and let them that it can take care of odors and you know, pet smells, um, and just really make that first impression when someone comes in. Um, you know, even if it's older carpet that you think, oh, they're gonna want to change it anyway, having that carpet cleaned makes a huge difference, we've seen.

Jodi Rosko 7:39

Yeah, and I like the dry carpet cleaning so that um none of those smells that might be in it can come back up. Um so I really like that dry kind of carpet cleaning. Um and ever if it feels clean, people just feel innately like you've taken care of the house.

Heather Fisher 7:57

Absolutely.

Jodi Rosko 7:57

And so if it doesn't feel clean, they feel like things are broken even if they're not. They just imagine that that's what's happening and they they just feel like that. So buying a property is very emotional. Um sometimes it's not rational at all in the beginning. So people um walk into a property and in the first few seconds they decide whether they want to buy that property or not, or whether they want to at least continue to keep looking at that property. But if it's a no, that can happen in the first few seconds.

Heather Fisher 8:26

I think if they see something that is um, you know, a negative impression right off the bat, they walk through the house counting the negative impressions. And the opposite is true. If they get that good first impression, they walk through adding to their list of positives, and it is bit just emotional and uh you know a mindset around that house.

Jodi Rosko 8:51

Yeah. Which is why curb appeal is so important because when you that's the first thing. The ultimate first impression. Ultimate first impression, you know, landscaping looks good on the outside. Um the front door is painted. Uh what happens of the with your front entryway, that has to really look great because what happens is the realtor is there opening the lockbox, which takes a minute. And so um as they're doing that, the the buyers are just standing there looking at the door, and if it's chipped and not painted, or if there's cobwebs all over the front or whatnot, like that is their first impression.

Heather Fisher 9:28

We get feedback sometimes, you know. I've seen it over the years where the feedback might be buyers decided not to go inside. Right.

Jodi Rosko 9:36

I mean, it truly From they drove up and they decided from the outside, and it could be amazing inside.

Heather Fisher 9:41

Yeah. Yeah, so you really want to make sure that the front entry is welcoming. Um, especially, you know, we're in Ohio right now in the the winter time. If it snows, you want to have a plan for clearing snow, making it easy for buyers to um get up to the front door if you have overgrown, you know, bushes hanging over that that entry sidewalk, get those trimmed back. Don't make it feel um, you know, that they're not sure they're in the right right spot to go up to the porch and and just really make it welcoming. Flower pots can be easily added for that color on the porch without needing to have a whole yard of flowers planted, you know, fresh mulch on whatever is there in the landscaping beds and some flower pots can make a big difference. No weeds already. Right, right.

Jodi Rosko 10:37

Um so staging basics, you you basically just want um less things in the room. If there's little things that are sitting around, all those need to go. Um like in a bedroom if you have you know little box I mean, there's people just have things, you know, little boxes of things or you know, laundry baskets and all of the extra things. You basically just want the bed and a couple of nightstands and the dresser or whatever that is, just the very basic things with nothing else sitting around in in all of the rooms because what you're trying to do is sell space. And so uh the less things, the bigger the space looks.

Heather Fisher 11:16

I think too the the function of the room uh n should be apparent and um you know if it's a if it's a guest bedroom but it also appears to be storage, then a buyer's thought is there's not enough storage. Right. And they're not thinking, oh, this person has too much stuff. They're just thinking the house doesn't have enough storage. Correct. And you know, if you're multi-purposing too much, they'll notice um, you know, that the function of the room isn't defined, and so they won't be able to define that for themselves.

Jodi Rosko 11:52

Right, right. People aren't very imaginative. This is true. They aren't very imaginative. So you kind of want every room to have a have a function, even if the function is, oh, it's a playroom or it's an office or whatever that is, it needs to have like a specific function when you're doing staging so that they can understand it. Yeah. Otherwise they walk in and be like, what is this room? I've had people say, what is this room? It's a bedroom.

Heather Fisher 12:18

It just doesn't involve a bedroom. Is that what they called it in elementary school? Yes, it's a flex room, I think that's that's like current.

Jodi Rosko 12:26

Yeah. So um any kind of minor cosmetic issues you want to kind of update those to touch-up paint, careful with the touch-up paint. We've had so many people have the color that they think it is and then it isn't, or it's faded a little bit, and they try to touch it up in just little spots, and it just looks like little polka dots on the wall. But if you're painting and you really if you need to paint a wall and you don't want to paint the whole room, but one wall has really seen some some something's happened, yeah, damage, then paint from corner to corner. So you just want to paint from the you know, ceiling to the floor and the corner to the corner. And if you do that, even if the paint color is a tiny bit different, you won't be able to tell because it'll just look like shadowing.

Heather Fisher 13:08

Yeah, absolutely. The shadows will make that wall blend right in.

Jodi Rosko 13:11

And you want to make sure that like all the light bulbs are are working and all of the lights, just all of the little maintenance things, those kind of things.

Heather Fisher 13:19

I think too, um your light bulbs being the same uh tone. Okay. You know, now there's so there's so many light bulbs out there and that it used it didn't used to be a thing, but you know, warm lights versus cool lights and and all of that, especially room to room, but your whole house actually would be ideal, whatever you're going with consistent throughout the house, so that some lamps don't look yellow and some look blue and um the lights drive me crazy these days, to be honest with you. I can never remember what I got the last time, so I would like them all to match, but I knew note in my phone.

Jodi Rosko 13:59

I have like six can lights in my kitchen, and so if one of them goes out, I end up having to change them all because then the whatever new one you put in doesn't look the same as all the other ones, even if you think it was.

Heather Fisher 14:09

Yeah, it's a problem for sure. It is for sure.

Jodi Rosko 14:11

So basically if your house is already pretty much put together, that's it. You just kind of um declutter it and make sure it's really clean and fix any little things that you think you know might dis distract somebody. But that's it's a pretty simple process for that. If you have a property that um has uh uh the all of the major things are good, but uh it's a little bit dated. I always get the questions, you know, should we be updating this bathroom, should we be updating the kitchen? And it really is a case-by-case thing. But I would say most of the time that answer is is no. Because what we want is to, if you're gonna put money into the property, uh you want to make sure that you're gonna get all of that money back out, plus some. Because you're gonna manage a project, you're gonna have to be doing uh work around it, you're gonna have people in your house, what all the things. So if you don't get as much or more money than you've spent, then then just adjust the price and don't do it. Uh now there are certain things back to the home being an emotional uh uh buy that you do that you may want to do because they're going to look at it and go, ooh, and so and some of those things like flooring is a big thing. I think carpeting. Um we have a great carpet uh company, and I think you know, if you have a realtor in another area that they will have people that they can do that that can give you some inexpensive carpeting that's gonna look great. But if carpeting is really stained and you can't the carpet cleaning isn't gonna fix it, or if it's uh really off the current color, like it's green or pink or you know, some kind of really off color, um, it may be worthwhile to have the floor income uh company come in and just replace the carpet because uh that makes it feel fresh and new and it it is actually one of the one of the things that you can get a a good return on.

Heather Fisher 16:09

Yeah, absolutely. I think painting um to some neutral colors is that other thing that is fairly easy to do and and fairly inexpensive even if you're hiring someone to do it for you. Um it's not a huge investment, but going back to neutral um is fairly easy. I would say that if that's your plan, talk to you know us first or um you know whoever you're using to help um get some input because sometimes we've seen we come out to someone's house and they say, we just painted the whole house, but bright yellow or bright pink or bright yellow. Yeah, we do see some some colors that you know still didn't make that update that you wanted it to. It's clean and it's fresh, but it's still it's not a color for the masses. It's a color that you love, which is exactly how you should live when it's your home. Definitely pick the colors you live. It doesn't matter about trends and all of that. But if you're doing it specifically for getting ready to sell, you want to pick that, you know, neutral that's going to hit the most buyers, that gives them a fresh palette to imagine whatever direction they want to take it. So don't make that investment until you've, you know, gotten some advice on on what that might be. Um as trends change and buyers' interest in different things change quickly. So Yeah.

Jodi Rosko 17:43

Currently we went from browns to grays, and now we're kind of going back to browns a little bit, but we have cream in the middle there. So it's kind of a lot of white and cream and there are 15,000 white colors.

Heather Fisher 17:56

Yes. So you're trying to pick for your house. And there's thousands of colors of white. Yeah, white does not mean white a lot.

Jodi Rosko 18:04

So cream can be can be yellowy, it can be pink, it can be blue, like it's cream, but it has undertones, and so you have to kind of be careful with that. And if you're trying to update your current house with paint, which I think that our our stat was it's like 107% return, um, which is over over 100%. And and it is the least expensive way to really change the whole room. Like paint is is the least expensive way to make a whole different look in your house. But if you're doing that um and you're trying to update it, and like we like I had people struggled a lot when they everything was beige, but they wanted it to be gray, so they would paint it gray, but then the floor was still beige and then cabinets and that did not look that did not go well. So then the paint companies came out with like greige, right? So it was like a gray beige, which is actually I think it's a color uh I have Revere Pewter from um from Benjamin Moore in my house, which I think it is a gray beige color. Um and that's still a really pretty color. Um, but the cream colors I think are really what are coming in now. So if you're thinking about doing paint in your house right now, I would pick a cream color because that's gonna go with everything. I like um Drift of Mist by Um Sherwin Williams. It doesn't pull a lot of yellow.

Heather Fisher 19:22

Yeah, and it depends a lot on what is existing in the house that you're not changing, the color of your kitchen cabinets or the color of your flooring, like you said, the color of your trim, you know, if you have white trim versus wood tone trim and what shade of that. So it's a it's a whole thing. So if you are going to make that investment, you know, ask um, you know, us or or somebody and get that advice before you've um spent that money and then the feedback comes back, says, well, don't like the paint colors, you know, that that make your heart sad.

Jodi Rosko 19:56

Yeah, because I mean your your intention is right. And so um so I actually, before you do any of these things that we're saying, I would have a real estate agent, I would have us come out and talk to you because there are things that you might think need to be fixed that will not give you a return on your investment, and so you should not fix them. And even if they do eventually need to be fixed, the next buyer will do that. Um so and then there are things that you might be thinking, oh that's fine. I've lived with it for however many years you walk by, you don't even notice that it's there. And we walk in and be like, oh no, that that needs to be fixed.

Heather Fisher 20:32

Aaron Powell I think too, our experience can point out the things that are that are pretty easy and inexpensive that someone might think, oh, that's a huge job. And it's like, oh, that would be, you know, a hundred bucks to have the handyman do, and you're like, oh, I should have done that, you know, 15 years ago.

Jodi Rosko 20:49

But I I think like sometimes you can just um you know update some light fixtures or just change the knobs in your kitchen cabinets or you know, things like that that aren't aren't super expensive but can make a visual difference. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, so paint, um, I love I I love that as a as an option just in that it can really make a an a massive difference for not a lot of money. Kitchen updates, again, it's all personal, um, but i if you're if you're looking to change things out, often kitchen countertops are uh dated colors or have seen lots of wear. Um and sometimes you can if you just change out the countertop or just the backsplash, sometimes those are the those are things that can just easily be changed without tons of money. I I rarely go into a house um when we're talking about listing the house and have them spend thousands of dollars. So it isn't it's not it's very rare that uh that they're gonna do that. Um so we just kind of look at small things that they can do um to change. A lot of times in bathrooms you wanna maybe change the Hollywood light. You know, to just a smaller, you know, light fixture, a more current light fixture. Maybe the mirror in the bathroom needs to be changed because that makes it seem really dated. And sometimes if you just don't do those two things, that can just give it a little bit more updated look.

Heather Fisher 22:15

Yeah. And if you're in this position, I mean, rest assured, if the major things are are done, the the roof, the HVAC, the windows, those big ticket items, um the cosmetic changes are less of a big deal because a buyer is like, okay, those big things are relatively new or well maintained, they look forward to making some choices themselves for um the cosmetic things and already want to do that anyway. So yeah.

Jodi Rosko 22:48

I think that's part of the fun of making the house their own when they get into the house. So um bathroom updates, same thing. Um you might want to, I mean, if the faucet is is looking a little tired, the towel racks, the mirrors, those kind of things, um, you can change those out and um the light fixture, those are the kind of things that make it really feel dated. Um kitchens and bathrooms are kind of the number one things that people look at as far as uh the kitchen is the heart of the home, really, right? Um and the bathrooms, uh the other thing about the bathrooms, you just want them to be really clean. Um, back to the whole cleaning thing. We kind of harp on that because no matter what the condition of the house is, I would say that even if you're selling a house as is, if you can get at least get it as clean as it can be, um that is a number one thing that people just respond to emotionally is is having it clean. So that means if in the bathrooms the caulking is looking a little bit um dark or whatnot, so just peel that out and kind of re-cock the bathroom. Um that can give it a whole fresh look um even without redoing the whole shower. Just make sure that the caulk is in there. And and if the caulk's not there, then that can cause leaking problems and that can cause all kinds of bigger problems. So we don't want anything like that.

Heather Fisher 24:10

Yeah.

Jodi Rosko 24:12

General repairs, um, anything, anything that's leaking, anything, anything that might be a hazard, those are the kind of things when we walk through a house, we take a look at and we say, oh my gosh, now that is something that we will have to do. Some things we'll say, oh, the buyer might not care about that, you know, we they might not notice, but they're gonna care if anything's leaking.

Heather Fisher 24:33

And if you're you know, making this this plan a while out or just living in your home, uh, those anything with water leaking or whatever, minor things can snowball so quickly into a bigger problem. So always put that at the top of your priority list to get them professionally looked at and stop a small problem from becoming a big detriment to you know your equity and your future sale price because you let it snowball. Um so if at all possible, addressing the stuff. Water is the worst. Yeah. It so you know, just something dripping under a sink that's a small drip, don't don't ignore it because then you spiral into it damaged the cabinets and it leaked down to the next floor.

Jodi Rosko 25:21

I mean, it just Yeah, water I think is the absolute most destructive and most um frustrating um kind of we had we had some um we had a guy that moved and the movers moved the washer and dryer and they they didn't put any little cap or anything on it, and it was dripping pretty decently, but they didn't notice, I guess the movers didn't notice, and that was the last thing that went out of the house, and then nobody went into the house for like a week and a half until the new buyers came and found that the entire ceiling of the basement was on the floor because there was water from so water can be so damaging in such a short amount of time, is what I'm trying to say. Um and so just if anything is leaking in the house, just get it looked at right away.

Heather Fisher 26:07

Um same with the roof, just yeah, I was gonna say, especially if um, you know, age or health is a factor where you used to get up on the roof to clean out your gutters, you know, once a year or every six months, or you you know, that you made sure they were kept free of debris and leaves, and you're not able to do that anymore, make sure that you're putting those um things in place for someone else to do for you and to make sure they get done because getting your gutters clogged and then they're running over and um you know just causing huge, huge problems because of that water that can't go where it's supposed to. Um so we certainly understand that things change and it's harder to do things and um you might not be physically able, but um reach out for resources, ask family or friends, your your kids to help, and just make sure that you're keeping track of those things still being done and serviced.

Jodi Rosko 27:06

Yeah. I think too, people sometimes stop going upstairs or downstairs and stop looking at, you know, so every once in a while do a sweep of the house and see, make sure that everything is is okay.

Heather Fisher 27:17

Using bathrooms that aren't being used routinely anymore.

Jodi Rosko 27:21

Um turning the sinks on, turning the shower on. Flushing the toilets. Yes, for sure. Um and then any kind of cracked windows, peeling paint, peeling paint is a problem. Um so paint uh paint over that, but cracked windows or if they've lost their seal and they're kind of cloudy. Foggy in the middle, um, those kind of things need to be maybe be replaced. Make sure all your appliances work.

Heather Fisher 27:45

I think too, if you've had um we see a lot where there was maybe a leak in the ceiling or a leak between floors, um, so still on the ceiling of the room, and the repair has been taken care of. They had the plumber out, they had everybody out. It's not an ongoing issue. There's not a water problem, but you can see the spot on the ceiling where it wasn't repainted or um, you know, replaced the drywall or whatever, and that is an instant question for a buyer. What happened there? And um, you know, of course, it would be disclosed that you had the problem and it was repaired, but they it's that back to that mindset. They see it and then it's a question.

Jodi Rosko 28:30

Well, it's like, oh, this house is leaks, this is a leaky house. Like, you know, they just get in their heads kind of really they blow things out of proportion, to be honest with you. Um and so we see that a lot because people do, they get right on top of it, they're like, oh gosh, the roof is leaking, we need to handle that. And so they do, they absolutely handle that.

Heather Fisher 28:46

And then they live with the dry roll repair spot for 20 years. No one thinks twice about it. It's just like oh that was 10 years ago. It was fixed, no further problems. And and we get that, but um, just that whole impression um you want to just have those little things freshened up.

Jodi Rosko 29:04

Yeah. Yep. So I think those are the main things. Again, have it have a real estate agent, have us come come take a look and see what needs to be done and what might not need to be done. Um and I think you might be surprised. It's that's often a little bit less than they think. Um but certain things will make a difference in the price of the property. Yeah. So curb appeal landscaping um has really high return on investment.

Heather Fisher 29:31

So paint or carpet, at the very least, carpet cleaning and deep cleaning.

Jodi Rosko 29:36

Yeah. So that increases the buyer's confidence. They want to they want to buy the property, they get excited about it. That's what you really want when somebody comes in the house that you want them to be excited and not thinking, ew, that needs to be handled, or gosh, that's gonna cost a lot of money because that's the other thing they do is they really blow it out of proportion of you know how much it's gonna cost. So it might be, you know, a couple thousand dollars for carpet, and they'll be like, and that's gonna be twenty thousand dollars. And you know, so pe they just get and and some people, you know, they don't have the c the they're they're buying they're putting all their money into buying their, you know, house and they don't have the money to upgrade right away. They might eventually, but you know, so certain things make a difference to them. So if you're in a place where there's been a lot of deferred maintenance on the house, um, which is often we see that a lot too, um especially if you've been in the house for a long time and it's just gotten out of control for you and uh too much. Too much. Um so we've seen that a lot. Sometimes it doesn't make sense to make um any any changes because um there's just more than more if you just do one or two, it's really just kind of a drop in the bucket. It's really not gonna make that big of a difference. So then you're spending money that you're again not gonna maybe get get the full benefit of back.

Heather Fisher 30:53

Yeah, I think uh you know, thinking back to some of the um things we were just talking about in the last part, doing those in a home that that's just in much more disrepair than that is just a snowball. Right. If you change the flooring, then the baseboards need change, then that goes into the next room and the tile doesn't, you know, it doesn't line up and um it can just be a snowball where doing any of the repair you either go down the road of having to do way more than you plan to, or you um, you know, do one thing and it doesn't make a difference in the buyer's mind because they're just like, okay, this is a full, you know, gut job that we want to redo all the surfaces in a property or make the repairs. Um so always if there's an active water repair or something that can be stopped from progressing, yeah, those you want to do just to maintain that the house doesn't get worse. Current condition, so it doesn't get worse. Um but going, you know, maybe leave it to an investor to come in and um redo it and just factor that into the price.

Jodi Rosko 32:11

Yeah, and I think what and what f if you're if you're deciding the pros and cons of of selling a house as is, right? The pros are it can it's very fast. There's not a lot of work to be done. Um you can you can get that property sold right on the market and sold really quickly. Really the only things that I would say to be done is to empty the house. I would have the house emptied out and cleaned, you know, a decent level of clean. So there's not, you know, dirt on the windowsills or you know, big piles of room clean. Yeah, room clean. Yeah, wiped down. It doesn't have to be m deep cleaned. Um, but I would definitely have it wiped down because even that little bit of difference is gonna is gonna be a difference in the price. But if you're selling a property as is, you're just basically gonna adjust the price for what you think the repairs might need to be to get it back up to where the price would be if you had done the repairs.

Heather Fisher 33:07

Not the crazy, you know, extra things that people are thinking in the price, but just, you know, a reasonable price for you you're just gonna adjust that price for the And sometimes that's the best option um when a family doesn't have that upfront money to do, you know, any level of updates or repairs when that money situation is tight and the money is in the equity of the home, yeah. Um doing it that way, um, you know, that's coming off the bottom line of the equity, you know, in the price that you get for it, but you're not having to come out of pocket. Um, you know, if you're helping mom and dad or someone has passed or or that, you're not putting that financial pressure on the family to come up with those resources, or you just don't have it to put to put up. Um, that's an easy way to do it.

Jodi Rosko 33:58

And you don't have time to manage or to either manage the the repairs or to spend the time that it will take to have the repairs done, you know, a couple months of time. Yeah. So the that's the pros. The pros are it's done, it's done quickly. Um the con is you you might not get quite as much money for it, but in the end, if you sp if you had to spend money to get up to that price, it may actually be the same net for you in the end. It just doesn't sound like it in the price of the house.

Heather Fisher 34:31

Aaron Powell Yeah. And the and the price of a house is determined by the house itself and how it compares to the other, you know, homes on the market and their condition. So um, you know, the house that you have to sell is what you have.

Jodi Rosko 34:49

Yeah, I think just being realistic about what it is and what your goals are. You know, what do you want out of it? If it's to sell it quickly and it's okay, it just needs to go because we need the cash to, you know, take care of mom and dad, or we need the cash to just move on forward in our own lives, then that's okay. Just the the usually what happens is that the deferred maintenance is the reason that the property is less, and you would have spent that if you hadn't deferred it, that money would have been spent anyways. Yeah.

Heather Fisher 35:20

Replacing the things that needed replaced or doing the updates.

Jodi Rosko 35:23

So you're not really losing out because if you had gotten to that place, you would have spent the money. Does that make sense? Absolutely. Yeah.

Heather Fisher 35:30

Absolutely.

Jodi Rosko 35:31

So a couple different ways that you can sell it, as is those are that's gonna appeal to investors, people who are gonna want to come in and and flip the property. And um sometimes it's people who want to just make it their own. Um so but somebody who's gonna come in and do some major repairs to it.

Heather Fisher 35:48

Yeah.

Jodi Rosko 35:49

Um, so those are those are kind of our our choices, and it really just depends on what you're looking at. Most of the pe most of the time uh when we talk to people about selling their property, we end up in that middle place. There's usually some things to do, but not a ton of things to do. Um it's not usually it's rare when it's absolutely perfect and I get to walk in and say, This is amazing.

Heather Fisher 36:12

Yeah, it feels like in our, you know, the market we've been in for quite a while, we would rarely advise taking time or financial cost for major upgrades or improvements, um, you know, price accordingly to the market and um you know, do those those easy things and always reduce your stuff. Yeah. Clear the surfaces, get it ready, either empty um to sell or just uh reducing what's in there as you get ready to move so that it does isn't too full.

Jodi Rosko 36:50

Yep. And call your realtor first and get their suggestions on all of the things.

Heather Fisher 36:56

I think people um don't realize, um, certainly for us, but I would assume um you know, realtors all over the country, but but definitely for us, we would prefer to meet with someone very early in the process. So call us early and uh, you know, we say the word strategy all the time, but have a strategy for um, you know, what it would look like to get your home ready to sell, um, even if that's a year from now, take those suggestions and then you have time. Um, you know, if it's not a quick need for right now, which we can do as well, um, bring in the professionals early. Don't make all those choices yourself and then come say, look what I did. And maybe it wasn't exactly um, you know, the best choices to bring you the best sale price and um the best use of your time and resources.

Jodi Rosko 37:51

I talk to people all the time too. Even if they're not thinking about moving, they'll they'll ask me, like, what do you think if I should I redo this bathroom, even if I'm gonna sell in like two years or three years, or you know, what if I'm gonna stay here for a while? Like I genuinely think if you're gonna stay somewhere for five minimum ten years, you know, then you should just do what you want to do, make the bathroom look the way you want it to make. Yeah, you know, live in it, love it, you know, move, do that. Make it yours. Make it yours. Yeah. We were we were in our five-year house for 20 years because that's just what happens. It just rolls through and you know, before you know it, life has gone by.

Heather Fisher 38:30

Yeah, yeah. And you had what you left there. So for sure.

Jodi Rosko 38:34

No, yeah. We did a lot of things to that house that were good for resale, but also that we got to enjoy.

Heather Fisher 38:39

So Yeah. Never anything wrong with that. Did you have any um other points on this topic before we conclude today? Yeah, I think that's that's basically it. Clean, clean, clean. Yeah. I'm always just clean. Yes. I it makes I mean it's the easiest thing to do, um, you know, or to have someone else do and it can be done quickly. You can get scheduled and get a deep clean, and it makes such an impact. It really does. Yeah. That smell of clean house and that feeling of it, any level of house that helps. Yep. Um, so we do have a closing quote today. Uh, this one is from Theodore Roosevelt. So do what you can with what you have where you are. Right.

Jodi Rosko 39:25

So if it's an as is house, that's okay. We're just gonna sell it like that. Just keep, you know, clean it out, clean it up a little bit, and move on. If you have a little bit more time and a little bit more to spend, you can update it just a little bit. So what do what you can with what you have.

Heather Fisher 39:42

Awesome. Awesome. Well, good conversation today. And next podcast, we are gonna have a great guest uh who will be speaking about senior living and the different levels of care and the different options that are out there. So stay tuned and we look forward to talking to you then.

Jodi Rosko 40:00

I'm telling you, senior living has changed so much if you haven't looked at it. We've gone, Heather and I spend a lot of time, you know, going to different places and talking to people, and every time we're like, we can we could live here.

Heather Fisher 40:12

I know we were just at a beautiful place this morning, and it they're beautiful places to live. Yeah.

Jodi Rosko 40:18

Um so I'm excited to talk about that and share that information with you guys.

Heather Fisher 40:22

And so we will see you next time. All right, thank you. Thanks for joining us on the Downsizing Roadmap Podcast. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with someone who might need a little downsizing inspiration. Have questions or ideas for future episodes? Reach out to us on our website, www.downsizingroadmap.com. Until next time, let's keep simplifying and moving forward.