Flickr/David JoyceSuburban families with young children have a lot more to consider than closets bursting at the seams and tiny apartments chock-full of baby gear.
A trendy neighbourhood that was ideal for a couple or a family a small child may not be quite so advantageous when it’s time to start thinking about school.
The major reason why most people sell their existing home is that they’ve outgrown the property because their family has increased in size and they’re shopping for a school district. We see lots of buyers wanting to be in the McDowall school district, which makes houses in the catchment area more valuable.
The mortgage on a larger home may be intimidating, but so is private school fees. Consequently, a search for top quality public schools quickly turns into a search for a new home.
The home with lots of rooms and a big yard (and mortgage to match) may feel empty and over the top when your kids have moved out.
Or perhaps you or your partner have decided to work from home or to start a business and you’ll need a home office.
Folks approaching retirement age could be considering ageing in place, in which case a home with a ground-floor master suite seems essential or better still no stair at all.
If your lifestyle is fundamentally different than it was when you initially purchased your home, it may be time to reconsider: Does your home still serve your needs? If not, it may be time to sell and invest the returns in the next phase of your life.
The process of selling often times is an emotional roller coaster.
For instance, if you’re selling the home your children grew up in, it is likely that could tug at your heartstrings, you may even get some strong pushback from the children. Are you ready to handle the potential resistance?
You’ll also need to clean up the place and declutter, and that will mean packing up treasured mementos, and maybe putting some furniture in storage. The goal is to make your house look as lean and clean as possible. If you’re living with small children and pets, that can cause some major stress. And of course, there could be a parade of potential buyers disrupting your routine, and possibly giving negative feedback.
It’s all part of the selling process, so you’ll need to prepare yourself to detach and let go.
That is exactly the market that currently exists on the northside of Brisbane.
The biggest new wave of new home buyers is millennials, and they are first-time buyers. The biggest problem they face is, available properties for sale is at an historically low level.
Why? Simply more and more seniors who were born after 1931 are choosing to remain in their homes and age in place, a trend that is causing hundreds of thousands of houses to be kept off the market.
New buyers coming into the market, a shortfall of available properties, and relatively low interest rates, has amounted to a “perfect storm” that favours sellers. While those factors alone don’t dictate whether or not you should sell your home, they may be a factor in help you to decide.
AP Photo/Chuck BurtonWhile it’s a good idea to educate yourself on national trends, remember that all real estate is hyper-local.
And that means you need to tap into the wisdom of the team at Hicks Real Estate who will have the inside scoop on homes like yours that have sold in the past few months, as well as ones that may be coming onto the market soon and will compete with your home for buyers.
Trends are driven by buyers and sellers in a specific market, so you need to look at what other sellers are selling their homes in your neighbourhood.
The best place to start is to get a current market appraisal from one of the Hick Real Estate team, you may be surprised just how much prices have risen over the last year.
REUTERS/David MoirRemember, if you’re selling, you’re probably also buying, and you need to make sure the economics on the purchase are also favourable.
If you bought your home at the height of the real estate bubble, you may not have much equity in it. After you’ve paid the agent fee and moving expenses, you might not have a lot of cash left over for a down payment on a new home. If you’re able, it may make more sense to sit tight and build up more equity.
But if the home was acquired during the recession, you will have benefited from low interest rates and lower prices, and a sale will give you a nice chunk of cash.
Cash out when you’ll have more equity to make the next purchase less painful.
Many old folks when they retire are looking to downsize and maybe even move away from the area, this provides opportunities to create a nice nest egg.
The important thing is to be prepared for what comes next and know where your life is heading.
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Hicks Real Estate Team
Hicks Real Estate is a Brisbane based, full-service real estate agency supporting buyers and sell as well as renters and property investors. With almost 20 years experience in the local market, we are the real estate experts you can rely upon.
