Downsizing - Part Three Condo Living

Select the Downsizing tag to see the prior posts.

So now we have moved from the 4,000 square foot house in the woods at the edge of town to a 1,700 square foot condo. The condo has two bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, dining room, living room, and family room. All this is on one floor of a 3-story building. We have two parking spots in a huge basement garage and a 4' x 6' storage unit in the basement.

We are on the first floor, which is great. That means we have a front patio, overhung by the second floor balcony. I call that a porch. I have wanted a porch for the past 40 years. We are the closest unit to the front lobby, the mailboxes, the delivery room, the stairs, and the elevator. All are important. Being on the first floor also means our stove hood vents to the outside...also good.

Security is moderately tight. You have to have a clicker to enter the garage from the outside. Once in the garage, you must have a key to get to the stairs and the elevator. Then another key to enter the unit. People coming in through the lobby must call a number so that we can click them in.

We have many elderly people in the building, so security is important. I know of three ladies who are over 100. There are also 2 girls in their early 20's, despite there being an over-55 age requirement. There are also several other couples in their 60's, but most are elderly.

Our building (and our unit) overlooks the parking lot of the huge Cottage Grove Place Senior Living facility next door. It's not a great view, but there is a lot of activity. Our building is on a hill, so our first floor unit is at the same level as the second floor of the building across the lot. Some have called our building the "waiting room for Cottage Grove" but only one person made that transition last year.

It is really true that buying a condo, like buying a house, has three considerations: interior layout, location (including view), and price. Pick two. You will not get all three.

In our case, the price was great. We made a low-ball offer and they took it. The layout is fine. In fact, we did not even ask for an inspection as we will be remodeling everything. And I mean everything. The only things we are keeping are the washer and dryer (nice ones) and some of the kitchen cabinents. The location, next to Cottage Grove, is not attractive, but we have a southern exposure and a very nice porch. We are far enough from the street to avoid most of the noise. We are also one block from the Brucemore Mansion, which has a very nice park.

And, we have cut our travel time to nearly everywhere in half. I expect gasoline bills will go way down. All the other bills (mortgage, taxes, insurance, electric, and gas) are cut in half. City utilities are included in the homeowners fee, as is basic cable. The cost of cable internet is one-seventh of the cost at the house.

The only downer so far is the remodel. We have been living in a self-imposed construction zone for a month. In fact, Bobbie is painting the dining room as I write. Remodeling is more difficult than I imagined, because everything must be done before anything can be done. And the first things that should be done are the lowest priority. grrr!

But we will get through it all.

Downsizing - Part Two. Storage is evil.

Check out Downsizing - Part One and Hints for Hiring a Broker.

Having bought a condo, we got serious about reducing the amount of "stuff" we have. Reducing it a lot.

We actually started about two years before when we were staging the house for sale. We got a storage unit and filled it with stuff that we thought we might want to keep, but did not need to actually use while the house was on the market. Most everyone told us to minimize the amount of personal stuff, so as to make the house look larger.

We filled the storage unit and kept it for a year. Once we dumped the broker and went FSBO, we realized that we had spent $1000 on storage and had only missed a very small amount of that stuff. It was just that, stuff. Time to lose it. We moved it to an unused basement room and started to get rid of it
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Downsizing is one of the toughest things I have ever done.

We had lived in the house for 17 years. 4,000 square feet of living space with storage everywhere. During that time, whenever we used something we would say, "This item still has value and I might need it someday. I'll just store it in case I will need it again." This is just a deferred decision.

Now, we were forced to make decisions on everything; decisions we should have made years ago.

Decisions to forego potential value in favor of simplicity.

There have been studies stating that we can only make so many decisions per day. In my experience, this is true. We were no longer able to make decisions after about 3 p.m. on most days. In the late afternoon, we would just say, "Dump it here" or, "Put it in a box and we will deal with it later."

Decisions on where to get rid of them.

At first, we attempted to sell items on Craig's List. This actually worked quite well for large items. Small items may not be worth your time, but most people who come for a large item will buy smaller items once they see them.

 I may show you my Craigslist hints in a later blog.

Smaller items may be given to relatives. This works well for photographs and heirlooms. I just sent my sister away with a car full of family photos.

Then I gave away most items. My favorite places are:

• Bridgehaven's Treasures Quality Resale Shop
• Habitat for Humanity ReStore
• Salvation Army
• St. Vincent de Paul

You can leave some to the new buyer of your house. In our case, this was the first house for the new buyer. We left them a lot of things such as hoses, snow blower, rakes, etc. Even the garage refrigerator, which we could have sold to the electric company.

The remainder goes to the landfill.

Action item


Make material decisions as you go through life. Do not store something just because it might have value or because you might need it someday. You will forget you have it, or it will become obsolete, or you will never need it. At least, once a year (e.g. at spring cleaning). Go through everything you own and dispose of every item for which you cannot identify a near-term need.

Everything. I mean it.

DO NOT store anything.

Hints for hiring a listing broker

Listing with a broker is usually a waste of time and money, but sometimes it's necessary.

Here is what you should expect:

1. That they have customers.
2. That they bring them to your house.
3. That they sell the value of your property.

Number one means they are selling houses. You should get a report from them monthly (better yet weekly) showing their sales in you price range. Terminate them if you don't get the report or if they consistently show no sales. If they don't have customers, they will try to use open houses to attract attention from other brokers who have customers. Don't waste your time.

Number Two. They must bring their customers to see your house. Your house won't sell if the customers don't see it. If the agents are selling other houses (see Number One) but not showing yours, fire them.

Number Three. You must get full value for your house, if for no other reason than to pay the broker. When they say, "Your price is too high", they are really saying, " I have failed to sell the value of your house." Terminate them immediately.

You need to know the value of your house before you contact them. Comparables from a broker are only designed to run down your price and make it easier for them to sell.

Downsizing - Part One

Another retirement milestone: downsizing.

The kids grew up, moved away, and started lives of their own. We were using less than 1/2 the rooms in the house. The constant climb between floors had become a drag. We watched as small things became major obstacles to aging in-laws. We looked at huge property tax bills. We saw low mortgage interest rates.

It was time to downsize.

We loved our house. The meals on the deck. The woods out back. Each of us with a space of our own.

But time marches on.

So we cleared and cleaned our main living space, over several months. We filled a storage area with personal treasures. We signed with a broker.

Big mistake. The first thing she did was to go on vacation. That was the last thing she did. She did arrange for junior brokers, who knew nothing about the property to hold open houses. Most were not advertised and we lived on a cul-de-sac off a back street off a side street.

Result: No buyers saw the house. In six months, she brought no one. Her firm sent no one. The buying season passed.

She spent time showing us every condo in town and trying to tell us our house was overpriced. See the next post.

After the selling season, we cleared the storage unit and ultimately gave away most of the stuff.

We went FSBO over the winter, when the inventory of houses for sale was low. The first customer who actually entered our house decided to buy it in the first 30 seconds. We got more than 99% of our asking price.

Then we went looking for a condo. The key was to determine what was important; what was nice-to-have which we would pay to get; and what was attractive, but we would not pay for.

Since the buyer's agent on the house did a great job, we hired her for our house search.

We found a condo that met our requirements and most of our wants. We made a low-ball offer and the owners accepted!

---To be continued in Part Two---