If you’re a suburbanite thinking about heading back to the city, you should begin doing your homework before you begin working on finding your home. Deborah Schultz (left), who moved with her husband Arthur Salter from Bala-Cynwyd to Center City One in June 2015, offers some advice for older homeowners considering a return to the city that should make the process less of a headache.
Prepare to Downsize Your Life
The first thing you should start doing, she said, is downsizing your life ahead of time.
“Begin your downsizing a couple of years in advance. To take a 2700-square-foot-house that you’ve lived in for 27 years” and fit it into a 1200-square-foot package, “there’s a lot of stuff that won’t fit in.”
If, after getting rid of things that obviously won’t travel well to your new digs, you’re not sure what else to get rid of, a knowledgeable Realtor can help you successfully shed items.
Figure Out Where and How You’d Like to Live
But before asking, you should get a clear idea of the type of in-town residence you want. “Make a list of what locations you want to consider and what sorts of places you’d like to live in,” Schultz said.
Then spend some time in those locations. As you do, you may discover that some of the things you thought were important were not and other factors may loom larger. As Schultz put it, “Picture yourself in this place and ask, ‘Do I fit in?’” You may find that the neighborhood you thought would be perfect is not as good a match as another neighborhood elsewhere. Which brings us to the next piece of advice:
Be Prepared to Refine and Adjust Your Expectations
What you say you want may not be possible for you to get. Salter and Schultz had to accept less space than they had hoped for because there were no units as big as they wanted that they could afford. When faced with such choices, you need to determine which of your needs you can bend on and which you cannot.
Because you will most likely find yourself adjusting your expectations as your hunt proceeds, the most important piece of advice may well be:
Be Patient
If you’re lucky, you may find a property that satisfies your expectations, or at least the ones that matter, in a short period of time. But don’t go into the process expecting this, Schultz said. “We never thought it would take this long” to find the right Center City home, she said. Because that might happen to you, be prepared to take however long it may take to find that home. The right agent can make the wait shorter.
But, Schultz added, once you find that right home, “be prepared to move.” Here again, the right real estate agent can make a big difference.