Should I Downsize or Stay at Home? How to Think It Through

Should I downsize, or stay at home? The short answer is that there is no right time that applies to everyone, and staying where you are is as real an answer as moving. What helps most is starting with the questions you are already asking yourself, then looking at each path side by side before anyone looks at a property, whether the home in question is your own or a parent's, here in Brisbane or anywhere in South East Queensland.

The questions most families start with

Most people come to this with a handful of quiet questions rather than a decision, and you may recognise a few of these.

• Are the stairs, the front steps or the slope of the driveway asking a little more of you than they used to?

• Is the garden still a pleasure, or has it become the job that fills every weekend?

• Does the house feel quieter than it once did, with rooms that are hardly used from one month to the next?

• If something happened at home, who would notice, and how soon would they know?

• Is the upkeep, from the gutters to the pool, still worth the time and money it takes?

• Have the children started to ask how you are managing, or to mention it when they visit?

None of these has a right answer, and noticing them is simply a sign that it is a good time to talk things through at home. If you are a son or daughter reading this for a parent, the kindest place to start is asking these questions together over a cup of tea, and leaving the answers, and the decision, with them.

Four paths, side by side

There are four main paths, and each of them suits some families beautifully. I have put staying where you are first because it is very often the right answer, and it deserves the same careful look as any move.

Staying where you are, with changes and help brought in

This tends to suit people who love their home and their street, whose house can be adapted without too much fuss, and who have family, friends or good neighbours close by. There is no cost of moving in, although the changes themselves cost money, from a rail in the bathroom or a stair lift to someone who helps with the garden, the cleaning and the odd repair, and the upkeep of the house carries on as before. When you do sell one day, the full sale price comes back to you, less the usual costs of selling. The question to ask first is which changes and which help would make this house easy to live in for the next ten years, and what they would cost each year.

A smaller home, with help brought in as needed

A smaller house, unit or townhouse tends to suit people who would like less to look after but enjoy owning their home in the ordinary way, often in or near the suburb they know. Moving in means the purchase price, stamp duty, legal and moving costs, plus body corporate levies for a unit or townhouse, and when you leave you sell in the usual way and the full price comes back to you, less selling costs. The question to ask first is whether the home is single level or easy to adapt, and whether it is close to your doctor, the shops and the people you see every week.

A retirement village

A village tends to suit people who enjoy having neighbours close by and something on most days, whether that is the walking group, book club, a painting class or happy hour, and who like having the maintenance looked after. In most Queensland villages you pay an entry contribution for the right to live there and a general services charge while you live there, and when you leave an exit fee, often called a deferred management fee, usually comes out of what you receive, with the contract setting how much comes back to you and when. The operator must provide a Village Comparison Document and a Prospective Costs Document at least 21 days before you sign, so ask for both early and read them at home. The question to ask first is what would come back to you, in dollars, if you left after five years.

A land lease community

A land lease community tends to suit people who would like to own their home, enjoy a community feel with shared facilities such as a clubhouse or pool, and prefer a weekly fee to a large exit fee. You buy the home and lease the land underneath it from the park owner, paying a weekly site fee, and when you leave you sell the home, with how that sale works and any fees involved set out in the site agreement and the disclosure documents the park owner must provide. The question to ask first is how the site fee is reviewed each year and whether any fee applies when you sell.

My free guide, Village or Land Lease? How to Choose in South East Queensland, compares the last two paths in detail.

When the question is about care

Sometimes the question underneath is about care rather than housing. When that is the case, My Aged Care and a specialist aged care adviser are the right people to talk to, and it is not an area I advise on.

How to decide, one step at a time

Good decisions about home tend to follow the same order, and taking it a step at a time keeps everyone calm.

1. Talk at home first, with your partner, family or close friends, about what you would like the next ten years to look like and the reasons a move might or might not make sense.

2. Decide whether this is a planned move or one that needs to happen soon. A planned move often runs 12 to 24 months from the first conversation to the first night in a new home, while a move that has to happen sooner can be done well in about three months, and some popular villages have waiting lists of a year or two, which is worth knowing early.

3. Work out what you have: what the home might sell for, your super and any pension, and a first conversation with a financial planner about how each path would affect your income.

4. Then look, visiting at least three places and returning to your favourite at a different time of day, with the paperwork read at the kitchen table before you become attached to any one of them.

My free Downsizing Checklist takes you through all of this in order, in six stages from the first conversation at home to the months after the move, with worksheets of questions for your financial planner and accountant and for your village tours, and you can ask for a copy just below.