How to Downsize Your Home After Retiring

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You’re sitting at the kitchen table drinking your morning cup of coffee when it suddenly hits you. Retirement is just around the corner and your house that once seemed too small now feels more like an airport hangar. This is a good time to consider downsizing and talking to the right custom home builders in Greensboro, NC, about building a smaller retirement home for you.

The thing is, once the kids have all grown up and gone on with their lives, you really don’t need the huge family house. Not only is it expensive to maintain, keeping it cool all summer long and warm in the winter keeps putting a big ding in your bank account. On top of all this, you no longer want to have to deal with keeping it clean. Here are 5 ways you can make the most of downsizing your home once you retire.

Stage Your Home for Sale

If the last time you moved was right before your children were born, chances are good your home is filled with clutter. Time to clean out the junk, make the necessary small repairs, replace old carpets, paint and wallpaper the walls, and generally clean up the whole house. The idea is to ready the house for viewings as you try to sell it. You may find hiring a professional stager will help as they have no personal interest in the things in your home and are likely to help you get rid of more.

Will Downsizing Save You Money?

Just because you are planning to move into a smaller house doesn’t necessarily mean doing so will save you money in the long run. In fact, this is one of the most popular misconceptions that come with the idea of downsizing. Depending on your current mortgage payments and other bills, having a new custom home built could end up costing you more money than renovating your current home and improving its overall energy efficiency.

Move to the Right Neighborhood

This also follows along the same lines as not saving any money having a new home built. Choose your custom home lot very carefully. Look for areas where costs like utilities, taxes, and so forth are equal to or less than your current ones. This is a great way to lock in long-term savings. Try to avoid areas where these costs are higher, even if the cost of building or buying your next home is a little less.

Get Rid of Stuff

As stated above, if you have been living in your home for a number of years, you have probably collected enough stuff for several garage sales. The last thing you want to do is take all of this stuff with you to your new home and clutter it up. Try eBay, Craigslist, and of course garage sales to get rid of it all. Anything that doesn’t sell can be donated, recycled, or sent to the landfill. Not only will this save you money on the cost of hiring a moving company, but you could end up with a tidy sum in your pocket that can be added to your retirement fund or used as part of the down payment on your new home.

To learn more about downsizing your home after retirement, contact the experts at Don Mills Builders. They can be reached at (336) 362-1777 and can help you with this and with designing and building your new retirement home.

6 Tips for Choosing a Location for Your New Home

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So you’ve made the big decision to build a new custom home. This is an exciting time with so many choices ahead of you. The first, and quite possibly the most important, is choosing a location. There are so many things to consider, but don’t let it become overwhelming. With the help of your new home builder in Summerfield and these six tips, you’ll be able to choose an excellent home site on which to build your dreams.

  1. Check out the neighborhood. Do you want to build on a lot in a development? If so, find one that meets all of your criteria such as amenities, size, homeowners association, etc. Find out the future plans for the neighborhood as well so you’ll know what the finished development will be like. If you’re looking for a stand-alone lot, look into the properties that surround the land to see how they are and will be used.
  2. Research the community. Beyond your neighborhood, you will want to make sure your home is situated in a community you will be happy with. Look at schools in the area, businesses, utilities (including cable, internet, and phone), and recreational opportunities. You don’t want to build the home of your dreams only to find out that it’s too far away from the things that are important to you.
  3. Survey the lay of the land. Whether your lot is level or sloping will have a bearing on the design of the home to be built. Discuss the land with your builder to determine what (if any) limitations the grade of the land may have on your future home.
  4. Think about the direction your home will face. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The direction your home faces will make a big difference on a daily basis. The layout of the rooms in your home and the window design will all depend on the direction your home will face. Where the lot is situated among the other lots in the neighborhood will also dictate the direction your home should face.
  5. Soil and foundation go hand in hand. The type of soil on a potential home site has a bearing on the type of foundation your home will need. The soil can affect whether it is built on a slab or with a basement or crawl space. Soil can’t always be predicted before the breaking of ground, but if your builder has built on multiple lots in the same neighborhood, he will probably have a good idea of what to expect from the soil.
  6. Consider the pros and cons of developed and undeveloped land. Established housing developments typically have ready-to-build-on lots that have water, sewer, electricity, gas, cable, phone, and internet ready to hook up. This is very convenient but will only suit you if that is the kind of neighborhood you’re looking for. If you want something a little more rustic, you might look for undeveloped land. However, be prepared to pay the extra fees associated with having utilities brought out to the land for the first time.

New Home Builder in Summerfield, Don Mills, Can Build Your Dream Home on Your Choice of Lot

Whatever type of home site you’re looking for, Don Mills will design and build your custom home to suit the land. Ready-to-build-on lots are available now in Knights Landing, Birkhaven, and Linville Ridge. If you have land already in mind, Don will work with you to build on your lot. Contact Don Mills today at (336)362-1777 to discuss all the incredible possibilities.