- Tom BrezsnyMore on The Enormity of Change
Picking up where we left off last week. Talking with Bob and Cathy who have graciously agreed to share a little of their real estate story with us as they wrestle with the difficulties they are encountering while trying to sell their home and buy another one in Santa Cruz.
By way of background, Bob and Cathy are in their mid 60s. Close to retirement. They’ve worked hard. Have moderate savings tucked away. They’ve lived in their 4br, 3.5ba, 3500 +/- sq ft home for more than 25 years and it has lots of equity in it.
Their kids have grown up and they are ready for the next chapter in their lives. They think they’d like a smaller, less expensive, single level home near the beach. But they are finding the process of getting there, anything but simple.
As Bob says: “Part of what we’re struggling with is the enormity of the change we’re considering. It’s not just about the money and tax questions. When you change your home, you change everything and that’s not easy to do at our age”.
Cathy: We’ve been here for more than twenty- five years and there are so many things we love about our home. We’ve worked hard to make it exactly what we want. But suddenly it seems so big. We only use half of it. And I know Bob is tired of keeping up the yard. And I’m not going to be able to do the stairs forever. We’d really like to travel now, while we have a chance.
Bob: I wish there was some way to do this is small stages. It just seems like too much change too fast. We don’t know where to start. It feels risky. Almost every aspect of our daily lives revolves around our house. Moving will disrupt all our patterns and normal routines. When I was in my 20s or 30s all I needed was a backpack and a credit card and I was good. These days it’s different.
Cathy: The more we think about moving, the more complicated it seems. There are days when we just want to give up the idea of going anywhere. Just settle in and hunker down and see what life deals us later on down the road.
Bob: But in the end, we know that moving is something we have to do. We’re not getting any younger and we’re not going to be able to stay here forever. We might as well do the heavy lifting now while we have the energy and the wherewithal. Why wait until one of us breaks a hip to start the process?
Cathy: Yes, Change doesn’t get any easier the older we get. We still have a lot of time to enjoy life so we might as well get on with it.
Sound familiar folks? This is the essence of the same conversation that’s happening in individual homes all over Santa Cruz and the Bay Area and the rest of the Country these days. As I’ve said many times over the years in these columns, real estate isn’t as much about buying and selling houses as it is about the nature of change and how human beings adjust to it and handle it.
