Reasons to downsize your home in Dallas
Downsizing your home can be very freeing, allowing you to spend more time and money on the things that matter most. Some of the benefits of downsizing can include:
- Time savings. You may want to downsize because you won’t need to spend as much time on maintenance, upkeep, and cleaning with a smaller house. This is especially true if you’re planning to downsize to a condo, where landscaping and outdoor upkeep are no longer your responsibility.
- More financial freedom. Your heating and cooling costs could be much lower in a smaller house, and property taxes would also likely be less expensive.More money can be put toward savings, travel, or visiting family.
- More convenience. If you’re downsizing for retirement, you may want a one-story house so that everything is conveniently located on the same floor. You might also want a smaller home for a more laidback lifestyle that doesn’t include maintaining two or more stories of a house.
- Less clutter. When you’ve lived in a house for a long time, things tend to accumulate. Home downsizing can give you an opportunity to get rid of excess belongings and make a fresh start with less clutter and more possibilities.
How to downsize your home
When thinking about how to downsize your home, you’ll want to take steps to get there on schedule, since it can be a time-consuming and difficult process. Here are some things to do when you want to downsize your Dallas home:
1. Start planning early.
Begin by creating a timeline that you think you’ll be able to follow. Make a checklist of all the tasks involved. Think about what part of Dallas and what size home you’d like to live in—a 3-bedroom house, a 1-bedroom condo, a studio apartment? This will help you plan for how many items you’d like to keep and how many you’ll need to donate or throw away.
2. Sort belongings.
Start with the items you definitely don’t want to take with you, and divide them into things to sell, donate, recycle, or throw away. Once you’re done, take stock of what’s left, and decide whether that amount will fit into your new, downsized home. If not, take another pass and see if there are some more items you can part with. You can also plan to get a storage unit later if you decide you’d like to keep more than your new home can comfortably hold.
3. Declutter.
Choosing to sell some items can be a great way to fund your new life in a downsized home. Anything that you don’t want to take the time to sell can be given to a donation center near you. Items like plastics, metal, paper, cardboard, and glass can be recycled. After you’re down to what you want to keep, organize and store anything you don’t use often. Use labels on the boxes so you can find everything easily later.
Make repairs.
If you decide to do some repairs before moving, it’s a good idea to get a home inspection so that you have a list of all the house’s issues. Once you have that in hand, you can choose which problems you want to fix and which ones you’d rather disclose to potential buyers instead. At this step, you can also decide whether you need to fix or replace any of the appliances that aren’t going with you.
Get ready to sell.
When your house has been decluttered and fixed up, you can start getting it ready to sell. Look at the house from the perspective of an outside buyer. Is the front of the house presentable and clean? How’s the landscaping? Can you rearrange the furniture to make the space look more open? Take some time to decide how much you want to change in order to attract more buyers.
Options for selling your Dallas house
There are many ways to sell your house, including:
- With a real estate agent. With this method, you’ll have help getting the house ready for sale, having it photographed and listed, showing it to buyers, and negotiating with people who are interested in buying it. Real estate agent commissions have historically been about 5%–6% of the house’s sale price.
- FSBO (for sale by owner). If you don’t want to pay a commission, you can sell the house yourself. You’ll need to take care of everything on your own, though, without the experience of an agent.
- To an iBuyer. An iBuyer will buy your house for less than you’d get if you listed it for sale, but the sale will usually be fast. It will also be more impersonal than other methods, since much of the process will take place online.
- To an off-market home buyer. When you sell to an off-market home buyer, the sale is typically faster than a sale on the traditional market, in exchange for a lower price. Off-market home buyers will come out to your house, look at the property, and make an offer. Plus, you can often sell your house in “as is” condition.
What does selling a house “as is” mean?
To sell your house “as is” means that the buyer accepts the house in its current condition. If the house is damaged in any way, you don’t need to fix it. If parts of the house are outdated, you don’t have to renovate them. The buyer can take care of any repairs later so that you don’t have to worry about them.
Benefits of selling your Dallas house “as is” when downsizing
Downsizing can be difficult when you also have to get your house ready for the market. Selling your house “as is” allows you to move on without the stress and hassle of fixing things up before you leave.
You’ll also save a lot of time. You won’t have to make repairs, get the house ready to list, and wait for a buyer to make an offer.
“As is” houses usually appeal to investors or buyers who are looking for fixer-upper properties. There are plenty of handy people out there looking for a house just like yours to fix up and either resell or live in themselves.
We Buy Ugly Houses® buys houses “as is” in Dallas.
We Buy Ugly Houses® is your Dallas off-market home buyer when you’re considering how to downsize your home. We don’t ask you to make any repairs or renovations, or even clean your house before you go. You can also leave any unwanted items behind, and we’ll take care of them for you. We charge no commissions or hidden fees, and we’ll pay for typical closing costs. Our offers are usually below market value in exchange for speed and convenience.
With an excellent 95%* customer satisfaction rating nationwide from sellers who responded to our post-sale survey, and over 25 years of experience buying houses “as is” across the US, we’re here to help. When you downsize, our local Dallas home buyers can save you the time, hassle, and upfront costs of a traditional sale.
Get in touch if you want to downsize and sell your home “as is.”
