About 6 months ago I received a phone call from Mrs. Smith who said “I keep seeing your downsizing consultation ad in the paper and I was wondering if we could talk? I am not planning on selling anytime soon but I was wondering what the consultation is and what the cost is?” I said” Thank you for calling to talk Mrs. Smith. I don’t ever think it is to soon to talk with a Realtor about your future plans whether they are to sell your home now or to age in place.” I began to ask Mrs. Smith some simple questions starting with how many years she has lived in her home? Mrs. Smith has lived in her home for about 35 years. When she and her husband purchased the home in the 80’s they were raising their teenage children and had always wanted a 2 story home. Now her children are grown and have children of their
own and they visit periodically although COVID had put a bit of a damper on their regular visits.
Mrs. Smith also mentioned she has been toying with updating her kitchen cabinets since she’s been spending so much more time at home and maybe even updating her bathroom. Her husband passed away about a year ago, so she isn’t sure who she would hire to help with the updating if she decided to do it. Mrs. Smith also shared with me that she has been trying to work on her estate plan since her husband had recently passed and she wanted to have everything in order for her children in case something happened and they had to sell her house and liquidate her items. After hearing Mrs. Smith’s story I told her she is a perfect candidate for a downsizing consultation. Mrs. Smith was even more relieved when I told her it was free and we would even be able to check her home for radon.
I explained to Mrs. Smith that a downsizing consultation is exactly what she needed to help her decide what to do and how to plan for her future. So we scheduled about an hour appointment for a downsizing consultation. When I got to Mrs. Smith’s house I toured the property with her. I looked over her house to see if putting the money into updating would be a good investment. I helped her look at her home through the eyes of a home inspector and to see if there are any major items that she may need to address sooner than later even if she doesn’t sell and she decided to stay in her home as long as she can. Mrs. Smith and I also talked about placing me as a Realtor contact for her family in her estate plan. I explained to her that I can make it easy because they just have to call me and I can help them deal with what to do with Mrs. Smith’s stuff and cleaning out the house. Finally, Mrs. Smith and I got on a conference call with her son so that she could introduce me to him and we could place a face with a name in the future moving forward.
Here we are 6 months later and Mrs. Smith is still missing her family and is really hoping to get closer to them. She realized after COVID that if she could move within a 15-30 minute drive it would be so much easier on everyone. Mrs. Smith and I are getting ready to take the next steps to put her home on the market. It all started with a no obligation, easy, no pressure phone call and meeting about a downsizing consultation. If you are in a similar situation as Mrs. Smith or just would like to talk about today’s real estate market give Jennifer Herron-Underwood a call at 440-371-2862.