Two trends are converging to impact the 2024 home sales market. One is that many young adults are fed up with renting, even though rent costs are moderating in many communities. The other is that more baby boomers are letting go of their oversized houses due to health concerns.
Take the true story of a retired 3M engineer in his early 70s who’s married to an artist of the same age. For decades, the couple relished their expansive lakeside home in exurban Minnesota. From a financial standpoint, they could have stayed indefinitely. But the artist’s worsening arthritis and the husband’s cardiac concerns made clinging to the property unwise. So instead, they found a highly recommended listing agent, sold their cherished place to a young family and moved to a brand-new retirement community nearby.
“With no mortgage, we made a pretty big profit on the house -- much more than expected. We walked away with a large pot of money. That was a good thing because our fancy retirement community -- with lots of bells and whistles --costs more than $8,000 a month,” the artist says.
It's no secret that many boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, have few financial incentives to let go of their large houses. A new report from Redfin, the national realty company, underscores this reality. It notes that empty-nest boomers owned nearly 3 in 10 large homes in the United States. That’s twice as many as millennials with kids, who own just 14.2% of the country’s large homes.
“Boomers don’t have much motivation to sell, financially or otherwise. They typically have low housing costs, and the bulk of boomers are only in their 60s, still young enough that they can take care of themselves and their home without help,” says Redfin senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari.
Even so, he says that “logically, empty nesters are the most likely group to sell big homes and downsize. They no longer have children living at home and don’t need as much space.”
Also, when health concerns arise, boomers who had long planned to age in place through their lifetime can suddenly face an urgent need to move to more accommodating living quarters.
“Even unexpected surgery for a knee or hip replacement can convince an older person with a very vertical house that they’d better move to spare themselves the pain of climbing stairs,” says Tom Early, an Ohio-based real estate broker.
Here are a few pointers for home sellers:
-- Realize the vital importance of picking a strong agent.
Karen Rittenhouse, author of “The Essential Handbook for Selling a Home,” urges sellers to exercise extra caution when choosing a skillful agent.
“You need to ask for referrals, check references and interview every agent you’re considering,” she says.
Many successful agents hire assistants to handle much of their routine work, and Rittenhouse doesn’t necessarily disapprove of this practice. But she says it’s important that your primary agent handle such core functions as negotiating on your behalf when an offer comes in.
“Good agents perform the key functions themselves,” she says.
Eric Tyson, a personal finance expert and co-author of “House Selling for Dummies,” says it isn’t always easy to determine whether an agent will give your listing the attention it deserves.
“The last thing you want is an agent who disappears the day after landing your listing. So before you sign a listing agreement, you’ve got to investigate,” Tyson says.
-- Look at a potential listing agent’s track record.
Maybe the agent you’re considering is a superstar --having won numerous awards for sales volume. Even so, this could be the wrong one for you.
“Just because the agent is a ‘big producer’ in sales volume doesn’t mean they have expertise selling in your specific area or your type of house,” Tyson says.
He and his co-author for “House Selling for Dummies,” Ray Brown, urge would-be sellers to get an “activity list” from any agent they’re considering. This should itemize all sales closed in the previous 12 months and show the property locations, as well as the list and sale prices.
“You can’t beat this raw data when you’re sizing up an agent,” says Tyson.
-- Ask the agents you interview about their vacation plans.
Obviously, agents like to pull away for vacations from time to time. But realty experts caution against hiring one who plans to head for vacation during the early weeks of your listing period. That could hinder your sale at the time when buyer excitement about your place is high.
Often agents rely on backups when they’re away. But Tyson says this is a poor option for clients, especially if the agent is gone for more than a couple of days during the period when offers are most likely to come in.
-- Consider the implications before hiring “partner agents.”
Some agents, including married couples, like to work as a professional team. They bill themselves as two interchangeable parts of a qualified whole.
“In theory, such a partnership has big advantages for clients, because you get a doubling-up of talent,” Tyson says.
However, in practice the two-agent arrangement is only advantageous to sellers if both partners are truly committed to their work.
“Sometimes the two halves don’t equal a whole and the clients are shortchanged,” Tyson says.
(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)