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Kutay Tanir

Your housing needs grow and change with the stages of your life.

In childhood, a dollhouse will do. Better yet, a playhouse in which you can live out your fantasies in miniature. In your late teens or early 20s, it might be a dorm room or first apartment.

As you marry, have children and take on additional responsibility, though, your housing needs will expand. You will need more bedrooms, more yard, more room for toys, from basketball hoops and swing sets to boats and ATVs.

Then, as your children take wing and you become an empty nester, or as you focus on retiring, and replacing work with travel, what you may want more of is ... less.

“Sometimes people just don’t want to take care of that big yard anymore,” said Realtor Mary Baker, principal broker and assistant manager at Prudential/First State Realty. “They’d rather spend their time having fun, so they downsize.”

Downsizing means transitioning from a larger space to a smaller one — from a big house to one with less square footage or to an apartment, condo, townhome or retirement community.

All those types of housing are options for buyers in McMinnville and other parts of Yamhill County, said Devri Doty, partner and principal broker with Windermere Pacific Crest Realty.

Both Baker and Doty said they have seen an upsurge in the number of condos and townhomes, often incorporated into three- or four-plexes, on the market in recent years.

Many have amenities that appeal to active empty nesters and retirees, such as big garages, proximity to the golf course and pads for parking RVs. And while they have less square footage, they often have just as many — or even more — luxurious appointments for the price: granite countertops and stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, for instance, or wood or tile floors in living areas.

Usually moving to a smaller dwelling also means less exterior space to bother with, Baker and Doty said.

Townhomes may be landscaped with low-maintenance shrubbery and attractive sweeps of gravel or bark dust, for instance. And condos usually mean no work at all for the individual homeowner.

Downsizers often have had their fill of fixing and remodeling, Baker said. They tend to want a dwelling that’s move-in ready — and that’s new enough that it won’t need major repairs for the foreseeable future.

Many people switch from multiple levels to a single story when they downsize. And some make a fairly drastic change in their location, moving to McMinnville from another city, for instance, or moving into town from out in the country.

“They want to be near conveniences and health care providers,” Baker said. “And they want a friendly neighborhood where neighbors will watch their home when they’re away.”

Finances also can spark the decision to downsize, Doty said.

Smaller homes generally are cheaper to heat and cool. Property tax bills usually are smaller, since the overall valuation is not as high. Mortgage payments may be less.

“If people have a substantial amount of equity in their home, downsizing can be a neat way to capture some of the tax benefits and have some money to play with,” Doty said. However, she cautioned, homeowners should consult their accountants about how such a change will affect their finances.

If you decide to downsize, you’ll want to talk to a real estate agent in addition to your financial adviser. You also may need to make some tough decisions about what to keep, as well as where to live.

For many, that means passing on treasured family heirlooms to children or giving away keepsakes to friends.

“There’s a lot of emotional attachment about our possessions. For some people, it’s a lot easier to let go if they know things are going to people who’ll appreciate them,” Doty said. “I often do a lot of listening as people talk about the past and get emotionally ready to enter the next chapter of their life.”

Baker had a similar observation. Sometimes it takes a few months to make the emotional transformation from a beloved family home to a new place.

“That makes a good selling point for potential buyers, though,” Baker said. “It’s nice to tell them that the old owners are downsizing, rather than moving because of some kind of problem. Sometimes that makes buyers feel warmer.”

In her more than 30 years in the real estate business, Baker said she has worked with repeat customers first when they’ve bought a big family home and later when they’ve downsized. “That’s what makes this business fun, working with families,” she said.

To help with the downsizing process, some people call in specialists, such as Patricia Angland and Shirley Knudeson, who operate Senior Moves Simplified in McMinnville.

They focus on helping senior citizens move from their longtime homes into retirement communities or smaller, freestanding dwellings. Often, Angland said, their clients have been living in one place for decades.

De-cluttering usually is the first step in preparing for a downsize move. That means going through papers and souvenirs collected over the years, sorting things out and, most important, getting rid of what’s no longer necessary.

“Most people made global decisions, like, ‘I want to keep all the teapots, but not the vases,’” Angland said. Others feel better if they look through things item by item, enjoying the memories that each invokes.

Once the smaller objects are taken care of, it will be easier to move the big pieces, such as furniture, Angland said.
She takes measurements of the client’s new place, plotting out the dimensions on graph paper with outlets, windows and doors marked. Then she and the client can work together to decide how to arrange pieces in the new home, and what just won’t fit.

Angland always photographs a client’s existing home, as well, so everything can be laid out the same way.
This is usually comforting for seniors, she said. And for those with memory problems, it’s a must.