Why did you downsize? (feedback, square footage, mortgage, mortgage)

[AndyRoddy]

We're looking at houses that are on the large size in Allen.

I've come across many posters who talked about the need to downsize. What were the biggest factors?
I'd rather start small than find that I have to sell my place and buy a new one in a few years.

Some more information:

• Family of 4 with 2 young kids
• We expect visitors once or twice a year at least
• The larger (4,500F, 5/4-5/5) homes are within our price range, even accounting for taxes and utilities. Our total PITI and utility costs would be less than 20% of pre-tax income.
• We don't expect any help in the upkeep of the house. We would do all the cleaning and regular maintenance ourselves.

I'm just looking for honest feedback from people who bought big and then decided to downsize later on. What were your biggest reasons to go smaller?

[Rakin]

My biggest reason was the cost, expense of upkeep, taxes on a 4800 sf 2 story home. The kids were gone and there were rooms we seldom used. I now have a 2600sf 1 story and since we are in our 50's we reduced the need to clean, go up stairs, taxes are cut in half.

I've even thought about downsizing 1 more time.

As we get older we realize we just don't need those big homes and the additional expense to maintain. The money can go towards our future retirement.

[MckinneyOwnr]

Age and family size are the biggest factors I'd say. My parents actually bucked the trend, they went with a bigger house, and from a one story to a two story.

They had a 3100 sq ft house, now a 5000 sq ft one. My dad wanted a media room, and a game room, which he didn't have before. My mother wanted a high end, gourmet kitchen, nice backyard, and they both wanted a first floor master and three car garage. Only a larger house would fit the bill.

My mother wanted to downsize because of the reasons listed already, cost, taxes, upkeep, etc. However, they used to do almost all upkeep themselves. Now they are paying someone to do the yard, clean, etc, so they can just enjoy the house. They also anticipate having lots of company coming, several times a year, both friends and family, so they are justifying the additional bedrooms that way.

[Squirl]

The largest home we had when the kids were home was 2800 sq ft and it was more than large enough for us....3 kids, 4 bedroom home. I was then widowed and later remarried my DH who owned this 4300 square foot house where I have lived for the past 10 years. The next place will be small. I can be very content in about 1500 square feet for just the two of us. A consideration is not only the size of the house, however. Sometimes a specific neighborhood will be your dream neighborhood but the homes are all very large. Sometimes, even if you prefer a smaller home, you may have trouble finding a place the size you desire in a neighborhood you like.

[hal2814]

We moved from a rural area in Georgia to Euless. There just aren't any 3500 sq ft houses on 1.5 acres of land out here in our budget. So we downsized into a 2000 sq ft house on 1/4 acre of land and still ended up paying a lot more than our previous home. For the same money we spent on our current home we could've gotten more square footage but at the expense of living further from where we wanted (the general Grapevine Southlake area) and/or in a less desirable ISD (currently in GCISD). More land was really off the table given our budget and commuting needs.

The only thing I particularly miss is having my own home office.

[SVTRay]

We moved from a large 4500 sqft home to a small apartment. Is was more due to a change in geographical location vs downing sizing. The idea was to go shopping for a new home this summer but we're having second thoughts. Apartment living has us spoiled! For one thing it takes us 30 mins to clean the place our selves and 60-90 to really deep clean it...and we have kids. We could never do that with our old place. Instead we had to hire a full time house keeper (30-40hrs/wk). If you've never had a house keeper/maid, it's almost a full time job directing them...and in many cases trying to translate what's needed...had to type stuff out using google translate sometimes. We also had to hire a full time grounds keeper to take care of the yard and change air filters and light bulbs...due to the desert environment, we had to change filters all the time and a light bulbs needed changing every time you turned around and having 15' ceilings didn't help...especially when the bases of a bulb broke off in a socket. And don't even get me started on the Swimming pool guys, just say if I see another Pool guy, it will be too soon! I finally started cleaning the pool my self! The apartment complex deals with the pool and anytime something breaks, we just put in a service order and it's fixed 1-2 days later, faster if it's something serious. No dealing with sprinkler systems, broken garage door repairmen etc. I just pick up the kiddo from school an come home and kick up my feet...while enjoying our awesome Downtown Dallas view

I'm not saying we're not going to buy another large home but we're just not in a hurry.

[ETex2]

Simple. Kids grow up and move out. Incomes sometimes go down. Priorities change. Saving for retirement is more important than paying high taxes and mortgage payments. Keeping up with the Joneses loses it's importance.

[Made_it_To_the_Metroplex]

We owned a home in another state (our first house) for 12 years. Been there, done that. We want freedom on our weekends! We have no kids, but 3 animals. A small yard would be nice, but we just don't want the worry.

[gymrat]

My kids have already told me I can never move as they want to "come home" to the house they grew up in. Well, we moved to this house when they were 4 & 7. I've told them no way in hades am I staying here if they are all gone and something should ever happen to daddy and I'm all alone. Right at 5000sq ft, 4bed/4bath, pool, etc. Yes, I'd like to have all the room for the kids and their families to "come home" to and visit if they are not living in the area. It's already going to be weird with one going off to college next year.

Next house will still be a good size with a pool just not 5000sq ft. Probably 1 story with the 4bd/4bath. I'd love a mid century modern and already have it designed in my head Will build for sure so I'm sure it will be either on a good sized lot we can find closer to Dallas or on at least an acre or 2 as we both enjoy being outside with room and for the doggies. We do joke that all we need is a massive garage with our living quarters on the second level.

With teenagers I can say that the big house has been nice. We can easily have 80 teens in the house and not feel like everyone is stepping on each other. Plenty of room for pool table, darts, video games, media room movie going, etc. Same with the big backyard with the pool and plenty of room to entertain outside. Would not trade it as we have enjoyed it.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by AndyRoddy

We're looking at houses that are on the large size in Allen.

I've come across many posters who talked about the need to downsize. What were the biggest factors?
I'd rather start small than find that I have to sell my place and buy a new one in a few years.



Some more information:

• Family of 4 with 2 young kids
• We expect visitors once or twice a year at least
• The larger (4,500F, 5/4-5/5) homes are within our price range, even accounting for taxes and utilities. Our total PITI and utility costs would be less than 20% of pre-tax income.
• We don't expect any help in the upkeep of the house. We would do all the cleaning and regular maintenance ourselves.

I'm just looking for honest feedback from people who bought big and then decided to downsize later on. What were your biggest reasons to go smaller?

You'd be looking at over 1,000 sq ft per person. That's absurd! My house is 1820 square feet; it's a 3-2. The spare bathroom only gets used if there's a problem in the main bathroom, otherwise I go in there and run the taps and flush the toilet once a month so gaskets and whatnot don't get dried out. I have one bedroom that I literally go months without opening the door. The other bedroom is a workout room that I rarely use since I go to the gym most days. I also have a formal living/dining room that I never use. Ever. I could probably shrink my house in half and never notice.

However many square feet you buy...you have to pay to heat/cool those square feet. You have to clean those square feet. You have to decorate those square feet. Just think about the amount of roof square footage, insulation, windows, guttering, etc. that accompany a house that size. Think about maintaining it yourself. I sometimes struggle with my own house (I bring in pros) and it is less than half that size. Just cleaning my own gutters is a pain in the neck that takes all morning. I replaced all the windows in my house in 2010...I had only 12 openings, 15 windows total, and it was almost 8 grand. Expect to at least triple that if you ever have to replace your windows, since newer builds have more and larger windows than older houses. Replacing your HVAC system would probably cost more than a car.

Ask yourself if you really need that space. With that amount of space you will either hardly ever see your children or you will congregate in only a few areas of the house, leaving most of it unused and wasting money.