17. Embracing "Upliving" My New Term for "Downsizing" ~ Here's How

Ready to reimagine the art of living? Join me, Jacquie McCarnan, as I take you on a journey of transformation—where upsizing your joy and satisfaction comes from downsizing your home. We'll venture into the heart of ‘upliving’ with the story of Brian and Tracy, a dynamic couple who traded their spacious family abode for a lifestyle that's as liberating as it is cozy. Discover how strategic home improvements, the clever use of colour theory, and an understanding of the current market can not only prepare your property for sale but also pave the way for an elevated phase of life. Whether it's the emotional aspects of bidding farewell to your cherished family home or the financial perks that come with it, this episode is all about embracing change and finding fulfillment.

Navigating the nitty-gritty of condo living can seem daunting, but fear not—I'll break it down for you, from monthly fees to the profound sense of freedom that awaits. We'll wade through the emotional significance of downsizing, discussing the importance of decluttering and how it can breathe new life into your daily routine. If you're feeling tethered to a home that no longer serves your evolving lifestyle or you're simply curious about the ins and outs of preparing your property for sale, this heartfelt conversation over a cup of tea is tailored for you. I'm passionate about connecting with my listeners and ready to guide you through every step on the path to ‘upliving.’ Let's embark on this inspiring adventure together.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey friends, welcome back to Keeping it Real, the Vancouver and area residential real estate podcast that aims to cut through all the nonsense you might hear in your everyday. My name is Jackie McCarnan and I am your host for Keeping it Real. I'm a North Shore residential realtor who absolutely loves my job and I really love helping people figure out the complex complexities of residential real estate here in the Lower Mainland, because there is a lot to know. I am also a pretty big fan of the North Shore of Vancouver and I have a non-profit called North Van Cares. You can look that up or see in the show notes to find more information about North End Cares. I'm sure you've heard the expression happy wife, happy life and that's going to come into play quite a bit in this episode. But my mantra is happy managing broker, happy Jackie. It doesn't rhyme so it's definitely not as popular, but to make my managing broker happy, I always like to throw in this little disclaimer Anything you hear on this podcast is a combination of my experience and my research coupled with my opinion, and there are lots of different opinions about the information out there, so I'm always happy to hear yours, and this is mine.

Speaker 1: 1:22

Today's episode is something near and very, very dear to my heart. It's called downsizing in the current vernacular, but I would like to change the name to upliving, because that's really what happens when you downsize. I'm going to tell you a story about some clients of mine who really absolutely improved their lives even though they had great lives before, they absolutely leveled up their lifestyle when they downsized from the family home. And then I'm going to tell you a whole bunch of stuff that we did before. They even sold their house and all the things that you can do to prep and uh and just kind of put yourself in the best position to have the best second act, third act I don't know, it depends on how old you are, I guess. So, without further ado, let's talk about upliving. As I mentioned in the intro, downsizing is really near and dear to my heart. I honestly I think that three quarters of my business has to do with downsizing or the conversations around downsizing, and I just really love to show people how moving out of the family home after raising their kids is is just a wonderful option for improving their lives. Uh, it's not, obviously it's not going to be for everybody, but I have a great story about clients that I helped and I just, um, I told them I would change their names in the circumstances and then they will recognize themselves in this, but nobody else will.

Speaker 1: 3:02

So my clients, brian and Tracy, lived in the family home, raised their three children in the family home in Edgemont and they had this beautiful home and and Brian took great care of the house. He, uh, you know, he did all the things that were necessary to do to keep the house in tip-top condition and really, you know, you know gutters and painting and you know everything. Everything was absolutely perfect in this house. And over the years they had a couple of different iterations in the lower half of the house. They sometimes it was an Airbnb and sometimes it was a nanny suite and sometimes it was a place just to for the kids to play or play music or whatever. So this, you know, 2,500 square foot family home was absolutely perfect for raising their kids and the dog liked it too. And then, um, you know, the kids, eventually they, they went to school and they graduated and they moved out of the house. And and then, um, my Brian, and did I say Tracy, I think it was Tracy, anyway, brian.

Speaker 1: 4:19

So Brian and Tracy, they, uh, they found themselves just the two of them in this great big home, rattling around in this home, and then they started to think of some little things that were starting to get annoying, like the fact that you have to keep a house like that clean when there's nobody there using it becomes irritating. You have to shovel the driveway and you have to clean out the gutters and you have to cut the lawn and if it's a big lot, if it's a big lawn, then that starts to become one of those things that you're taking up your weekends doing again. Right? So both of my clients were getting close to retirement, but not quite there, and they still had one kid in high school, so they weren't ready really to sell their home. But we and we started talking about it in 2020 during the pandemic.

Speaker 1: 5:17

So, of course, as most of you know, 2020, 2021 and 2022 were getting the market was going bananas, certainly here in the lower mainland and all over the country really, because people who had, who were living in one bedroom apartments with one or two kids, were feeling the crunch of having to work in that apartment and also have the kids. Even if they had like a three bedroom apartment and one kid they still, and they had a dedicated room for working. It was still really difficult because, um, as someone who works from home, I know that the interruptions can be many and often trivial. Don't tell my kids I said that anyway. So during the pandemic, everybody was looking to upsize and the people who were looking to downsize in that market were actually basically writing their own ticket.

Speaker 1: 6:11

So about eight months prior to when we listed, I went to their home and they said, well, what can we do? And I said, well, you know, some of this stuff is a bit dated, is a bit dated. Maybe we could just simple, simple things Painting the bedrooms of the kids that live there, because nobody wants a black bedroom and there's color theory around what color bedrooms should be. So, for example, yellow is not a great color for a bedroom, apparently, I think that's. It might've been blue, but I think it was yellow anyway. There there are really good colors for rooms, specific rooms, and there's a whole ton of information on that online color theory for um, for bedrooms or kitchens or living rooms. But I mean, you can't go wrong with painting all the walls white. Uh, have somebody come in and paint them. If you need somebody recommended.

Speaker 1: 7:06

I always have a list of people that I can recommend to do a bunch of things for you around your home, but then like a whole bunch of little things. So, um, all of the handles on the doors were brass or brass colored. That's pretty out. I mean, it was in 2021. It might be back in now, but replacing those with black handles. Some of the downstairs doors were still that wood. You could paint those white.

Speaker 1: 7:33

There were just a couple of little things that could be done over several weekends leading up to us listing the home, and my clients diligently took that to heart and I actually, in my seller's guide I have some recommendations of what you do. The other thing I always tell people is basically take half your stuff, half your clothes, half your furniture, half your knickknacks, half your everything and put it in storage. Or, in the case of my clients, they had a large garage so they were able to buy kind of uniform looking packing boxes and wrap everything up and put them in those packing boxes, which was great, because then it got it out of the house and it was tidy in the garage. So those are some of the things I talk to my clients about ahead of time, well ahead of time, so that they're in a really good position to sell when the time comes. Now there are going to be a ton of people who are perfectly happy in the family home, but maybe they are getting close to retirement and they're finding that the upkeep of the home and the money that's tied up in it all that beautiful equity is not really doing them a ton of good. But maybe there are ways to use the equity in that home to um, to level your life up, and that's certainly what happened with Brian and Tracy I think it's Tracy.

Speaker 1: 9:02

One of the things they were able to do is they sold their home. For I'm going to give you some rough numbers here just to make it easy. They sold their home for $2.5 million and they purchased a three-bedroom condo in a very popular area of North Vancouver, very walkable. So they got rid of a car. They purchased that three bedroom condo for 1.5 million. That freed up a million dollars of equity they had. They own their own house at the. At the time there was no mortgage on the house, so now they have a million dollars give or take that they can do something else with, and what they decided to do was split that among their children, split a portion of it, 75% of it among their children to provide the children with or not children you know they're adults at this point with a down payment for three small apartments condos. So with the equity in their home, they were able to put themselves into a spectacularly beautiful condo with just the most crazy amenities, in a very walkable area, and they were able to take the rest of the money and give their kids a head start. So I guess that's what we're calling, that's generational wealth building right there, because anybody who owns a condo in Vancouver in their twenties is in just a spectacular position as they go into their thirties and forties. Right, because you know that condo is probably and again I say this with a caveat that I am not, I don't have a crystal ball, I'm not Kreskin. I don't know what the future will bring, but there is a strong possibility that the value of the one bedroom condos is going to increase over time, as is the value of the three bedroom condo that my clients bought.

Speaker 1: 10:59

A couple other things that happened as a result of this was, as I quickly mentioned, they were able to get rid of one of their cars, so by doing that, they reduced, obviously, their carbon footprint but also the expense of car insurance, car payments, gas, whatever it was, because now they, first of all, they both work from home. So working from home when you're in Edgemont is an issue because you still have to drive places, right, but if you work from home in, let's say, lower Lonsdale, you can walk everywhere. You can walk to get your groceries, you can walk to go shopping, you can walk to Pilates, you can walk to yoga, you can walk to the pub. So many, so, so, so many pubs to watch the Canucks uh, beat Nashville, and that will date this podcast for sure by saying that. But anyway, um, so they could walk around. They didn't need that extra car, it was great they had.

Speaker 1: 11:57

And that freed up some even more money for them to use to improve their lifestyle or up life, uplive, up living. I'm a hundred percent going to change downsizing to up living. I'm even I think I'm even going to put together a blog post about it. Other ways they were up living is because now they had this money in the bank, they're able to invest it in other things other than the three condos. But also they were able to put some money aside for some travel, some really cool travel. They went to Italy on a cycling tour and posted pictures the entire time just to make me super jealous. But those are the kind of things I think you know this couple. They're in their late fifties, early sixties. They are both very young and fit still and able to do all kinds of super fun stuff, and now they don't have the yoke of the family home and all the maintenance involved they're hanging around their neck anymore and they've freed up a big, walloping amount of equity. So it depends on your situation, but in many, many cases, getting out of that family home for the right reasons is an excellent step.

Speaker 1: 13:13

I think a lot of times people stay in the big house longer than is necessary, or even lifestyle necessary, because there are so many memories and nobody's going to understand that better than I do. I, um, I'm a sentimental person, so I understand that the memories that you have that you built in the family home are really important and maybe, maybe, you want your grandchildren to enjoy that home. But I would suggest to you that if grandma and grandpa live in a condo that has a pool, then you will be the favorite grandparents forever and your grandchildren they don't really care about your family, home and the memories that were built there my mom and dad when I went to university so I'm one of three as well and I was by far the last one out of the house I'm eight years younger than my next sibling when I went to university. I left in September for university and when I came back for Thanksgiving my parents had moved into a three-bedroom condo. Actually, I never even put that together. Anyway, they moved into the condo. The condo had a or has, because my mom is still in this condo and that is 30, somewhat almost 40 years later. My mom and dad were absolutely the biggest draw for my kids because there was a pool and a hot tub and a gym, and not that the kids spent any time in the gym, but there was also a billiard room, oh my gosh. So it was so fun when my kids went to my mom and dad's, because there's always so much to do.

Speaker 1: 14:55

I'm not saying you have to move into a condo with a pool, like, let's say, you, uh, your grandkids live far away or whatever. It doesn't. It doesn't matter. The scenario doesn't matter. Whatever it doesn't matter. The scenario doesn't matter. There are a whole ton of options about where you can go out of the family home. So for someone like me who has really sore knees, I don't want to be going up and down the stairs all the time. So I want one single level and that's really important to me. So when I'm looking for a home, I'm going to be looking for something that has one level and some space where you know, my, my kid that still lives with me, can be in one part of the area and I can be in a different part and we're not going to bug each other. But also I'm going to want some amenities, and most places that most condo certainly the new ones have lots of amenities.

Speaker 1: 15:47

I think if you're sick of kind of raking leaves and cutting grass and shoveling driveways and doing all kinds of stuff like that, then it might be time to start saying to the kids hey, you guys, you've been out of the house for a couple of years. You got a bunch of junk still here. Come pick it up, because we are thinking about making a move. But you know, and even that exercise is going to make you feel better about your space because there's going to be less stuff there. I've seen that time and time again where I walk into somebody's house, the kids have been out for five or 10 years and there's so much of their stuff still left and of course mom and dad don't want to throw it out because it's their stuff, so they just keep it hanging around. But I think even that as an exercise is good. It gets the kids thinking, oh, maybe this is a bit much for mom and dad. Good, it gets the kids thinking, oh, maybe this is a bit much for mom and dad and maybe they would be happier in a place that is way less maintenance.

Speaker 1: 16:55

Another thing that I've found with my clients who I've helped uplive see, I'm using it already is that they oftentimes don't really know how a strata works. So just very quickly, for any of you who live in a single family home and have never lived in a condo, what you need to know is that you will pay a monthly maintenance fee, and sometimes it's pretty steep. You know, if you're going into a three-bedroom condo in a really popular area of North Vancouver, that maintenance fee might be $800, $900 a month and you factor that in to your monthly expenses. But that maintenance fee often covers things like hot water and heat and all the amenities and your parking stall and all that sort of stuff, and it kind of puts everything into one bill monthly so that you don't have to really worry about that, which is nice too, because then it's.

Speaker 1: 17:51

You know, I look at my mom, who's 93, obviously after 40 years the condo is owned. My mom has one bill Well, that's a lie. She has the strata fee, or condo fee as they call them in Ontario, and then she also has the internet fee, which she doesn't think she needs, but she doesn't know that it actually is how she gets her television. But 93, you know what she can do whatever she wants. So close your eyes and think about this for one second. You have gotten rid of all the clutter out of the family home with my help. Usually Everything is painted and ready and staged and we sell the house in. However long it takes to sell the house Sometimes it's very quickly in a market like this, sometimes it's a little slower Whatever, however long it takes to sell.

Speaker 1: 18:42

And then you move into your new condo. Everything is fresh and new and you breathe a big sigh of relief and then you just start planning your trip to Italy or Spain or I don't know wherever you want to go. France south of France, that'd be nice too, but I think it just really is a nice way to utilize the incredibly high equity that you would have gained over the last 30 years if you have lived here in the lower mainland. And I think it's just freeing, you know, and you can help your kids too, which is always really nice, being able to help the kids. You can not help the kids, or if you don't have kids, you can take a big whack of that money and throw it into something that pays you a monthly income. That's always nice too, and then, as you retire, you have a big whack of money coming in, or enough money coming in that you don't need to really worry about things for the rest of your life. And again, I look at my mom, who is now. She lives off the proceeds of the RIFs and it doesn't. It's not much and she doesn't need much, but it just makes her very happy that she has enough money to live the lifestyle that she wants to.

Speaker 1: 19:59

And I think that you know, talking to a realtor, financial planner and a mortgage broker is a really great way to get yourself into a position where life is just easier, and wouldn't we all just want life to be a little bit easier, especially when you're young enough to enjoy it? If this has piqued your interest or even, like you know, I'm sure listening to this, you've already thought about uplifing, uploving, upliving, um, but if it piqued your interest in any way and you would like me, or you can call your realtor, but if you want to call me, uh, to come over and take a look at your home and see the little things you can start doing now to prepare for a time when you want to sell it, I mean, why not? Why not get a jump on things, right? Anyway, I'm always happy to come and do an assessment, let you know what's going on, let you know what's going on in the market. Very happy to do that for anybody, anytime, and it doesn't cost you anything and we end up having tea and being friends.

Speaker 1: 21:03

The last thing I want to say about downsides oh sorry, nope, upliving is that I totally understand that there is an emotional attachment to the family home Real estate comes down to. It's so unique in that it is one of the only things that is both emotional and commercial business, and so, from a business perspective, downsizing makes a ton of sense. From an emotional perspective it might not. So not everybody is going to be ready or even inclined to think about downsizing, and that's okay too. You know you should also, but if you, if you, aren't thinking about downsizing, you should think about having kind of a audit done on your home to make sure that you're keeping up with everything and that it's going to last you for the amount of time that you think that you're going to stay there. Something like that would be done with a home inspector, and you could go back to one of my earlier episodes and listen to all the things that a home inspector will tell you.

Speaker 1: 22:10

All right, so I have some very exciting news for my listeners. For those of you who have been following along and know that my daughter Lane is opening a cold plunge and sauna studio in Squamish. A one small permit that, um, you know we forgot to get completely our fault, but the permit was issued on Thursday last week and plunge wellness in Squamish is opening on Monday, the 29th of April Yay 2024. Woo, uh. So that's very exciting news and if you are one of the lucky few who got an early bird pass, you can book your. You have a couple of weeks where nobody else is going to be allowed to book, you can book your session and get up to plunge. I'm so excited for Lane. I can't wait to see how this does. I'm going to go up and have a sauna. Will I get in the cold blend? Probably, but I don't want to. Anyway, plungewellnessca check it out.

Speaker 1: 23:22

And you know I always like to include what I'm doing, what I'm reading. In this case, I'm going to do a little shameless self-promotion. I have started putting together a Friday newsletter called High Five Fridays. It's pretty exciting. I think it's getting quite a bit of interest from the people that receive it and that is anybody on my mailing list. And if you would like to receive a High Five Friday, it has a little bit more information than just the podcast, but the podcast is linked in it.

Speaker 1: 23:51

And then I almost always have a blog post about North Van home sales and a blog post about North Van Cares. The real estate podcast or sorry, the real estate blog posts are always kind of updated information, like the new capital gains inclusion tax, that sort of thing, and I am always again, always happy to have your feedback on that. But if you would like to get on the newsletter list. Just send me a note or book a chat or whatever. It's all in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Keeping it Real. I am having a blast doing these and I'm always looking for new topics. I'm going to run out pretty soon topics I'm going to run out pretty soon. You can get Keeping it Real at northvanhomesalescom slash podcast or on Spotify or pretty much anywhere you get your podcasts. Don't forget to like and subscribe so you don't miss one ever. Have a wonderful weekend.