Dream Team

Upgrading or improving your home can be one of the most rewarding activities you could undertake — and that includes monetarily, because depending on the improvement, you can boost your home’s value and recoup some of your investment when the time comes to sell. However, it’s important to remember that upgrading your house isn’t exactly a dollar-for-dollar investment; you probably aren’t going to make all of your money back that you sunk into the improvement, so pumping $5,000 into your kitchen and then expecting to just tack on an additional $5,000 to your listing price when you sell it is very likely unrealistic.

Which home improvements result in the highest return when it comes time to sell? There are several that are likely to generate at least a small increase in your home’s value — but before you decide what to do, think about how long you’re likely to stay in the house and which upgrades you’ll get the most enjoyment from before you start renovating. That way you won’t be expecting a 1:1 (or higher) return, and if you’re focused on improving your own lifestyle and maybe making some memories with your household, you’ll be picking the wisest upgrades and increasing your home’s future listing price at the same time.

Kitchen rules

It’s still very true that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and for that reason, kitchen upgrades tend to be some of the best improvements you can make in terms of increasing your home’s value. Plus, depending on what you’re doing in the kitchen, the upgrades tend to be much more flexible or forgiving in terms of your overall budget than other rooms in the house — you can pretty easily sink thousands of dollars into a kitchen, of course, but it might be pleasantly surprising to discover just how much you can get for a few hundred dollars.

On the cheaper side, one way you can brighten up your kitchen is to replace the cabinet doors and paint the cabinets. There are really no rules as to what you should do, except one big one: Following trends usually dates your kitchen pretty quickly (remember the “tuxedo” cabinet craze a few years back?), so try to go with something classic. Plain dark or light wood tends to work well when you’re updating cabinet doors, or pick a color that meshes with the rest of your decor for the paint. Adding a backsplash instead of plain paint can also be an easy way to upgrade your kitchen on the cheap side.

And then there are the more expensive upgrades, like replacing your formica or laminate countertop with tile or even granite or quartz. This will require more of a monetary investment, but it can elevate your kitchen’s look (and the price of your home), so it’s worth considering if you’re sick of your kitchen counters and want something different. Talk to your contractor or even call up your real estate agent to ask what they think about your options — it might be tempting to go with another trendy material, like concrete, and these people can tell you if the trend will have staying power or if you should just stay away.

Appliance upgrades are also definitely not on the cheap side, especially if you’re going to upgrade everything in the kitchen from the range to the dishwasher to the fridge. But if your appliances are looking tired and you’ll get a little use out of the new ones before you decide to sell, it can be well worth the investment. Pick something you like, of course; even though stainless steel appliances aren’t exactly new, they’re new enough that they can give your entire kitchen an “updated” look with mid-range appliances, which can do quite a bit for the sales price of your home.

Bathrooms matter

Although most of us don’t spend quite as much time in the bathroom as we do the kitchen, it can still pay off to drop some home-improvement dollars on your bathrooms to update them, especially if it’s been a while and they’re looking tired. Replacing cabinets and countertops is sometimes a good idea in the bathroom, too, or updating the mirror (especially with a bigger option) to brighten up the room.

If your house doesn’t have any bathtubs, adding a tub is often a big winner in terms of home improvement — especially if you have a fancy tankless water heater or another option that will ensure plenty of hot water for the baths. Jacuzzis have more or less fallen out of fashion, but long, deep tubs where even a tall homeowner can stretch out and relax are always a good investment.

Re-tiling the shower (or upgrading to tile from a fiberglass version) can also make your bathroom look much better, and installing a new showerhead (or even two if your shower can accommodate them) is a worthy improvement that both you and a future buyer can both appreciate.

Finish a basement 

Adding livable square footage is one of the easiest ways to boost your home’s value instantly — even if that basement is technically already part of your house, if it’s not finished, then it doesn’t count toward the gross living area (GLA), which is one important way that appraisers and agents calculate value. You might not be able to add a full bedroom (which requires an “egress” — either a second door or a window that should open to the outside), but if you can turn your basement into a home gym, a second living area, an office, or a movie theater space, then you’ll be able to claim all that square footage as GLA.

…Or add an attic bedroom

If your attic already has a window and is accessible via stairs or a ladder, then all you need to do to create an attic bedroom is to finish your attic and maybe add a closet in some states. This can also add GLA to your house, not to mention the perks of having an extra bedroom, whether that’s for your own household members or for a private bedroom rental on Airbnb. You might want to talk to a general contractor about how easy this upgrade will be to implement, but if they say it’s possible, then you’ll be able to claim an additional bedroom when the time comes to list your house — a big perk.

Think green

Many buyers are prioritizing environmentally friendly, low-cost homes that make the most of energy efficiency; if you’ve had an energy audit done on your house and have a list of recommendations, then this could be a good place to sink any extra money you might have to throw at a home improvement. Some common suggestions include replacing or upgrading the insulation, replacing windows and even external doors, and (depending on the area) potentially adding solar panels.

That said, solar panels can be a hit-or-miss home improvement in terms of investment. Some plans ask the homeowner to pay off the solar panels month by month over a matter of years, and if your panels aren’t fully paid off by the time you decide to sell the house, then some buyers might balk at the idea of continuing to sink their own money into what was essentially your improvement. That attitude might not make sense to you, but if it’s possible, buy your solar panels outright so you can include them as part and parcel of the house when the time comes to sell it.

Paint

Inside and out, there’s almost nothing that makes a house look instantly nicer and brighter than a fresh coat of paint. Choose a high-quality paint type and experiment with colors; there are all kinds of tech tools, including apps, that allow you to try out a new paint color and decide whether you like it before you dive in and invest in enough paint to capture all your rooms.

And speaking of outside, don’t forget about any porches, decks, or fences that might require a little paint face-lift. A fence with chipping, flaking paint can make a house look tired and unkempt, so when you’re painting, make sure you include any features on the perimeter of your house, too.

Smart-home add-ons

Not everyone has an Amazon Alexa or Google Home device, but for those that do, there are plenty of items you can add to your home to make it a little “smarter” and easier to control by voice. Whether it’s a smart thermostat you can control with an app, a smart lock for your door that’s programmable to allow pet-sitters or house guests to walk on in, a light system that allows you to create a specific ambiance in your living room or bedroom, or any number of other additions, some buyers will definitely appreciate the fact that your home appears to sport the latest and greatest in technology.

The great outdoors

Adding a deck or an outdoor kitchen to your home doesn’t exactly increase your GLA, but it can be a huge selling point for future buyers, especially if you live in an area where the climate is pleasant and people tend to spend a lot of time outside. Another popular outdoor upgrade is landscaping, which can definitely add a lot of curb appeal to your home — just make sure that any landscaping you add is relatively low-maintenance and is acclimated to the weather where you live. Many younger buyers prioritize yards that are easy to maintain over the landscaped, golf-course-like expanses of grass that were popular a couple of decades ago, so if you’re going to upgrade the outside of your house, make sure you’re keeping them (and your own tastes, of course) in mind before you sink the money into your front or back yards.

Replace the floors

Your floors might be in impeccable shape, but if the carpeting is looking a little sad, or you’ve got a linoleum floor in the kitchen that hasn’t changed since the house was built, it could be time for you to splurge on some updated flooring that brings your house into the new century. Even if you’ve got some relatively new laminate flooring, if it’s starting to show some wear and tear, then upgrading it with a hardier material might be well worth your time — it’ll make your home look nicer while you’re there and increase the resale value when you’re ready to move on.

Think accessible

Our household configurations are changing in the United States, slowly but surely. To make your house appealing to buyers of all ages (or buyers with family members of all ages), one upgrade you can make that often pays off is making your home more accessible. Can you create a master suite with a bathroom on the main floor to eliminate the need for stairs? Can you add rails to the bathroom in the shower, bathtub, and toilet to make them safer? Widen doorways and maybe replace carpeting with hardwood flooring or laminate?

Whatever you can do to make your house more accessible to those with mobility issues will likely go a long way toward finding buyers who are interested in it down the road — and might even be able to help you with a family situation in the here and now.

Create a home office

More and more companies have remote work as an option for employees or even a fully distributed workforce, and their employees need a quiet, inspirational place to work at home if that’s part of their life. Even if it’s not, a home office can be a welcome addition to most households, whether it contains students who have homework or a family member who needs a little bit of space to go over the bills and organize the household on occasion. Some homes might not even require a full office; you might be surprised with what you can do with a little “laptop nook” with plenty of plugins and a wall-hanging desk to maximize space.

There are so many options when it comes to home improvement possibilities that it might seem hard to choose. Just remember that any upgrade you make needs to serve two main purposes: It should suit your current lifestyle in addition to (hopefully) boosting the resale value of your home. A full dollar-to-dollar return on your home sale investment probably isn’t likely, but when you factor in the enjoyment that you and your family will get out of any improvements, you’ll find that most of them are well worth what you’ll spend — and then some.

As a homeowner, it’s perfectly natural to wonder how much your house is currently worth (and, not so incidentally, how much money you might make today if you were to sell it). Even though the internet has brought information about home values directly to our fingertips, not all of it is reliable — that’s one big reason why appraisers are still in business, charging hundreds of dollars for an accurate valuation. And the truth is that sometimes even appraisers get it wrong. Your house is worth whatever a buyer in your market is willing to pay for it, and that’s usually not evident until you put it on the market and start considering offers.

All that said, there are still ways you can assess your home’s value without actually putting it on the market. Here are nine things to consider when you’re trying to figure out how much your house is worth.

Look at your property tax bill

Your property tax bill isn’t an exact estimate of your home’s value, but it’s a good jumping-off point. Homes are assessed for property taxes at different times, depending on which state, county, or city you live in. In most states, homes are assessed for taxes every five to seven years; depending on how recently your own home was assessed, you may be able to use the assessment as a starting point for figuring out how much your house is worth.

That said, beware of considering an assessment the final word on your property’s value. Typically, an assessment is done by taking the assessment rate of your locale, looking at the appraised value of your house, and multiplying the assessment rate by your home’s appraised value. If the last time your house was appraised was when you bought it — and that was decades ago — then the assessment of your home could be significantly higher or lower than its actual fair-market value. (But you won’t know that unless you call in a professional appraiser and ask their opinion.)

Examine homes that have sold recently in your neighborhood

To pinpoint a home’s value, most professionals use “comps” — this is just a term for homes that are comparable to yours that have sold recently, preferably within the past three months, but possibly as long as six months ago, depending on how many homes are for sale in your area and how easy it is to find comparable homes. At least three comps should be identified and used to find your home’s value, but you can use as many comps as you like; five or six might generate a number that more accurately reflects your home’s fair-market value.

What makes a house comparable to yours? It really depends on what comps are available in your area. They should definitely be as close to your house physically as possible, and preferably should “look” a lot like your house in terms of the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, and total lot size. Preferably, the comps will also align in details like the number of parking spaces and even the material used to build the house.

To find some comps yourself, look up homes that have recently sold in your area or neighborhood. Try to be as honest as possible with yourself; you’re not going to get a reliable valuation if you’re only looking at luxury homes and your house is not also a luxury home, or if you’re only considering mid-level houses and yours is a starter home. The recently sold homes should be as, well, comparable to your house as possible for this to be a valuable exercise.

Consider inventory

In some markets where there just aren’t very many homes for sale, it might not even matter that much if your house is comparable to others that have recently sold. The San Francisco Bay Area is a good example of a market where there isn’t a lot of available inventory (a fancy term for “homes for sale”) and therefore even tear-down homes can capture seven-figure sales prices — buyers are just that desperate to get their foot on the housing ladder, and they’re willing to pay whatever it takes.

Those markets are few and far between, but it’s still a smart idea to look at how many homes are for sale in terms of total inventory and then use that information to determine how much your own house might be worth. In areas where there are a lot of homes for sale, you might not be able to capture a price at the very top of your price range — but in areas where there are very few homes for sale, it’s likely that you’ll be able to get a lot closer to top dollar for your own house.

Use an online tool

Although online tools for calculating your home’s value are everywhere, they aren’t always accurate. One reason is because many of them use the same process as a human would to assess value — namely, comps — and a robot or algorithm isn’t always as good at picking the best comparable homes as a human would be. (This is why valuation tools like Zillow’s Zestimate usually don’t capture the actual sales price of a house.) Another reason is that a robot or algorithm hasn’t actually seen your house; they haven’t walked through it to determine whether the flooring, finishes, appliances, and other details are above the market average or below market average, so it’s really not possible for them to give you a totally accurate value for your house. In fact, it’s a lot easier to get an accurate online valuation for a cookie-cutter house in a recent development with lots of current sales than it is for a one-of-a-kind property.

Nonetheless, if you want a quick answer, sometimes an online tool is the fastest way to get at least a ballpark range. There’s a very simple one at the Federal Housing Finance Administration, which looks at when you bought your house, how much you paid for it then, and then tells you what it’s likely to be worth today just based on the housing market:  https://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/Tools/Pages/HPI-Calculator.aspx. Zillow, Trulia, and realtor.com all have home valuation tools, too, and your local real estate brokerage might even have one available for you to play with.

Determine price per square foot in your area

Another way to determine your home’s value is to look at the average price per square foot in your area, take your own home’s square footage, and do a little bit of math. But like many math problems — especially when it comes to home valuations — price per square foot can be tricky, so make sure you’re being smart when you use it to calculate your own home’s value.

When you’re considering the square footage of your home, the best way to think about it is the “gross living area” of the property, or GLA. Your unfinished basement isn’t really “living area,” and neither is your creepy and inaccessible attic, so don’t include those spaces in your calculation of square footage.

Additionally, bear in mind that the metric you find is most likely to be the average price per square foot in your market or neighborhood, and averages can skew high or low depending on the pool of properties that’s creating the average. An average price per square foot in a neighborhood like Beverly Hills is probably pretty high, but if you live in an older, run-down home in Beverly Hills, that average likely doesn’t apply very much to your house — it’s being pulled up by all the multi-million-dollar homes in the area. The same goes for the nicest house on the block: If that happens to be yours, then the average price per square foot is likely lower than what you’d be able to get for your house.

Consider the home’s age, the lot size, and the location

The house itself is just one part of the valuation equation, although it’s an important one. Even if your house has increased in value since you bought it, just like any other physical asset, homes degrade over time — you have to make major replacements, like furnaces and roofs, and depending on how long ago it was built, there might even be some serious plumbing or electrical work to do before it’s up to modern standards. (This is one reason why buying or selling historic homes can be so difficult.)

The land that the house sits upon is also critical when you’re trying to figure out how much the house is worth, both in terms of its exact location and also in terms of how much land there is. A big lot in a neighborhood with lots of small lots will probably boost the value significantly, and vice versa — a small lot in an area where the lots tend to run large might not do you any favors, unless it also has some unique aspects like a gorgeous view or access to a body of water.

Be realistic about how your home measures up

Everyone wants to believe that the house where they’ve been living, breathing, and making memories is one of the best homes in the neighborhood — and for you, that’s true. But is it true for a buyer who has no emotional attachments and has already looked at several other houses just like yours in the past few days, and maybe a few nicer, newer homes?

Remember that ultimately, your house is only worth what a buyer would pay to own it, and delusions about how special it is could undercut your home’s actual worth if you end up putting it on the market, overpricing it, then waiting and waiting for a buyer who’s willing to pay what your asking. That strategy inevitably leads to price cuts and longer-than-normal days on market, which make buyers nervous — they’re wondering “what’s wrong with it?” and not thinking “what a steal!” So it pays to be hyper-realistic about how your home measures up against the competition, even if the answer is “it’s not quite as nice as those other houses on the market.”

Order a BPO or a CMA

A BPO is a broker price opinion, and a CMA is a comparative market analysis; you can get either of these documents from a licensed real estate agent, who likely knows the market very well. After all, they list and sell houses every day, so they probably have a pretty good idea of what yours is worth.

You don’t necessarily have to sit through a sales pitch to get your hands on either a BPO or a CMA, but you will probably have to pay for a BPO. Many companies that deal in mortgages use BPOs to assess home value, including mortgage securitizers and whole loan investors, so they tend to be more reliable than a CMA. Some real estate agents will send CMAs to their past clients regularly, just to keep them up to speed with what’s happening in the market, and it’s usually free to request and access one if you’re curious.

Talk to a professional

A real estate agent or broker isn’t the only person who can assess your home’s value; you can also go straight to an appraiser and order an appraisal, but be aware that depending on the demand for the appraiser’s time, it could take several weeks and cost a few hundred dollars to get their professional opinion. So an agent or broker might be your best option if you want to save money and you’re not interested in selling your house immediately. In fact, developing an ongoing relationship with a reliable real estate agent or broker can be a real advantage to a homeowner; they can help you understand whether the deck you want to add is going to boost your home’s value (and by how much) or give you advice about where to spend your home improvement dollars if you’re planning on making some upgrades.

Valuing a house isn’t an exact science, but there’s a lot you can learn on your own if you choose to. Remember these tips and don’t be led astray by online tools or other potentially faulty valuation methods — ultimately, an expert in the real estate industry could be your best asset for determining your home’s value.

Between the tiny-house craze and bestselling books about minimizing your life, we’ve probably all thought about downsizing at one point or another. But is it really the right move for you at this moment in time? Before you decide to move forward with downsizing, it’s smart to spend some time thinking about the possible repercussions and what it’s going to mean for your life so that you can do it the right way — without regrets.

If you think that downsizing might be in your future, then follow these must-do steps so that you can get it done intelligently and relatively stress-free. You’ll be glad you didn’t leap into something you weren’t sure would work for you, and you’ll be able to assess whether this is a step you should take right away or put off for a few months or years.

Understand why you want to downsize

If you don’t have a set reason to scale back your house and your lifestyle, then this might not be the best time to try it. For most people, downsizing entails a lot of work and major decisions, and remembering why you’re going through the process can help you keep on track with the ultimate goal.

Are you hoping to move closer to family members, like kids or grandkids or siblings? Do you want to downsize so that you can travel more efficiently (or maybe even live in a camper van)? Does it make financial sense, or are you simply tired of having so much house to keep clean? Are you hoping to trade in a house in the suburbs for a cute condo downtown?

Whatever the case, talk to your other household members (if any are involved) and figure out what your “why” is for downsizing. It’ll give you a true north to follow when things start to feel tough down the road.

Assess your current possessions

Some downsizers find it helpful to take a literal inventory of their belongings and decide how much they’re willing to remove from their current inventory. How many bookshelves (and books) do you have in your house? Desks? Beds? End tables? Dressers? What’s in your drawers — especially in your kitchen — and can you do without any or most of those items? What does your clothing situation look like? For that matter, how many towels and sheet sets do you have, and how many do you really need?

Consider where you want to move

Maybe you already have your eye on the place where you want to move — this might have been hashed out already when you were considering why you want to downsize. But if not, it’s a good practice to think about where you’ll go and to be as precise as possible. If the units in that development downtown where you’d absolutely love to live contain a certain number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and square feet, then that gives you a parameter to aim for. And if you’re hoping to pack everything up and travel the world in a fancy RV, then that gives you a different goal. Getting your head around where you want to be, specifically, is going to help you make some tough decisions later.

Think about what you’ll miss if it were gone

There’s no shame in admitting that some of the possessions you’ve accrued over a lifetime just aren’t that exciting or necessary to you. Maybe you really wanted that sewing machine and got a few good years (and clothes) out of it, but if it’s been collecting dust for half a decade or longer, then perhaps you’re better off taking any needed hemming or adjustments to a tailor and focusing on other things. On the other hand, if you still use and love the sewing machine, then maybe you need to make sure it comes with you on your downsizing journey.

As you work on taking an inventory of what you have, think about whether (and how much) you’d miss it if you were to give it away or sell it. This will help you identify the things you can let go of without much strife, and what you really need to think hard about rehoming before you take the plunge and do it.

Understand your guest situation, short-term and long-term

Some of us love hosting guests in our house, while some of us find it a minor imposition at best. Do you have adult children who are likely to want (or need) to come stay with you while they get their lives in order, either after college or during a major life change like a divorce? Do you have siblings who like to visit where you live and who are used to bunking in your house when they do? Are those circumstances you’ll happily accommodate because they bring you joy, or is part of the reason you’re thinking of downsizing because you want some space of your own — no guests allowed?

“I just don’t have the room to host you anymore” might be something that you don’t want to have to say, or it might sound like a dream come true to you. Depending on your own family circumstances and your future hopes and dreams, you’ll want to consider how you plan on dealing with any short-term and long-term guests in the future.

Assess your finances

Many people decide they want to downsize for financial reasons; smaller homes are cheaper to heat and light, and you will likely use less water if you’re moving from a home with a lawn to a condo that contracts out landscaping. But there might be other costs of living that you need to consider. Let’s say you’re hoping to move to one of the coasts to be closer to children or grandchildren — not only does housing cost more on both coasts than it tends to in the middle of the country, but you’ll likely also be spending more on groceries, gas, and even utilities. Similarly, if you want to trade it all in for a van life, you’ll have to consider whether you can afford the price of gas rising in the near or distant future, and if it does, what that will mean for the longevity of your new lifestyle. Talk to your accountant or another financial professional to get a sense of what you might need to spend to have the sort of lifestyle you want, and make sure that your finances can accommodate it.

Consider the cost of replacing what you’ve already got

Even if all of your furniture is perfectly serviceable, are you really going to need a dining set that seats twelve and has room for all your ancestors’ china in a condo? Probably not. Even if you sell that dining set, you’ll likely want to replace it with a smaller table and chairs that fit four to six people, and whatever money you net in selling your current possessions might not quite cover the new things you may want to purchase before you settle into your downsized home.

Think well beyond furniture when you’re considering replacements. Will you really need a toaster that toasts four slices of bread at once in a smaller kitchen? Can you replace your desktop computer with a laptop computer? Or all of the cutlery, plates, mugs, and bowls that you’ve accumulated over time with smaller sets? Will your dog’s bed fit, or your houseplants? Will you need to keep all of the holiday decorations? Do you need that full set of large pots and pans, or should you invest in a smaller one? There may be quite a few things that you want to shed and replace, so go back over your inventory of possessions and decide whether anything should be replaced, and then try to ballpark how much that will cost you.

Decide whether a home sale could cover your new living expenses

Depending on when you bought your current house, home prices have likely gone up, and you may have spent some of your time fantasizing about what you might be able to buy if you sell now. But that rise in home prices works both ways: Anyplace you might be considering downsizing into has probably also gone up in price, and mortgage rates might be higher today than your current rate, so you’ll need to think about how much you’ll really be netting, whether it makes more sense to rent than buy, and what you’ll use for a down payment if you decide not to sell your current home and rent it out instead.

Be honest about storage

A lot of people who downsize tell themselves that they can just put whatever they don’t take with them into storage. Technically, this is true, but that’s an additional monthly expense you’ll have to take into consideration when you’re working on your budget. And not to be morbid, but consider the people who might have to clean out that storage unit if you were to pass away unexpectedly. Do you really want to compound their sadness by stashing everything you don’t move with you in storage?

If a small storage unit for storing seasonal items that you can rotate out makes sense, then go right ahead and reserve one. But if you already know that you’re going to put your stuff in storage and then mostly forget about it, do everybody a favor and just release it now.

Get ruthless about new purchases

A lot of us go shopping when we’re stressed out — it’s a very normal way to handle big life changes. But before you start going nuts at the mall or on amazon.com, set up a series of warnings or flags so that you don’t buy anything without thinking about it for at least 48 hours in advance. (Yes, this even goes for items on sale — if you really need it or want it, you can wait until it’s on sale again. Sales happen all the time!)

Don’t make your downsizing job any harder than it has to be by bringing in new items consistently. Crack down on your own shopping habits (and the shopping habits of other people in your household) so that you can downsize as quickly and easily as possible. You can always get what you need after you’ve moved!

Talk to your relatives and friends about what they might want

If there are any family heirlooms or personal treasures that you’re hoping to pass along to the next generation, now is the time to have a potentially tough conversation when you ask them if they really want the item (or items) and whether you can go ahead and hand it over. Sometimes people who are downsizing don’t realize that their children or grandchildren are also trying to live minimally and have no intention of collecting things, no matter who owned it in the past, and this might be a difficult pill to swallow.

There may very well be some items or keepsakes that you think really should stay in the family, but if nobody claims them, it’s time to start thinking about what you’ll do with them now instead of getting upset that no one seems to care as much about your grandmother as you do. Perhaps a close family friend would like them, or maybe it’s time to let another family enjoy them by adding them to an estate sale. But definitely don’t make any assumptions about what your own relatives will want — then you won’t be unpleasantly surprised.

Follow the one-year rule

One well-worn rule for getting rid of extra possessions is: If you haven’t used it in a year, then you should get rid of it. This applies to everything except (perhaps) family heirlooms and possessions, but it’s definitely a good rule of thumb for things like clothes and books, kitchen appliances, dishes, blankets and pillows, or anything else that you don’t have strong feelings about but need to determine if it’s coming with you or not. If you haven’t already started purging some of your things in preparation for the downsize, then using the one-year rule can help you get started with items that aren’t necessarily personal or important to you.

Go digital

Family photo albums are fun to flip through, and it might make sense to keep one or two, but if you have stacks and stacks of them, then it’s time to seriously consider digitizing your collection. The same goes for books: Almost everything you can buy in paperback or hardcover, you can buy digitally, and even though you might insist that the feel of a paper book in your hands is too much to give up, you’ll save quite a bit of room. Movies, CDs, and other forms of media can also be digitized and still enjoyed just as much.

All that said, before you go too crazy moving all of your media to digital files, make sure you have a reliable backup system in case your computer crashes. An external hard drive, cloud drive, or another form of backup can save you a lot of heartache in the event of a total computer failure.

Take it room by room

Downsizing is definitely overwhelming, and the good news is that you usually don’t have to do it all at once. If you work room by room and item by item, you’ll have better success than if you try to tackle, say, all of your clothes (which are scattered all over your house) at once, or all your sports equipment at once. Start with a guest room or garage where you’re already storing things you don’t use very often, then work your way into the living room, bedrooms, and kitchen, where it’s likely going to be harder and harder to make tough decisions about what stays and what goes. If you begin with the less personal areas, by the time you move into the real heart of your house, you’ll be in the downsizing zone, and you’ll be better able to decide what stays and what goes.

Keep your goal front and center

The process of downsizing is a lot to take in, and if you don’t keep reminding yourself why you want to do it, then it can be very tempting to simply give up and decide you’re staying put instead. Make sure you’re remembering your end goal. Maybe it’s living in a smaller home so that you can travel the world like you always wanted to. Or maybe you’re giving up a big house in the suburbs to be closer to the city center and nice restaurants that you never get to enjoy. Whatever your “why” is, remember it and hold it close so that you don’t get discouraged by the process itself. In the end, your streamlined lifestyle will be worth it.

When you’re thinking about buying a house, it’s normal to question whether it’s really the best time to jump into the market — or whether you should wait a few months or even years to get the best deal. But a house isn’t like any other investment; you can’t live inside a stock or bond, or make memories there, so it’s not always wise (even though it’s very natural) to compare buying a house to other possible investments you might make in your future.

So to determine whether it’s really the right time for you to buy, it’s important to assess both your own ability to buy and the overall market. If you’ve never done that before, don’t worry — it’s not as daunting as it sounds. Here are some of the personal and market considerations you should think about before you start shopping for a home of your own.

Your own financial profile

The biggest factor in whether or not it’s a good time to buy is individual to every person or household. What kind of shape are your finances currently in, and will buying a house stretch you thin or save you money every month? This isn’t always an easy question to answer, but take a look at your monthly income and expenses, including what you’re already spending on rent, and then think about the kind of home you’d want to buy and how much money you have saved up (if any) to use for a down payment.

Many online home portals have mortgage calculators on them, but be careful with those; they often make assumptions that might not be true in your case (such as the size of your down payment, for example). And you’ll have to pay for more than just your mortgage loan: Most mortgage payments also include homeowners’ insurance and taxes, which are pooled in an escrow account and then distributed to your insurance company and city or county on your behalf. So even though your mortgage loan amount and interest rate might be stable over time, depending on the market, it’s possible that your insurance or tax rate could increase and you’ll, therefore, spend a little more on your mortgage payment over the 15 or 30 years you’re paying it.

The current mortgage interest rate

Mortgage interest rates were at all-time lows for more than a decade, and they’re still relatively low compared to the double-digit rates that many buyers saw in the 1980s, but they are creeping up nonetheless. The mortgage interest rate definitely affects buyers because the higher it moves, the bigger the monthly mortgage payment will be on a house, even if the house itself hasn’t increased at an all-in price. So for most buyers, higher mortgage interest rates mean they can’t afford to spend as much on the house itself.

That said, if mortgage rates fall in the future, you can always refinance your mortgage loan at a lower rate, so it doesn’t always make sense to wait to buy a house until rates are once again at all-time lows. Nobody knows when that will be, and in the meantime, all of the money you spend on rent is going to pay your landlord’s mortgage (or straight into their bank accounts), so a higher mortgage rate does not necessarily mean that you shouldn’t buy a house today. It just means you might want to keep tabs on any refinance options that offer you a better rate — and that if you can improve your credit score at all, you should do it; a better credit score usually means that buyers can get the best possible rate from a mortgage lender.

The available inventory

“Inventory” is really just a fancy real-estate-related way to say “how many homes are currently on the market.” More homes on the market tend to be better for buyers, while fewer homes on the market tend to be better for sellers — the usual economic rules of supply and demand also apply in real estate, of course. If there aren’t very many homes on the market, buyers also need to be aware that it might take them a while to find a house that fits their needs and falls in their price range … and when they find it, the competition from other buyers for the same house could be anywhere from mild to fierce.

But once again, low inventory doesn’t necessarily mean that an aspiring buyer should wait until the market levels off. If your finances are in order and mortgage interest rates are where you want them, then it’s smart to start looking even if inventory is low — it simply means that you’re going to have to be ready to jump on any opportunities that look promising and possibly cancel your plans for the evening or weekend so you can go look at houses instead of going golfing or see the latest big blockbuster in theaters.

The average days on market

Another way to gauge how “hot” (or not) the real estate market is in your area is through days on market. The time it takes to close on a house can stretch to three or four weeks, between all the inspections, appraisals, title due diligence, and other tasks that have to be completed to get from offer to close, so if the average days on market in your area is one month or less, that means the market is extremely competitive, and you’ll have to move fast to get a seller’s attention.

But even in markets with very low average days on market, you can use that information as a buyer to your advantage. If the average days on market in your area is closer to 30 and you’re looking at a house that’s been on the market for 20 or 30 days already, then it’s likely that the seller is getting anxious and might be willing to accept some concessions or even consider a lower-than-asking-price offer. Whatever the case, knowing the average days on market in your area can help you determine whether now is a good time to buy, or whether it might be better to wait.

The school and crime ratings

You might not be personally concerned about school ratings or crime statistics in the area where you want to buy, and that’s your prerogative — but don’t forget that you probably aren’t going to live in your new digs forever and ever. It’s never too early to start thinking about what it might be like to sell your house — yes, even before you put in an offer! — and even if good schools aren’t very important to you, they might be extremely important to a large pool of buyers when the time comes for you to turn around and list your home.

Similarly, crime statistics might not be on your radar, and that’s perfectly permissible, but it would be a mistake to buy a house in an area where you don’t know or understand what the crime statistics are or what they mean. Some crime statistics are compiled on a county level, and if you’re looking at houses in a sleepy county without much crime, then even one or two incidents can skew the statistics vastly. And if you’re ever planning on renting the house in the future, crime is something that you and your possible future tenants should think about — a vacant property can be an invitation for burglary or squatting, and if crime is high in the area but there are still a lot of potential tenants who want to live there, then you can help sell them on your house by pointing out the state-of-the-art alarm system or any other safety features you’ve installed.

Evaluate the tax rates

As a property owner, you’ll have to pay property taxes on your home, and recent changes to the tax law mean that these taxes aren’t always entirely deductible because they’re part of the state and local taxes, not federal taxes. This isn’t necessarily an issue for most homes in most areas, but in locales like New York City or the San Francisco Bay Area, you could be paying quite a bit more in taxes than you anticipated, so it’s wise to look into it and assess how much you’ll pay.

In addition, property taxes are typically collected by your mortgage loan servicer along with your insurance, interest, and loan principal, so a higher tax rate might mean you’re spending more money every month on a mortgage payment than you anticipated. Whatever the case, you’ll want to know what you could be getting into tax-wise before making the leap from renter to buyer.

Don’t forget about utilities

If you already pay all of your utilities at your rental, then you might have a better handle on this than someone whose utilities are partially or completely packaged in with the rent — but don’t assume that the utility payments in your new digs are going to be equivalent to the place where you rented. For example, you might have a lawn at your new home, and you may need to water it, which is going to cost more money than the regular bath-shower-and-tapwater costs at your current place of residence. Depending on the size of your new purchase and whether you’re moving from an apartment to a single-family home, it might also take significantly more energy to heat and light up. And if you’ve been piggybacking on a neighbor’s wifi without permission, or you’re no longer going to be able to use your roommate’s Netflix password, those are both costs you’ll want to consider before you decide to buy your own place.

Some utility companies, like electric, water, and gas providers, can give you a ballpark range of what to expect to pay if you provide them with the square footage; some will even show you the past billing history of any address you’re considering buying if the seller agrees to give you access to that information. Pinpointing your internet needs is usually easier, but don’t forget that you might need more bandwidth for a bigger house with more devices.

Consider your commute

Another expense that might grow over time is the price of the gas you put in your car, which depends on all sorts of factors entirely beyond your control. So even though moving to a place on the outskirts of town or in the suburbs might be a better deal for your bottom line when it comes to housing, you could end up spending more money on gas than you anticipated, wiping out any savings you hoped to accrue. Before you decide on a house or even a neighborhood, think about how you’ll get to work. Maybe your new place is on a reliable public transportation line — great! Do you already have a bus pass that you can use, or will you have to buy one? Does your employer have any discounts or deals that you might be able to use?

Those who spend a lot of time traveling will also have to think about the cost of getting to and from the airport, whether you’re driving yourself or using a rideshare. And if there aren’t any grocery stores nearby the house you want to buy and you don’t have a car, that could be something to consider before you put an offer on the place.

Factor in upkeep and homeownership costs

One of the best things about renting is that if a pipe bursts or your electricity fizzles out suddenly, you can call your landlord and then wait for the repairs. (Well, that part isn’t so much fun — but you don’t have to pay for it yourself.) But if the water heater breaks or your roof starts leaking in a house that you own, guess what? You’re on the hook for fixing it, and that could wipe out your savings or mean you’re going to be putting a big, sudden expense on your credit card.

Do you have the ability (or available credit) to handle one of those major expenses if it emerges? Some are obviously more urgent than others, of course; you might be able to live without hot water, even if you don’t want to, but a leaky roof could cause a whole host of other problems that you’ll also have to fix, so you can’t always put every home repair off until you feel comfortable paying it.

Think about your future employment prospects

You may be extremely happy in your job today, but in this day and age, it’s highly unusual for employees to stay at the same company for a decade or more. Of course, you can always sell your house whenever you’re ready to move on to a new employer — but if you’ve been living in the house for less than two years, then you’ll have to pay capital gains taxes on any sale, which could potentially wipe out any profit you might have otherwise made.

So even if you don’t see yourself moving on from your current job anytime soon, it’s a good idea to research the employment opportunities in the area before you commit to buying a house. That way your career will have room to stretch and grow while you continue to accrue equity in your house, and you can feel confident that you’ve got the options you need to be happy at work and at home.

Get details from the Chamber of Commerce

The local Chamber of Commerce can be a wealth of information about any community where you’re thinking about buying a home, and it’s definitely worth your time to do some research around local businesses in your area. Have there been a lot of businesses closing in the area — or opening? Does the chamber seem healthy in general? Does it host community events and offer opportunities for businesses to sponsor things like little league teams?

And what’s the mix of businesses in the area? Are there more restaurants than bars or vice versa? What kinds of retail stores are thriving? These little details can help you decide whether one neighborhood will be better suited to your lifestyle than another, and can also give you an idea of the area’s future growth opportunities.

Research future development

Some of the best real estate investments can be found in communities where development hasn’t arrived yet — or perhaps where it’s started but has yet to kick into full gear. To determine whether the area you’re considering is growing, you can look at both the Chamber of Commerce or the local city and county permitting office. Ask if there have been any permit applications for new shopping centers or condo or apartment developments, and if you can, get a sense of the timeline for those additions. You might also discover that a new rec center or swimming pool is currently in the works and be able to get your foot in the door in an up-and-coming area before it really starts to boom.

Uncover any environmental issues

Thankfully, these tend to be rare in this day and age, but you definitely don’t want to buy a house that’s adjacent to a nuclear power plant or subject to landslides without knowing about it first, so you can negotiate the price. Whether it’s a natural disaster like a wildfire, hurricane, earthquake, or flood (FEMA has some good data around where these have been most prevalent in the past), or whether it’s a man-made issue like the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, or a waste spillage from a nearby plant, you definitely want to know what potential hazards exist near or around the house you might want to buy before you make an offer.

The decision to buy a house is a big one, and it should depend on many different factors. If you’ve done your research and you’re still not sure whether it makes sense to start shopping, talk to some trained professionals and ask their advice. A good accountant and trustworthy real estate agent can give you a solid understanding of what a home purchase might mean for you, and can also help you navigate any pitfalls.

“Is this a good time to sell my house?” That’s one question that real estate agents are used to fielding, but as a homeowner, the answer might not be quite so obvious. Whether or not you should sell your house now or wait a few months (or years) depends on a number of factors, including the current market where you live, but there’s a lot that you can do to help educate yourself about the best time to sell a house and when to make a move.

When you’re thinking about selling, it’s smart to take a close look at the market first and make sure you’re as informed as you could possibly be. Here are some of the biggest market considerations to take into account before you think about listing your house.

Is the timing right?

It might seem counterintuitive to list your house when everyone else is also listing theirs, but consider the fact that buyers are definitely more active at different times of year in certain areas. Competition for buyers isn’t necessarily a bad thing when there are a lot more buyers available, so try to time your home sale according to the months of the year when buyers tend to become most active in looking for a home.

In some markets, there’s no such thing as a “down season” — but in many markets, sellers will want to think about timing their home sale to coincide with the months of the year when buyers are the most active. Typically, home sales tend to wind down in the fall and winter, then gear up again in the spring and summer. In neighborhoods with lots of appeal for families, this is especially true; most families don’t want to move their kids in the middle of a school year, and particularly if that move is going to mean that the little ones will have to change schools, which can be hard even at the beginning of a school year.

Study nearby listing prices …

One of the beautiful things about living in 2018 is that it’s really easy to see when houses in your neighborhood are for sale. Any homeowner who’s thinking about selling should do themselves a big favor and start keeping tabs on the homes that are listed for sale on their block and in their neighborhood — pay attention to both listing price (the initial price that the seller is hoping to get for their house) and to the sales price (the actual price that a buyer ends up paying for the home) because they aren’t always the same; the homeowners may have cut the price to get buyers interested, or in a hot market, the house might have been in the middle of a bidding war.

You can find listing prices using online portals such as Zillow, but your local real estate brokerage usually also has information around what’s sold in your area recently, which might be more accurate than what you see online, so it’s best to use a number of sources to determine what’s for sale in your area.

… Then be realistic about how your house measures up

This can be hard for any homeowner, but it’s absolutely critical if you want to get the best possible price for your house. It’s human nature to overestimate the value of our own possessions while underestimating the value of possessions that belong to others, and as of yet, there isn’t an equivalent of the Kelley Blue Book for homes, which are often unique and have attributes that can’t always be compared across the board.

If most of the homes in your neighborhood have a Viking range in the kitchen and yours is a Whirlpool, then you probably aren’t going to be able to command top dollar for your house, just to name one example. We all like to think that our house is nicer, better-decorated, or just a little bit fancier than our neighbors’ houses … but this is not the time to indulge in fantastic ideas about how much more valuable your home should be than the property that just sold down the road.

So spend some time seriously considering how every aspect of your house compares to the other homes for sale in your neighborhood, from the number of bedrooms and bathrooms to the lot size to the finishes and fixtures inside the home, right on down to the quality of your appliances. It’s OK if your house isn’t quite as nice as the other ones currently on the market — someone will still want to buy it! — but you’ll need to be realistic and price it competitively instead of trying to match or beat what your neighbors are asking for their home in terms of price.

Understand what makes your house unique and desirable

On the flip side, there might be some attributes of your house that bump it up considerably in desirability — and are relatively rare in the area, so you may be able to command a higher price than you thought. The details probably depend quite a bit on where you live and what’s common or uncommon there. For example, in a neighborhood on the plains where most of the homes are on flat lots, a slope to your yard that gives you a sweeping view of the area could interest the buyers in your market. By contrast, if you live in the mountains where most lots don’t have a lot of flat space for gardening or adding onto a house, then a flat lot with lots of usable space might be very desirable.

The things that make your house special might be basic, on the other hand — maybe most homes in your neighborhood are one-bedroom or two-bedroom properties, but you have three bedrooms in yours. Or perhaps you’ve got a large antique bathtub in your master bathroom, where most homes just have a shower. Whatever the case, do a little digging into what a “normal” house and lot look like in your area, and then do your best to research what makes your house more desirable than the competition; it’ll come in handy when you’re writing the listing description if you do decide to list.

Evaluate the job prospects nearby

When employment in an area is good, then buyers tend to have the ability to buy things. That sounds obvious, but it’s an important consideration when you’re evaluating the local market as a potential seller. If the biggest employer in town just closed its doors for good, this probably isn’t a great time to sell — but if there’s a new branch office of a major company that’s about to set up shop in your area, it could be the perfect time to think about listing your own house.

Finding employment (or unemployment) statistics for your area is pretty easy, thanks to the U.S. Census and Google. Look at the national unemployment rate and national household income first, so that you have an understanding of how your own market measures up, then simply type in “unemployment (my city/town)” and “median household income (my city/town)” to see where you fall in relation to the national numbers. If unemployment is high and household income is low where you live, you might want to think about waiting before you sell — but if unemployment is low and household income is high, then it could be a really good time to consider selling.

Know the crime and school stats

Buyers — even investors who plan to rent your house after the sale — are going to want to know that their investment is safe and that it’s in an attractive area for other buyers. Even if you don’t have kids, or your kids have long since graduated and left home, there are plenty of buyers with kids who might be an excellent prospect for buying your house, so don’t neglect your school research just because it doesn’t apply to you today; it’s quite possible that it could be a big selling point when the time comes to list.

Similarly, you might think you already know everything there is to know about crime in your neighborhood, but being able to point to numbers that show how safe it is can only work to your benefit when the time comes to sell. And even if it isn’t the safest block in the county, knowing why that is can help you answer questions from buyers who may have done the same research and might be nervous about what they’ve found. Maybe there’s only one bar in the county, and it’s right down the road — that could be skewing the crime statistics significantly, and if you can point that out to buyers, they might feel better about putting an offer on your house. (But you won’t necessarily know any of this unless you do some research!)

Look at average days on market

The average days on market simply refers to how long it takes homes to sell (on average) in your area. In hot markets, this might be one month or less — considering the fact that most homes need to be inspected and appraised, and a mortgage loan needs to get finalized, one month is considered very fast; the closing process in general can take three to four weeks. And in less-hot markets, you might see as many as 60 average days on market or more.

The days on market can help give you a handle on whether your market is firmly a seller’s market or whether it might be more of a buyer’s market. Fewer days on market means that buyers are jumping on anything they can find that might suit their needs, while more days on market usually indicates that buyers have more leisure to take their time and consider their decision before pulling the trigger by extending an offer.

Get a handle on how much inventory is available to buyers

Similar to days on market, the amount of available inventory can give you a sense of whether you’re currently in a buyer’s market or a seller’s market and how that might play out for your own home sale. You can usually find this through a Google search, though you might need to dig a little bit to get an actual number instead of a newspaper headline. Realtor associations or MLSs are good sources for finding inventory numbers for your area.

Inventory is measured in a handful of ways — sometimes you’ll see it expressed as a total number of homes for sale, but sometimes you’ll see it expressed in months, which can be confusing if you don’t understand what it means. (No shame in that!) A “balanced” housing market usually has about six months’ of inventory, which means that at the current rate of demand, it would take six months for all of the houses currently on the market to sell. Fewer than six months of inventory indicates a seller’s market, and more than six months indicates a buyer’s market.

Many data providers will also give you month-over-month or year-over-year percentage increases for inventory; this number simply describes how much more (or less) inventory there is this month or year than there was last month or year.

Understand your price per square foot

One standard way that homes are priced both for rent or for sale is by the price per square foot. This is a very useful number for buyers who want to know whether or not they’re getting a “good deal” on a house, or who want to compare home prices between two properties that aren’t exactly the same size. Price per square foot is another metric that you can Google to pinpoint for your area to see what’s average — but be aware that an average price per square foot is going to include both the bottom of the barrel and top of the line when it comes to houses, so if you’re not sure how your home compares, it might be better to look at the median price per square foot, which can be a better measurement for a truly “average” house.

A good real estate agent can help you determine a price-per-square-foot range for homes in your neighborhood or on your block, which is probably more useful than a market-level price-per-square-foot range.

Think about the mortgage interest rate

Mortgage interest rates usually matter more to buyers than sellers, but it’s smart to think about where they are and whether they might go up (or down) in the near future. As mortgage rates rise, the amount that buyers are able to spend on a home goes down because they will be paying mortgage interest every month along with insurance and taxes, not to mention paying back the actual loan amount that they borrowed, the principal.

Of course, it’s impossible to predict the future, but if you hear several economists saying that mortgage interest rates are likely to go up next year, then it might make sense to list your house this year — when more buyers will be able to afford it. Conversely, if most experts agree that mortgage interest rates are going to dip again, then it could be a smart move to wait until those rates drop before you list your house.

Evaluate the cost of selling

If you’ve ever sold a house before, then you already know it’s not free. You’ll need to make any minor repairs that you’ve been putting off, and it’s possible that you might have some major repairs to deal with once the inspector takes a look and gives you (and the buyer) the report. You may need to pay for paint for the interior, landscaping to boost curb appeal, professional cleaning for your floors or rooms that need it, storage for the items you’ll want to stash to help your house look its best, and depending on the deal you strike with the buyer, you may also have to fork over some money for closing costs.

Plus, if you use an agent, you’ll have to take the agent’s commission into account; you will likely net more money than you would have without an agent, but it’s still a cost that sellers need to consider. After all, going with an agent can save you a lot of money in professional photos, home listing costs, and many other hidden expenses that agents typically cover for their listing clients.

Will selling your house be worth it? Depending on the market, the answer could vary — so make sure you do your research before you make any decisions. Talking it over with a professional is always a good idea; real estate agents can also pull a comparative market analysis (CMA) for you to help you determine what kind of listing price is realistic, and give you a good idea of how long it might take to sell.