Are You Ready to Sell Your Home and Move Into a Condo?

The two bedroom ranch home has been a great location for the last 16 years. The location is excellent: close to work, close to church, close to shopping. And while the house was in good shape when you first moved in, you have made improvements during your time in the house: replaced the roof, installed a new HVAC system, laid new carpet and tile throughout, paid for an underground sprinkler system.
After 16 years in the home, however, it is time to downsize. You have retired after 37 years of teaching, and you have lots of plans for travel. Keeping up a large home, maintaining a yard in the summer, and clearing the snow in the summer are all things that you want to leave in the past. The first meeting with the realtor indicated that your house is in perfect shape to list. She advises, in fact, that if you are interested in buying a condo, you should start looking now. She anticipates that your home will sell very quickly.
People Have Many Reasons for Buying a Condo
Making the decision to purchase a home or rent an apartment is a major choice in life. These decisions, however, are not ones that serve every stage of life. For instance, new college graduates are often better served by renting an apartment until they can save enough money for a down payment on a home purchase. They also need to make sure that their initial career decisions are working before they purchase.
Couples with children, on the other hand, often decide that purchasing a home is a good decision for them. Having a yard where children can play, and living in a neighborhood where children can get to know their school friends is often a priority. Many other times in life, buying a condo or town home and eliminating the work of keeping up a yard and moving snow makes the most sense. For many people who are in transition from one kind of home to another, a real estate agent is often a valuable resource.
Consider some of the reasons why some people decide that buying a condo is in their best interest:

• Buying a home in a tropical climate. As frost appears on the lawns of home in the midwest for the first time this year, many home owners realize that they are not looking forward to the colder days ahead. Instead of dealing with another winter of frigid temperatures and blustering winds, they instead decide to purchase a home in a tropical climate. Moving to a location where you no longer have to deal with slick roads and sidewalks is especially tempting for retired couples.
• Having a second home near a college student. Another life change that occurs for many people is the transition of sending high school graduates off to college. The expense of hotel rooms and eating out when visiting those college students, however, can become overwhelming. For some families, finding a condo near the college is a perfect solution. And while some parents use this purchase as a place for them to stay when they visit, other families use these real estate purchases as student housing that is actually an investment.
• Finding a place that is all new. Did you know that buyers often search for as long as 10 weeks and look at an average of 10 homes? A big part of this search is the attempt to find a purchase that is worth the money and a place that has the desired amenities. In an effort to accomplish both of these goals, many people look at condo purchases for a solution. Brand new condos, for example, can be built out to very specific requests. New granite countertops. New tile floors. New carpet. The fact that many condo associations also include swimming pools, golf courses, and club houses makes this purchase even more attractive.

Nearly 42% of recent buyers, the first step that they took in the home buying process was to look online at properties for sale, while 14 percent of buyers begin by contacting a real estate agent. In fact, 78% of recent buyers say their real estate agent was very useful. Additionally, 82% of buyers indicate that online websites are also very useful.