“Retirement is not the end of the road. It is the beginning of the open highway.” – Author Unknown
My husband and I have been house hunting for a very long time. In fact, my husband likes to look at real estate in every place we visit. Me, not so much. Every now and then I will engage in the real estate listings. We might agree on what we are looking at. Or we might have an argument about the differences between what he is dreaming about as the perfect piece of land and what I think is important. I have been accused of being ‘the killer of dreams’.
Now that we have settled on my retirement date, (my husband has been retired from corporate for some time already), I have become engaged in the real estate search. For the last few years we have been living in different places, renting as we go. Since buying is a rather complicated, time consuming and an expensive proposition, it made more logistical and financial sense to rent. Not to mention that in some cases it is possible to rent something that would be too expensive to buy.
Given my nature of being a planner, I decided to formalize the property search. I have a spreadsheet which lists a variety of criteria, some most important to me and some essential to my husband. Each week we both open up the MLS website and look through various areas, either with revised filters or simply looking at what came on the market since the week before. I also mark everything which has sold. As information comes available regarding the actual selling price, I add that as well.
The process of tracking what we are each looking at with detailed specificity, has also got us talking to each other honestly. My husband wants space for certain activities, as do I. We can now visualize together what is most important and have a fruitful conversation. Sometimes my husband thinks we have found the perfect property and that it would be great to just buy it now! This is why the real estate agents get paid what they do, to solicit the urgency for buyers to act. But our timeline is long and there is no rush. Not to mention that we are currently living thousands of miles away. We can’t just pop over and have a look at potential properties.
This long period of searching has helped us to pin down what we like about living in one place over another. What we are realizing now is that living in a community where we can easily walk to a variety of places is a good thing. We have identified the closest grocery store as a point of reference, as well as a beach or marina. A reasonably short walk or bike ride along suitable roads is a new criteria on our spreadsheet. Where once we had looked only at rural acreages, we are now considering a community.
At least that is how it looks right now. We have previously prioritized large tracts of raw land where we could build an off grid retreat. If we could have ever afforded that in the past, that time might be gone. With the value of land where we are looking and the cost to custom build being so high, unless we were to win the lottery pretty soon, this is not an option anymore. We could buy land first, continue to rent and build very slowly over time. This would stretch out the need for cash and get us what we wanted, eventually. But this doesn’t answer the need to be closer to a community of people, goods and services. So the search continues.
One thing I have found to be a curious state of affairs is the amount of choices we have to make. In the past, the geography was decided. I had to live in a certain proximity to school or work. I’ve never been one for the mega commutes, especially not taking an apartment close to work and then flying home on the weekend. Now as we plan for retirement we are free to pick anywhere in the world, really. So begins the process of elimination. We know which country and then we have landed on a smaller area within. But given all the places we have lived and travelled, even our families didn’t know where we planned to land.
I feel extremely fortunate to have the ability to make these choices. Some people might only have government benefits in retirement and need to take hard decisions about how to live. There are countries where there are no public funds for retirees. As well there are circumstances where people must work throughout their lives. When I take a moment to consider my circumstances, I am humbled. Retiring early and living within my means is a privilege not afforded to everyone fairly. Some people won’t get there because of an early death and others could never have afforded it regardless. By checking my entitlement every now and then, I can refocus my property search with greater confidence. My husband and I have plenty of choice. At this time, we are healthy and capable to take on a renovation project if need be. In the end, we will find the right property at the right time.
Leave a Reply