This last week I met Claire (name has been changed), a 72 year old more full of life than anyone I had ever met. Her reason for moving is because she hasn't felt safe in her big home alone since her husband died one year ago. On a whim, she went to visit a senior cooperative in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. She fell in love with one of the units and purchased it that day!
In Minnesota, when you purchase a condominium or buy into a cooperative, you have a 10 day right of recession period in which you can cancel and have your earnest money returned to you. After signing the purchase agreement she called me to help her get her house on the market. When we looked at what her house would sell for, what it would cost to live in the Cooperative, and her monthly income, we discovered she would likely run out of money before she ran out of month.
We spent the next day looking at a some very nice, less expensive senior cooperatives in nearby cities. Because they were less expensive, the buildings were a little older, and the apartments not as big, she had a very hard time imagining herself living there. No kidding! If I planned on buying a million dollar house and then had to settle for a $500,000 house, I'd be disappointed too!
Know what you can afford before you spend your money!
I would have been able to save Claire a lot of heartache if she had called me BEFORE she signed the purchase agreement (or even before she had gone to look at housing that she really couldn't afford).
Follow this move plan so you don't have the heartache of having to "settle" for something you can afford:
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