My husband and I are selling our "big house" and downsizing. Two of our three kids still live with us… one recent high school grad and one who is in college. That said, they spend A LOT of time outside of the house so it felt weird for my hubs and I to be living by ourselves in a 3,300 square foot home! It was just TOO MUCH!
At first I thought, OF COURSE we would take the equity out of our house, pay off our bills and buy a smaller home. But then we started thinking about it more. Our move was predicated on being closer to my elderly father and his husband, but was that area where we wanted to put down roots for the next phase of our lives?
Our grandbabies live about 20 minutes south of the Papas… would we want to move closer to them? Would THEY decide to get that dream house in the country and then we would all move?
There were just too many variables for us to decide right at this moment… so my hubs (behind my back!) was seriously considering renting a house. CLUTCH MY PEARLS.
But here's the thing - the more we talked about it, the more it started to make a LOT of sense. Here's why renting is actually the RIGHT move for us right now…
1. Uncertainty… There Are Just Too Many Moving Parts
There are just too many moving parts personally right now to make a house-buying decision. Kids moving around, parents getting older and needing more help, no need to move to a specific school district because the kids are grown… we're not technically empty nesters (they never really LEFT… hahaha), but we ARE having more and more time alone in the house.
When life is this fluid, locking yourself into a 30-year mortgage - or even the intention of staying somewhere long-term - feels like the wrong kind of commitment. Renting gives us the freedom to be responsive to whatever comes next without the weight of a major financial decision we made before we had all the information.
2. Uncertainty Part 2… The Housing Market Is NOT Doing Us Any Favors
With the housing market the way it is right now, we don't HAVE to buy! Will prices fall? Will mortgage rates come down? There is just too much macro uncertainty out there to feel truly good about buying a home right now.
Here's the thing… if we KNEW we were going to live somewhere for 10 years, buying is a no-brainer. Equity, stability, the ability to customize everything exactly the way you want it - all of that makes sense with a long horizon. But with our situation? None of those things are the priority right now. Sometimes the smartest financial move is the one that keeps your options open!
3. Uncertainty Part 3… Job Security Is a Real Conversation Right Now
My husband works for a government contractor and things are changing SO fast right now that we want to make sure we can weather any loss of income - or even just a decrease in pay. Not having to tie up a large down payment means we can keep a significant amount of cash liquid… and that feels really good right now.
There is genuine peace of mind in knowing that if things get bumpy, we have a cushion. A down payment sitting in a house doesn't pay the bills. Cash in the bank does. And in this season of life, that kind of flexibility is worth more to us than square footage.
4. Maintenance… Somebody ELSE Can Deal With It!
Having just spent the last month (and over $5,000) getting our home ready to sell, I can tell you that I am DONE being the one responsible for the costs of home maintenance. Done. DONE.
When you rent, a leaky faucet is a phone call. A broken HVAC in July is someone else's emergency fund, not yours. After years of being homeowners and absorbing every repair, every unexpected cost, every "well, the roof is 15 years old so…" conversation - handing that responsibility back to a landlord feels like an enormous exhale!
5. Downsizing… Turns Out I Don't Need ALL That Stuff!
Having spent the last few months downsizing (and let's call a spade a spade, it was mostly MY hoard of possessions) I can now see that we could genuinely move every year to a new rental if we wanted to! Probably not going to happen… but my little vagabond heart sees that as a PLUS rather than a minus!
There is something genuinely freeing about realizing that the things you were storing, protecting, insuring, and cleaning around were not actually making you happy. Lighter is better. And renting, it turns out, rewards the light traveler.
6. New Space Means New Furniture… and I Am HERE for It
Moving to any new home (bought or rented) means I get to dream about what new furniture and storage ideas I want to try! This is a HUGE one for me. And with the extra cash from NOT paying a down payment, we have real money to work with.
I have been eyeing pieces for years that didn't fit the old house. Different scale, different vibe, different everything. A new space is a blank canvas and honestly? After years of working around furniture that was chosen for a different life stage… I cannot WAIT.
7. A Fresh Start… Without Starting Over
Here's the thing nobody tells you about this season of life - you are not starting from scratch, you are starting from experience. You know what you like. You know what you actually use. You know which rooms you live in and which ones you were just maintaining for appearances.
Renting in your 50s or 60s is not a step backward… it is a chance to build a home that fits who you actually ARE right now, not who you were 20 years ago when you bought the big house. Less performance, more intention. Less square footage, more living. That is not a consolation prize. That is a CHOICE!
BONUS… Okay, Now for the REALLY Fun One!
I am a content creator and the thought of branching out to talk about how to make non-permanent, beautiful, intentional changes to a rental home is making me a little giddy! I look at this as a CHALLENGE rather than a limitation - and honestly, that creative constraint is where the best ideas come from.
How do you make a rental feel like HOME? How do you hang art without drilling 40 holes? How do you work around a landlord's light fixtures and builder-beige walls and still end up with a space that looks completely, unapologetically YOURS? I have thoughts. A LOT of thoughts. And I cannot wait to share them with you!
The Wrap-Up
This is a super tiring AND exciting time in our lives. BIG changes, for sure… but also a feeling of freedom that I genuinely did not expect. Without all of the "stuff" I had accumulated (and the house that contained it) I am finding that I don't need to OWN so much to be happy.
We are not downsizing our life. We are editing it!
