When I retired at the young age of 50, thanks to a company golden handshake we quickly discovered we could no longer afford to live the lifestyle we'd become accustom to in the city we lived in. I'm sure a lot of boomers faced, or are facing the same predicament.
What to do? What to do?
The answer clearly was not to remain in our present location, but to find a new location which offered the same quality of life, a good climate and plenty of things to keep busy with.
But what about the children and family kin who live close-by. In today's modern world they're only a short flight away. We actually looked upon our move as a way of breaking free after all those years. Much like moving away from home for the first time. Planning was exciting to say the least.
It took a week long vacation of searching, but we found a location which was ideal. The next step was to decide what type of home we'd like for our retirement lifestyle. We discussed several options and decided upon a condo apartment. This is where a good real estate agent was extremely helpful. He spoke with us for about an hour to find out exactly what we were looking for, amenities that would meet our long terms needs, what type of location we'd like, our interests and an entire range of questions to locate the perfect home.
It was then up to us to do a little research about condo apartments. We wanted an east facing to avoid the hot afternoon sun, but have the morning sun to wake up to.. We wanted a new building with amentities such as pool, exercise facilities, guest suite, party room, sauna etc.. We wanted a waterfront location and a very long wish list of other items. The condo also had to bein our price range.
We called our agent a week later and made an appointment to travel again to our new city to view his offerings. He must have worked overtime to come up with possibilities to fit our criteria.
Some time ago I was told to see what a location is like at the very worst time of year before buying....so on a frosty January morning we headed out to look at condo apartments. Our agent brought us to a two year old high rise building in a beautiful part of town. Upon entering and looking around the unit we discovered it was everything we wanted and more. The apartment layout was ideal and the size was perfect. It was large enough, but not too large with a magnificent river view....and it was far less expensive than anything available in our home city. We loved it instantly.
But before we placed an offer we needed more information. The first step was to talk with residents of the building to know who our neighbors would be. We asked a lot of memorized questions. We spoke with the building treasurer about the emergency fund. The condo association president was questioned about problems in the building, future plans, security and an entire range of issues. We walked around several blocks surrounding the condo building to see what the extended neighborhood was like. (Did I mention there's a magnificent garden park with a illuminated floating fountain just across the street.)
This was the first and only condo apartment we looked at. Our agent got it right the first time. Such is the value of working closely with a good real estate agent and doing a little homework yourself. All of this was 9 years ago. We remain delighted with our home...and because of a little pre-purchase investigation our condo has actually increased substantially in value, even in a turn-down market. We have never regretted the decision to seek a better and more affordable life in our retirement.
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