Hey, everyone, it’s Janine Sasso, your realtor right here in Illinois in the Chicagoland area. Today’s question came in, and the question was, what should I look for if I’m looking for my forever home? We as realtor keep on hearing it over and over again. The types of starter homes are gone. People want the forever home where they are staying in.

Well, hopefully forever. So I put a couple of things together of what you should look for when you’re looking for your forever home. Number one, the first thing you need to evaluate is your finances. Can you stay in the home based on your retirement income? Do you know roughly how much you were getting on the retirement income? You said to calculate your finances. You want to make sure that that is covering at a minimum. Your taxes and your maintenance. Hopefully that house will be paid off when you retire.

However, if you are buying a home later on in life, then you definitely want to calculate into the mortgage payment as well. So question one Can you afford it as you age and you have to rely on your retirement income? Number two, the second thing you should consider is, are you going to be car dependent? And the reason this is important is consider that maybe you don’t want to drive any more once you become older. Some people have to give up the driver license.

However, some people are just not comfortable behind the wheel anymore. What about your friends? Do you think that your friends do want to come out? They want to drive. Maybe you want to be closer to public transportation. Is this is something that you want to consider for the long run? Because, like you said, this is part of a consideration for the home to be your forever home. Number three, what you should look for in a home is the question is it age in place friendly meaning? Can you accommodate, you know, equipment that you might need as you age in your home? Chances are, the answer as of right now is no.

Did you know that there’s only 4% of homes that are retirement friendly? Meaning there is a first floor bedroom, you have a first floor, full bath, access to laundry on the first floor. Most of our homes are just not built like this. So here’s a little bit of, you know, food for thought. If you are doing a project and your goal is to stay where you are at in your forever home, maybe do a remodel and keep in mind to remodel it so you can take advantage of it later on.

And H So if that means, you know, having a walk in shower, if this means having lower countertops. There’s a lot of things you can consider with your remodel if age in place is what you’re looking for. I hope that helped. Shoot me. Another question. I would love to help you and you can always reach me at 8477541835. And I look forward being your real top choice here in the Chicagoland area.

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