If you have an elderly loved one that is seeking to sell their home, especially if it’s a home that they’ve lived in and loved for a very long time, everything about this process can be challenging. But luckily, if you’re there are for them and have learned how to go about handling this process, you can find ways to help make this transition easier for them
So whether your loved one is just looking to downsize to a smaller home or will be moving into a senior living facility, here are three tips for helping your elderly loved one sell their house.
Understand That This Is A Hard Process
As was mentioned above, many people have a hard time emotionally when it comes to moving. But if this move also means to your elderly loved one that they’re leaving behind a home that they loved or losing some of their own freedom, the selling of their home and the move itself can be even more difficult.
To help make this a little more bearable, it’s good to come into the situation recognizing that this process is going to be very hard. Knowing that your elderly loved one is going to be going through a lot of different emotions that will be hard for them to process can help you to have more patience and to be sensitive to what’s happening for them. They may need time to grieve, and you should give this to them to the best of your ability.
Be Patient When Decluttering
Whether your loved one is needing to move into a smaller place or not, having fewer items to move from one home to another is going to make things a lot easier. Knowing this, you should help your loved one downsize and declutter as much as possible.
Ideally, you should give your loved one the freedom to choose what to keep and what to get rid of. But for things that are particularly sentimental to them, you should do everything possible to allow them to keep those items and move them into their next home.
Highlight The Safety Features
Once your loved one is ready to put their home up for sale, one thing that you can highlight in your listing is all of the safety features that may have been put in place due to the home belonging to an older person for so long. If they installed things like dimmer switches on lights, ramps for easier access around the property, grab bars, lever door handles, and anything else, consider mentioning these things so that older buyers or people looking for these features will know that they are there.
If you have an elderly loved one that’s needing to sell their house, consider using the tips mentioned above to help them through this process.
