Downsizing
Downsizing to a Smaller Home
Less house, more life. We look at whether the numbers actually work, what to do with decades of belongings, and where you would really want to land.
Relief and Heartache, Often in the Same Afternoon
The kids have their own places now. The stairs feel steeper than they used to. Rooms you once needed sit quiet, and the yard takes a whole Saturday. Part of you is ready for something simpler. Another part walks past the pencil marks on the pantry door and can't imagine handing the keys to someone else.
Both feelings are real, and neither one is wrong. Downsizing is one of the most personal decisions a homeowner makes, and it rarely happens in a single conversation. Many of our clients first talk with us a year or more before they're ready to list.
That's fine with us. Our role is to help you see your options clearly and take the next step only when it feels right.
What is it actually worth?
Sometimes the Best Move Is No Move
We'll say this plainly because it matters: selling isn't always the right answer. If your home still works for you, your costs are manageable, and staying keeps you close to friends and routines you love, it may make more sense to stay and adapt the home instead.
Moving tends to make the most sense when the home has become hard to maintain, the stairs or layout no longer fit your daily life, the costs feel heavy, or you want to be closer to children and grandchildren. We'll ask the questions, share what we see, and give you our honest opinion, even when it means you don't list with us this year.
Staying can also mean small changes with a big impact: grab bars and brighter lighting, a bedroom moved downstairs, a handyman you can call, or hiring out the yard work. If you decide to move later, those updates rarely hurt a sale.
Run This Number Before You Decide Anything
Most people downsizing in Santa Clarita are told to think about square footage. The number that actually decides whether the move works is your property tax basis.
If you have owned your home a long time, Proposition 13 has kept your assessed value far below what the house is worth. Move, and that resets to the new purchase price. A smaller home can genuinely cost you more per month than the big one you are leaving.
Here is what most people do not know: Proposition 19 lets you take your tax basis with you.
If you are 55 or older, severely disabled, or a wildfire or disaster victim, you can transfer your base-year value to a replacement home anywhere in California, and you can do it up to three times. The replacement has to be bought or built within two years of selling, and the claim filed within three years.
If the replacement costs more than what you sold for, you do not lose the benefit. The difference gets added to your transferred value rather than resetting it. Buy cheaper and the basis simply comes with you.
Ask your CPA or the LA County Assessor to confirm your situation. But run this before you decide whether to move, not after, because it can change the answer entirely.
The Real Obstacle Is Not the House
We have helped a lot of people downsize, and the thing that stops them is almost never the market or the money.
It is the garage. The closets. The boxes in the back bedroom nobody has opened since 2009. The idea of sorting through a life is exhausting before it starts, so the decision gets postponed another year, and another.
Most people downsize for simple reasons. The kids have moved out and the extra bedrooms just collect dust. You are done climbing the stairs ten times a day. The yard work, the gutters, and the weekend list of things to fix take time you would rather spend somewhere else. Wanting a home that is easier to live in is about convenience, and it is a good reason to move at any stage of life.
The sorting is solvable, and it is the part we help with. You do not have to do it alone, and you do not have to do it all at once. We connect you with people we trust: a handyman for the small repairs before you list, contractors for anything bigger, decluttering and estate sale help, and movers who make the day easy.
If the house is the only thing standing between you and a life you would rather be living, the house is the easy part.
The Real Obstacle Is Not the House
The room they grew out of
Sell First or Buy First
This can go two ways, and downsizers usually have an advantage: significant equity, which opens options a first-time buyer does not have.
Selling first gives you a cash position and a clean, non-contingent offer on the smaller home. In a competitive situation that can beat a higher offer. The trade is that you need somewhere to live, which usually means a rent-back.
Buying first avoids the double move but means carrying both payments for a stretch, or using a bridge loan or a line of credit against your current home. One timing detail catches people: most lenders will not open a home equity line on a home that is already listed. If you want that option, open it before you list.
The middle path most of our clients land on is selling first with a rent-back negotiated into the deal, typically a few days to a couple of months. You get the clean offer and a soft landing, and you pay nothing extra for it.
What Actually Sets Your Timeline
The sale is the short part. A prepared home priced right can move quickly, and escrow on a financed buyer generally runs about 30 to 45 days.
What sets the real timeline is everything before that: deciding where you are going, sorting the house, and any work worth doing first. That is measured in weeks or months, and it is the part people underestimate.
The good news is it runs in parallel. We start looking at what is available in your target size and area before we ever list, so you are not selling into a vacuum and scrambling.
Tell us the date that actually matters to you, a lease ending, a new job, the end of a school year, and we build the plan backward from it.
What Actually Sets Your Timeline
Somebody has to check the work
Where Downsizers in the Valley Actually Go
There is no typical answer, only what you are trying to protect. The reasons are more specific than people expect:
- Staying close to family and friends, which makes a smaller home in the same area beat a bigger one somewhere cheaper.
- Single story and low maintenance, which points toward newer construction or an attached home where an association handles the outside.
- Walkable to parks and trails, because there is a dog and nobody wants to maintain a big yard anymore. Very common here.
- A next-gen layout, because a parent or an adult child is moving in.
- Leaving the valley entirely, once the reason to be here changes.
Tell us which of those sounds like you and we will show you what actually exists at that size and price. Start with the neighborhoods we serve, or send us your criteria through our custom home search.
No Pressure, and We Mean It
There is no rush and nothing to sign. Plenty of people talk to us a year or two before they move, and that is genuinely fine. The ones who plan ahead get more for their home and feel better about the whole thing.
When you want to know what your home would bring and what the smaller version of your life would cost, we will run both numbers so you can look at real figures instead of guesses.
When you are ready to ask, call or text Michelle at 661-219-5517. She answers her own phone. You can ask one question and hang up, and plenty of people do exactly that the first time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if it's time to downsize?
What if I don't know where I want to move yet?
Where do I even start with all my belongings?
Will I owe taxes when I sell a home I've owned for decades?
Can I keep my low property tax base if I buy a smaller home?
Should I fix up my home before selling?
Is a reverse mortgage a better option than selling?
Can you help if I'm moving out of state?
I'm helping my parents downsize. Where should we begin?
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Ready to make your move with Dubner Real Estate Group?
Meet the team
You would be working with our team
We are Michelle and Jon Dubner, husband and wife, and Dubner Real Estate Group is ours. Our team is here to serve you: to understand what you are hoping for, walk you through it step by step, and make sure you get there. Michelle answers her own phone and is quickest by text, so ask us anything, at any point, however small it feels.
Michelle Dubner DRE #01496647 Jon Dubner DRE #02118617 Equity Union