Getting Older and Need a New House? Consider These Tips and Features

Source – Unsplash

If you are older and you are looking for a
home, or you are younger and you want to find the perfect house to grow old in,
then there are certain aspects that you will want to consider. Making the right
choices ahead of time is essential, so you don’t have to fret later on. Here at
About Aging
Parents, we love to help our loved ones live their best lives, so we
have some tips and considerations to make when looking for a new home for your
older years.

Put
Serious Thought Into Your Budget and Mortgage Payment

As you get older, you may find that you have
less money than you did in your younger years, so you will need to take a close
look at your budget to ensure that you will be
able to afford a potential home as money gets tighter.

One way that you can stay educated is by going
online and using an affordability calculator to enter in
the potential cost of the home, your down payment, and the current interest
rate so you can see what your mortgage payment will look like. Use that
information to determine what you can afford now as well as your other expenses
going forward.

Get a
Home Inspection and Consider a Home Warranty

As the years go by, it will naturally become
harder to make the home repairs that you used to make as a youngster. Since you
never know what issues you could have, it is a good idea to consider a home
warranty. A warranty can help you to pay for appliances and home systems that
either break or require maintenance.

Before you apply for any home warranty, find out if it’s worth it by having a home
inspection completed, where you can learn about all of the weak points in your
home. If there are a lot of red flags, then you should seriously consider going
for the home warranty. An inspection that shows major issues like foundation
problems or extreme termite damage should get your
attention, and you may want to second-guess buying the house in the first
place.

A
One-Story House May Be Best

Although many of us like to think that the
bigger the house is, the better, you need to think about the future. If you are
getting older, then you may want to buy a one-story house. With less square
footage, a one-story home is likely to be less expensive than a larger
property.

On top of that, you will need to think about
how easy it will be for you to walk and get around when you get older. A
one-story home will have the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom all on the same
floor, so you won’t have to worry about navigating stairs if you depend on a
cane or walker later in life. You would have the option of installing a stair lift, but that can be an
expensive endeavor, and you may not have adequate funds down the road.

Make
Sure You Can Install Accessibility Options

While we all hope to be in perfect health for
the rest of our lives, that is not always possible. If you believe you will
have issues with mobility, then you will want to ensure that you can install
items in your home to help you out. For instance, you may need to have a ramp added to the front of your house at some
point. You may also require the need of safety bars and slip-resistant flooring
in order to navigate the kitchen and bathrooms. While some of these options are
easy to install, you will want to ensure that your potential home has the
necessary space available.

As you can see, there are many features that
you should look for in a potential home. The main takeaways are to heavily
consider a home warranty, use a mortgage calculator to determine your costs,
and think about the benefits of a one-story house. With all that said, we wish
you luck. If you would like to learn more about our services at About Aging
Parents then please check out our website.

This is a guest post from Theresa McArthur.

“Theresa McArthur knows firsthand that the life changes we encounter as we age can be difficult to navigate. From taking care of your health and choosing from numerous insurance options to deciding where you’ll spend your golden years and detailing your end-of-life wishes, the decisions that come along with aging can be overwhelming. She created Guides for Seniors so there would be plenty of information available to guide seniors through these processes and bring them peace of mind.”

 Thanks Theresa for a great article!

Originally Published on https://www.aboutagingparents.com/

Kathy Quan Blogger & Author

Kathy Quan RN BSN PHN is an award-winning blogger and author. She has been an RN for over 30 years. Most of those years have been spent in home health care and hospice where she has worked as a field nurse, a nursing supervisor, branch manager and in quality improvement. Today she works part time in hospice as a Quality Improvement specialist.