Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

A musician is playing a red electric guitar on stage. The scene is lit with vibrant red and blue stage lights, highlighting the musician's black leather jacket and the guitar's sleek design.

I’m not talking about the classic 80’s song from the London band The Clash.

Instead, this is a question I get asked by homeowners 2-3 times per week. For the most part it’s not a real estate question, but I thought I would share some of the things I would think about if I were asking that question myself.

The Part That Is A Real Estate Question

If you ask me if you should stay or go, I think what you’re really asking is if you decide to move today and sell your home will you miss out on a huge home price appreciation that’s coming right around the corner.

It’s understandable to have some anxiety about that because who would want to miss out on you home being worth 20% more next year?

Nobody would like to see appreciation like that more than me. Unfortunately, there aren’t any experts predicting our real estate market is going to appreciate to that extent. If you turn to the charts on page 4 you can see Fannie Mae is forecasting interest rates over 6% all the way through 2025 and a modest amount of appreciation in the national market next year while Zillow is forecasting Austin prices to be lower a year from now.

Best case scenario, in the near term at least, it means we aren’t likely to see the kind of appreciation that would significantly change your fortune.

Even if we do see appreciation slightly above the forecasts if you’re buying a home in the next place you’d want to think about the whole picture. If you wait until you can sell your home for 5% more, you’re likely to pay about 5% more for your next home so it would be a wash.

That’s all the real estate advice I have. Here’s some of the non-real estate things I would think about if I were in your shoes.

Melvin And The Worst Time

Two years ago, I went to a real estate conference in Phoenix. I joined some friends for dinner and wound up sitting next to a veteran real estate broker from Washington DC named Melvin. What Melvin told me has changed how fast I take action when I have a difficult decision to make ever since.

I was telling Melvin about a business problem I had. The look on Melvin’s face as I was telling him my story told me he had been there before.

Melvin wrinkled up his nose and told me the worst time is between when you know you want or need to do something and when you actually do it. He was right. Immediately I ripped the band-aid off and dealt with my problem rather than procrastinating and making the problem worse. That was such a relief!

Sometimes people call me and say they’ve hated where they live for 10 years and they know they are going to move at some point but they never put that into action so their situation gets worse and worse. If that sounds like you, let me know and I will have Melvin give you a call!

Our Trip To Singapore

Last Christmas we did the craziest thing anyone could do…travel with 2 young kids to visit family in Singapore. In case you don’t know the flight to Singapore is one of the longest in the world. First, we flew to San Francisco and then a 17.5-hour flight from San Francisco to Singapore.

Before I got on the plane, I decided to make the best of it and knew that whatever happened on the flight by the time it was over we would be able to see our family and the short-term pain would be worth the happiness of being there.

Often I’m talking with someone who wants to move but realistically the only way they can make it work is having to move twice. That’s painful!

What you have to decide is the pain of a short term move worse than staying where you are and missing out on a better life. In the end time will pass either way. My clients who were willing to move twice last year are now settled in a new place and just like how I felt after our trip they are happy they went through that short term pain.

Building Your Social Network Sooner Than Later

One of the worst things for our health is to be lonely. That’s why the advice from one of my clients who sold their home last year is important.

They were in a situation where they knew they wanted to move in a few years but were also happy where they were. They decided they wanted to move sooner than later.

The reason was so they could start building their social network with people they would be friends with for the rest of their lives rather than staying where they felt they were living with one foot in and one foot out. In their experience because this wasn’t their forever home, they weren’t making an effort to make new friends and socialize only to leave it all behind in a few years. I checked in with them last week and they are very happy now that they made a move.

Cost To Stay Where You Are

When someone calls me to ask if they should stay or go, I always ask them to think about what would happen if they are in the same place 5 years from now. That’s the real question you want to ask yourself.

There’s a cost to moving and a hidden cost may be even more expensive to staying where you are. Only you can decide which is worse.

Most of us overestimate how many good years we have left. There’s a difference between how long we will live and how many good years we will have. The actuarial tables might say I will live to 90 but I probably won’t be on tour with my band at 80 like Mick Jagger. You might also want to move to be closer to family and they might not have many good years left either.

Should you stay or should you go is a hard question for me to answer. Hopefully this has given you a few things to think about. Whenever you’d like to talk about your plans call me or schedule a time on my calendar at KopaConsultation.com.

If you plan to sell your home, now is the best time to attend our Free Home Selling Seminars. If you want to attend a workshop, contact us, and we will notify you when they are scheduled. As always, you can check KopaWorkshop.com to see the dates and times of our in-person and online Free Home Selling Seminars. For years, home sellers have told me they benefited from attending our events. Sign up at KopaSeminar.com.