Yesterday some clients of mine asked me about seniors selling their home and purchasing another residence while keeping the older, lower property tax rate. I did a little digging and thought I’d share what I found.

There are actually two propositions involved.  Prop 60 applies to moves within Santa Clara County, and Prop 90 relates to moves between counties which are participating in this benefit to seniors (only these few, as of the date of this posting: Alameda, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Ventura).

Some of the basics:

• Homeowners 55 and older at the time of sale of the original property.
• Homeowner must be on record both for the home that’s sold and the replacement property.
• The replacement residence must be equal to or lesser in value than the original residence.
• There are special rules for multi-family (duplex, triplex, fourplex) properties and for mobile homes.

In the most typical scenario, a senior homeowner would sell a house (or townhome or condo) and “downsize” to another, less expensive, smaller house or condo.  If the homeowner had been in the first property for a very long time, then the low tax rate would be hard to give up, but Props 60 and 90 enable that homeowner to go to another, less expensive home and carry the old tax rate along – one time, and either in the home county or in one of the participating counties. 

I have known seniors to sell a house in Los Gatos, Saratoga or San Jose and move to The Villages or to gated senior communities out of the area but closer to their grown kids and make use of these two propositions.

For more information and to get all the details, please click on the links above.

Something you can count on, when buying a home, is that you will be nervous – at times you will feel very stressed, perhaps even sleepless.  It is an immense move, to buy a home, and a big commitment. In terms of stress, it’s right up there with a new job, marriage, divorce and even death.

What can you do to keep the jitters from getting the best of you? Here are three points to follow

First of all, have a plan (and prioritize). If you have carefully thought out what you want and can afford, then if you actually find it and get into contract, you’re far less likely to be upset!  If you stumble into a home that’s open, fall in love and make a purely emotional decision to write an offer, you’re far more likely to freak out! Make sure that your plan includes doing your financing decisions before you ever go house-hunting.
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Visiting Silicon Valley and San Jose area open homes is a great way to get to know neighborhoods, architectural styles and the market overall. I encourage people thinking of buying or selling to visit the opens nearby to get a pulse on the market and what’s “out there”.  Normally it’s low pressure*.

*In terms of “pressure” at open houses, most Realtors and other realty professionals will let you go through the home at your own pace. Some will require a sign-in (often claiming that the seller requests this, but most often it is so that the agent can follow up with you later).  Once in awhile, though, you may bump into a “quantum” tour situation. With these, the agents are somewhat oppressive and require not only a log in by you but also insist that you only go through the home personally accompanied by one of their sales associates. The reason, of course, is “lead generation & conversion”. They want to increase the chances of getting clients out of the open home. The spin is personal attention.

Of course, the other extreme you may see is not high pressure, but nearly asleep. Some agents (maybe one in 20?) will not get up from the couch or table to even shake your hand and welcome you to the home. Hopefully you don’t run into this much!

A few open house tips, in terms of what to be aware of:

• feel the floor as you walk through the condo or house: is it level?
• smell the various rooms – are there candles or other scents intended to mask odors?
• note the light and time of day, as well as the direction the home and windows face and ask your self if the home gets adequate light for your taste
• is the layout good?
• is there enough storage?
• if there are problems with the home, can they be fixed?
• what needs updating or remodeling, or will need it soon?

The best homes will have presale inspections and disclosures completed which you can view prior to writing an offer.  It can be very helpful to familiarize yourself with the various reports, inspections, and disclosures so that you understand the range of normal. Older homes will not be defect free, and sellers will not make them perfect either – so get a feel for what to expect by perusing some of these if the binders are available during your open house. (Do understand that the agent is likely going to read it as a “buying signal” so explain that you just want to understand how the paperwork looks.)

For more tips on what to include when viewing Santa Clara County homes for sale, please see:
Viewing An Open Houseop  on my main website.