Helping the Next Generation Buy a Home: Starting the Family Conversation

Thinking about helping your children become homeowners? Garrett and Shelby walk through how families can evaluate their options together, understand the numbers, and create a plan that works for everyone involved.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This is the final segment of the Idaho Life Show. Shelby Matson here with Garrett Phil. I want to talk directly to the parents listening and the adult kids also listening who have been hearing this whole hour and thinking, this is exactly the conversation we have been circling at home and have not quite known how to start.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

And really in almost every family conversation that we have around this, the parents and the kids, they're both worry about the same thing. The parents worry about giving up too much and leaving themselves short in retirement. They don't want to do that. And then the kids, they worry about taking up too much and feeling guilty about it. And nobody wants to be the one that's being pushed.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

It's so true. There's a lot of guilt involved sometimes, which is why this needs to start with a real conversation that includes the numbers, not the feelings, not the assumptions, and definitely not what cousin so-and-so did, right? The actual numbers on your house, the actual numbers on what your next chapter looks like, and the actual numbers on what's left after that.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

And this really that's the consultation that we offer here at whole life, especially for families thinking about utilizing this particular strategy that we've been talking about. This is that first sit-down in what we called kind of a selling and buying consultation, right? So, and it goes, it happens with the parents and ideally the adult child or children in the same room. So in our office, coming in together. And the goal that that first meeting isn't for anyone to sign anything, right? We're just here to start educating. The goal is to answer one big question. Does this even make sense for your family right now?

SPEAKER_01 1:39

That's a huge question. And we answer it by walking through three things in order. First, what can you actually sell your current home for, right? We pull real comps, we do a real walkthrough if you would like. So we'll actually go and meet you at the property, walk through it, and really identify what we can market that property at. We give you a real honest range, not a number designed to win your business, a number designed to actually be the starting point of a real plan.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Which is it's it's huge. You're actually having something to look at, having those numbers in place and having a real conversation. So what happens second is that what does the next chapter look like? And then what does this cost? So this is kind of where we slow down that process because this is the part that most families they haven't fully thought this part through. So that's what we're here to do, you know, at the office or in your home. Do we want the single-level patio home? Do we want a town home with no yard maintenance? Do we want a you know 55 plus community where we're downsizing from our larger house where the adult children lived? And now we can go with no maintenance or or very little maintenance. Do we maybe even want to rent for a year while we figure it out? Every one of those answers are their options and they all come with a different price tag.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Yes. And we actually we walk you through what is actually available in each of those options right now in the Treasure Valley. Real listings, real price ranges, real HOA dues, all of it. If there are any real property taxes and pictures, we just want to provide you with all of the information needed. Because the gap between what you sell for and what you buy next, that is the number that determines everything else.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yeah. And third, once we know what is likely to come out of the sale, you know, what the equity looks like and what is likely going to go into the new home, we're gonna see what's left over. So that's that's the equity that's left over after both of these things happen. And we have an honest conversation about whether that number makes sense enough to make a meaningful difference for the kids and whether you feel comfortable parting with it, given your whole retirement picture as well. So it has to make sense. And this is where piecing those three different questions that we have come into play and see does this work?

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Sometimes the answer at the end of that very first meeting is yes, this works. And here's the plan, right? And sometimes, unfortunately, the answer is no. The math is tighter than we thought, and we would love to help you a different way. We always are gonna work with you and figure out a different plan, even if it doesn't happen today. Maybe a HELOC against the current home so the kids can get a down payment without you needing to move. That's always an option. And maybe a smaller gift than initially imagined, maybe a delay of a year while something else falls into place.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

And there's never any rush. You know, this is just a consultation to start the talking process, see if these things mesh, make sure this works. And and let me be clear on this too. The consultation is free. You know, there's no obligation. You walk in, we walk through the numbers together, and then you and maybe you and the kids get to walk out with an actual what we call the real picture of what's possible. Then we get to decide, you know, does this make sense? Is this okay for us? And and whether you ever list with us or not, you list your home. This is informational to you that our agents they do on a daily basis for our community. We're meeting with folks that are just like you, that have this, maybe they have this home that they raise the kids in. It is now too large. We hear we don't want the maintenance, we want something smaller, we don't need this big of a yard, we don't need this big of a house. Let's go ahead and downsize. We find the perfect single family home or the patio home or the 55 plus, and we are not tapping into our 401k. We are going straight for the equity, buying our home, and we have maybe $50,000 to $250,000 left over, which could dramatically help the kids get into their own home instead of it just sitting on the side in cash or sitting in this large home in equity, which we're not using. We're having to use extra work and maintain.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Absolutely. And I I literally just had that conversation with somebody today. The reason we do it this way is because a family making a decision this important deserves real solid information first. We do not want anyone signing a listing agreement on the strength of a feeling. It cannot be emotionally based, right? We want them signing because they have seen the numbers, they understand the path, and this is a feeling right for them at this stage in this moment of their lives.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

And the coordination piece, it matters than people, it matters more than people realize. It really does. When you do all this under one roof, the same brokerage, the same team coordinating the parent sale, the parents next purchase, the kid's first home by using that extra equity left over. It's what makes the difference between this being a beautiful chapter and three months of stress, right? It can be a very stressful situation to you're basically having three transactions in one, multiple moves, multiple moving factors. But when you have 40 plus full-time agents, you have an internal database that we have with over 27,000 active buyers and just a full of specialists, team full of specialists, just like Taylor that was here on the show earlier, that's on the first-time buyer side. This is this is our jam. This is our wheelhouse.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

100%. And if you're our parent listening right now thinking, hmm, this is the conversation we need to be having in our family, please reach out. If you are an adult, son or daughter, listening right now and you have been quietly hoping this might be possible and maybe that your parents can help. Share this episode with your parents. Sometimes the hardest part is just starting the conversation.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

This is a generational difference, Shelby, that we talked about. This is not a conversation that was happening 30 years ago. This is something that you figured out on your own.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Right? You buy your own house, you're old enough now, you're out of the house, you're 25 years old, you're making, you know, $25,000 a year. Times are different. It's much different than it used to be. So if you are that first-time buyer, you know, with or without the family help in the picture, we have an incredible source, an incredible list of agents here in the Treasure Valley working at Idaho Life Real Estate.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

We certainly do. And all of our agents have their bio on our website. So take a look who you might click with, right? See who's relevant and who you might want to call. Visit IdahoLife.com. That is Idaho Life L I F E dot com. This is just an opportunity to start a simple conversation. There's no commitment, right? Search homes across the Treasure Valley and learn more about our team.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Yeah, it's great. And there's a whole, if if you have any family members too, a lot of families that are living here, maybe they're the parents or the kids, they have families that, you know, maybe want to move over here. We have an amazing, it's about a 110-page relocation guide. Yes. It is has every single city, what there is a do. If you want a resource to kind of, you know, cast your net at the at the family that's in California, Oregon, or Washington, you're trying to recruit them here, go to our website at idaholife.com, grab the relocation guide, grab a buyer's guide, grab a seller's guide that talks about all about the steps to buy, the steps to sell, find out about multiple areas. If you're trying to recruit that, that friend that's not happy in Seattle. Show them the relocation guide. There's so much that the Treasure Valley has to offer. And they can always follow us. And those that are listening can follow us on Instagram. The handle is at Idaho Life Real Estate. And there, the kind of the neat thing there is we have agents that post properties that haven't even hit the market yet, behind the scenes content and everything happening within the team and the community as well.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

You're right. And I think the takeaway from today's episode truly is to educate yourself before just saying, I can't do this, right? Right. Thank you so much, Garrett. Thank you to our wonderful guest, Taylor Lee, and Treasure Valley. Thank you for being with us. Have a great rest of your Saturday, and we will see you next week.