Is Your Home Still the Right Home After 55? The Next Chapter Housing Assessment

FREE 55+ HOUSING ASSESSMENT

Your home may still be a wonderful home and no longer be the best home for the next chapter of your life.

The Next Chapter Housing Assessment is a free, 10-minute reflection built by Dan Williams of The Williams Group for homeowners 55 and older: empty nesters, people approaching retirement, and retirees. It helps you answer one question: does my current home support the life I want to live over the next five, ten, or fifteen years? It is not a scorecard and not a push to move. Just a little room to listen to what your life is asking for.

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About 10 minutes  ·  27 quick questions  ·  No sign-up  ·  Your answers never leave your device

Empty nesters living in a home sized for a family that no longer lives there, wondering whether the space, the yard, and the upkeep still earn their keep.

People a few years from retirement who want to make the housing decision on their own timeline, while there is still plenty of room to choose, instead of after a health scare or a hard winter forces it.

Retirees thinking about stairs, single-level living, distance to doctors and grandchildren, or whether to be closer to family. Our downsizing guide picks up where the assessment leaves off.

Homeowners who want to stay put and age in place, but want to be honest about what the house will ask of them over the next ten or fifteen years, and what small changes would make staying work.

Couples who do not quite agree. One of you is ready to right-size and the other is not. Take it separately, then compare answers. It turns a tense conversation into a simple side-by-side.

Adult children helping a parent think it through. Sit down and go through it together. It gives the conversation a structure that starts with what your parent wants from life, not with the house.

Make the housing decision before pressure makes it for you. Timing is part of the choice. The best time to think this through is while you still have room to choose deliberately.

Take the Free Next Chapter Assessment

Do I have to be retired to take it?

No. It is written for homeowners 55 and older, whether you are still working, a few years from retirement, or already retired. The questions are about the next five, ten, and fifteen years, so the earlier you think it through, the more choices you have.

Is the Next Chapter Housing Assessment really free?

Yes. There is no cost, no account to create, and no email required to take it or see your results.

Who sees my answers?

Only you. Your responses are saved on your own device so you can come back to them. Nothing is sent to The Williams Group unless you choose to share it in a conversation.

How long does it take?

About 10 minutes for the 27 questions. There is no timer, and you can stop and come back later on the same device.

Is this a home inspection or a financial plan?

No. It is educational and decision-support oriented. It is not a home inspection, accessibility evaluation, financial plan, tax opinion, legal opinion, or medical or care assessment. For those, we are happy to point you to the right local professionals.

What if my result says I should stay?

Then you should stay, and you will know it with more confidence than before. Many people use the assessment to plan small changes that let them enjoy their current home for years to come.

Today I want to have a conversation with you about should I stay or should I move when we look into the next chapter of our life. About four and a half years ago, me and my wife were living in a home we’d lived in for 34 years. We had raised our family there — three kids, seen them get married. We had seen seven grandkids come into the world and bring us great joy, and we were planning on staying there until we died. If you would have asked me just three or four months before we decided to move how long I would live there, I would have told you forever. I would have told you they could bury me on the back end of the property. We had ten acres, family land, a home we built in 1988. However, four months later, I had a conversation with a REALTOR friend and told him I was going to put it up for sale, because Mary Anne and I had decided we wanted a new construction home that would serve our life, serve our future, and accomplish the goals that we had for me and her — one of those few decisions that we made just for us.

Now, in this there were several things that came into play. We’d been there. Her mother lived across the street; she had passed away. Her dad had passed away. My daughter lived next door. So the agreement was, if we moved, they moved, and we stayed side by side — and we were able to make that happen. But there was nothing wrong with the house, other than it was older and it would require ongoing maintenance that I did not want to spend my next chapter doing. I didn’t want to climb up on ladders and work on things — things that could cause me to have an accident. I have been known to fall a time or two. And so this should I stay, should I move — it’s not whether the house is in good or bad shape. It’s what’s best for your life.

Sitting down, one question that I asked really early on is: give me three things that matter to you. I’m not talking about what matters about a home. I’m not talking about bedrooms or baths or location. I’m talking about three things that matter to you. In the research and everything I’ve done asking that question, a lot of times the first two are the same: it’s faith and family. The third one varies. For us, that third one is going to be friends and community, something along those lines. And so when we began looking at our current home and the thing of moving, we said, what matters to us? We wanted to be in a newer home — less repairs, warranties, all of those good things. We wanted to be close to family, close in the community where we had lived for thirty-something years. So we only moved about five miles from where we did live, but we accomplished our goals.

One of the ironic things that we talk about often is that when we moved into our new house, we never missed or longed for that other one. Now, we’re not callous people, and we didn’t leave angry. It’s just that this house so met our needs, and our memories weren’t in that place. Our memories were in our heart. Our memories were with our family, and wherever we go, those went with us. And so we really had a great experience there.

But as we look through these questions, one thing to ask is: is this house serving the life you want to live? You know, as we go into that next chapter of life — after 50, 55, 60, whatever it would be for you — how is it serving the life you want to live? Is it perfect? If that’s the case, the answer is stay. If there are some challenges — you know, as you grow older, it might have stairs, it might have a basement, it might have some things that need a lot of maintenance. You might have deferred maintenance where you just kept putting it off and putting it off. Is it still serving you? Is it still meeting the needs you want, where every day you go throughout life and it is perfectly serving you? Or would you say, “Boy, I wish I could change this, or I wished I had that”? And you know, as we made that decision — I’d had an electric stove all my life, and one of the things I wanted was a gas stove. Made that decision; it served my life. I’ve got gas heat now; it serves my life. We have a place for hospitality; it serves my life. And so that’s one of the questions that I want you to consider.

The next one is this: is the house that you’re in serving you, or are you serving it? Are you spending more time taking care of the house and the property than you want to? Do you have things that matter to you? Is taking care of the property and the house becoming a burden? Is it becoming a little bit overwhelming? Are there things that need to be done that you don’t feel like doing, that you don’t want to pay somebody to do, and then that just keeps growing and growing? So how is it working out right now, and what do you see five years, ten years down the line?

The next question we’d look at is: does this home still fit five or ten years from now? Now, I’ve lost weight and gained weight. When I lose weight, I’ve got to get a new wardrobe so it’ll fit. If I gain weight, I have to get a new wardrobe and make sure it fits. And the thing is: does it fit in your life? Because when you have kids — we had three kids at home, so we had a lot of place. We had, you know, extra bedrooms that were never used. We had space that we never went to. And so your home was perfect for another point in time in life. Is it still that way for you? Does it still fit your lifestyle? Do you want a bigger kitchen? Do you want a smaller kitchen? Do you want hospitality space, more places for friends to come and hang out? Do you want some outdoor living that you didn’t have in the last house? You know, for us it was some simple things. We’d went 34 years and didn’t have a garage — we wanted a garage. We didn’t have a concrete driveway — we wanted a concrete driveway. We wanted to live on a paved road instead of a dirt road. Those were the things for us; we wanted to make sure it fits. Nothing like washing a car and then riding down a dirt road, and it needs washing again. I did not want that when I went into the next chapter of my life.

Let’s look at the next question: who will you call when you need help? You know, several years ago I fell, and we called my daughter. She lived right next door. They were there in minutes to pick me up off the floor. And as we go into the next chapter of our life, those things begin to mean more. Who are we going to call? How close are those people? Do we have a good community? Do we have friends close by? Do we have people that we can call if something was to happen in our life? How close is family? You know, I believe for many, many people, their first call is family — but sometimes those people aren’t close by. I didn’t plan the fire truck coming by. It just came by. And so that’s how life happens. When life happens, who are you going to call, and how close are they to you? Would it be good to move closer to them, or do you already have the proximity that you need? That’s a stay-or-move question.

The next thing we’re going to look at is: if money were not part of the decision, what would you do? That kind of takes it where we can dream a little bit, and we can think about the things that matter. We can think how it fits, how it’s serving us, the time it’s taking, and we can look at all the aspects and say: if money was not a thing, is there something that I would love to have in my home that would make my life better, more fulfilling, easier to navigate, easier for hospitality, closer to family — any of those things? It’s the kind of life you want to live, and how a house can serve your purposes. How a house can help you have all the things that you want in your life, to meet the needs in your life, so that you live a full and happy life.

I just finished writing a book called Love Today Well. Hey, let’s just get the days right in the home that you want, whether it’s where you’re at or where you want to move — but let’s have the discussion. I’d love to have a consultation with you, just to go over this, to help you plan and make an educated decision that you can plan out — and not have to make a decision like this from pressure points, where something has changed drastically and you’ve got to make a quick decision. If your parents are in this situation and you want to encourage them, I’d love to sit down with you and your parents just to have this conversation, so that you can plan well and enjoy life to its fullest in this next chapter. I want to encourage you: give me a call at 205-292-2108, shoot me a text, whatever. Let’s sit down and talk. Let’s make some educated decisions and put you at peace, whether to stay or whether to move. God bless you, have a good day, and I look forward to talking to you.

Ready to see what your life is asking for?

Take the assessment first. Then, if you want, let’s talk about the life you want to live and whether your home still fits it.

Start the Free AssessmentCall or Text 205-292-2108

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