If you’ve lived in your home for many years, the thought of moving can bring up a lot of questions.

Where do you want to move? What will you do with everything you’ve accumulated? Does the house need work before it can be sold? What should you do first—and who can help with all of it?

That’s why I recommend we talk a year or more before you’re thinking you would make a move. The more time you have to plan, manage and coordinate the details, the easier it can be to reduce some of the stress that comes with moving from a longtime home.

You Don’t Have to Be Ready to Sell

Talking with me well before you think you’re ready to put your home on the market gives us time to plan out the process and make the details more manageable.

You don’t need to know exactly when you’ll be moving. You may not even know yet where you want to move.

Starting early gives us time to talk through what needs to happen, what can wait and what you may not need to do at all.

You may be considering repairs or improvements to the house. You may need time to explore where you want to move, sort through belongings or involve family members who live nearby—or across the country.

None of those things needs to happen all at once.

There May Be More Options Than You Realize

Preparing a longtime home for sale isn’t simply a choice between fixing everything or doing nothing.

Depending on your circumstances, you might sell the home in its current condition, make a handful of carefully selected improvements, or move first and prepare the home afterward.

There are also professionals who can help with organizing, packing, moving, estate sales, clean-outs, repairs and other parts of the process. Part of planning ahead is figuring out which resources you actually need and when you need them. That’s where I can help as well.

More Time Gives You More Choices

Waiting until you’re ready to sell can mean trying to make a lot of decisions in a relatively short period of time.

Starting earlier gives you more time to decide where you want to move, what you want to take with you, what should be done to the house and how all of the pieces can fit together.

You don’t need to have everything figured out before we talk. That’s really the point of starting early.

If you’re thinking a move may be a year or two away, we can start with a conversation about where you are now, where you might want to go and what needs to happen between the two.