The equity map
What the house is genuinely worth today, what you net after costs, what your current tax basis is, and what Prop 19 would let you carry forward. One page, real numbers, no pitch.
Process
Five steps,
in this order, every time.
Nothing is listed, shown, or signed until the first two are finished. That constraint is the whole method — most of what goes wrong in a downsizing move goes wrong because someone started at step four.
The landing plan
Where you actually want to wake up — and what that costs monthly, all in. We shortlist neighborhoods and building types against the life you want, not the square footage you're used to.
The sequence decision
Sell first, buy first, rent-back, or bridge. Modeled four ways with the financing pre-vetted, so the path we choose is one a lender has already agreed to.
Prepare and position
Targeted improvements only — the ones that return more than they cost. Staging, photography, video, and a launch built for how buyers actually find a home in this market.
Land softly
Coordinated closings, move management, downsizing and estate-sale referrals, and a handoff to the people who make the last two weeks bearable. The part most agents skip.
Why the order
Starting at step four is the common mistake.
The conventional path is: call an agent, list the house, then panic about where to go. It feels like progress because something visible is happening. It is also how people end up accepting a weaker offer because they are under time pressure, or buying the wrong property because it was the one available in the window.
Doing the equity map and the landing plan first costs a few weeks and changes everything downstream. You know your number. You know your target. You know which sequence you can afford. From there the transaction is execution rather than improvisation.
What this looks like on a calendar
- Twelve to eighteen months out — ideal. Improvements planned rather than rushed, the tax picture coordinated with your CPA potentially across two calendar years, and the freedom to move when the right property appears.
- Six months out — comfortable. Everything fits without compression.
- Three months out — workable, with fewer options on sequencing and less room on improvements.
- Already listed — we work with what is in front of us, and I will tell you honestly what the earlier steps would have caught.
There is no cost to starting early and no obligation attached to a first conversation. The most useful thing I do for many clients happens a year before they transact.
Contact
Let's map the equity first.
A first conversation is 30 minutes, costs nothing, and ends with a one-page picture of what this move looks like in your numbers. Whether that's this year or in three.