A 74-year-old pediatrician long relished the Colorado mountain lifestyle she enjoyed with her husband, an independent investor. But ever since he died from a stroke last December, she’s weighed whether to sell the Victorian house the couple bought in Telluride in 1981.

“Our kids -- all in their 30s and with families of their own -- are urging me to cash out of the house. The place has appreciated to an unbelievable degree, and I am open to my kids’ suggestions. But I refuse to be pushed,” the pediatrician says.

Joan McClellan Tayler, a longtime realty brokerage owner, doesn’t know the pediatrician in this true story. But she urges the doctor’s adult children to show respect when it comes to real estate planning.

“Unless she’s suffering from dementia, you should let her make all her own decisions. People need agency in their lives. Otherwise, she could dig in and become very resistant to your help,” Tayler says.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau suggests that relatively few elderly Americans plan to sell their homes. The government statistics were backed up by surveys from AARP, the organization for seniors.

“Many older people have paid off their homes or have very low-rate mortgages ... This phenomenon is known as the ‘lock-in effect.’ It greatly reduces the incentive to move,” Tayler says.

But when older seniors do move, the transition can be wrenching, especially for those who’ve long resided in a property chock full of possessions and memories.

“For elderly people, a move often constitutes a crisis ignited by a health or financial reversal. A tight deadline always makes an involuntary move all the more traumatic,” Tayler says.

She says elderly people typically turn to grown kids for help when moving. But even if the parents don’t ask for help, the kids often interject themselves, usually with the best of intentions.

“But the grown kids are no substitute for a really skillful and empathic real estate pro,” she says.

One agent specializing in assisting senior sellers is Diana Gaydon, who lists property in Oregon. She recommends helping your elders by lining up listing appointments with at least three agents and then sitting in on the interviews.

“Look for an agent who’s empathic and a great listener,” says Gaydon, who holds the designation of Seniors Real Estate Specialist, conferred by the National Association of Realtors.

Here are a few pointers for the progeny of elderly people who wish to help:

-- Engage the services of a professional organizer.

For seniors, sorting through possessions can be exhausting.

“What’s a treasure and what’s junk? Separating items into those categories can be tremendously tedious,” Tayler says.

But while the children of seniors can be very helpful in a housing transition, Tayler says it’s unwise for them to become involved in the sorting and culling process.

“Family members are never totally objective. That can result in heated arguments that are painful for all concerned,” she says.

Instead, she recommends that senior home sellers engage the help of a professional organizer. One source for referrals is the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (napo.net). For a lesser fee, seniors can often use trusted social media contacts to find an energetic college student or recent graduate to help.

-- Assure your parents you’ll respect their prized possessions.

One way to help smooth the transition for your parents is to guarantee you’ll safeguard their valuables during the interim period in which their home is shown to the public.

“For example, you might tell them you’ll take those coveted photos they have hanging on the wall and place them in a nice box on your piano until their house is sold,” Gaydon says.

-- Show sensitivity in helping parents dispose of excess belongings.

Conducting an estate sale to break up the family household might sound like a good idea. After all, the professional firm holding the sale will give your parents a percentage of the revenue they bring in.

But the unsentimental manner in which such a sale is conducted could easily hurt your parents’ feelings. It can be painful to overhear strangers haggling over the price of items you’ve owned and valued for decades.

As an alternative, Tayler recommends you ask your parents for the names of their favorite charities and arrange to have their giveaways taken there. (Valuable antiques and art can be sold through a dealer or an online company such as eBay.)

“Donating to a charity you believe in can be a positive experience,” Tayler says.

-- Be diplomatic when addressing your parents on needed home updates.

Those who’ve lived in the same home for a long time are often very comfortable with their décor, no matter how dated, and think prospective buyers should feel the same way. But their grown kids typically agree with the listing agent that the home should be updated to more contemporary standards before it goes on the market.

The problem is that you could face a lot of resistance if you try to push your parents into replacing their still-functioning burnt-gold refrigerator. Likewise, they might rebuff you if you demand that they have their 30-year-old bright green carpeting torn up and replaced with a neutral beige carpet.

Instead, try quiet reasoning and persuasion in hopes of convincing them to follow your recommendations and those of their listing agent.

“Never attempt to belittle or shame your parents into the home improvements needed for a successful sale. That can backfire big time,” Tayler says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

The day a 64-year-old architect from Austin got his divorce decree, he put his six-bedroom house up for sale.

The man, who has moved in with a colleague from work on a temporary basis, is delighted to be free of his 5,100-square-foot property. But he still needs a habitat of his own.

“I’m looking at condos, but cautiously so. I know many condos have lost value. To avoid that, I need to be picky, though I want to stay in Austin,” he says.

Real estate specialists say the architect is right to be careful about selecting a condo, especially in formerly overheated neighborhoods in Texas and Florida.

Post-pandemic, a seller’s market prevails in much of the Midwest and Northeast, where available homes remain scarce. But the opposite is true in areas like Austin, where new construction has provided buyers with many options.

“It’s a tale of two geographies,” says Ivy Zelman, a New York City-based housing analyst who’s predicting that overall U.S. home prices will decline in 2026 before they rebound the following year.

Zelman doesn’t know the architect from Austin. But she says that all buyers, especially those in several Sunbelt cities like Austin, are wise to avoid overpaying.

Here are a few pointers for condo buyers:

-- Follow your instincts when it comes to location.

Resale data can tell you a lot about the desirability of a condo building. But your emotional response to a building is also telling, says Fred Meyer, a real estate appraiser and broker who’s sold homes since 1963.

“If you love it wholeheartedly, chances are good others will love it, too. That means when you put it on the market years from now, it should be easier to sell,” Meyer says.

-- Search for an area with a strong job base.

It’s no secret that the vitality of a local real estate market is tied closely to the employment strength of the area. But as Meyer, who’s based in Massachusetts and has advised many buyers of luxury condos, says, the buyers of condos shouldn’t count on just one employer to keep the local economy afloat.

“You don’t want to buy in a one-factory town that would be badly hurt if that single employer closes. Look for multiple employers,” he says.

-- Review statistics to validate your hunches about the right condo complex.

As Meyer says, your emotional reaction to a condo building can be helpful in the selection process. But you -- along with your real estate agent -- will also want to search out data that helps you analyze the pros and cons of buying in a particular building.

“Look at the resale history for the building going back for as long as four years. Notice especially the median number of days that it takes to sell units in the building. The more days it typically takes to go from list to sell, the less liquid the building,” Meyer says.

Also, he says you should be sure to check the “reserves” of the building, which translates to the amount of money owners there have set aside for key repairs and renovations.

“If the building needs a new roof and there’s no money available for this, all the owners could be hit with a big special assessment. A poorly financed building can become rundown, making it less desirable for future owners,” Meyer says.

-- Look beyond rock-bottom condo fees.

Nearly all condo buildings impose condo fees on all their residents. Among other expenses, these monthly charges cover the cost of routine upkeep on a building and its grounds, along with support services.

Meyer says that seeking a complex with rock-bottom fees could be a mistake.

“In this case, you often get what you pay for. Not surprisingly, a building with very low fees could decline in value if upkeep and improvements are neglected,” Meyer says.

-- Avoid a building with a large number of renters.

Buyer advocates are wary of buildings in which a large percentage of the units have been rented out by their owners.

“Owner-occupants feel a natural pressure to ensure that a building is adequately maintained and has plenty of money set aside in reserves for future repairs and improvements. Renters feel no such natural pressure,” Meyer says.

What percentage of owner-occupants is sufficient? That depends on the location of the building. In most cases, Meyer says you’ll want to see more than half the units occupied by owners. However, this rule may not hold in a resort community where seasonal rentals are the norm.

Even though it’s not wise to choose a building with a large number of renters, Meyer says it’s also important to avoid a building that prohibits owners from renting out their units should they wish to do so.

“That’s a huge right to give up, to be forbidden to rent out your apartment if you want or need to do so down the line,” Meyer says.

-- Choose your condo unit carefully.

Even in the ideal building, not all apartments are created equal.

Meyer says it’s usually unwise to buy one of the most expensive condos in a building, such as a penthouse unit, unless history shows that, in the past, those penthouse apartments with commanding views have sold readily and for respectable prices.

“Buying one of the least expensive condos in a building with much larger and fancier units will help hold up the value of your property over time. That means in the future you’ll probably be able to sell more quickly and for more money,” he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

A married pair of retired police officers from Boise, Idaho, have lived in their mid-century brick home for 31 years. At 71, the two contemplated selling it this past summer. But they backed off just days before their property was to go on the market.

“We know it would be prudent to move to a retirement community. But our heart and soul remain in this property, and we’d like to stay here forever. We even joke that this is our ‘terminal house,’” says the husband.

“We can’t put a price on the comforts and familiarity that come with our ‘home sweet home.’ We raised all three daughters here,” the wife says.

Stacy Berman, a Maryland real estate agent, doesn’t know the couple in this true story. But she’s convinced that the members of the baby boom generation rank among the most sentimental homeowners.

“Some boomers call me to say it’s finally time to sell. But when push comes to shove, they resist,” Berman says.

There’s no hard evidence to indicate that among homeowners, boomers are the generation most sentimentally attached to their residences. However, Clever Real Estate, a Missouri-based firm that connects potential sellers with listing agents, says emotional ties are a major barrier to letting go.

Clever Real Estate surveyed 1,000 homeowners and found that 88% admit to feeling emotional resistance to selling their home. “The most common reasons are not wanting to leave their current neighborhood ... (and) not wanting to deal with packing and moving,” the survey says. Similar findings have been documented by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

A recent drop in mortgage rates led to a boom in remodeling but a lesser boost in real estate transactions, says to Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst for Realtor.com, the home listing service.

“The housing market remains stuck, though prices are starting to show signs of slipping,” says Jones, noting that adjusting for home size, the price per square foot is now slightly lower for the first time in two years.

Some older owners are taking a wait-and-see approach to timing their sale, hoping for an increase in appreciation. Others are simply unwilling to face the emotions involved in letting go.

That’s especially true for those who’ve lived in a family home for decades and raised their children there. For them, downsizing often feels like the end of their vital years and independence.

Even so, there can be significant advantages for older homeowners to step down to a smaller place, especially if this frees them from arduous and expensive home upkeep requirements and lets them extract equity at a relatively favorable time for the real estate market.

Here are a few pointers for sellers:

-- Initiate a broad search for your next home before selling.

With more than 20 years of experience selling real estate behind her, Ashley Richardson, a veteran agent with Sotheby’s International Realty, says the attachment that owners feel to a longtime residence can often transfer to another property.

That’s why she often recommends that sentimental sellers start looking for their next residence as soon as they put their property on the market or even earlier.

“This way, you’ll more quickly detach from the house where you’ve been living for a long time,” Richardson says. However, she urges those making a housing transition to restrict their property search solely to neighborhoods with homes they can afford, so as not to set themselves up for disappointment later.

-- Convey your housing plans to your grown children.

Mark Nash, a real estate analyst and author of “1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home,” says many empty nesters fear that letting go of a long-held property will mean fewer visits from family members -- including their grown kids and grandkids. Yet lots of would-be sellers are also anxious to liberate themselves from the carrying costs a large property requires.

To address their fears of fewer family visits after downsizing, Nash says it can be wise for sellers to discuss these anxieties with their offspring. Perhaps future multi-generational family visits could be centered in a resort area where all could spend quality time together.

“You might be pleasantly surprised at the lengths your family members would go to see you on their vacation days,” Nash says.

-- Neutralize your property by removing memorabilia.

To break the emotional ties to their property, it helps many people to sort through and remove sentimental items. Nash says you’ll want to cull through your family memorabilia, eliminating all but the most precious of items.

“I can’t tell you how many people save their kids’ cribs in hopes that one day they’ll be used by their grandchildren or great-grandchildren. But those old cribs probably don’t even meet today’s standards for child safety,” Nash says.

He suggests you also give away or pack away many other family-related items, including toys and children’s books. And he recommends you remove family photographs from your walls.

“While you’re at it, you’ll need to paint the interior walls of your house” in subdued colors, he says.

Neutralizing your property will not only help you detach from the place emotionally. It will also make it easier for you and your listing agent to attract buyers.

“[H]aving lots of memorabilia on display will only slow the sale of your property, because it keeps people from picturing themselves living there,” Nash says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)