Real Estate the Ramsey Way - When Is The Right Time To Upgrade Your Home?

Episode Date: October 13, 2026

How do you know when it’s time to upgrade to a bigger or better home? This call explores what to consider before making the move and how to know when you’re financially ready. Next steps: ·   🏠Not sure what to do next when buying or selling your home? Check out our ⁠⁠Real Estate Home Base⁠⁠ for free tools and resources to guide your next steps. ·   🏠And if you’re ready to buy or sell your home, ⁠⁠connect with a RamseyTrusted® real estate agent⁠⁠. They’re experts who’ll help you confidently navigate homeownership the way we teach. Explore more from Ramsey Network: 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💰 George Kamel 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

When does it make sense to sell our house and buy a new one from a lifestyle and a financial perspective? I mean, I'd want to know what's causing you to want to do that in the first place. Is it the kids are getting older? Is it that they're moving out? Like, what's driving the decision? Yeah, so we're 29, no kids yet. I bought the house in 2023 before we got married.

And we're actually in like the really nice part of town. You know, we're close to schools and conveniences. but I'm more of a country guy, and my wife and I are trying to look at houses a little bit further out of town, and because we only bought the house so recently, we're kind of just, I'm a bit of a spreadsheet nerd, and she's kind of a follow-your-heart woman, and we're trying to just wrestle with when do we do this. Okay. So you bought the house before you were married, and after you were married, you discovered that you

bought the wrong house. Yeah. That's what it sounds like. I bought the house. Yeah. I bought the house. This is why we tell people not to. She's like, I would never choose this had I been involved.

Yeah. So anyway, the, yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, you're out of debt, you said, right? Except the house. Or is the house paid off too? Yes, sir. No, sir.

We have about 220,000 inequity in it. Okay. And what do you owe on it? About $3.15. Okay. So it's a half million dollar, $550,600,000-dollar house. And the price of the property that you would attempt to move to would be what? It'd be about hopefully 490 to 500 is kind of the highest we're willing to go.

Okay. So you're moving down in price? Correct. And you would take out less of a mortgage than you have now. Correct. Well, that's kind of a no-brainer mathematically. Are you doing this on a 15-year? we have been kind of we haven't picked out an actual loan yet because we haven't uh we've looked at

houses we haven't actually like put in offers or listed ours yet so yeah i mean if you move down in house and you keep the same size mortgage or less especially if then you put it on a 15 like we teach and you read that in the book you already know that so um then that becomes a no-brainer yeah and it's it's a house that more suits your needs well that's a no-brainer but let's say you were living in a half million dollar house when do we make the decision to go to our $800,000 house, that's a different discussion, right? When you save up the money to pay the difference or when you take out the new mortgage, is it on a 15-year fixed where the payments less than a fourth of your take-home pay would be the maximum move up you would do. But you're

not talking about moving up. You're talking about moving down. And so do it. I don't see any reason not to you. Yeah. I mean, as long as the payment suits your, you know, your budget at 25% after taxes. And again, I'm going to push you to move it to a 15 year. You need to to get in the business of getting the rent, follow all the way through on the total money makeover book that you got, which is baby step seven, let's get the house paid off. You're young, you're smart, you've already paid off 130,000, and you're making good money, and you guys are making this decision together. So let's take a, you know, a 15-year fixed, and even if it means we have to cut back on our vacation a little bit or something for the first couple years,

I would do that, and lean into that. That's exactly how I would do it. Great call, man. You're doing good. congratulations. I live near Brackenridge, Colorado, where housing prices are very high. Yeah. Local governments have created workforce housing programs for purchase. Absolutely. Most of those ski resorts have, yeah. Yeah, so you must live and work locally. You cannot own any other real estate, and appreciation is capped at 2 to 3% per year.

We currently are on a market rate, a two-bedroom condo worth about $750,000. We could move laterally or even down in value into, say, a four-bedroom workforce home. What's your opinion? Would not do that? No. No. The reason for owning real estate is the appreciation. The purpose of the workforce housing is to try to keep a workforce that can work the ski resort.

and you can afford to live there because we're dealing with $10 million houses everywhere, right? And so and condos that are $3 million and everything else. Or $750. It's hard to be a bartender and live there unless you have workforce housing. And so most of the ski resorts have done that. But that doesn't mean that you purchasing something that's appreciation capped is good for you. It's just a way to get people to work the mountain. That's the reason they're doing it.

And so I don't know that that you're past that you are now a condo owner that's going up in value. And so, you know, my guess is your family's growing and the two-bedroom condos getting tight. Yeah, golden retriever would like a yard. That's the family growing. Okay. Well, the golden's a great dog, so I'm with you, brother. Yeah. All right.

Yeah, I would like for the golden to have a dog too, but I don't. don't want to lose 700 grand for that. And that's what you're going to increase in value. So how long have you owned the condo? Three years on this one. Okay. On this one. You lived in the area, though, for a while?

Yeah, this is the second property I've owned. Okay. All right. Are you there full time? Is that your primary residence? Correct. Yeah. So my reason for my question is still, it's easy for you to answer.

Think about all those years ago when you bought the first one versus what prices are now. And that's why I'm telling you not to do an appreciation capped workforce housing deal. I understood. I'm a real estate agent up here. So that has always been my inclination is that it's, you know, kind of project housing. But it is and it isn't. The temptation is real. It's a government subsidized thing to create.

a labor supply that is needed. And that that's, it's not invalid, because it's, you know, but it's not where I'd put my primary residence for it. But I don't want to, I don't want to bet my future on that.

Yeah. You know, if you're a bartender and you're single and you need to, instead of driving in from Denver every day, which is impossible, you know, then that, that's,

that's why they did this is so to cover that and not for you. So, no, I, I would never take, I would never step out of the free market that is working into a subsidized market that is capped. That's bottom line. And it's just an expensive place, as you know, Tucker to live.

It's beautiful, too. Absolutely gorgeous. A lot of these calls could have been solved by connecting with a Ramsey trusted agent. We don't want you to make the same mistake. To find a trusted agent near you, go to ramsysolutions.com slash agent.