The downsizing checklist and the Equity Unlock calculator: what the house nets, what the next place costs, and the 90 days in between.
Two tools, no email gate. The calculator takes the numbers every downsizer is guessing at (what the long-held home sells for, what it costs to sell, what the next home costs to buy and to own each month) and turns them into the two figures that decide the move: the cash you walk away with and the change in your monthly cost. The checklist is the 90-day plan from the H.A.R.B.O.R. Plan, week by week, printable. Both are built by John King, Navy veteran and REALTOR® with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Realty, 441 closings in Hampton Roads since 2014. The calculator is an estimate for planning; the valuation that goes on the listing comes from REIN MLS comparables.
The Equity Unlock calculator on this page estimates what a Hampton Roads downsizer nets from selling a long-held home (sale price less mortgage payoff, selling costs, prep and moving) and what the next home costs each month (a new mortgage if any at the current Freddie Mac rate, real estate tax at the Virginia Beach, Chesapeake or Norfolk rate, insurance and any association fee), then shows the cash left after the purchase and the monthly change against the current home. The 90-day downsizing checklist runs the H.A.R.B.O.R. Plan week by week: value and destination in weeks one to two, sequence and vendors in weeks two to three, room-by-room clearing and prep in weeks three to seven, listing in week seven or eight, both contracts in weeks eight to thirteen, and the move in week thirteen. Both tools are free and require no email. Written and kept current by John King, U.S. Navy veteran and REALTOR® with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Realty, Virginia license 0225211050, 441 closings since 2014, 5.0 stars on 121 Google reviews. Call or text (757) 290-1324.
Last reviewed November 1, 2026 · Mortgage rate: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey via FRED (MORTGAGE30US) · Property tax: City of Virginia Beach FY2027, City of Chesapeake, City of Norfolk · Closing record: REIN MLS, June 2014 – August 2026
The Equity Unlock calculator
Enter what you know and estimate the rest; every field is editable and nothing is saved or sent. Selling costs in Hampton Roads typically run 6 to 8 percent once commission, Virginia grantor's taxes and settlement are counted. Property tax is applied at the city rate to the purchase price as a proxy for assessment.
The home you are selling
What it costs you now, per month
The home you are buying
Estimate for planning only. Does not include capital gains tax (often zero under the $250,000 / $500,000 federal exclusion; a CPA confirms), settlement fee variations, or special assessments. The listing valuation comes from REIN MLS comparables: get it here.
How the calculator thinks
Cash left = net proceeds − next home price (cash) or − down payment (financed)
New monthly = mortgage payment (30-yr fixed at the rate shown) + tax (price × city rate ÷ 12) + insurance + association fee
Current monthly = mortgage P&I + tax + insurance + utilities and upkeep
Monthly change = new monthly − current monthly
What to put in the fields
- Sale price: a REIN MLS valuation if you have one; otherwise the sold comparables you can find, not the tax assessment.
- Selling costs: 7 percent is a reasonable Hampton Roads planning figure; your listing agreement and the settlement estimate replace it.
- Upkeep on the current home: include the lawn service, the handyman, and a reserve for roof and HVAC; a paid-off house is not free.
- Association fee: from the community's current budget; ask what it covers, since a fee that includes the master policy and water is not comparable to one that does not.
- Rate: loads from Freddie Mac's weekly survey; type over it with your lender's quote.
Not sure the move is right at all? The H.E.L.M. Check goes further: it compares staying against moving over time, including what waiting 6, 12 or 24 months changes, and scores life fit alongside the money.
The 90-day downsizing checklist
The H.A.R.B.O.R. Plan week by week. Print it, pin it to the refrigerator, and cross things off.
Weeks 1 to 2: Honor the home, Assess what fits next
- Written valuation from REIN MLS sold comparables (not the assessment, not an online estimate)
- Condition walk: list every item a buyer's inspector will find, with a cost
- Decide the destination type: one-level home, condo, 55+ community, senior living, or near family elsewhere
- Walk two or three actual next homes or communities; get the current association budget
- Run the Equity Unlock calculator above with real numbers
- If the move is in doubt, run the H.E.L.M. Check
- Call the CPA: basis records, the capital gains exclusion, timing
- If a POA, trust or Medicaid is involved: call the elder law attorney before anything is signed
Weeks 2 to 3: Right-size the timeline, Build the crew
- Choose the sequence: sell first with a rent-back, buy first, or both on one calendar
- Set the move-in date and build the plan backward from it
- Senior move manager or organizer booked, if needed
- Estate sale or consignment company walked through the house and scheduled
- Donation pickups and junk hauler dates set, after the estate sale
- Movers quoted on the next home's floor plan, not the current house
- Handyman, painter and flooring quotes for the items that return their cost
- Give family a date to claim heirlooms, in writing
Weeks 3 to 7: Offload the years, prep the house
- Sort one room at a time: keep, give, sell, donate, discard, starting with the rooms buyers see first
- Family claim date passes; unclaimed items go to the sale
- Estate sale held; consignment items delivered
- Donation pickups and hauler done
- Paint, flooring, lighting, hardware, landscaping completed
- Pre-listing inspection; safety items fixed; disclosures prepared
- Deed, payoff information, improvement receipts, survey and any authority document to the title company
- Stage with the furniture that is moving
Weeks 7 to 8: Launch
- Professional photography and video of the lighter house
- Listing live, positioned for its likely buyer, first-weekend traffic concentrated
- Showing plan that fits the household (showing windows, where the dog goes)
Weeks 8 to 13: Both contracts
- Offers reviewed on net proceeds, not headline price; rent-back terms in the contract
- Inspection and appraisal defended on the sale
- Next home under contract; association packet or care contract read inside the cancellation window
- Utilities transfer dates, mail forwarding, insurance on both homes through closing
- Mover confirmed against both closing dates
Week 13: Relocate with care
- Final walk-through on both homes
- Closing, keys, one truck, one day
- Follow-up call the next week: what still needs to be set up
Keep, give, sell, donate, discard: the order that works
| Pile | Test | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Keep | It fits the next home's floor plan and you use it or love it. Measure the rooms first; a sectional does not shrink. | The moving truck. Keep is decided first because it sets the size of everything else. |
| Give | Family or friends want it and will collect it by the claim date. | Their vehicles, by the date. After the date, it moves to the next pile. |
| Sell | Furniture, tools, collections, jewelry and art with real resale value; an estate sale company will tell you honestly which items qualify. | Estate sale (company runs it in the house, takes a percentage), consignment, or an online marketplace for a few higher-value items. |
| Donate | Usable but not worth selling: clothing, kitchenware, books, most furniture. | Hampton Roads charities with furniture pickup by appointment; get the receipt for the tax deduction. |
| Discard | Everything else, including the paint cans and the broken chair in the garage. | Junk hauler for volume; city bulk pickup for a few items; household hazardous waste days for chemicals. |
Paper: deeds, titles, tax returns, insurance, medical and military records go in one box that rides in your car, not the truck. The DD-214 and any VA paperwork belong in that box too. Shred the rest; a mobile shredding service will come to the house.
Moving day and the week after
Before the truck
- Floor plan of the next home taped to the door with room names; every box labeled with a room
- First-night box: medications, chargers, sheets, towels, coffee, the dog's food
- Utilities on at the new home the day before; off at the old home the day after closing
- Keys, openers and codes collected for the buyer; written list of what stays
- Walk-through of the old home empty, with photos
After
- Address changed: USPS, bank, insurance, DMV (Virginia gives 30 days for a license address change), VA, Social Security, pharmacy, voter registration
- Homestead paperwork if the city offers senior tax relief and you qualify
- Association orientation: gate codes, trash days, the rules you agreed to
- Closing statements and the capital gains worksheet to the CPA for the tax year
- A call to John the following week, because something always comes up
Built by a Navy veteran who has run this move for Hampton Roads families since 2014
Every figure below comes from my own REIN MLS record, published in full in the 13-year sales study.
I served five years as a Navy Machinist Mate, and I have spent 13+ years in Hampton Roads real estate, licensed since 2014, every one of them with the same discipline: price from the record, not from hope. Downsizers hand me the home with the most history and the most equity of any seller I work with, which is exactly why the pricing, the prep budget and the timeline get decided from REIN MLS comparables and the documented case studies, never from a compliment.
Questions about the checklist and the calculator
How much will I net when I sell my house in Hampton Roads?
Sale price minus the mortgage payoff, selling costs (commission, Virginia grantor's taxes and settlement, typically 6 to 8 percent of the price combined), any pre-listing prep and the cost of moving. On a $450,000 sale with no mortgage, 7 percent selling costs, $8,000 of prep and $4,000 of moving, net proceeds are about $406,500. The Equity Unlock calculator on this page runs your figures; the listing valuation itself comes from REIN MLS comparables.
How long does downsizing take?
About 13 weeks from the first conversation to move-in when the clearing and prep are done before listing: two weeks to value the home and choose the destination, one week to set the sequence and book the vendors, four weeks to clear and prepare, then listing, roughly 28 days to contract on John King's median, and 30 to 45 days to closing. A continuing care waitlist or new construction stretches the end date; the order of the steps does not change.
What should I do first when downsizing?
Get an honest value for the current home from REIN MLS sold comparables and decide the type of place you are moving to, in that order, before anything is sorted, listed or signed. The value sets the budget, the destination sets the floor plan, and the floor plan decides what you keep. Everything else on the checklist follows from those two.
Where can I donate furniture in Virginia Beach or Chesapeake?
Several Hampton Roads charities collect furniture and household goods by appointment, and most provide a receipt for the tax deduction; an estate sale company or senior move manager will usually coordinate the pickups as part of the clearing. Items with real resale value go to the estate sale or consignment first; donation is for usable goods not worth selling; a junk hauler or city bulk pickup takes the rest.
Does the calculator include capital gains tax?
No. On a primary residence owned and lived in two of the last five years, up to $250,000 of gain ($500,000 married filing jointly) is excluded from federal tax, which covers the whole gain on most long-held Hampton Roads homes; where gain exceeds the exclusion, documented improvements raise the basis. The calculator estimates net proceeds and monthly cost for planning; a CPA calculates any tax.
Where does the mortgage rate in the calculator come from?
From Freddie Mac's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey of the 30-year fixed rate, retrieved through the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED database and shown with its survey date. It is an average, not a quote; type your lender's quoted rate over it to see your actual payment.
Turn the estimate into a real number
Send the address and the figures you entered above. You will hear from me within one business day with a valuation from REIN MLS comparables to replace the guess, the selling-cost estimate for your actual sale, and the vendors to start the checklist. No obligation.
Or skip the form
Call or text, any day.
(757) 290-1324What to include: the address, what you entered as the sale price, the kind of next home you are considering, and your rough timeline.
Prefer to start with a number? Get a free home value report first and call when you are ready.
The numbers first. Then the plan. Then the move.
The calculator gets you the shape of the decision; one conversation gets you the real valuation, the real selling costs, and the crew to run the checklist with you.
John King · Navy veteran, Machinist Mate · REALTOR® with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Realty · License #0225211050 · Serving Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Portsmouth, Hampton & Newport News
Keep exploring Hampton Roads with John King
The downsizing guides
The decision systems
Last reviewed: November 1, 2026