Fun-Sizing: Downsizing in Nashville, Reinvented
Fun-sizing is BDG Partners’ approach to downsizing in Nashville: selling the house that raised your family and buying the home that fits your next chapter. Sometimes that costs less, sometimes more, and it always changes how you live. Our job is helping you pick the most fun you can responsibly have.
Fun-sizing at a glance
- Not a retreat: a lifestyle upgrade, from suburban square footage to experiences
- Boomers are 42% of buyers and 53% of sellers nationally, and half of older boomers buy all-cash
- Three favorite Nashville paths: high-rise lock-and-leave, lake home with a dock, gated golf community
- Backed by $3.25B+ in total team sales and 7,200+ career transactions
- One team handles both sides: selling the big house and finding the fun one
The kids took the bedrooms with them. The question now is not how much house you need. It is how much fun you can responsibly have.
The Idea
What is fun-sizing?
The term surfaced in the design world: Architectural Digest described fun-sizing in 2023 as choosing exuberance over shrinkage as clients age, the “era of the luxury fun house.” We think the idea is bigger than furniture. In real estate, fun-sizing means the move itself: trading a home that served a former life for one built around the life you actually want now. It is emphatically not about being old. It is about being free.
Most advice for empty nesters assumes retreat: fewer rooms, less yard, smaller life. Around 77% of adults over 50 say they plan to age in place, and we suspect that is partly because nobody shows them anything worth moving for. Fun-sizing is the opposite pitch: the Gulch on a Friday night, a boat tied to your own dock, a tee time five minutes from your garage.
Three Paths
The three ways Nashville empty nesters fun-size
The lock-and-leave high-rise
Sell the Franklin house, buy a high-rise condo downtown or in the Gulch: concierge, rooftop pool, walk to dinner and a show, and a front door you can lock for a month in Europe without a second thought. This is the fastest-growing fun-size path we see, and it frequently costs as much as the house it replaced. That is rather the point.
The lake life
Trade the cul-de-sac for Old Hickory Lake: a home with water at the back fence, a dock permit, and grandchildren who suddenly visit more often. One expertise note that saves buyers real money: docks on Old Hickory are federally permitted by the Army Corps of Engineers and are property-specific, so not every lakefront lot can have one. We verify dock eligibility before you fall in love.
The golf and gated life
Move inside the gates: the Governors Club’s Arnold Palmer course and 24-hour guard gate in Brentwood, or the region’s other golf communities and gated neighborhoods, where the HOA cuts the grass and your Saturdays belong to the course, the pool, and the clubhouse calendar.
| Path | Where | Typical spend (2026) | The life you are buying |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lock-and-leave high-rise | Downtown, The Gulch, Midtown | $600Ks–$3M+ | Concierge, walkability, travel freely |
| Lake home | Old Hickory Lake, Hendersonville, Mt. Juliet | Mid-$600Ks–$3M+ | Dock, boat, water off the porch |
| Golf / gated community | Governors Club, Brentwood, Franklin | $1.5M–$5M | Course, clubhouse, security, community |
Directional ranges, mid-2026 MLS. Every fun-size plan gets its own numbers.
The Money
Downsizing does not always mean spending less
Here is the honest math nobody puts on a downsizing page: sometimes the next home costs more than the one you are selling, and that can still be the smartest move you make. Nationally, boomers sell after about sixteen years of ownership, which in Middle Tennessee often means enormous equity. Half of older boomer buyers pay all cash. So the real question is allocation: how much of the big house’s equity buys the next life, and how much funds everything else you want to do with it.
We build that picture with you before anything lists: what the house will genuinely sell for, what each fun-size path costs to buy and to live in (HOA dues, dock fees, club memberships included), and what is left over. Responsible fun is still the brief.
The Choreography
How a fun-size move actually works
The hard part is not finding the condo or the lake house; it is choreographing two transactions and thirty years of belongings. One team runs both sides: preparing and selling the big house, including concierge-style prep programs that front the cost of improvements until closing where available, while quietly shortlisting the next home so you move once, not twice. Timing options, from sale-contingent purchases to short leasebacks that let you close and then move at your own pace, get decided by your comfort, not the market’s impatience. And the sorting of a family home? We have a bench of stagers, estate-sale pros, and movers who have done this hundreds of times.
The Next Chapter Has A View
Boomers are 53% of America’s home sellers. The smart ones are not downsizing. They are fun-sizing.
Why Work With BDG Partners
Why empty nesters fun-size with BDG Partners
Fun-sizing is a both-sides move, and we are a both-sides team: guiding empty nesters through the sale and the next purchase within $3.25B+ in career sales, with genuine depth in every destination: the towers, the lakes, and the gated communities of Davidson and Williamson County. We sell your old life well and negotiate your new one hard, and because we see every one of these markets weekly, the “what could we get for the house?” conversation comes with real numbers, not flattery.
Good To Know
Fun-sizing in Nashville: frequently asked questions
What does fun-sizing mean?
Fun-sizing is lifestyle-driven downsizing: selling a home that fit a former season of life, usually the big suburban family house, and buying one built around what you want next, whether that is a downtown high-rise, a lake home with a dock, or a golf community. Unlike traditional downsizing, the goal is a better life, not a smaller one, and the next home sometimes costs more.
Is downsizing worth it in Nashville right now?
For most long-time owners, yes: sellers who bought fifteen or more years ago are typically sitting on substantial equity, and half of older boomer buyers nationally purchase their next home all-cash. The math depends on your specific house and destination, which is why we run both numbers together before you commit to anything.
Where do Nashville empty nesters move?
Three destinations dominate: lock-and-leave high-rises downtown and in the Gulch, Old Hickory Lake and other waterfront communities east of the city, and gated golf communities like the Governors Club in Brentwood. Each trades yard work for a different kind of life, and each has its own price band and due-diligence quirks.
Should I sell my house before buying the next one?
Usually you can do better than a hard either/or. Options include buying contingent on your sale, negotiating a leaseback so you close and move on your own schedule, or bridge strategies that use your equity before the house sells. The right choreography depends on your market, your equity, and your tolerance for moving twice. We plan it before listing.
Can any Old Hickory Lake home have a boat dock?
No, and this catches buyers constantly. Docks on Old Hickory Lake are permitted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under its Shoreline Management Plan, and eligibility is property-specific. Some lakefront lots can never have a dock. We verify dock status and transferability before you write an offer on any lake home.
Does it cost me anything to have BDG Partners represent me as a buyer?
In most Nashville transactions, the seller pays the buyer’s agent fee, so representation on your next home typically costs you nothing extra. On the sale side, our listing services are structured conventionally. Either way, compensation is confirmed in writing before we begin, with no surprises.
Work With Us
Let’s find out what the house is worth, and what the fun costs
One conversation, both numbers: what your home would sell for today, and what the high-rise, the lake, or the gates would cost to love. No pressure, no countdown clock. Just the math and the options.
Plan my fun-size move
Prefer to talk? Call 615-854-7502 or email [email protected].
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