For most older Americans, the family home is the single largest asset they own. So a recent finding that older sellers systematically leave money on the table when they finally sell has drawn attention from retirement researchers and real-estate professionals alike.

The study comes from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, drawing on work by economists Philip E. Strahan and Song Zhang. Using roughly 10 million repeat home-sale records from the CoreLogic deeds database — linked to voter-registration files to confirm seller ages — the researchers traced how sale prices change as homeowners get older.

The $20,000 figure

The headline number is a comparison, not a flat loss. A seller around age 80 realizes about 0.5% per year less than a 45-year-old seller. Spread across the typical U.S. holding period of about 11 years, that compounds into roughly a 5% lower sale price. On a $400,000 home — close to the national median — 5% works out to about $20,000.

That gap is not explained by location or home size; the researchers controlled for those. Instead, two practical factors do most of the work.

Why it happens

The first is home condition. Homes sold by the oldest owners are more likely to be described as fixer-uppers or sold "as-is," the study found. Routine upkeep and updates often slip as owners age, whether because of physical limits, tighter budgets, or simply living somewhere long enough that dated finishes go unnoticed. "Even when a home has been well-loved, if it's dated, it can have a bigger impact on the buyer's perception and pricing," eXp Realty broker Mindy Price told Money.

The second is how the home is sold. Older owners are more likely to sell off the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS — the shared database that exposes a listing to the broadest pool of buyers — and instead sell privately, sometimes to a relative or to an investor. Off-market sales draw fewer competing bids, and cash investors typically pay less in exchange for speed and buying "as-is." Notably, the researchers found that when Illinois tightened transparency rules around private listings, both the share of private sales and the age-related price gap shrank — suggesting the disadvantage is partly a problem of information and exposure, not just home condition.

What experts suggest older sellers weigh

The study and the professionals quoted alongside it frame the takeaways as options to consider, not financial advice. None guarantees a higher price, and individual circumstances differ.

  • Listing on the open market. Because the price gap narrows with broader exposure, the research points to the MLS and competitive bidding as the central lever older sellers can pull.
  • Tackling visible, low-cost maintenance. Brokers cited by Money point to fresh paint, updated fixtures, decluttering and curb appeal as inexpensive ways to shift buyer perception — distinct from costly full renovations.
  • Weighing the trade-off of private and investor sales. A fast, as-is cash sale can be worth it for convenience, but experts suggest comparing such offers against an open-market estimate first.
  • Using a specialist agent. Some sellers turn to agents with a Senior Real Estate Specialist designation, who are trained to coordinate repairs, marketing and the logistics of a later-life move.

The broader point, researchers say, is that the gap is not inevitable. With the home often funding the rest of retirement, how — and where — it is sold can matter as much as when.