Right-Sizing in Coastal Orange County
The Sackin-Stone Team has been guiding coastal OC homeowners through the move from the family home to the next one since 1988. Now serving the third and fourth generation. Lane Stone is SRES certified. Prop 19 transitions, estate sales, downsizing logistics, and the calm conversations in between.
No pressure. No timeline assumed. Just a conversation about where you are and what you’re considering.
Lane or a senior member of the team reaches out within one business day. We talk first. Anything else is for later.
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THE MOVE NOBODY PREPARES YOU FOR
WHAT MOST AGENTS DON’T SEE
Most home moves are pretty straightforward. List, market, negotiate, close. Buy the next one. Move boxes.
The move you’re considering is not that move.
You’re looking at 40 years of belongings, an adult-children-on-Zoom conversation, a Prop 19 timeline, a market that’s changed seven times since you bought, an estate or trust question, a smaller home that may not exist yet on MLS, and a calendar with no obvious right answer.
Most agents have never done this transaction. They list the house. They wish you luck on the next one.
That’s not the help you need.
WHAT WE DO
When you hire the Sackin-Stone Team for a right-sizing move, you get a coordinated plan, not two unrelated transactions.
Your primary agent runs the sale of your current home. The same agent runs the search for the next one. The same Transaction Coordinator manages both files in parallel. The same team negotiates the timing so you’re not paying two mortgages, not stuck in a rental, and not closing before you’ve found the next place.
Lane Stone is SRES certified (Senior Real Estate Specialist) and Probate & Trust Certified. Scott Sackin has guided multi-decade clients through this exact move for 38 years. Many of our right-sizing clients were referred by their adult children, who first bought a home through us 15 or 25 years ago.
The work is patient. The timeline is yours. The plan is built around the life decision, not the listing.
The tax question every right-sizer asks first
California Proposition 19 changed the rules for transferring your property tax basis when you sell a long-held home and buy a new one. We are not your tax advisor, and you should always confirm specifics with your CPA. But here’s what we walk every right-sizer through in their first conversation, written plainly.
Yes, in many cases. Prop 19 lets you transfer your tax basis as long as the purchase and sale happen within two years of each other in either direction. We work with you to time both transactions so the basis transfer succeeds.
You can still transfer your tax basis, but you’ll pay incremental tax on the value difference. For example, if your current home is worth $1.5M and you buy a $2M home, your tax basis transfers on the first $1.5M and you pay regular property tax on the additional $500K. We run those numbers for you before you make the move.
Yes, as long as the new property qualifies as a primary residence and you meet the age threshold. We’ve helped multiple clients move into HB, Newport, and OC senior communities while preserving their tax basis.
Depends on how long you’ve owned your current home. A homeowner who bought in 1985 and has a $200K tax basis on a home now worth $1.5M is potentially saving thousands per year for the rest of their life by transferring the basis instead of resetting it. We can sketch the numbers for your specific situation in the first conversation.
We are not tax advisors. Always confirm Prop 19 specifics with your CPA. Last reviewed: January 2026.
THE PLAN
This isn’t two transactions stitched together. It’s one move executed in phases. Your primary agent runs both sides. Your Transaction Coordinator manages both files. The timing is engineered so you’re not paying double, not in a rental, and not making a rushed decision on the next home.
Here’s how it unfolds.
Before we list anything or look at anything, we talk. What’s pulling you to move. What’s holding you in place. What the next chapter looks like. Where you want to be. The financial picture. The family conversation. The Prop 19 timeline. The estate or trust considerations.
Once you’ve decided to move forward, we prepare your current home for market. This phase usually involves more time than a typical sale because there’s more to sort through, often decades of belongings.
Both transactions run side by side. Your home goes live on MLS. You start touring the next one. The team manages the timing so you don’t close on the sale before you have somewhere to go, and you don’t commit to the next home before you know your sale is real.
The choreography of the final phase: both escrows closing, the move logistics, the move-in. We coordinate with movers, with utilities, with HOAs, with the storage facility, with the senior community if applicable.
WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE IN REAL FAMILIES
Each of these started with one phone call. Each took longer than a typical transaction. Each ended with the family in the right place.
Scott and Philip listed and sold the longtime HB home of a 91-year-old client. The seller had lived in the property for over 40 years. Her adult daughter said: “Their sincerity, kindness, and understanding of this difficult time for my mother has made the situation such a pleasant one. She is reassured in knowing they have her best interests first and foremost.”
Sandra S.
Adult daughter, coordinated with team since 1988
Philip and the team handled the sale of a longtime HB home where the sellers had owned for 50 years. The clients wrote: “Philip and the Sackin Stone Team went so far above and beyond. They made the process seem easy even though there was so much that had to be done to sell our home of 50 years. We can’t imagine any other Realtor having so much patience and understanding through a very complicated process.”
One team. Both transactions. No add-ons.
A right-sizing move means running a listing and a purchase in coordinated parallel. Our standard service covers both sides plus the specialty work that this move uniquely requires.
You pay the commission on the sale of your current home at closing. The purchase of your next home is handled under the same engagement, with buyer’s agent compensation following standard practice (typically paid through the transaction).
Here’s what’s included.
SALE-SIDE (YOUR CURRENT HOME)
Purchase-side (your next home)
Right-sizing-specific work
Your primary agent for right-sizing
Lane leads most of the team’s right-sizing engagements. He holds the Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES) designation, the National Association of Realtors credential specifically for agents who work with clients 50 and older. He’s also Probate and Trust Certified, which matters when a right-sizing move involves an estate, a trust, or an inheritance question.
Before real estate, Lane worked at Washington Mutual and Chase Bank during the 2008 mortgage crisis. He’s spoken with thousands of homeowners about money, equity, mortgages, and the realities of moving. That conversation comes naturally to him.
He grew up in Huntington Beach. He’s lived in coastal OC his whole life. He’s sold homes in nearly every neighborhood the team serves.
