A married couple in their late 60s -- a pharmacist married to a high school teacher -- never imagined they’d be house hunting as they approached retirement. But that’s exactly what this San Diego couple is doing: plotting a move to a Washington, D.C., suburb to live close to their three preschool grandkids.

“At this stage of our lives, the kids mean everything to us. They’re still in strollers, and we’re happy to help their parents in any way possible, including childcare. Then we hope one day their parents will help us out if our health turns bad,” the pharmacist says.

For many years, the older couple have been careful to save as much as possible for their retirement. Saving proved a lot easier after they prepaid the mortgage on their San Diego property more than a decade ago. Their Spanish-style house has quadrupled in value, and they expect to soon sell, pocketing a handsome profit.

Contrary to many in their age group, the couple is expecting to upsize to an even larger property within the same neighborhood where their three grandkids live.

“Nearly all of our friends are downsizing, but we’re traveling a different road. We want a bigger house where all three kids can have their own rooms and stay over with us anytime they want. They won’t be young forever, and we cherish these early years. Nothing means more to us,” the pharmacist says.

Right now, they’re considering a brand-new house with five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The two-story luxury property, with 6,349 square foot of living space, is elevator-ready in case they should have difficulty scaling the stairs as they grow elderly. Best of all, it’s located just two blocks from the grandkids’ house.

“We love that this beautiful community has neighborhood schools and a big regional park where the children can play basketball and soccer. It also has great trails where the kids can bike safely,” the teacher says.

Moving up to a larger residence is uncommon for seniors because of affordability issues. But it’s not necessarily an imprudent idea, according to Eric Tyson, coauthor of “Personal Finance for Seniors for Dummies.”

“The exciting reality for some seniors is that appreciation on their real estate, coupled with strong 401(k) savings, have actually given them a net worth in excess of one million dollars. That allows them a range of dream-home options,” Tyson says.

Still, Tyson cautions seniors against making any trade-up decision without considerable forethought.

“The catch for people planning for their later years is that they don’t know how long they will actually live or whether they’ll need home health care or assisted living in their later years. Health care of all kinds is getting terribly expensive,” he says.

Here are a few pointers for those planning to upsize in retirement:

-- Seek out a mortgage lender for advice.

Sid Davis, author of “A Survival Guide for Buying a Home, recommends you fact check your financial concerns with an established mortgage lender.

Even if you’re confident you can qualify for a mortgage on a bigger home, it’s good to gain preapproval to enhance your chances of acquiring your dream house. This is especially important for retirees who must prove they have the assets and income despite no longer receiving W-2 statements.

“It’s true that lenders are a little less stringent than they were during the financial crisis of 2008. But you still need to have all your paperwork in order. To make the lender happy, I recommend that even before you start shopping for homes, you pull together the key documents you’ll need to show you’re worthy of a bigger mortgage,” Davis says.

-- Reconsider your reasons for planning to move.

Anxiety can prevent people from moving ahead, even when it’s against their interest. But those convinced that now is a good time to buy a bigger home shouldn’t let unwarranted fears constrain them.

One way retirees can put their fears about real estate in perspective is to reexamine their original reasons for trading up.

“Remember that waiting to acquire that larger house means that your intentions are delayed, which would postpone improvement to your quality of life. Anyway, there’s no guarantee you’d get a better deal a year or two from now,” Davis says.

-- Make sure you fully research the target market where you hope to buy.

In many areas, inventories of unsold homes are still very tight or shrinking, making multiple bids commonplace. But in other neighborhoods, the inventory balance is gradually getting better for those seeking to move up. And in still other areas, the picture is mixed. It all depends on your target market.

Suppose, for instance, that you’re selling a property in a starter-home community in great demand by millennials trying to break into homeownership. Meanwhile, you’re intending to buy in a luxury-home neighborhood where there’s an ample supply of properties and buyers don’t outnumber sellers. In that case, you could do well on your dual transactions.

If you live in an area with many available housing options, you can afford to take somewhat more time to make your selection and seal a deal. But Davis cautions against waiting indefinitely to buy in any area that remains red hot -- perhaps because it’s an extremely popular community with little new construction.

“Assuming this is really the right time for you to buy and your numbers work, don’t let past disappointments with real estate, like losing out in a multiple bidding situation, haunt you,” he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

In many popular communities, available listings are in short supply, causing some discouraged real estate agents to drop out of the business. But home-selling veterans know there are always some owners with urgent reasons to sell.

“Life events are the reason there are always people who wish to sell promptly,” says Kate Foster-Bankey, who’s sold residential real estate since 2011.

She cites five motivational factors for moves.

“There’s death, divorce, diamonds, diapers and ‘dream location,’” she jokes, adapting a mnemonic device used by real estate pros.

After more than three years of fruitless searching, a couple in their 30s were exceptionally pleased to discover a pair of owners in their 60s selling a brick rancher on a heavily wooded four-acre parcel. They soon bid on the place and captured it without facing any rival buyers.

The older couple was determined to immediately pursue their dream of buying a much larger property -- a farm where they could raise both crops and livestock. After locating a 44-acre place to their liking, they were eager to sell and readily accepted an offer slightly under their list price, with no attempt to negotiate.

The surprisingly smooth purchase brought welcome relief to the buyers, who had long struggled to compete with other would-be purchasers. On multiple occasions, they had lost out in bidding wars.

Inventory levels continue to fall in desirable communities, according to Jiayi Xu, an economist for Realtor.com, the home listing service.

“For 18 straight weeks, the number of homes available for sale has registered below that of the previous year,” says Xu, noting that housing remains chronically “undersupplied.”

Foster-Bankey of Compass Real Estate says potential home sellers fall into two camps. One group is impatient to move forward and refuses to wait for a drop in mortgage rates. But the other group wants to ride out the economy, hoping for still more appreciation on the homes they own.

Are you homeowners who wish to sell but are torn about when to proceed?

If so, Foster-Bankey encourages you to put your place on the market when the date is right for your lifestyle. That’s better than adhering to some arbitrary guidelines suggested by national housing economists.

She recalls how many economists had mistakenly predicted that, by the end of this year, mortgage rates would fall steeply. They now project rates won’t drop until 2024 at the earliest.

At this point in the economic cycle, housing conditions vary widely by neighborhood. That’s why sellers seeking to schedule their sale are advised to seek out the opinion of agents who closely track their neighborhood market.

Here are a few pointers for near-term sellers who are feeling stressed:

-- Don’t hang around when your property is shown to prospects.

Nervous sellers often assume their presence at showings could prove helpful. After all, they reason, who could better direct prospects around the home and answer visitors’ questions than the owners themselves?

But appearing at your own showings has more than one disadvantage. It’s likely to cause your visitors to feel crowded, making it hard for them to imagine making the place their own. Also, they’re prone to make critical comments about your place.

“In strong markets and weak, lots of folks feel entitled to critique any property they visit, and harshly so,” says Mark Nash, author of “1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home.”

When a showing is held, he recommends you leave the property until the coast is clear.

-- Don’t transmit your stress to your children.

During his many years as a real estate broker, Nash often noticed how adults inadvertently transmit stress they’re experiencing to their children. Parents are particularly likely to unload when the kids create a mess around the home.

“Yes, you need to keep your house orderly and straighten it up before showings happen. But yelling at the kids every time they bring out the blocks or the dolls is only going to raise your family’s anxiety level,” Nash says.

He recommends homeowners strive for a “sense of normalcy,” allowing their children to have ample play time, so long as they understand that all their belongings must be put back before visitors come over.

“Just remember you have a lot more at stake than simply keeping the house clean. You need to maintain household harmony, or the home-selling process could become a nightmare for your family,” Nash says.

-- Consider travel to distract yourself.

Those who need to sell a home can easily become obsessed with the challenge.

One antidote for this problem is to take a temporary break by getting out of town for at least one day. This won’t require you to take your property off the market, assuming you have a capable listing agent who stays in close communication with you.

“The best remedy for a fixation on your house is a change of scenery,” Nash says.

Maybe you can’t afford a genuine vacation. But you don’t have to fly to a remote island to find relief. Just going to the next town for an overnight visit should give you a welcome break from the tension.

“Almost any getaway you can do should get your mind off your fixation with selling the house. And, ironically, that could help get your house sold faster,” Nash says.

Those attempting to sell their property often wrongly assume a deal can’t be struck while they’re away. But that’s hardly the case, Nash says.

“Given that most people carry cellphones and have ready access to email and texts, there’s no reason your listing agent can’t handle offers that surface while you’re away,” he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

Like many determined homebuyers, an Illinois couple in their 30s -- a teacher married to a sales manager -- were shocked to see the latest rise in mortgage rates. In many areas, prevailing rates have now reached 8% or higher.

“Affordability has become a really, really huge issue,” says Rich Harty, who leads the independent realty firm that represented the Illinois couple.

In pursuit of a “forever home” where they could raise a family, the couple spent nearly a year searching in Morton Grove, a suburban village with easy access to Chicago, where the wife is pursuing a master’s degree in education. There they recently found the perfect property: an updated Georgian style brick house built in 1948.

“They loved the house, but so did four other couples. To compete in the inventory-tight market, they needed a strategy to set themselves apart in the sellers’ eyes,” Harty says. Not only did they offer the owners $15,000 over the list price, but they promised to make an all-cash offer -- which proved to yield them the winning bid.

How did they pull off a contract offer that beat out four other couples? Rather than go to a traditional lender who would have charged them around 8%, they convinced their retired parents to finance the property at a deeply discounted mortgage rate.

“We’re seeing more and more parents stepping in to help, handing over cash from their own accounts so their kids can make the kind of all-cash offers that sellers favor. In effect, the parents are acting like an actual bank,” Harty says.

Of course, relatively few parents of young wannabe homeowners have the wherewithal to serve as a mortgage lender for their grown children. But for those who can afford to do so, making such a home loan can be a win-win transaction.

“This sort of arrangement can be a good investment for the parents, even as their children enjoy significant savings on interest payments,” Harty says. Still, he encourages all the parties involved in the home loan to make it official with documents -- including a promissory note.

“Be sure to ask a real estate attorney to draft all your key documents,” he says.

Here are a few other pointers for buyers:

-- Let jealousy serve as a prod.

Sid Davis, author of “A Survival Guide for Buying a Home,” says that when it comes to financial decisions, people in their 20s and 30s are heavily influenced by their social circles. So once one friend buys a house, others in the same friend group are often motivated to do the same.

“Some folks don’t get off the fence until their friends start to buy,” Davis says.

Besides the problem of affordability, many would-be buyers in their 20s and 30s are held back by a fear of commitment signified by the traditional 30-year mortgage, according to Davis.

“They’re petrified about taking the plunge, fearing they’ll get in over their heads,” he says.

But as Davis tells many young clients, the beauty of a fixed-rate mortgage is that their payments will stay constant, even as their incomes likely rise.

“With the passage of years, those house payments seem to shrink, especially if your place appreciates,” he says.

-- Prioritize down payment savings over shorter-term objectives.

Suppose that while you’re still a renter, you’re invited to a housewarming party at the home of friends who’ve obtained the status that comes with homeownership. Part of you likes seeing your friends successful, but another part feels diminished by comparison.

In this situation, Davis says some renters resort to the short-term gratification of making other, less massive prestige purchases. They may buy a luxury car or an apartment full of new furniture, financing their purchases with credit.

Such purchases weaken your chances of achieving your housing dream because you may not be able to obtain as large a mortgage as you’ll want or need.

“Some people try to lift their spirits about still renting with an extravagant vacation, for example. But, in the end, this is self-defeating behavior if your real dream is a home,” Davis says.

The problem is that lenders look at your overall debt load when judging your worthiness for a mortgage.

“Big balances that appear on your credit reports can hobble your chances for a home. Yet in most cases, a house is a much better investment than a car or furniture,” says Davis, a real estate broker since 1984.

-- Ask for help from your mortgage lender to rectify your credit.

Are you a potential buyer whose credit reports were tarnished by a poor history of paying credit card bills while still in college? At the time, your grades and social life may have seemed more important than your credit score.

Regrettably, financial indiscretions have a way of lingering on your record long after people stop asking about your GPA.

While there’s no quick fix for a poor credit score, Davis says your standing can be restored over a period of weeks or months through methodical effort.

“Most people just have to keep plugging away until they reach their objective of a higher credit score,” he says.

Davis says your best ally in reestablishing good credit is a mortgage lender or broker willing to provide sound advice.

“Even now, with more federal regulations to protect borrowers, it’s helpful to get guidance from a professional who can tell you the letters to write, the phone calls to make and the emails to send to strengthen your credit standing,” he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)