We’re thrilled to be back with another real estate post today, and thought we’d tackle this little topic: How to Buy the Perfect House! We’re so excited to share our foolproof method. Whether you’re in the market now or will be in the future, this is the most valuable information you’ll gain in the real estate market.
After years in the home industry, we’ve put together a plan that will help you find the pot of gold at the end of the proverbial real estate rainbow and we are excited to share it with you today. Are you ready to learn the simple process of finding that perfect home?
Here’s the answer and I tell you this with all the confidence in the world, after years of real-life experience backed by tremendous amounts of data. There’s only one process, one thought pattern that works.
And here it is… The perfect home doesn’t exist.
Let me say that one more time for the people in the back, the perfect home doesn’t exist.
It’s simply just not out there. Did we get you there for a second with our infomercial intro and sparkly salesperson teeth?
Sir, this isn’t a Wendy’s.
We don’t care if you carefully build it from the ground up. It doesn’t exist. You simply won’t find it. Sorry to be such a letdown, but sometimes, and by sometimes we mean all the time in real estate, you need someone to tell you the truth, even when that truth is hard.
Maybe this is something that comes with age and experience. Maybe it’s something people always struggle with and never learn. {We think it depends on the person.} But unfortunately, it’s the biggest hang-up we see people stuck on, when searching, even after living in a home for some time. It’s a MAJOR mistake people make as they begin the process of buying a home, and it can take them a hot minute to accept it as truth.
There is no perfect house.
There is no reason to keep wasting your time and energy. No reason to jump through those flaming mental hoops that it’s out there if only you look hard enough. You’re only punishing yourself.
If we’ve said one thing for a very long time on our site: We don’t believe in the dream home…We Believe in your home.
When I’m working with clients looking to buy a house here in the Nashville area, one of the main goals is to help them stay grounded, because the home-buying process can become very emotional, very quickly. So not only do we have to stay grounded in our price range by not looking at homes half a million outside the budget, but we also have to stay grounded in understanding no house is perfect. I’ve never been in one, I have never built one, I have never renovated one. They simply don’t exist.
The sooner one can accept this, the better off they’ll be.
I tell clients all the time to give me one minute in any house and I’ll find something wrong with it… it’s a gift or a curse, we’re not sure which. But what I’ve learned is I’m not the only one with this gift. Every client has that gift as well. They just may not realize it until they begin looking at homes. And if a client doesn’t understand they have this gift {paired with a fixation that often comes in searching for that perfect house} then they will never find a house they love.
Because the only thing that makes a home perfect, is the life you can build within it.
Every home will have compromises, things that you might change, that you don’t love, and if only you could take this from that home and pair it with that from that home, oh and if it had that thing from that other home, etc., etc.
That’s exhausting.
Pinterest did a round up a few years ago, on the perfect house according to their users. There’s a reason it’s on Pinterest, in perfect shots with isolated spaces. It’s pretend.
So when looking for the perfect home for you, there’s a process I like to suggest:
1) Acknowledge there is no perfect home and that you will need to make some compromises along the way. I think we covered this one pretty well above. Acceptance is a big step.
2) Know your price range, because there is no sense in looking above it. If you can’t afford it… it shouldn’t be on the list. It only causes frustration.
3) Make a list of things you must-have for a home, and order them from: can’t live without, to just want to have. It’s highly unlikely you’ll get everything on the list, but the list will help you know what’s important to you.
4) Once you know your price range and have your list of wants, ask yourself if everything on that list of wants is commonly found within your price range. If not, then move it off the list and onto a bonus list. For example, if 2 acres of land with a new or updated home is not normally found in your price range it should move to the bonus list.
5) Also on this list, add a price beside items that could be added to the property. So if you want a house with a bigger deck, what would it cost to add the deck? Maybe buying the house without the deck and adding it later makes sense. {Same with replacing countertops, painting, new flooring, renovating a bath, etc.}
6) Name a decision maker. In a situation with two people, this can be the hardest. When dealing with partners, someone needs the final say because rarely do two people agree 100%.
Now on to the good stuff: let the fun of house hunting begin! I promise you’ll find a house that works for you. The key is making it into a home for your family.
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Real Estate is an interesting beast and having an agent that can pull the curtains back and help navigate what will most likely be the biggest purchase of your life, is essential. As they say, you don’t know what you don’t know, and that’s where a good realtor comes in. {If you need help in hiring a Realtor, check out our post here.}
If you’re in the Nashville area I’d love to help you and even if you aren’t, let us know we might be able to point you to someone great!
Be sure to check out the rest of our real estate series, here.
Contact us here to work with us + here to talk all things renovations!
Have an inspired day!
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