Time and time again I see clients of looking for the “perfect home”. Before we go any further let’s get one thing out of the way, the perfect home doesn’t exist. Even if you start from scratch and buy the lot you think is perfect, hire the architect you think is perfect, work on the plans for months, hire the builder that is perfect, and build the perfect dream home you will still wake up one day and say “I wish the closet was there and not here”. There will always be something wrong. There will always be hindsight. You will always say “why did we build that cabinet there?”.
The best thing you can do when buying a home is to make a list including everything you MUST have. Are schools important? Is all main floor living something you must have or just want? How many bedrooms? Baths? Do you need a horse property? Do you need acreage? Does the master have to have it’s own bath? Is a large kitchen important or do you eat out 6 days a week? These are all things that may be important to you but may not have been important to the person that built the house 30 years ago.
There will always be a little give and a little take when it comes to buying a home. If you have a list of 50 things on your must have list, it’s not very practical. Chances are you will look at so many homes that when you finally break down and “settle” for a home, you will get buyers remorse and not be happy with choice.
The other thing to think about is looking at a home that you can add onto. A situation one of I ran ran into someone wanted (had to have) a 4 bedroom home. They looked and looked and found a 3 bedroom they fell in love with. It was $100k less than any of the 4 bedrooms they found. What did they do? They bought the 3 bedroom and did an addition. The septic was permitted for a 4 bedroom and the addition came in just under $60k. They got exactly what they wanted by thinking outside the box and finding a solution that was more than acceptable to them.
