Stay informed and don’t rely on your emotions.
Buying a home is an emotional experience, and you want to LOVE the home you purchase. But, it’s also an enormous investment and making an emotional decision can be disastrous, or at the very least, a waste of money. Shopping is naturally an emotional experience, and working with a buyer’s agent can protect you from making a bad decision based on emotions.
From home stagers, to wise seller’s agents to fix and flip investors, there are many experts out there that are trying to shine the home you are looking in in the best light, and essentially creating an emotional experience for you.
If you are walking through a home alone (or, worse, with a seller’s agent), you could be distracted by the attractive things in a home and miss some of the less attractive or downsides of the house.
“You can’t buy a house because it has a red wall in the kitchen!!!!”
For example, and this will probably sound silly, but my husband and I were walking through a home a few years ago during our home search. It had this sort of tiny kitchen with a red wall that overlooked a gorgeous wooden deck in a barren backyard. What I saw was an adorable red highlight wall that I just loved and a beautiful patio where I would love to grill out and relax with my family.
The red wall distracted me from the tiny kitchen (After living in a small home in the Wash Park area where we were constantly bumping into each other while making dinner, one of the major things my husband and I wanted was a roomy kitchen.) The patio/deck distracted me from the complete and utter lack of privacy in the back yard.
Our agent kept us on track. I think he might have even laughed when he said something along the lines of “You can’t buy a house because it has a red wall in the kitchen!!!!” He reminded us that paint is one of the cheapest improvements we can make, and that we could paint our kitchen any color we want when we find the right home (as a matter of fact, I did paint our kitchen red and it looks awesome!).
While we were being blinded by all of the attractive things in the home, our agent kept the things that really mattered to us in mind. He pointed out that this home did not have many of them, and in fact, even had a few structural issues.
If it could happen to me, it could happen to you!
Not to make myself sound like a complete fool with money – I rarely make a financial decision emotionally and almost err to far in the other direction. I don’t buy anything, and I mean anything, on a whim. But that day, when I was house shopping, I started to fall in love with a charming house that wasn’t right for me. And if it can happen to me, it can happen to you.
Protect yourself. Stay on track. House shop with an expert that will keep you informed. Work with a buyer’s agent.
