You're in love with that house you saw last week. But, is it the right one for you? Is it your "dream home?" According to a study done by realtor.com, maybe not. The well-known real estate site found that 69 percent of the 1,000 who participated in the survey said that they have had a home crush at one time or another - a home that they liked so much that they were continually drawn back to it multiple times during the home-buying process.
What Women Want
The survey also found that women mostly look for the same things in a house - they look for a home with open floor plans, fall in love with appliances and fixtures. Women also tend to fall in love with homes that are far outside of their price range. In a way, this is both good and bad. It's good because it sets standards high for homes that couples buy. It's bad because the house is actually unaffordable.
Both men and women love outdoor living spaces, saying this an important factor in buying a home. But, women are, as a percentage, more concerned with the outdoor living space than men. This might be because more women love gardening than men or it might simply be a holdover from a more traditional (i.e. sexist) time when women were expected to do more gardening and outdoor work.
What Men Want
When, meanwhile, love garages and curb appeal. This is almost intuitive - men love man-caves, and there's no bigger man-cave than a garage. Men also tend to fall in and out of love with a home faster than women. Maybe it's because men are expected to "hunt" more for homes than women. Maybe it's because there's a deeply ingrained sense of what's supposed to appeal to a man.
How To Keep Your Crush From Crushing You
Regardless of whether you're a man or a woman, you don't want your home crush to crush you. Most top real estate agents recommend making a deal-breaker list. This is a list of "essentials,""negotiables," and "deal-breakers."
Use this list when you go out shopping for a home. So, for example, if you absolutely must have a swimming pool, then that pool will be an "essential." If a winding staircase is nice, but you don't absolutely have to have it, that would be a "negotiable."
Let's say you hate Victorian homes. This would be a deal-breaker. Your real estate agent should never show you any Victorian homes.
Making a list like this isn't difficult, but it does take some thought and preparation. Go deep with your introspection and personal analysis. It will make it much easier on you and your real estate agent if you can just hand over a well-thought-out list of things you must have and cannot stand.
Finally, don't fall in love, or become emotionally attached, to a home that you've only seen once. Often, a second walk-through is necessary. You miss so much on the first-time through because everything about the house is new to you.
Dennis Ellis is a real estate guru. When not researching market trends, he enjoys blogging about the practical experiences of buying and selling property.
