"The Home"
Identifying and understanding what inherent value lies within a home is the key to all of this. Knowing your unique wants and needs are how you'll be able to get the most out of a certain home.
Whether you're in a multiple offer scenario or not, a successful bidder will usually be willing to pay more money for that home than anyone else. So, the question becomes: "Why would you want to do that?" But, if you nail the criteria, you'll be closer than ever to "THE HOME". Truth be told, I don't believe in the generic great deal on the open MLS market. In real estate, everthing is personal and circumstances are unique to each individual.
...Why Pay More?
Realtors are taught in their Real Estate courses the principle of "value in use" – telling us that certain features or elements of a property only have significant value to the people that own them. Truth is, those items also have value to the folks that want them, too. It's up to your Realtor to understand your own criteria well enough to provide you with personalized insights that put your heart's decision into terms that make sense to your head.
The National Association of Realtors (US based) conducted a study of buyers' expectations of their Realtor, and the buyers surveyed said that their main expectation of their Realtor was to find them "the home". To do this, a Realtor needs to understand what makes "the home" that special home for you. Really, the idea is to identify your unique wants, needs and requests, and narrow your focus in on those criteria. In the event that we aren't in a multiple offer, you'll know why it might make sense to pay the money the seller wants: to get a home to love for a long time. Moving is a pain, and paying one extra land transfer tax will offset a price push, and/or the cost of a quality professional Realtor (like yours truly) to sell that existing home. Sometimes, paying that little bit more up front can save you a lot of money in the long run!
6 Most Important Factors
So, here are the SIX factors that we need to get a handle on, to find you "THE Home." Are you ready?
1. Location - why you'd want to live there
- Considering proximities to the areas that you visit most (and I love my cars)
- For time savings: extra time to do other things that make you happy
- For vehicle savings: every recurring $100 per month in savings means you're paying off an appreciating $20,000 worth of mortgage value
- Future neighbourhood values (I'm blessed to be the son of an urban planner)
- We heat map for you
- Taking heavy stock on urban trends and their suburban ramifications
- Hedge the LRT
2. Style - what you like
- Know your own style, free from the hype or influences of those around you
- Style is relatively cheap to create (and can be financed)
- See through the staging
- Find what you like on Pinterest and www.Houzz.com
- Know what you want, and learn to look beyond a home's staging for its true value
- A failure to plan is a plan for failure (or at least a lot of wasted money)
3. Lifestyle - what you like to do, when you can do whatever you want
- How do you see your ideal Saturday morning/night playing out?
- Having a limited carbon footprint vs. enjoying the drive
- Chef or patron?
- Elevators or stairs?
- Open spaces or conveniences?
- Is your work play?
- Can you work from home? How often?
4. Layout - how you live
- What frameworks and mental models have shaped your perception of what homelife should look like?
- Planning ahead: children or aging parents?
- Open spaces vs formal spaces
- Smartly laid out means less $$$ on square footage costs
- Demo/Renovate, tweak or build new
5. Features - what makes you happy
- Some features can be added, and some features can't
- Try to buy seasonal features off-season (pools, porches, decks and fireplaces)
- Hard to replace - custom, one of a kind built-in millwork or retro tile
- Irreplaceable - greenspace, desired sunrise/sunsets, huge yard
- In a multiple offer,
- ...if a home is nice but full of unneeded features, let it go and don't bid up the neighbourhood
- ...if it has all of them – buy it and leave no questions!!
6. Feel - what you appreciate
- Where the sun rises and sets, and how that affects you
- Trees kissing over the top of the street or sun drenched neighbourhood?
- Quiet mature neighbourhood or lively, active participant neighbourhood?
- Quality of neighbourhood schools
This Is How You Find "The Dream Home"
In Summary
I love what I do and I'm proud of this process, so I hope you don't mind the extra time I'll take to whittle down the oodles of information out there to give you my relevant insight and state my informed opinion for your wants, needs and dreams.
If I'm not giving my opinion, then I'm just a taxi driver with keys to houses. That might make for a decent negotiator by industry standards, but why should you care about that?
I'd rather be a Dream Merchant.
